Episode Details

We've all heard the recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day. But is it based on sound science?

Do we really need or 8 glasses of water a day? We’ve all heard this advice but I’ve never seen any evidence so I decided to dig around.

I found a lot of interesting research on hydration but nothing pointing to 8 glasses specifically.

There’s mixed evidence on heart disease and cancer and nothing about the 8 glass range.

The evidence on skin health suggests people who drinks very little and are dehydrated may improve some skin properties by upping water intake.

Several experts recommend just trusting your thirst, drinking when thirsty and not obsessing over drinking more water.

Special situations where it may make sense to try to drink more:
If you exercise you lose more water so you need to increase intake; if you live somewhere warm; If out working or exercising in the sun you’ll lose water very fast so it’s a good idea to hydrate in advance even before thirst hits; pregnant or breast-feeding; in children and older people sometimes thirst alone isnt effective. E.g. the thirst reflex goes down with age; If you have kidney stones or a family history, you definitely want to drink more water; extra hydration can help prevent UTIs and it can help with chronic constipation as well

Can drinking more water help us lose weight? Energy expenditure goes up after we drink water. Drinking water before meals can help eat less and lose weight.

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Animations: Even Topland @toplandmedia

References:
1-https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/155/9/827/58224
2-https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20456812/
3-https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199905063401803
4-https://www.nature.com/articles/1601903
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6-https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16827695/
7-https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2147/CCID.S86822
8-https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health-nutrition/water-myth
9-https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajpregu.00365.2002
10-https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07315724.2007.10719666
11-https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234935/?report=reader#!po=4.54545
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15-https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2157171615321468
16-https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/