In our lives, there are simple things we do every day that can have significant effects on our health. In many cases, we don’t need to understand some complex and scientific concepts to improve our health. Just by doing sensible and simple things, we could eventually improve our health. As an example, by to drink plain water, instead of sugar-laden carbonated drinks, we could become much healthier. Some studies were performed in schools. Carbonated drinks are removed and prohibited in these schools, after multiple drinking water fountains are installed. After a couple of months, there are some noticeable differences.
It appears that children who drink plain water become calmer and they display less erratic behaviours. The ability to learn and concentration are much improved. By drinking enough water, we could keep our brain active. Water rehydrates our blood and our brain will be rehydrated too. On the other hand, although coffee and carbonated soft drinks are essentially water, they also give us plenty of sugar and various chemicals. For some people, they could be resistant at first, but eventually, they will drink plain water happily. The word dehydration often conjures up images of people who crawl in the desert, with hovering vultures above, while they are chasing for mirage.
In reality, there are different levels of dehydration. We could also get dehydrated at home or at work. We don’t have to spend more than a few hours in desert to start feel dehydration symptoms. We should also know that our body loses water at different rates from different parts. Each individual cell in our body contains plenty of water. Water is needed in mytochondrion, for extracellular fluids and outer layer. When we are dehydrated, we could experience lethargy, reduced immunity, dizziness, increased blood pressure, dry mount, nausea, muscle crampness and others.
People who are constantly dehydrated during outdoor activities are more likely to experience urinary tract and kidney problems. Our brain is consisted 85 percent of water and if it loses 5 percent it could start to become impaired. Children are also quite susceptible to dehydration. They tend to move more rapidly and often, while the lower body mass make them more vulnerable to effects of dehydration. Parents should be concerned with the presence of soft drink vending machines in schools, because carbonated soft drinks are among the worst liquids to rehydrate our body.
Parents and teachers should encourage children to take a bottle of water, which can be replenished with the drinking fountains at school. Many people who habitually drink coffee and carbonated drinks, report positive results once they replace these beverages with plain water. If transition is difficult, people could drink cold water with a smaller amount of sugar and fresh lime juice. It could give a slight fizzy effect that people normally get from carbonated drinks, without the bad effects. After people get used to it, it would be much easier to make the next transition to plain water.