Health Tip: Drink… a Lot

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Elana’s Tip: For optimal health drink at least 64 oz of water a day. In the summer heat increase that by another 8-16oz. And if you exercise increase it further yet. Elana happens to drinks between 12 and 16 glasses of water each and every day!

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One way to guarantee you drink enough water is to make sure you keep water within reach throughout the day. The Go Caddy Water Bottle Holder is one way to do just that. The Go Caddy

Holds a variety of bottle sizes up to 1.5 liter, of your favorite beverage. (Bottle not included). Size: 4” dia. x 10” tall.

Comes with a water bottle cooler sleeve

Has a comfortable 1″ x 54″ adjustable strap.

Has a pleated deep front pocket with flapped Velcro closure easily fits a cruise ship pass (if you are on one), charge card, money, license/identification, etc. NOW with an additional hideaway interior pocket lets you store any valuable you may bring along.

The elastic back pouch is roomy enough to bring your cell phone, camera, a map and glasses. Size: 4 3/4” wide x 7” tall.

Metal clip to hold keys.

Packs flat for traveling.

Normally $24.99 it is currently on sale for $19.99. It comes in black, brown and red. Details and ordering information can be found here.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks for your support!

About the Author

Dan Cohen
Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. Dan is married to Raina Goldberg who is also an avid user of Apple products. They live in New Jersey with their golden doodle Nava.

9 Comments on "Health Tip: Drink… a Lot"

  1. “For optimal health drink at least 64 oz of water a day.”

    Please, don’t spread this myth! Unlike Bigfoot, this is one health legend that can be hazardous to your health. The original statement about 8 cups of fluids includes water and other liquids that your normally intake by way of foods. Excessive water consumption over a long period of time can cause permanent kidney damage, because your kidney can’t keep up with processing all that fluid! And even if you’re drinking caffienated beverages, most of the liquid (2/3-3/4) is retained. Obviously if you’re active you’ll need to drink more to stay properly hydrated, but the “everybody should drink eight glasses of water each day” claim is downright dangerous. Drink if you think you’re going to be thirsty or if you just plain feel like it, but don’t force yourself to do it!

    • The ‘water intoxication’ BS was debunked and laughed out of science before the ink was dry in terms of its relationship with maintaining hydration.

      If you try to drink 8x 8oz (64 oz) all at once you might not feel great, but isn’t that true with everything – try eating your entire 2000 calorie per day diet in one sitting (without it being fast food, of course). And even then not really as it takes MUCH more than 8 cups to cause an issue.
      Your kidneys can do at least 15 liters per day, so that isn’t an issue.

      8 x 8oz of water is NOT dangerous by any stretch – while your statement that ‘excessive’ water consumption can be dangerous is also true.

      • At no point did I mention water intoxication. Note my usage of the terms “long term” and “kidney damage”. Water intoxication is purported to be a long term issue, nor is kidney damage involved. You are certainly right to be skeptical of medical claims or advice posted online. Even if I were a physician or researcher–I am not, though my father is a respected nephrologist whose career has encompassed 20 years and has advocated against elevated liquid intake in healthy individuals–I would not be able to prove it. However, in the past five years it has come out in the nephrology community that excessive water intake is strongly linked to proteinuria–aka elevated levels of protein in urine–which is a leading indicator of kidney damage. There are a number of papers in reputable journals such as JASN and CMAJ that I cannot send to you as I am on my phone. However, simple query of ‘water intake proteinuria’ in PubMed (the respected NIH-run paper database) will show you the abstracts.

        Occasional excess intake is relatively harmless. However, the folks who believe in drinking at least eight glasses of water a day don’t just do so occasionally. I am not surprised at your reaction, but I am still disappointed into what is nearly a knee-jerk reaction (given how the two most important terms I used were glossed over) to cling to the medical equivalent of an old wives’ tale, whose origin is shaky at best.

        • That should read “NOT purported to be a long term issue”.

        • My reaction is based on the fact that nearly every time you comment on a post, it is not in a respectful way that invites discussion, but rather a rude and condescending fashion that seems to seek finality and no further comment.

          What the general guideline says is that an average adult should have 6 – 8 cups of water per day. Of course, every person is different but given how many people work either outdoors or in heavily air conditioned offices, both of which are highly dehydrating environments, there is clearly a need for proper hydration.

          I know you are not stupid, therefore we are not discussing hydration as a broad concept – everyone needs to hydrate regularly and mores if they are in dehydrating environment or being extremely active. For example, the other day I weighed myself before and after a run and I lost 4 pounds! Obviously my need for hydration at that point was fairly significant.

          So then the question is: WHAT is excessive? I did some searches – including some you mentioned specifically, and guess what (caps to be clear):

          EIGHT x EIGHT OUNCE GLASSES PER DAY IS ***NOT*** EXCESSIVE.

          Period, end of story. Based on YOUR references.

          The people seeing issues were drinking a minimum of 4 – 6 liters per day, some 8 liters or more! Stepping down to 8 *large* glasses (which seemed to be ~3 liters), the impact reversed.

          Also, look at things from a common sense perspective – if 2 liters of hydration daily were as dangerous as you or the Scottish woman everyone cites purports, it would be common knowledge as we would have people with loads of these problems showing symptoms all the time … and NOT see thousands upon thousands of cases of people hauled off to hospital due to dehydration every year. See what I mean?

          • I’d like to apologize, then, before saying anything else. It was not my intent to be rude or condescending. Ever. I’ve been used to discussing things online with friends and acquaintances in the (admittedly brusque and/or blunt) fashion that I have–getting and giving–and for the most part nobody walks away with any hard feelings. Clearly in this case my attitude is inappropriate, and once again I apologize. I will endeavor to keep a more respectful demeanor in my future comments.

            Now, the issue at hand.

            The fact of the matter is, there is no scientific basis whatsoever to the “8 glasses of water per day”. As I wrote in my reply to Mr. Cohen, the guideline can be traced back to a statement by the Food and Nutrition Board back in 1945 (not farther back, although if anyone can find an earlier source it would be great):

            “A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 liters daily in most instances.”

            This works out to be, yes, roughly eight glasses of water (10-11 ounces each). Not even that tall glasses, really. But somehow, the REST of the statement got lost in time:

            “Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.”

            Now of course, I totally agree with you. Everybody has their own needs, based on their diet, activity levels, homeostatic tendencies… the list goes on. But the “drink eight glasses of day” is completely arbitrary!

            You pose a very good question: if drinking a half a gallon of water is so deadly, how come we don’t hear about folks keeling over all the time, given that so many people adhere to this advice? The answer is because of the effects that chronic kidney damage has on the circulatory system and how it aggravates existing cardiovascular conditions. And considering how pervasive cardiovascular disease is in the United States–even in seemingly-healthy people–it’s no wonder that people don’t think of kidney disease as a major problem… because people don’t really see it! It just ends up being “something heart-related” to most people.

            The thing about kidney health is that you get 100% functionality until your late 30s-early 40s. Then every year after that, you lose a little bit–roughly 1%–every year. And there’s nothing that can be done to reverse that, short of a transplant (but that’s not really reversing it I guess). Any additional stressors–really large amounts of protein, metabolites from excess medications and drug interactions, and yes, lots of water among a host of other things–just chips away even more at that renal “clock”.

            I would love nothing more than to take back every other comment I’ve ever made on Gear Diary in exchange for folks taking renal health more seriously. All of that stuff is ultimately just… stuff. This is people’s health. Drink as much water as you feel like you need. Don’t force yourself into drinking more than your body tells you it wants just because of a 70-year old misinterpreted statement.

  2. Thanks for posting this, Dan! Kev drinks a minimum of 1 gallon of water every day, and about 2 gallons when he is working outdoors. Me on the other hand … I’m not so good about remembering to break up my diet coke intake with water.

    http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283/

    • I think this is refering to total fluid intake so Diet Coke counts!

      This is just a guideline and clearly overdoing anything can always be dangerous. Still, I have seen enough dehydration in my day- between four seasons on archaeological digs and standing outside in blazing sun for funerals- that I think not enough water is a far bigger danger.
      Also I find it interesting that the Mayo Clinic website says it is not “drink 8 glasses a day” but “at least 8 glasses…” But apparently they believe bigfoot is real too

  3. Great post! The Go Caddy seems pretty cool… maybe if water was attached to me while I’m out and about I’d be more likely to drink it instead of chugging coffee all day, lol! Thanks for the reminder to stay hydrated and healthy! 😀

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