The Power of Hydration

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Introduction

One of the most critical components of an individual’s fitness is actually drinking enough water. We tend to neglect our own bodies by forgetting to drink water. Fact is that our body is made up of approximately 70% water and our muscles, lungs, and brain all are composed of a lot of water. Losing just 2% of that water causes dehydration and our bodies work less efficiently. Water performs many functions for our body from body temperature regulation to nutrient uptake and the removal of toxins. For people who are serious about getting healthy, water intake is just as important as how much rest they get and what types of food they eat. Since the American diet is the number one contributor to acidity in the body, it is important to replenish and detoxify your body by drinking enough quality water. If you increase your water intake, you will be able to see differences in your skin texture, your bodily functions, your mood, and your energy.Dehydration

Water intake is essential to healthy living and not drinking enough of it leaves the body dehydrated. Water loss occurs via sweating, urinating, and respiring. In addition to this, if you consume diuretics like coffee or alcohol, your body is forced to expel even more water. It is necessary to replenish this water otherwise you can lose your energy and see the negative repercussions of dehydration. Symptoms of dehydration can include pain in the muscles and joints, headaches, dry skin, fatigue, lack of coordination, weakness, nausea, confusion, dry mouth, or constipation. Even adding a little water to your diet can change your lifestyle in a major way. Drinking two glasses of water right after you brush your teeth can reduce constipation by stimulating peristalsis and can improve your blood circulation. If you drink water on an empty stomach, it is absorbed much faster than if you drank water on a full stomach. These small tips can reduce your chances of dehydration and can prove to be beneficial to your health.

The American Diet: Chockfull of Acidity

The reason why our bodies need more water than most other individuals around the world is not just related to weather, but rather diet. Americans on average eat a variety of foods that are extremely high in acid and thus Americans have high rates of food-related disease. The American diet includes meat (pork, beef, turkey, and chicken), dairy (cheese, milk, and butter), grains (rice and barley), drinks (coffee, tea, soft drinks, fruit juices), and simple carbohydrates (pasta, bread, potatoes), all of which are acidic. Having a large amount of acid in the body and not being able to reduce your body’s acidity is the chief cause of certain diseases or symptoms that include: acid reflux, high levels of cholesterol, heart disease, high levels of fat, arthritis, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, stroke, and many other inflammatory reactions.

What Can Water Do to that Acidity?

First of all, drinking room-temperature before a meal can increase your digestive capacity while at the same time make you eat less. This also serves to decrease the amount of water you drink during your meal, which hinders your nutritive absorption. This is an effective weight loss solution as drinking water will reduce the amount you eat and increase your metabolism. To combat acid, our body relies on fats. As much as we don’t like fat because of weight gain, it is one of the components that save us from the negative repercussions of excess acid. If you drink slightly alkaline water, your body releases some of your fat cells and reduces the acidity in your system. In conclusion, drink a lot of water and your body will reduce its acidity and keep you from excess acid buildup, the leading cause of fatigue in athletes!

How Much Water Should You Drink?

This is a question that has many different answers. It all depends on your lifestyle. It matters how much you eat, what you eat, how much you exercise, what you are doing to exercise, what the weather is, and how many toxins you put in your body. Ideally, drink a glass of water every 1 – 1½ hours. If you are out in the hot sun, drink a glass or two of water 2 hours before and 2 hours after you exercise. You should drink 5-9 oz. every 20 minutes during the exercise in order to properly refuel your water reservoir. Be mindful about how much water you are drinking because in the end the body can properly detoxify, replenish, and maintain your body’s health.

Closing Remarks:

Water has innumerable benefits and I can only name a few. A proper intake of water maintains your blood volume and keeps the concentration of your blood low, reduces the chances of cardiovascular diseases such as ; heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure. It also flushes the toxins out of your body through sweat and urination, minimizes your chances of getting colon, breast, and bladder cancer, and helps you to lose weight. Water is the masked cure that we all could use and we are the ones that can benefit from being aware, no one else. Stay healthy and drink some water!

Brain Power and Memory Improvement

The human mind is an extremely complex and intricate well-oiled machine very different and more advanced than computer technology. Our human brain has evolved over thousands of years to make us the most powerful (not physically, but mentally) living things on Earth. Sometimes however, it seems that it is hard for us to remember the simplest memories or associations. How our mind can be improved naturally has to do with exercise, diet, and the way in which we learn. The most important fact we need to take away is that we need to be able to move our formulations, associations, and short-term memories, into the expanded spaces of our brain where long-term memory can be stored and created. Our brain is constantly making new connections and associations and it is important for your memory to continue to make these connections to stay healthy.

The Four Laws of Memory1

The four laws are how the human brain chooses to make a long-term memory. They include and are not restricted to: association, images, intensity, and repetition. You may be familiar with two or three of those but I will quickly explain what they each mean and how they relate to your brain processes.

Association: You can improve your memory by noticing how you remember certain things. By associating an experience or an object with something very similar, it is easy for you to remember that originally hard-to-remember object.

Images: When you think of a memory, what first comes to mind? An image. Human memories are seen like a slideshow in our heads and that is why it is much easier to use vision to remember certain memories. The more senses you use however, the stronger the memory becomes.

Intensity: When thinking of important days in history, it is much easier to remember what you were doing that day than the day before or after. An example is 09.11.01 – you remember that day, but do you remember what you did on the tenth or the twelfth?

Repetition: This is the test-takers answer to a better score. Repeating facts and figures or experiences in your head can get you to memorize and store the experience in your long-term memory. Recalling a phone number after 20 times saying it can be easier that recalling it if you only said it once.

Exercise, Sleep, and Memory:

Although I am advocating exercise to improve your memory, do not exercise and study at the same time. Exercising can increase the blood flow to your brain but it also relegates a lot of blood to the working muscle. Thus, you do not have your body’s full attention, just like if you eat a large meal and the blood goes toward your stomach to help you absorb and digest the contents. Therefore, I would exercise at a given point during the day, and study after you recover or before you start, thus getting the best of both activities. Skimping on exercise is one thing, but it is absolutely essential to get enough sleep. Studying when you are tired doesn’t work and when we are at that stage our creative processes and critical thinking skills are at a minimum. Sleep is when we retain most of the information we received that day and it is when the connections and associations are made and strengthened.

Laughter is Always the Best Medicine but Stress? I Think Not: 2

Having fun is an important activity, even to strengthen the power of your brain.  In a study by Harvard researchers, the people that were the most social creatures were the ones that had the slowest memory decline. Interact with people and the more you socialize, the more you are staying active on the memory-front. Another important factor for memory improvement includes the ability to laugh. Laugh at yourself, laugh with others, and associate with people who can make you laugh!

Stress can be the biggest memory buzz-kill. Stress can kill brain cells, and that’s a fact. Activities such as yoga and meditation have recently been able to show that your brain chemistry actually changes so that you are able to have more connections in areas that bring you joy and peace, the left prefrontal cortex. Meditation can improve your body’s ability to fight off depression, anxiety, diabetes, and even high blood pressure.



Food and Memory:2

When talking about brain boosters and memory-loss preventers, omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for your brain’s health. Also added to this list are green vegetables! Produce has antioxidants, just like red wine, that can prevent your neurons from being damaged. Leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, romaine, and arugula can act as brain superfoods that benefit your brain’s ability to maintain and retain memories.

As a practice that has been going on for years, many ancient civilizations used a variety of herbs to increase brain power and memory. Some of these spices include Cinnamon, Ginger, and Turmeric, all of which can be easily incorporated into your diet. Cinnamon can lighten your mood, Turmeric helps in memory improvement, and Ginger has an ingredient known as Zingerrone that defends your brain cells, aiding in memory loss prevention.1

As much as I wouldn’t want you to overly exercise this habit, caffeine actually helps to boost memory. By heightening your sense, coffee, chocolate, and soda act as a stimulant and allow your brain to retain more in a given period of time. Also to improve memory, try eating foods that have a high amount of antioxidants, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and healthy fats.

When talking about foods to avoid, think saturated fats. They have been linked to neuron damage and dangerous disorders such as dementia. Avoid red meat, whole milk, butter, cheese, sour cream, and ice cream, as these are all foods that are high in saturated fat. See the September 4th article, Facts About Fats: The Good, The Bad, and the Essential.

What You Can Do On Your Own to Improve Memory:

There are quite a few activities that you can do on your own or with a friend that can sharpen your senses and improve your brain power/memory. One of these is playing cards (even Monopoly DEAL) or games that challenge your brain, like Sudoku. Another is by playing an instrument. By reading the notes and making associations of sounds with notes, you are actively exercising your brain and effectively improving your memory. Another way you can improve your brain power is by taking notes by hand, rather than typing. You spend more time looking at the word you are writing and thus you can remember it better. The last and most important thing to improve memory is to drink enough water! Dehydration can cause your mental capacity to be lower and your memory to be impaired.

Closing Remarks:

As you try to figure out ways to improve your memory, sometimes we forget to perform the simplest activities that can boost your brain power. Drink lots of water, eat a good diet, exercise, and mentally challenge your brain once in a while. By strategizing, you can exercise your brain, and by focusing on living life optimistically and without stress, you can see a drastic improvement in your will to learn. For studying, association and repetition is key, and consuming stimulants in proportion are efficient memory boosters. Sleep well, eat well, exercise yourself (mentally and physically), and you will notice a boost in your brain power! Good luck!