Quench

INTRODUCTION

Hydration: How Can We Do It Better?

For years, you’ve been told you need to drink eight glasses of water a day to get the hydration you need. And if you’re trying to lose weight, you’re feeling sick, or you’re training for a big athletic event, eight glasses has always been just the tip of the (melted) iceberg. It’s strange: In most aspects of our health, we are taught that moderation is the key. But the message when it comes to water has always been more, more, more. In our quest to be healthy, we’ve always thought we could never drink too much water.

The conventional wisdom was half right. Proper hydration is the key to unlocking optimal health. But we need to start looking at hydration for what it is: the very essence of your health. You are a body of water. In fact, by the most modest traditional estimates, approximately 65 percent of you is water. If you’re not hydrated, everything else you do to stay healthy (exercising, eating right, stress management, sleep) is undercut.

It’s known that humans can survive for about two months without food, but just days without water will kill us. Yet, shockingly, most of us are dehydrated—in fact, some doctors think as many as 75 percent of Americans are dehydrated.¹ Low-grade dehydration is the epidemic behind the epidemics, an omnipresent yet unseen dilemma tipped into new levels of urgency by our modern living conditions. What we eat—including salt-heavy, moisture-lacking processed food—makes our bodies work harder to metabolize. And a lack of hydrating greens and fruits keeps us dried out, even parched, all the time. In addition, we are ever more exposed to fluorescent lighting, dry heat, and air-conditioning… and that’s not even considering all the electronic devices we use that further dehydrate us. On top of that, the very prescriptions and over-the-counter medications we take to reduce pain, stiffness, allergies, or any chronic condition are also very dehydrating. There is a long list of medications reported to the FDA that actually cause clinical dehydration. You may be using one right now. Think about the last time you took a Benadryl or Sudafed for allergies—surely, you felt these medicines’ dehydrating effects. Are you taking aspirin or acetaminophen for a headache? Xanax or Ambien to help you sleep? Did anyone prescribe taking extra water with that?

Add in another surprising source of dehydration: immobility, which slows down or squelches water delivery into cells, as well as the all-important outflow of waste particles. All that sitting most of us do—usually in stale, artificial office air, or while riding in cars for hours—is literally dehydrating us by slowing our body’s flow of water and energy.

As a result of all these factors, most of us live in a chronic level of dehydration. This shows up in us as fatigue, a lack of focus, and lowered mood, as well as poor sleep² and, surprisingly, even excess weight. In fact, according to a study by Dr. Tammy Chang and her colleagues³ from the University of Michigan, people who are obese are more likely to be inadequately hydrated. And another study from the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech⁴ showed that drinking water before a meal can improve weight loss. Brenda Davy, senior researcher on the study, states, “We found that over the course of twelve weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about five pounds more than dieters who did not increase their water intake.”

The effects of chronic low-grade dehydration are real, long lasting, and potentially very debilitating. We believe this hypohydration is the mother of all epidemics and can be linked to many common ailments. The cues are afternoon fatigue, a decline in cognitive performance, headaches, weakness, urinary tract infections, and constipation. But some other disorders resulting from dehydration may come as a surprise: sleeplessness, decreased immunity, joint pain, chronic diseases like fibromyalgia, type 2 diabetes, reflux, and even Alzheimer’s. We’ll talk more about this in chapter 1, but suffice it to say that dehydration can have a big—and lasting—effect on our overall health.

So if we’re hydrating all wrong, what are we supposed to do about it? That’s where this book comes in. We know there’s no one way to perfect health. But what if there was something that brought us closer? There’s a better way to hydrate… and the benefits of proper hydration can have a dramatic effect on your health, your vitality, and your overall quality of life.

A BETTER WAY TO HYDRATE

Let us introduce you to a new way to claim the power of water. Quench will help you determine how to hydrate properly (hint: it doesn’t involve chugging a gallon of water every day), and then how to get the water you do drink deep into your muscles, cells, and fascia (the connective tissue of your body), where it’s needed most. When it comes to drinking enough water quantity is not necessarily quality. It’s all about absorption, and that’s why our plan will not push you to simply drink more. Why? Because counting on water alone to hydrate your body is inefficient—and it can even hurt you. Drinking too much water can flush out vital nutrients and electrolytes from your cells and tissues, actually harming your health and limiting your body’s ability to perform. In chapter 2, we’ll show why you need to incorporate more hydration into your diet not just through water but also through plants, such as fruits and vegetables, seeds, and other hydrating foods. The effects of hydration can be transformative, and once you feel them for yourself, you’ll never look at a simple glass of H₂O the same way again.

So what are the benefits of proper hydration? For our kids, it can mean better mood and smarts. For athletes who want to perform better, stronger, and faster, proper hydration can be a game changer. For those of us who struggle with health issues like headaches, bloating, and even chronic diseases, getting the right kind of water can alleviate our symptoms and recharge our lives. And for our elders who struggle to get enough nourishment and hydration, this may actually be life-saving information. We can incorporate superhydrating foods into our diet in simple ways. We will help you find the best ways for you to hydrate deeply and completely—so that all your cells are quenched.

We have crafted a five-day jump start plan that offers you a delicious array of drinks, meal plans, and the heart of the program—smoothies—that all take advantage of the most hydrating and nutrient-packed foods to hydrate you more fully, more deeply, with longer retention. There is a second component to this plan that actually is the missing half of hydration. And that’s moving water into your tissues. In chapter 3, we’ll explain how movement delivers hydration. A key feature of this program is the inclusion of micromovements: small, simple movements you can do a few times a day that get the hydration into the tissues and organs that need it most. Chapter 4 outlines the science of micromovements. By doing our simple plan for five days, you will experience more energy, better focus, and improved digestion. We promise you will want to incorporate our hydration strategies and movements into a lifetime practice that will keep you moving without pain and living with a renewed vigor that you didn’t know you had.

OUR ENVIRONMENT IS DEHYDRATING

“But I drink plenty of water,” you may be thinking. “How could I possibly be dehydrated?”

Even if we think we consume enough water, we are floating in low-grade fatigue, challenged by multiple moisture-stealing factors of today’s way of life. If we think of a healthy body as if it were a plant—rooted in nutrient-rich soil, absorbing minerals and moisture, taking in sunlight and water and converting them into abundant greenery—then by contrast, today our hydration-deprived bodies are like wilted leaves and shriveled dry stalks. Do you sometimes feel that way?

It is estimated that humans lose two to three liters (about sixty to one hundred ounces) of water through breathing, sweat, urine, and bowel movements a day. Remember this adage: What goes in must come out, and vice versa. The delicate balance of water lost from the body must equal the amount of water taken in to maintain homeostasis (equilibrium) in our bodies.

If you’re not fully replacing that water loss, your brain sends out hormone signals to divert water away from non-life-sustaining areas in order to regulate function of more important organs like your brain, heart, and liver. Thirst is not always an early-warning indicator of dehydration, so it is very easy to fall prey to low-grade dehydration without realizing it.⁵ Dehydration can sneak up on you.

And think about the typical day in the office, where you barely get out the chair, perhaps even ordering in lunch. When you’re immobile for long periods of time, your body struggles to deliver water into its cells and push out waste particles. All that sitting is literally dehydrating us by slowing our body’s flow of water.

So should you start chugging twice as much H₂O as you already do now? Not so fast. New research reveals that you can hydrate better and smarter by taking a whole-health approach to hydration. And in doing so, you’ll feel, function, and look your best. In Quench, we address everyday dehydration, not the advanced dehydration that could land you in the hospital with an IV drip. Instead we’re here to show you how to replenish what you lose through daily functions: trips to the bathroom, perspiration, stress, and environmental hits like hot rooms, traffic jams, dry processed food, medications, and just modern living.

Even the smallest amount of dehydration can have a big impact: as little as a 2 percent reduction in hydration leads to measurable cognitive loss.⁶ That is less than one liter (or about thirty-three ounces) of water loss. Just enough for your sensory capacities to diminish. Apprehension diminishes and appreciation is depressed. Life is less colorful. That’s your brain 2 percent dry. And that happens to most of us somewhere in our day. Often by three o’clock we are floating in low-grade dehydration, and by 9 p.m. we are sputtering near empty. Over and over, every day, through our lifetime, we dry out. This accelerates aging every day.

Dehydration can adversely affect almost every aspect of your health. Recent research from major universities, medical institutions, and even the U.S. Army reveal that even minor dehydration can make both major and minor aches—think joint pain, migraines, and postsurgical pain—worse.⁷ It also thwarts your ability to focus⁸ and increases your appetite.

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

BOTTLED WATER ISN’T THE SOLUTION

You would think with all that we know about the importance of drinking water that we would be much better at keeping well hydrated. The truth is, we should be better hydrated than ever. After all, for most of us in the Western world, clean water is omnipresent—if not from our taps then in bottles. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, the sales of bottled water rose 7.9 percent in 2015, which is on top of a 7 percent increase in 2014. In 2016, Americans bought 12.8 billion gallons of bottled water. Bottled water is ubiquitous: Whether it’s at a vending machine or on grocery store shelves, you can find water that comes from natural springs, water that’s been purified by reverse osmosis, water with added electrolytes, and water mixed with coconut juice or aloe. Is there any science behind these additions and the claims that they’re “good for you”? Are these expensive options really your only choices—and are they even the best choices—for healthy hydration?

Bottled water may be a healthy and increasingly common alternative to soft drinks, but the plastic bottle turns out to have a hidden dark side: energy consumption, waste disposal, and other environmental concerns. As bottled water grows in popularity, problems proliferate. Did you know…

What a paradox that we drink so much water yet we can’t keep pace with the dehydrating effects of modern life. Truth is, all this water has not eliminated dehydration—and bottled water isn’t a viable short-term or long-term solution. Water shortages, record-setting droughts, and growing concerns over water pollution are ever-present reminders that we cannot take water, the fundamental element of life, for granted. We are urgently in need of a new approach to obtaining our everyday water. By habitually drinking bottled water, our society supports an industry that actually pollutes our environment and views water as a commodity rather than as a right and as indispensable to health for all living things. Bottled water is not only a less effective means of staying hydrated on the go, but it depletes aquifers and other sources of water, produces unnecessary waste, and is exorbitantly priced.

Alternatively, the Quench Plan for deep hydration, based on our understanding that when we drink is as important as what and how much, reshapes our attitudes surrounding this precious resource, while breaking our dependence on bottled water. Our method is sustainable and encourages readers to think more critically about the global impact of their drinking habits and fosters a healthier future for our water-challenged world.

WHAT DOES DEHYDRATION FEEL LIKE?

Along with problems around bottled water and beverages, misinformation abounds about what you should drink—as well as how and when. As mentioned earlier, thirst isn’t always the most reliable warning of low hydration. Often when we feel fatigued or a headache coming on, we think we need to eat, but really we need to drink. Researchers speculate that these ill effects are your brain’s built-in “alarm system,” tipping you off to the fact that your body needs hydration ASAP. If you’re feeling headachy, grumpy, unfocused, or otherwise less than great, chances are you’re already dehydrated.

And the problems go beyond a fuzzy-headed feeling and a dry mouth. Research suggests dehydration is the link to many—if not most—ailments. As we’ll discuss in more detail in chapter 1, dehydration contributes directly to a whole host of complaints, including:

HYDRATE SMARTER