Drink more water! This is not just the preaching we hear from anybody and everybody who is advising us on how to be healthier. It is the single most important routine we need to embrace in order to stay healthy, have more energy, and slow down aging.

Let me start by recommending you two great books, both written by the same author. Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj is an internationally renowned researcher, author and advocate of the natural healing power of water. His books, “Your body’s many cries for water” and “You’re not sick, you’re thirsty” are an unparalleled resource and inspiration. We need to drink more water. In fact I would dare to say that most of the people reading these lines are dehydrated to some level.

From weight loss to the prevention of life threatening conditions, water plays a lead role. Dr. Barmanghelidj calls water “nature’s miracle medicine”. And this should come as no surprise, after all, 75% of our body is just that, water.

Dr. B. (for short) compares dehydration in our body to what happens to a plum when left exposed to the sun. It becomes a prune. He explains how both internal and external structures of living things change when they dehydrate. Whether it is a plum or a person, the process at a cellular level is pretty similar. Dehydrating cells start to wrinkle and their inner functions are affected. Now depending on which part of the body is being most affected by dehydration, it shows it in different ways. One of the first and most obvious is lack of energy. In fact a mere 5% drop in hydration levels in our body will reflect in a 25-30% loss of energy. The problem is, most of the symptoms of dehydration are generally associated with illness, and so, are treated with medication instead of the obvious cure, water.

Chronic dehydration may lead to conditions such as heart burn, depression and migraine, as well as arthritis, asthma, hypertension, and cancer. Excess weight and obesity, as well as the other side of the spectrum, bulimia, have also been linked to dehydration. Skin conditions and constipation are also closely related to lack of hydration. So basically, from looking better, to having more energy, to being healthier to living longer, the constant is water, we need to drink more water!

The way to calculate how much water you should drink is according to your weight. Take you body weight and divide it by 2, that number is how many ounces of water you should drink every day. Remember a cup of water is 8 ounces, so do the math, and figure out exactly what your number is.

Being hydrated will not only give you more mental clarity and more energy. It will also have a profound impact in your health, here are some of the benefits you will experience:

• Alleviate fatigue and muscle soreness.
• Detox, cleanse, and lose weight as a consequence!
• Enjoy healthier, younger looking skin. By drinking water you will not only slow down aging, but you will also prevent skin problems like acne and eczema.
• Prevent degenerative diseases.
• Alkalize! You knew this one was coming, water is the ultimate alkaline source of health, because it helps maintain our blood pH at its healthy level. And we have talked about this before, an alkaline body is a healthy body, as disease cannot survive in an alkaline environment.

I strongly recommend you look into the two books mentioned before, ”Your body’s many cries for water” and “You’re not sick, you’re thirsty“, and you drink more water! Now, please note I’m not saying drink more liquids, I am talking about clear pure water. When we drink other things, like coffee, tea,  sugary drinks or alcohol, we are dehydrating our body. So whenever you have any of those drinks, follow them by the same amount of water.

The only exception to this rule is lemon water. And in fact I recommend it as a way to both add some flavor to your water, and help alkalize it. Lemon contains high levels of alkaline minerals, and so it has an alkalizing effect in our body. Squeeze some lemon in your water, and enjoy! Lemon water will not only hydrate you, but it will also detox and help with your liver and kidney function, as well as your digestion.

Make a conscious effort to drink more water today than you did yesterday, and keep raising that bar until you get to your optimal consumption of water per day.