Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth’s streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms.
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Uses
- Water is used for medicinal, food processing, industrial applications, recreation, water industry, fire extinsion, heat exchange, chemical uses, washing and mostly for drinking!
Benefits
- Drinking Water Helps Maintain the Balance of Body Fluids. Your body is composed of about 60% water. The functions of these bodily fluids include digestion, absorption, circulation, creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients, and maintenance of body temperature.
- Water Can Help Control Calories. For years, dieters have been drinking lots of water as a weight loss strategy. While water doesn’t have any magical effect on weight loss, substituting it for higher calorie beverages can certainly help.
- Water Helps Energize Muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue. “When muscle cells don’t have adequate fluids, they don’t work as well and performance can suffer,” says Guest.
- Water Helps Keep Skin Looking Good. Your skin contains plenty of water, and functions as a protective barrier to prevent excess fluid loss. But don’t expect over-hydration to erase wrinkles or fine lines, says Atlanta dermatologist Kenneth Ellner, MD.
- Water Helps Your Kidneys. Body fluids transport waste products in and out of cells. The main toxin in the body is blood urea nitrogen, a water-soluble waste that is able to pass through the kidneys to be excreted in the urine, explains Guest. “Your kidneys do an amazing job of cleansing and ridding your body of toxins as long as your intake of fluids is adequate,” he says.
Cautions
- In developed countries, clean drinking water is available right out of the tap, and breakdowns in the system are rare. Developing countries, however, don’t always have the resources needed to ensure a pure water supply, and consequently, tap water is not safe to drink. Even if the people who live there can drink the water, travelers should not assume that they can. Local residents have built up immunity to organisms in the water, but visitors have not. As a result, tap water can make travelers sick. When traveling through areas with less than adequate sanitation or with water sources of unknown purity, travelers can reduce the chance of illness by following these precautions.
Interactions
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Other names
H2O
References
Source: WebMD, http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/6-reasons-to-drink-water
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water#Human_uses
Shoreland, http://www.shoreland.com/content/pdf/companion_waterprec.pdf