Improving Hydration

All you have to do is keep a glass of water by the bed and then drink it before getting up, right? This is a simple tip, an easy action that helps avoid many discomforts in the body relating into mild dehydration: headaches, muscle spasms, sluggish bowels, and so on.

But is is that simple?

Not All Water is Created Equal

What exactly is it in that glass of water beside your bed?

We are very blessed in general, to have so much water available at the turn of a tap. Yet most of us know now that there are many chemicals, pharmaceuticals, impurities, and toxins that come through the tap. Have you ever noticed the subtle odor of bleach when you turn on the water?

Would you ever just add a few drops of bleach to a pitcher of water and drink it? I know I wouldn’t. Yet it comes through our tap like that.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is distilled and reverse-osmosis water. Fancy words, right? These are about as pure a water that you can get—pure H2O.

This is great right?…Wrong.

It’s not that simple. We actually need to have trace minerals in our water so that our body can absorb the H2O. In fact, drinking pure H20 can strip our body of minerals and actually mildly dehydrate us.

Does it seem like this “glass of water by the bedside” thing is getting a little complicated? Worry-not, the solution is simple.

What to do About all This?

In the ideal world we would all have access to a pristine spring which we could harvest cool water from, for immediate drinking. How good this would be for our bodies! However, that dream is for the few, nowadays.

For most of us, we have to discover a different option. I’m going to give you two options that I have found to be practical and acceptable in the pursuit of hydration:

Filter your tap water!

There are many different filters to use from a Brita to a Berkey. It makes sense to me that no matter which one you use, no matter what your price range is, you are instantly improving your tap water. And the filters (unless they are reverse-osmosis) will not strip the water of trace minerals, so you will be sufficiently hydrated by the water. This is a practical solution, and the one that I personally use at home.

Add minerals to your distilled or reverse-osmosis water!

Years back I was chatting with an elderly man who was still going strong. He confessed is secret to me was water. He distilled his own tap water with a water distiller, and then added liquid trace minerals to the water. He swore by it. 

 There are various ways to approach this—the elder was obviously a purist—but you can also buy a gallon of distilled water from the grocery store and add a pinch of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to the water, then shake it up. Why Pink Himalayan Sea Salt? If you research the product, it has the broadest array of trace minerals (an essential component in hydration)

What’s the Next Step?

Make a choice! It’s gonna depend on how you want to approach it, your finances, and how serious you want to be about hydration…remember, any choice you make will be good for you (it’s not about being perfect). Decide if you would like to filter your tap water, or use distilled water with minerals added. Decide what filter you are going to use or if you are going to distill your own water. And if you use distilled, decide if you are going to add the Himalayan Sea Salt, or use a liquid trace mineral.

I Cannot Emphasize this Enough!

Not matter what choices you make from the options I have given, you will be making a good choice. Sometimes we can get hung up on figuring out what is right. Just make the choice that works best for you and know that it will be leading you to a better place.