All living things need water and can only survive a few days without it. It is essential for health, each cell in the body depends on it to function normally and up to 75% of the brain is water.
The blood and lymph systems use water to oxygenate the body, flush out toxins and waste products, strengthen the immune system, boost energy levels and help to fight off illness and disease.
We get water into the body not only from drinking it, but lots of foods contain water too. Dehydration occurs when the body loses more water than it is taking in and this causes a disturbance in the natural balance of the body’s cell salts and electrolyte balance.
Water supply is an ever recycling process and it can contain many undesirable contaminants such as traces of harmful metals, chemicals, hormones and pesticides. These can all lead to a build-up of chemicals which result in allergic symptoms. Making water safe to drink actually involves adding large amounts of chemicals to kill the harmful pathogens. Once it has left the treatment plant, it then has to travel through pipes which may be as old as Victorian times and it can pick up other chemicals and microbes along the way. Some of the chemicals typically found in tap water include chlorine, fluorides, trihalomethanes, and traces of toxins, metal salts such as arsenic, radium, aluminium, copper, lead, mercury, cadmium and barium.
Always use a water filter where possible to reduce the risk of toxicity from the numerous chemicals and harmful substances. You may find you already have a water filter installed on some of you home appliances such as your fridge, kettle or main water source and if not water filters are a relatively cheap outlay compared with the achieved benefit. Also consider which type of container you use, around the home, it should be either glass, pottery or a BPA-free plastic cup. Don’t be fooled into buying expensive mineral waters which have been packaged in bottles containing BPA’s and read the label carefully about how close to the source water they really are!
For children too, invest in a good quality BPA-free bottle. Give them something to drink with meals and encourage them to drink when they are thirsty, before, during and after playing sports, exercising or being active in warm weather. Encourage your children to carry their water bottle with them to school and drink with their meals, during the day and when they get thirsty.