Hey guys, Dr. Axe here, Doctor of Functional Medicine and Nutritionist.
One of the most common questions I get from patients is, "Dr. Axe, how much water should
I be drinking a day?"
The answer is typically in between 25% and 50% of your body weight in ounces of water
daily.
So what this would mean is, if you weigh 160 pounds, you typically want to try and get
about about half of that, 80 ounces of water a day or as little as 40 ounces of water a
day.
Typically in between 40 to 80 ounces of water a day.
Water is vital for your health and for hydration, but let me say this as well, that question
of how much water should I be drinking a day isn't necessarily the best questions because
it's not just about how much water you're getting, it's about hydration.
If you are dehydrated some of the biggest side effects can be headaches, lack of energy,
weight gain, lack of cleansing and detoxification, a weakened immune response, getting colds
and flus easily, and really just feeling lethargic, or even brain fog.
So proper hydration is so key to your overall health.
And again, number one, it does start with water.
Your number one goal should be this, start drinking half of your body weight in ounces
of water a day.
So what I'd recommend, if you weigh, again, 160 pounds, carry around maybe a 20 ounce
container of water and drink four of those a day, really increase that water consumption.
Then, step two is getting more fruits and vegetables in your diet.
Fruits and vegetables are packed with electrolytes like magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium.
You need to get those good quality electrolytes in your system as well.
Not just water but fruits and vegetables as well.
And the third thing, you want to be getting, all natural sea salt.
Either Celtic salt or Himalayan salt and sprinkle a little of that on your food as well because
when you're getting water you also need sodium, you also need potassium which you're going
to get in fruits.
And then again, of course, some of the other electrolytes I mentioned.
But those are really three of the top four things you should do.
Now, the fourth thing you need to do to stay hydrated is actually move and exercise.
If you want to stay properly hydrated, you want to increase circulation throughout your
body.
Any form of exercise can support this whether it's cardiovascular training, burst training,
weight training, or just going down and walking.
But movement increases circulation and can really improve your overall electrolyte levels
and actually can help circulate and get more nutrients into your cells.
So remember these four steps in staying hydrated and really how much water you should drink:
Number one, the amount of drinking a day is about 25% to 50% your body weight in water.
So again, if you weigh 160 pounds, consume 80 ounces of water a day.
Step two, consume more fruits and vegetables.
Try and get 5 to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
Step number three, sprinkle a little bit of Himalayan salt or some sort of sea salt on
your food on a regular basis.
Step number four, exercise at least three days a week for 20 minutes.
If you do those four things, you're going to be well hydrated and that water that you're
consuming is going to be properly balanced with electrolytes as well.
Hey guys, if you want to learn more about proper hydration, you can check out some of
the articles I've written there on draxe.com.
You can search "water", or I've got a great article on Himalayan salt I think you'd like.
Also, if you want more health news like this you can subscribe to this YouTube channel.
Want to just say, thanks so much for watching and remember, stay hydrated.