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Correct your water intake

There is a strong evidence about the dehydration as a widely spread disease of the contemporary society. It was proved that thirst might lag far behind the body's need for water. The dehydration is a very frequent cause of the health and fitness decrease and disharmony in the private and social life. Many different symptoms and signs of dehydration have until now been viewed as classical diseases of the body. Hence, some of the important priorities before Ramadan, as well as later on, will be as follows:

• Self education in the appreciation of water and in the consumption of the healthy water in sufficient doses.
• Correction of bad water consumption habits with the aim to improve the body function and confidence.
• Decrease of dyspeptic pain, rheumatoid joint pain, anginal pain, hypertension, asthma, allergy, cholesterol, chronic fatigue syndrome, headache, migraine, fear, anxiety and stress.

Chemical composition of the human body (3)

Human organism is composed of living cells and extracellular materials and is organised into tissues, organs and systems. Chemically, the human body consists mainly of water and of organic compounds (i.e. lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids). Water is found in the extracellular fluids of the body (the blood plasma, the lymph, and the interstitial fluid) and within the cells themselves. The human body is about 60% water by weight, it serves as a solvent to the chemistry of life.

Water content and distribution in the human body (4) The human body contains 60% of water. It means that an average person weighing 70kg is estimated to contain 42 litres of water. Almost 55% (23 I) (5) of the body water is contained within cells while 45% (19 I) is extracellular. Extracellular water is distributed in:

• blood plasma 15.8% (3 I)
• lymph and intestinal fluid between cells in the tissues 47.4% (9 I)
• connective tissues like bone, cartilage, tendon, skin, etc. 31.5% (6 I)
• joint spaces and other body cavities e.g. around the brain and spinal cord, and in the intestinal tract 5.3% (1 I)

70% - 85% of of our brain is made up of water. However, water distribution should not be understood as static subdivisions of human body water.

Circulation of water in the human body

There are a lot of analogies between water circulation in the nature and in our body. Water travels through our body and provides invigorating, cleansing, dissolving impurities. The clean water is quickly transported by the blood circulation into the extracellular spaces and cells. "Measurements with isotopes show that water molecules in capillary blood vessels in the human forearm exchange with water molecules outside the capillaries something like 300 times every minute. Exchange with the cells is slower; cell membranes are far less permeable than capillary walls. But isotopically-labelled water molecules become evenly distributed through all the water in 2 - 3 hours in a man." (6)

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