"Drink 8 Glasses Of Water A Day" Rule May Be Total Myth

If organizations like the FDA, municipalities that fluoridate water [who also drink the water they order fluoridated], and the bottling companies that sell both aspartame-containing diet soda AND bottled water don't have "our best interests" at heart, how come people assume they can trust that corporations that bottle water [and diet soda], "alternative" medical practitioners who both diagnose and sell the treatments they prescribe [conflict of interest?], and things they read on the internet, when there are no standards, other than not "offending" any reader who can click on "offensive" at the bottom of a posting?

Science is designed to strip away the biases of the experimenter. It's humanity's best effort to try to not believe things just because it would be comforting, satisfying or lucrative to do so. That's why science insists that results be studied & accepted by someone other than the experimenter, why sample sizes have to be large/varied enough to convince the scientific community that it was statistically valid & not a fluke, and not contradict previously-accepted scientific knowledge. Is science perfect? No. But we have to admit we know a lot more about the universe, and have double the life expectancy of a century ago. Perfect, no. Progress, yes.

i believe the moon is made of cheese

It is well known that as we age, the thirst drive decreases. Maintaining adequate fluid balance is an essential component of health at every stage of life. Age-related changes make older adults more vulnerable to shifts in water balance that can result in overhydration or, more frequently, dehydration.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16728843?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Maintaining good hydration status has been shown to positively affect urolithiasis (kidney stones) and may be beneficial in treating urinary tract infection, constipation, hypertension, venous thromboembolism, fatal coronary heart disease, stroke, dental disease, hyperosmolar hyperglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis , gallstone disease, mitral valve prolapse, and glaucoma. Local mild hypohydration or dehydration may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of several broncho-pulmonary disorders like exercise asthma or cystic fibrosis. In bladder and colon cancers, the evidence on hydration status' effects is inconsistent.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17921462?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Check this out: http://doctornaturo.blogspot.com/

if you wait to drink water only after your body craves it,thats to late.

6 glasses of good clean water a day (filtered)...is very good for the body.

helps with digestion elimination hydration helps the kidneys the liver

endless.

Well, there's the issue of learning more about the universe we live in. Oh, and a little thing that humans throughout history have valued highly - Truth.

And what about the huge number of plastic bottles entering the waste stream? What about people spending their finite monetary resources to buy bottled water in the belief that it's better than free tap water [when both bottled & tap water come from the same sources]? What about western countries overconsuming resources [clean, non-saline water is a rare commodity in much of the world] while people in the third world drink contaminated water? What about lettling corporations convince us that a perfectly adequate water supply is somehow unhealthy, and selling us something we could otherwise have for free?

I agree. I drink between 2 and 3 litres a day of water. My doctor advised me though, not to go over 5 litres per day. (I drank 6 litres per day for a few months)....

I agree and think there is some merit to keep from being dehidrated as a way to stay regular.

Your logic is somewhat twisted. The researchers, if you hadn't noticed, were university-funded. Which, ostensibly, means impartial.

I for one have never believed the "8 glasses a day" baloney. Because it *is* baloney. It's good that science is catching up with what my body has always known.

I find it interesting that you are suspicious of corporations trying to engineer anti-8-glasses studies. What about the corporate conspiracy to convince us that there is something inherently more healthful about water purchased in a plastic bottle, and selling us something that we've already paid taxes to pump into our homes?

I think a more important issue about bathrooms in the US is the lack of municipal bathrooms in downtown areas. Does this reduce the amount of time Americans spend away from home? Part of the rationale for rent control was to spred the poor all over the city to make it more difficult to mount protests. I think lack of public bathrooms can contribute to the goal of keeping people's time in public places to a minimum, reducing the sense of community & common good, & the number of people that a citizen is likely to meet and sympathize with.

Please do some research. The drinking 8 glasses of water a day has long been known to be a myth. There is no science behind it in fact researchers tracking down the source of the supposed rule have found it be rooted in so called conventianal wisdom and not from the scientific community. Point of fact the scientific community says you do need a certain amount of water a day but guess what you don't get most of it from drinking water. But from what you eat and other stuff you drink even coffee.

Ever hear of dehydrated food? What does dehyrdated mean? That should tell you something that food naturally has water in it. When you eat food the water in the food is extracted and used by your body. When you drink orange juice or any other fruit, vegatable or soft drink etc you get water from it.

Drinking eight glasses of water if you could manage it plus eating food drinking other stuff puts one at risk for water intoxication which is fatal. http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/8glasses.asp

Shut. Up.

Are you ever currently wrong? What wrong ideas do you currently and knowingly hold in your head?

Scientists make the best determinations they can based on the available evidence. The thing about science is that it's able to admit that it has gotten something wrong when faced with new evidence. I think that's a pretty good model for everyday belief formation, don't you?

Wrong.

Caffeinated drinks do not dehydrate you as they usually have plenty of water in them.

Not sure what working in an office has to do with this. I work in an office as well. I drink between one and two cups of coffee prior to leaving for work and virtually no water during the day. I generally don't drink anything with meals and may have a soda or some ice tea once every season. Aside from being a battle-scarred veteran of the sexual revolution, I have no trouble urinating. I'm sixty years old and in very good health.

My wife, OTOH, drinks liquids like crazy. She goes from one kind of non-caffeinated, diet beverage to another, usually dwelling for months on her current favorite. She really enjoys the lightly honey-sweetened ginseng tea she's been drinking for about three or four months now. Unfortunately, she seems to be allergic to herself and spends an inordinate amount of time at the doctor's office (being treated for sinus and upper respiratory infections) and the allergist's (getting injections).

So . . . I doubt there's any hard and fast rule. Drinking lots of water probably doesn't hurt, unless it's laced with hormones and/or pharmaceuticals. One thing's for certain; believing you need 8 full glasses per day sure plays well with the bottled water industry. Everybody drink your water and your Starbuck's (both insanely over-priced consumer items). Move along now. There's nothing to see here.