Health
Take Charge Now
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When writing about taking charge of your life, I look at all things relevant to this theme from a Physical Therapist’s perspective. Believe it or not, the topic of the water is more crucial than just about anything else that we can talk about. Water is found in all living things and without it, none of us could survive. Muscles are about 80% water and bones weigh in at 31%. We need water to lubricate our joints and participate as a shock absorber in the discs between the vertebrae in our back. In fact, our entire body and all of its organs is made of cells that contain some amount of water. Water, as the universal solvent, helps dissolve and digest the food we eat and break it down into valuable nutrients, minerals and chemicals that our bodies need to maintain function and life.
Our hearts and brains are about 73% water, lungs 83% and kidneys come in at about 85%.
In order to survive, each day we must drink or consume foods containing water between 75-100 ounces of water. Men need more at 100 oz or about 12-8 oz glasses and women need a little less or about 75 oz-about 9-8oz glasses of water per day. The difference is because lean muscle contains more water than fat. In the average person, fat makes up more of the body in women than men.
When we exercise, the carbohydrates, oxygen and proteins our muscles need are transported by water to our muscles, ligaments and bone cells. Water is the vital nutrient in these cells that allows for growth, reproduction and survival. And for these reasons, you can see how water is also essential for body repair. And water is just as important in all facets of body repair and healing. A good example is in the prevention and care of kidney function. One of my patients relayed to me that his doctor told him he needed to drink one-half his body weight in water every day to help restore and manage his kidney failure.
All this being said and knowing how crucial water is to our lives, the water we consume must be pure and free of toxins: yet 83% of the world supply of tap water is contaminated with microscopic plastic fibers. Stay tuned…. And don’t forget your twenty-minute walk.
Tom Coplin PT
Central Physical Therapy
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