Water makes up a large percentage of your body weight. At any given time, water is performing different functions in your body, ranging from transportation of substances through blood to cushioning your spinal cord. Dehydration can occur when your body excretes too much water or when your water intake is low. Here are 7 effects of not drinking enough water on your body.
1. Wrinkling of skin
Water is required for maintenance of healthy and glowing skin. Like all your other organs, your skin is made up of cells that require water to function well. Dehydration can lead to breakdown of collagen. This makes wrinkles and fine lines on your face more prominent.
2. Weight gain
Dehydration causes an increase in water weight, because your body tries to conserve water. Also, dehydration slows your metabolism and increases insulin levels, causing decreased breakdown and increased storage of fats respectively. Increase in cortisol and decrease in testosterone causes increased fat storage around the abdominal region.
3. Low energy and decreased concentration
Lack of water depletes your energy levels. This is because dehydration reduces your blood volume in circulation therefore, your muscles and brain won’t get enough oxygen to perform their respective functions.
4. Increased risk of certain diseases
Chronic dehydration can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases like heart failure and strokes. This is because of increased workload on the heart. Dehydration also adversely affects the immune system, leading to development of infections, autoimmune conditions and cancer.
5. Increased cravings
The brain sometimes confuses thirst as hunger. Therefore, not drinking enough water might lead to unnecessary hunger pangs that will cause you to overeat.
6. Constipation
Water plays a major role in digestion by ensuring movement of food through the digestive tract. Therefore, dehydration makes excretion of waste substances difficult.
7. Poor kidney and heart function
Decreased blood volume caused by dehydration increases the workload of the heart and kidneys. The heart has to work harder to pump out the blood and the kidneys won’t be able to filter blood efficiently.
You lose water through different processes like breathing, urination and even evaporation from skin. So it is important that you take about 8 to 10 cups of water every day, to ensure proper functioning of your system.
Don’t try to replace water with other alternatives like coffee and alcohol because they make the dehydration worse.
