Water is critical to maintaining health and wellbeing. Every physiological function depends on it and lack of it can lead to serious illness
By Manoj Khatri
In its essentiality to life, water is considered second only to oxygen. We reckon it’s as important as oxygen, because, we need water even to breathe! That’s true, in order to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, our lungs have to be moist. In fact, our lungs are nearly 90 per cent water.
The importance of water to our health and wellbeing cannot be overemphasised. Our body is 60-70 per cent water. Our muscles are 75 per cent water; our blood that transports nutrients is 82 per cent water; our brain, the control centre of our body, is 76 also per cent water; even our bones, apparently solid, are approximately 25 per cent water.
As is evident, water wears many hats. It’s a coolant, a lubricant, a solvent, and also a medium of transport. No wonder, being “watered”, both from within and outside, is a necessary condition for maintaining good health. It is hardly surprising then that lack of sufficient water causes various health problems. For example, lack of water or dehydration, poses hurdles for the blood to circulate. The gravity of the problem can increase, as it causes the brain to become less active and our body feels tired and fatigued.
