Hydration tales

I was ending a morning walk around the neighborhood with my friends.  I got this feeling that it was time to just let go, stop trying to walk and just collapse.  I did.  It shocked my friends.  When I told a medic, she asked me about my daily fluid intake.  She concluded with advice to drink more.  Since then, I have and it seems to have helped me stay upright and not just collapse.

There was a time when popular knowledge was that a person should drink water from an 8 oz. vessel 8 times a day.  I never felt I needed that much liquid and our local paper published an item by Prof. Heinz Valtim of Dartmouth stating that such an amount unnecessarily taxed the kidneys.  I wrestled in high school and in college and didn't feel that I was badly in need of liquid.  As far as I know, there is no easy and accurate way to tell if I am drinking enough.  I know about pinching skin and recognizing elder difficulties in sensing thirst.  I read through "Quench" by the founder of the Hydration Foundation.  It does seem that my pint of water each morning matters.