By Hana Mazhar
Do you drink enough water every day? This is something we need to ask ourselves in order to maintain our bodies health.
Drinking fluids is important to maintain the functions of all the systems in your body, including your brain, heart, muscles etc. Fluids are required by the body to carry your cells and flush out the bacteria from your bladder. Water lubricates your joints and transports nutrients to parts of your body.
Think and treat your organs like plants. You need to water them more often than you think; if not, you dehydrate them like plants making them colourless and easy crumble.
As we grow older, our busy schedules tend to make us forget the importance of hydration and squeeze every ounce of energy and hydration out of us throughout the day. Sometimes students on campus not only forget to drink water but also forget to eat; which can be very dangerous to their health.
There is no substitute other than plain water to hydrate you. I believe juice cannot hydrate you like water, and it cannot be used as an alternative as it has so many artificial flavourings and the sugar content is quite high which may affect your organs in a threatening way.
Our campus has done a very good job in providing students and lecturers with multiple shelves located at every corner in each Kulliyyah, reminding and offering students to drink water for just 1 Ringgit.
This is a very crucial step taken by members of our university in ensuring that students should drink enough water and stay hydrated during their time on campus grounds.
“Physical work keeps me very busy every day. From 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. I clean the toilets, sweep and mop the floors. I empty dustbins and take it downstairs from all the four floors every day. This takes out a lot of energy from me, and I become dehydrated very easily. I always keep a big water bottle with me, so I can drink water every time I am finished with one task. It is very important to drink water, and to eat sweets in between work,” – views shared by Faridah Najwa, Daya Bersih (cleaner) working at Mahallah Ruqayyah, Bloc G.
Drinking water does not only contribute to your bodily functions but it is very vital for staying in a good mood. Dehydration very often leads to depression and loss of appetite. It does not keep your organs fresh.
If the above-mentioned reasons are not enough for you to start noticing your water intake, listed below are a few more reasons you should consider. Drinking water helps in the following ways:
Boosting your mood
Drinking the right amount of water (universally known as 2 liters) helps you to maintain your happy mood. It helps to prevent fatigue and headache; keeping your mind fresh and active. People who drink very less water are often prone to get headaches and feel tired very easily. Loss of appetite and mood swings are very common when you are dehydrated.
Improving physical performance
When we are performing physical activities, or running around campus for collecting our Visa documents, or even registering subjects manually, we use a lot of the water stored in our bodies. So, staying hydrated during and after all the madness will prevent us from any injuries. Hydrations also prevents soreness of the muscles after too much physical work.
Losing weight
For students who want to lose weight or are looking for inspiration, just drink 8 ounces of water every day. This will keep your stomach full for longer times and you won’t need to snack up on munchies every now and then. Of course, you still need to eat three meals a day, don’t skip that! But drinking water will help you with your digestion and prevent constipation.
Preventing Diseases
This has to be one of the most important reasons to drink water. A lot of diseases; acute or chronic can be prevented due to large amounts of water intake. Kidney stones can cause damage to your kidneys and bladder, these tiny, sharp stones form because people do not drink enough water to cleanse their bodies. Menstrual irregularities can also be prevented if one stays hydrated properly.
Improving skin elasticity
This is a very well-known reason why some of us drink tons of water and flush our intestines with fluids. Water helps to rejuvenate our skin, it is very easy to drink a lot of water to get a supple and radiant skin. Water keeps control of the moisture in our bodies and this is seen on our skin. People often get dry and flakey skin due to dehydration, so to prevent this we must take good care of our water-habits.
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