Does this meme resonate with you? Surprisingly, it does for me quite often. For almost every busy (?) grad student, drinking the advised amount of water is not a priority, however, drinking adequate water is not a luxury, it is a basic biological necessity!
As the great natural science writer Dr. Loren Eiseley once said – “If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
According to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a healthy adult male should intake about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) and a healthy adult female about 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of fluids per day. And more than 80% of this fluid should come from water and other beverages.
Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to function properly. As grad students, sometimes we often struggle to eat our meals on time, let alone tracking our water intake. However, drinking enough water is critical not just for the body, for our mind as well. Many research articles have described that dehydration uplifts our stress hormone, Cortisol, significantly, and therefore no wonder we feel anxious and stressed when we forget to eat timely or drink enough water. Especially, in winter our water intake drops significantly.
Most of the time dehydration and headache are inextricably connected with each other. It can be described in the simplest form as following: Our brains are 80% water. When we become dehydrated your brain tissue loses water causing your brain to shrink and pull away from the skull. This triggers the pain receptors surrounding the brain, giving us a headache.
A simple change in our everyday routine can help our body and mind function more effectively. So, we can be a little more mindful about our water intake (there are so many apps that can help). Let’s drink enough water, stay healthy – both physically and mentally – be less stressed and more productive!
ECEGSS #healthandwellness #staypositive #staysafe #drinkpurelivemore
By Alam Mahmud (Health and Wellness Officer, ECEGSS)
