Drastic reduction in water intake causes health problems

Yasir Ilyas

People drastically reduce intake of water as the winter sets in, without knowing that a certain amount of it is necessary to keep the body system and metabolism right. So this reduction causes serious medical problems, including heartburn, acidity, skin problems and disorders in excretory as well as digestive systems.

All people, depending on their age-groups and internal metabolism rates, need different quantities of water in winter as well, which is usually not considered, as only a few people are aware of this fact. This practice leads to certain complications.

Naeem Hameed, the sales executive of a company dealing in mineral water, said: “People, who used to purchase two to three 18-litre bottles daily in the summer, buy just one bottle every third or fourth day as consumption of water reduces in the winter season.”

Salma Majeed, a housewife, said: “I used to fetch a 20-litre water can twice a day from the nearby drinking water filtration plant in summer, but now in winter I fetch the same can every third day. I know that drastic reduction in water consumption is dangerous for health, but I cannot force my children to drink more water.”

It is a fair comment by a mother of three, but on the other hand, there is a misconception. “The more they drink the more they pee. So it is good that my children drink less water in winter.” This was the view of another housewife.

Another myth, which is considered true by most people, is that drinking more water leads to more urination. This concept has medically been proven wrong. Urination moreover deals with the excretion of uric acid from the body, and water facilitates this excretion rather than adding to it. One, who does not drink water, will still urinate, and through this urination, he will certainly excrete certain useful salts of the body, so drinking water preserves those useful salts of the body. It has been witnessed that urinating without proper intake of water leads to weakness, which itself is a disease.

Feroz Bhatti, in his fifties, was sitting in the clinic of a doctor along Saidpur Road. He said that he feels heartburn, acidity in stomach and pain in kidneys, which becomes severe while urinating. “The doctor has advised me to increase the intake of water,” he said.

Talking to INFN, Dr. Zahid Minhas, a general physician at the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi, said: “It is a wrong perception in our society that we associate the intake of water with increase in coldness. Our body needs a minimum of two litres of water in every condition to run certain intra-body functions.” He said that the reduction in intake of water leads to certain complications, which include heartburn, acidity and disorder in digestive and excretory systems. “A minimum of 8 glasses of water is necessary for the body daily to keep the skin alive and prevent urinary disorders,” he stressed.

According to him, the intake of certain other liquids like tea, coffee and ‘qehwa’ could benefit, but these drinks are not alternative to fresh drinking water. “The nature has kept certain useful elements, necessary for the body, in pure drinking water,” he said.

Keeping in view the wrong practice of reduction in intake of water in winter, it could be said: “Eight glasses of water a day keeps the doctor away.”