Water: Healthy Hydration with Dinosaur Pee

Your body is 60 percent water. Chances are you’ve heard that before. So it stands to reason that water is important in keeping your body healthy.

But why did I mention dinosaur pee in the title?

Grade-school children across America are taught about the water cycle and how all of the water on Earth is constantly changing forms. The water on our planet is all the water we’ve ever had, and all the water we will ever get. Think about it – how could we get more? Martians would have to show up with cases of Alien Evian.

Since the water we currently have is all the water the world has ever had, then it goes to reason that dinosaurs drank the same water we do. And if dinosaurs drank it, they also eliminated it. So that means that when you showered this morning…

Ewww!

When I was a kid, I drank a lot of soda pop. In fact, most of the water I drank was filtered and chocked full of high fructose corn syrup. As a result, I suffered from debilitating migraines. My doctor put me on pills, ran blood tests, and told me that my head pains were genetic. But when I decided to cut the pounds and drop the sugar, I switched to drinking water. Now, instead of having migraines every month like in middle school, it’s rare that I have more than one a year.

More than 90 percent of the chemical reactions in your body occur in water, including the metabolic process of breaking food down into energy. No water, no energy. Also, because it is a natural solvent, your body dissolves nutrients and resources in water, and then passes that liquid through your blood stream. Water not only serves as transportation, but it cools you off through perspiration and it is the building block of every tissue in your body – including your bones!

Imagine your body is a car and water is oil. With fresh oil, the car is lubricated and the engine functions efficiently. The oil is drained regularly and it carries with it small metallic shards, which is why it isn’t clear like it was when it came in – oil carries off waste. But what if you forget to add more oil? The engine overheats, parts melt or break, and the car is ruined.

Now, a standard car uses five quarts of oil. Fortunately for us, the metaphor isn’t perfect. Humans, on average, need to drink at least two liters of water a day. There’s a common “8 by 8” rule that suggests drinking an eight-ounce glass of water eight times a day. This rule is easy enough to remember, but your need for water might be greater than mine. If you are physically active, pregnant, or regularly drink coffee, tea, energy drinks, or alcohol, your body is at a greater risk of dehydration. For a more accurate estimate of how much water you should be drinking each day, visit the hydration calculator.