First Author: Ashley Mena
Second Author: Samantha Tischer
The Importance of Water For Your Body
Water is essential for LIFE...
Water makes up 50 to 60% of your body. It is a major component, and is used and distributed all over your body. It's used for the digestion and absorption of food and helps regulate body temperature. Aside from aiding in digestion and absorption of food, water circulates your blood, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells, and removes toxins and other wastes. It also cushions joints and protects tissues and organs, including the spinal cord, from shock and damage. Water is the key to all functioning to your body. We even need water to breathe. RIGHT NOW you are loosing pints of water as you are breathing!
*INTERESTING FACT*
2/3 of your body weight is water!
Water is so essential to your organs and different componets of your
body, it makes up...
- Brain 75%
- Heart 75%
- Lungs 86%
- Liver 96%
- Kidneys 83%
- Muscle 75%
- Blood 83%
If you neglect your body's need for water, serious problems can begin to happen to your body. Such as dehydration. Dehyrdation is your body failing to recieve fluids. Dehydration occurs when your body is loosing more water than is being taken in. It's SO important to drink fluids while excersising or prolonged physical activites. Dehydration can be a serious issue. It causes weakness and can even lead to death.
Good RULE of thumb: Drink at LEAST 2 cups of fluids 2 hours before exercising!
- Since our bodies lose so much water while we exercise, it is very important to prepare our body for that loss. Drinking enough water to last throughout our exercise is just as important as giving it enough time to properly digest.
BEFORE YOU DRINK, MAKE SURE IT'S CLEAN!
It's very important that the water you consume is clean and free of chemicals or any other harmful matter. Water can carry dieases that can be very harmful to your body. Although, its important you drink water frequently during the day, you have to be cautious, especially when it's from an unknown source or dirty area.
How much water do you use?
Benefits of COLD and HOT water:
HOT water:
- helps to stimulate the immune system
- increases your body’s circulation.
Think of how much better you feel after you soak in the bath, or stand in a warm steaming shower. After soaking for minutes or even hours, your body feels less stressed and more relaxed. After a hard work out, what is the one thing people usually do?
ANSWER: They take a steam bath or relax in a whirlpool, or take a hot shower to loosen their muscles!
COLD water:
- is used to reduce inflammation. For example when you sprain your ankle, you use an ice pack to reduce the swelling.
- is used to treat constipation, irregular vaginal discharge, hemorroids.
FYI: Some treatments using hot or cold water are to relieve upper respiratory problems, congestions, foot infections, and headaches.
Interesting Fact:
If you are working out, its better to bring a sports drink along that contains electrolytes because they help regulate the balance of fluids in body cells and the bloodstream.
Men Need: 3. 7 liters of water
Women Need: 2.7 liters of water
While we need water and food to survive, we can go 2 months or more without food, but we can only survive a few days without water.
Water is vital to every organ, and every function in your body. It helps maintain a heathly body, and is used for EVERYTHING. Without water you wouldn't survive, so it's important to remember to...
ALWAYS DRINK WATER!
Exam Questions:
Samantha Tischer
1. Water makes up 70% to 80% of your body.
True False
2. You can breathe without water.
True False
3. Drink at least 2 cups of water how many hours before exercising?
a.) 3 hours
b.) 2 hours
c.) 1 hour
d.) Right before
4. Hot water helps
a.) stimulate the immune system
b.) your hair to be softer
c.) your dance moves
d.) reduce inflammation
5. Cold water is used to treat hemorroids.
True False
EXAM QUESTIONS: Ashley Mena
1.) Right now you are loosing pints of water as you breath.
TRUE FALSE
2.) Bringing a sports drink while you work out is a good idea, and helps regulate the balance of fluids in body cells and the blood stream.
TRUE FALSE
3.) Women need more liters of water a day than men.
TRUE FALSE
4.) We can survive weeks without water.
TRUE FALSE
5.) Dehydration is serious, and can lead to death.
TRUE FALSE
Comments (5)
Helena Baert said
at 10:06 pm on Sep 11, 2008
This is a very interesting topic Ashley! Well written and informative. The only thing left is to move the little numbers of the footnotes in the correct place of with which sentence/section they belong. Well done.
Samantha said
at 12:17 am on Sep 25, 2008
This article was really interesting. I never realized how much of our organs are actually water. Also, I found it very interesting that we need water to breath! Wow, that's crazy. Anyways, I think you did an excellent job on this very informative article. The only thing I can suggest is to be sure to get all the footnotes in their correct spots. Good job!
Maggie Wermann said
at 10:16 pm on Sep 30, 2008
This was such a good article. I never knew how much water is used. It so true with the hot shower it is relaxing. It helps after a long day.
Katie Todd said
at 8:05 pm on Dec 2, 2008
This article was very interesting to read wghen it talked about all of the benefits of hot and cold water. I learned that I need to drink more water for sure from it as well!
Olivia Lassiter said
at 11:00 pm on Dec 2, 2008
I really liked this article. I didn't realize water was such a big part of all the organs.
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