Summer is approaching, and many people enjoy drinking ice-cold water, finding it refreshing and thirst-quenching. However, they may not realize that this practice can cause certain harm to the body. Therefore, it is crucial to learn how to drink water correctly during the summer.
It's best to drink warm water.
On one hand, consuming cold beverages can cause the gastrointestinal mucous membrane to suddenly encounter cold temperatures, leading to the contraction of originally dilated capillaries and spasms in the smooth muscle. This can result in gastrointestinal discomfort, cramps, or even diarrhea.
Conversely, some people prefer to drink piping hot water. Overly hot food and drink can damage the esophageal mucosa and stimulate its proliferation, which has been medically proven to induce esophageal cancer.
Therefore, the temperature of drinking water should not be too hot or too cold. The most suitable temperature is between 10-30°C.
Water should be sipped, not gulped.
When thirsty, many people are accustomed to gulping down large amounts of water at once. However, this method of drinking is not beneficial to health. The three basic principles are: small amounts, frequent sips, and slow drinking.
There are three potential consequences of drinking water too quickly: First, rapidly consuming a large amount of water at once can quickly dilute the blood, increasing the burden on the heart. This is especially severe after exercise. Second, when the weather is hot and you are sweating heavily, excessive drinking can reflexively increase sweating, further leading to the loss of electrolytes like sodium and potassium. Consequently, people often feel thirstier the more they drink. Third, drinking too quickly can cause you to swallow a lot of air, which can easily lead to hiccups or bloating.
The correct way to drink water is to hold a sip in your mouth and swallow it in small, deliberate steps. This allows for thorough moistening of the mouth and throat and effectively alleviates the sensation of thirst.
The amount of water one should drink varies from person to person.
For a normal, healthy person, urine color can be used to determine when to replenish fluids: normal urine should be a pale yellow color. If the color is too dark, it's a sign to drink more water; if it's very light, it might mean you're drinking too much.
For patients, water intake needs to be tailored to the individual. For example, among patients with heart disease, when a patient shows signs of insufficient coronary artery blood supply, it is necessary to moderately increase daily water intake to prevent the blood from becoming too viscous, which could lead to a myocardial infarction. However, when a patient exhibits signs of heart failure, excessive water intake is not advisable, as it加重 the burden on the heart and worsen the condition. To avoid加重 the burden on the kidneys, patients with acute nephritis or renal failure should also not drink too much water. When a person has a cold or a fever, they lose more water from the respiratory tract than usual. Additionally, the increased body temperature causes more water to evaporate from the skin, so it is important to replenish fluids appropriately.