Our body is comprised of 60 to 70% of water by weight [1]. Water is an important natural nutrient and usually, it is witnessed, doctors as well as nutritionists, advise their patients or clients to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily. The common benefits which are attributed to more water intake include;
- It regulates your body temperature
- It protects your heart
- It burns your fat
- It prevents constipation.
- It decreases fatigue.
- It carries oxygen to cells.
- It helps you control calorie intake.
- It flushes toxins out
And some other intelligent nutritionist also developed several formulas to help the public to calculate their water requirement, one of the formulae is shown below.
But Dr. Margaret McCartney, who is a General Physician and Practitioner and also a journalist, came up with an opinion that all these benefits of drinking more water have no scientific basis. She argued by saying that
Nautre has created human body with perfection. Our body has this thirst mechanism which controls the water intake. When body needs water, thirst mechanism gets activated and you feel an urge to drink water. She further added that drinking more water may even lead to electrolyte imbalance, decreased concentration. Drinking water at night may cause you to go to toilet at night again and again this may even lead to kidney damage. [2]
Dr. Margaret McCartney, who is a Glasgow-based GP, said that several branded water bottle companies heavily advertise the unproven medical benefits of drinking more water through various media channels that misguide the public and medical professionals.
Dr. Rauf Niazi, Who is the Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at Pakistan Medical Institute of Medical Sciences & Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, agreed with the point of view of Dr. Margaret McCartney. He said,
“Yes, i agree with her point of view that Allah (God) has made our body with perfect perfection. Several automatic regulatory mechanisms in our body automatically tell us when to eat, when to drink and when we need to go to the washroom, and i agree there are no scientific facts or research studies available which can explain these attractive health benefits of drinking more water”
General Public gave mixed reviews to Dr. McCartney’s opinion regarding “drinking more water”. Some people argued that Dr. McCartney failed to provide any reliable data, facts or research studies, other agreed with the following conclusion;
Drink what you need
But research studies does show that drinking more water in certain medical conditions such as kidney stones can be beneficial [3] and we need more studies to prove the harmful effects of drinking more water than required.
Author: Dr. Adil Ramzan
MBBS, Resident MD Internal Medicine, PIMS, SZABMU, Pakistan
References:
- Body Water: Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_water
- Drinking too much water ‘can be bad for your health’: Benefits are a myth By SOPHIE BORLAND FOR THE DAILY MAIL Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2014112/Drinking-water-bad-health-Benefits-myth.html#ixzz44JwefVuA
- Kidney stone prevention; NHS, Link: https://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Kidney-stones/Pages/Prevention.aspx
