Hydration and Your Spine
By Sara Butler
Making sure you're hydrated is important all year long, but it's even more important in the summer. When you spend time outside, you may forget to keep up with your water intake. If you ever wondered why people seem so concerned with staying hydrated, here's what the chiropractors at The Joint Chiropractic want you to know about how staying hydrated contributes to your health.
Why Hydration Is Important
Your body utilizes water to ensure that it works the way it was made to. Proper hydration is needed in order for many bodily functions to work optimally, such as:
- Temperature regulation
- Flushing waste products from the body
- Carrying nutrients and oxygen to cells
- Dissolving minerals and nutrients in order to make them accessible to your body
- Providing lubrication for the joints
- Keeping tissues such as eyes, nose, and mouth moist
- Keeping metabolism functioning
- Increasing ease of digestion
This isn't the full list, but it helps to give you an idea of how important water is to the proper functioning of the body.
Your Spine and Proper Hydration
Another important part of your body that requires proper hydration is your spine. The discs that sit between the bones in your spinal column act as cushions to allow the spine to move as it was made to. They also require water to function properly.
The discs in your back have nutrition delivered to them through absorption. They absorb fluids allowing them to move properly between the bones in the spine, creating a pump-like effect that moves nutrients in and out of the discs. Proper hydration is key to ensuring this process works properly.
If you don't drink enough water, you can suffer from back pain and your back may not be able to move properly. This just adds another reason to endeavor to stay properly hydrated.
How Much Water?
The chiropractors at The Joint often get asked how much water is the right amount of water to drink. Many people are under the impression 64 ounces of water per day is what they need, but that's not entirely true.
What you should aim for is to drink, in ounces of water, half your body weight per day. That means that if you weigh 200 pounds, you should aim for 100 ounces of water per day.
If you're concerned about the amount of water you drink and how it may impact your spine, then talk to the chiropractors at The Joint today.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Aurora, Colo.