I wrestled in high school and college. It was the only sport I went out for with any seriousness. As a high school senior, I was asked to try to fill in for an injured polevaulter but I was no good at it. I kept getting hit by the giant falling pole and I didn’t like it. In college, I went out for the soccer team, our school’s main fall sport. I was terrible, running about without a feel for what I was doing, until the frustrated coach would bench me.
During all that time, I paid no attention to the business of drinking enough water. I wrote a freshman research paper on nutrition and still didn’t run into the subject of personal hydration. Sometime, in my 30’s or 40’s, I read that energy levels and muscle cramping are related to drinking enough. At that time, the idea was that caffeinated beverages subtracted from available water and that the fundamental guide was 8 oz. 8 times a day.
During my 40’s and 50’s, I prided myself on my healthy practice of drinking 100 oz. a day. I had no clear way of seeing benefits or costs but I felt ok about the practice. I read Andrew Weil’s books and respected most of his ideas. He included the notion that most people don’t drink enough water and used the mnemonic “namais”, (never) for “Not As Much As I Should”. I felt I was drinking as much as I should.
When my blood pressure began to rise from aging and a family pattern, my doctor put me on three medicines, one of which was a diuretic. The high water intake, aging and that medicine quickly become intolerable. I needed to cut down on water intake. A urologist told me that the urge to urinate is proportional to the oversupply of water. That was helpful and I began to cut back, while getting the tiniest amount of the diuretic.
About that time, our local paper carried a statement by Heinz Valtin, emeritus Dartmouth professor of nephrology, stating his review of research and knowledge indicated that 8 oz. 8 times a day was too simplistic. He said that the sensation of thirst is highly sensitive and that the idea that feeling thirst meant the body was already in a dehydrated state was incorrect. Thirst, he said, was a good guide to water intake. He also said that foods and beverages, caffeinated or not, add water to the body helpfully.
A few years later, my stepfather-in-law became dehydrated nearly to the point of dying and he did it three separate times. Clearly, no sensation of thirst was properly guiding him. He ignored his wife’s urging more water on him.
Most authorities mention the color of one’s urine as a helpful sign, the lighter the better. The National Institute of Medicine issued this statement in 2004. It states that water needs are individual but that authors feel that most people meet their water needs adequately.
Stevens Point is known in some places as The City of Wonderful Water. We do feel that its water is good and we often find tap water too chemical or bad smelling. We sometimes take a Brita filter and pitcher with us to get a more acceptable quality of water.
I recently received a powerpoint on the cost and environmental problems caused by bottled water. Before there was bottled water, I wished it were available. Now, we use refillable steel bottles.
