It’s February! The month of love! Since this month is all about the heart, we will explore how hydrating helps your heart.
The Connection Between Hydration and Heart Health
Below are some of the vital roles your heart handles according to the Cleveland Clinic:
- Pumps blood through your body
- Assists other organs in disposing of waste in your body, like carbon dioxide
- Maintains blood pressure
- Delivers oxygen to cells
Why Your Heart Needs Water to Function Properly
The Cleveland Clinic reports that the average heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood through your body and beats about 100,000 times every day. The Heart Foundation, an organization with a mission is to increase awareness of heart disease by promoting early detection and supporting research efforts at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, says that water is essential to assist your heart in vital functions like pumping blood. Your heart can easily perform these basic but vital functions when your body is hydrated because the body’s other organs will perform properly with the right amount of hydration.
It’s common knowledge that your body is composed of a lot of water, but did you know the heart is 73% water? Realizing that half of this vital organ is water, we can rest assured the medical community is interested in how water and the heart work together. While studying levels of serum sodium, a measurement of sodium ion concentration in the blood that increases as fluid levels in the body decrease, researchers at the National Institutes of Health concluded that consuming proper amounts of fluids over your lifespan has the potential to reduce the risk of severe heart problems. Simply put, the more water in the body, the less sodium in the system.
Medline Plus, a service of the National Library of Medicine, says dehydration can cause rapid heartbeat. If you were unable to anticipate the need for extra hydration and become dehydrated, Medline Plus recommends sipping water or letting ice cubes dissolve in your mouth to address dehydration.
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- Water and your body: it’s a perfect match!
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- Le Bleu East Tennessee delivers water in all sizes to help your heart stay hydrated
The American Heart Association (AHA) advises that individuals with heart conditions need to drink even more water than the average person, especially during physical activities. Other people that should consider extra hydration are individuals over 50 years old. Overweight or obese people can benefit from more hydration each day. If you’re going to be exposed to strong sun on a hot day, be sure to plan and prepare for extra hydration before, during and after the sun exposure. Although it can be tempting to “skip the liquids” to cut down on the need for stopping to find bathrooms when you travel, this is a crucial time to hydrate to keep your heart and other organs functioning efficiently while you’re on the road.
You should work with your physician to determine the daily amount of water you should drink, but the AHA does have some advice on how to calculate the amount of extra water you should drink during activities that may make your body need extra hydration. The AHA recommends weighing yourself before and after the activity to see how much water you lost sweating. For every pound lost in perspiration, you should drink a pint of water to hydrate your body back to your water levels pre-work-out. The AHA says it’s not uncommon for an athlete to lose five pounds or more in one practice that occurs outside on a day with hot, humid weather. Last fall, we gathered tips to help with hydration during sports practices. You can review our ideas by clicking here.
Links for reference:
https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/staying-hydrated-staying-healthy
https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000982.htm
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/17060-how-does-the-blood-flow-through-your-heart
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/21704-heart
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9013-dehydration
https://theheartfoundation.org/2019/03/08/the-importance-of-water/