THE TRUTH ABOUT HYDRATION AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO HEALTH AND SKIN DRYNESS

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A widely held belief is that if you wait until you feel thirsty, you may already be dehydrated. No one is sure where this advice came from, but it’s all over the internet and quite ludicrous.

As humans, we have this homeostatic system, so when we need water, we feel thirsty. Drinking when you are thirsty maintains your body’s water level within about 1-2% of its ideal state. For most people, this is absolutely fine. Even for athletes, a loss of around 1% is considered to have negligible impact upon performance. So, although thirst may not kick in until you have lost some body water, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

As we get older, our sense of thirst can get fuzzier and that is when dehydration can become a threat. It is a similar story for children, too. So perhaps the advice to drink water before you feel thirsty was originally aimed at parents and the elderly, but now healthy adults are putting away gallons of water in a quest to be their best selves.

There is a dearth of facts when it comes to hydration. Pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in researching the benefits of a free resource and dehydration isn’t a pressing public health issue requiring government funding. This leaves a profitable grey area for the drinks industry to exploit.

Water is, it would have us believe, a purifying fast-track to glowing skin, bright eyes and bags of energy. However, detoxing with water is complete rubbish.  Yes, we need to drink sufficient water to prevent the formation of kidney stones, but our kidneys do a very good job of sorting out what we need to retain and what you need to get rid of when it comes to detoxification.

Actually, drinking way too much water can kill us. Water intoxication occurs when the amount of electrolytes in the body becomes imbalanced by excessive water intake, disrupting brain function.

Here, in the US, popular advice is to drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water – about 2 liters – a day: the “8x8 rule that originated from a recommendation by the nutritionist Dr Fredrick J Stare in 1974 (he actually suggested six to eight glasses).

Back home in the UK, the NHS recommends six to eight glasses, or up to 1.2 liters of “fluids” daily, pointing out that we obtain fluids from food and beverages, such as tea, coffee, etc. But it is the 8x8 rule that has become a health-goal meme with “the 8x8 challenge”.

How much you need to drink is governed by how active we are, the weather and our physiology. Tellingly, if you seek water-consumption advice from a quietly reputable US source such as Harvard Medical School, instead of the 8x8 rule, you get “four to six cups” a day for healthy adults and all beverages count, even diuretics such as coffee, tea and booze. Don’t they make us pee more so we end up dehydrated?

In 2016, researchers tested the hydrating potential of a range of drinks and found a liter of beer was no less hydrating than a liter of water. Similarly, a liter of instant coffee, containing 212mg of caffeine, was as hydrating as water. Milk was even more hydrating, and effective as a hydration solution for people with diarrhea . While not a green-light to binge on high-calorie drinks, it’s good to know that a cup of tea or half a lager still count as fluid intake.  

How many of us are seriously dehydrated? No one knows, but researchers once studied fluid intake among workers in a call center and found that, to keep their ratings up, many would restrict their fluid intake to avoid bathroom breaks. One can imagine similar behavior with long-distance truck drivers or passengers on a long-haul flight who want to avoid using the tiny bathrooms on an aircraft. If we’re ingesting enough water,  we should probably be going to the bathroom somewhere between five and seven times a day.

Drinking Water and Skin Hydration 

People are often told that if you drink lots of water you will have great skin, reducing the appearance of dryness. The truth is that while dehydration isn’t good for your skin, once you hit a certain level of fluid intake, providing you are healthy, any excess water you drink will simply be peed out and your skin dryness issue most likely won't be resolved. Drinking gallons of water to correct skin dryness is like sitting in a tub of cold water to quench your thirst.  

Many people, including certain celebrities, often claim that the secret to their poreless skin lies in drinking copious amounts of water. Let's get this straight―there are so many great reasons to drink H2O. It's refreshing, helps your brain function, maintains energy levels, regulates body temperature, aids in digestion, and ultimately keeps your body healthy. (You couldn't survive more than a few days without a sip.) But is maintaining hydrated skin one of them?

According to dermatologists, when it comes to moisturizing skin, drinking water falls short. While hydration is absolutely essential for our body to function properly, oral hydration has no direct link to your skin's hydration. In fact, it is a complete myth that we should drink a lot of water to maintain hydrated skin. Water, first and foremost, enters the bloodstream and is then filtered by the kidneys. There is no data to show that drinking more water improves skin health and its appearance.

However, it is true that your skin gets "thirsty." Much like the rest of our body, skin is made of cells, which are largely made of water. Cells lose water throughout the day through things like physical activity, environmental pollution, and just generally living life. This will result in flaky and dry texture, making your skin more prone to fine lines, aging, and other skin conditions.

Your skin's water retention is a function of TEWL, or transepidermal water loss. If you have dry skin, your barrier is likely weak or impaired. This means that you don't have enough oil or lipids in your skin to hold on to the water that you have. At that point, no amount of ingested water is going to replenish your skin―you're going to need a topical cream for that.

So, the solution is topical rather than internal. Rather than drinking gallons of water, applying a moisturizer is a far more effective way of addressing dry skin. Stick to the essential steps of skincare, such as cleansing, moisturizing, sun protection and a night cream to repair and rebuild skin while you sleep. 

Healthy Hydration Practices

When it comes to choosing a moisturizer, the three key ingredients to look for are stearic acid (a fatty acid), emollient ceramides, and cholesterol. Yes, cholesterol. Topically applied, it won't affect your body's cholesterol levels. In fact, if you're on a cholesterol-lowering medication, which can cause skin dryness, a cream rich in the ingredient may help you keep your skin well hydrated.

In order to truly lock in moisture, it's advised to apply hydrating cream when the skin is slightly wet, especially after a shower. If your skin needs some extra hydration help, you can go beyond moisturizer by employing targeted serums with other actives.

That being said, your body (and your skin) still needs water to function properly. Maintaining adequate hydration is important for our general health, as extreme dehydration can have significant impacts in the functioning of our hearts and kidneys.

Minimizing your exposure to depleting elements―low humidity, harsh winds, dry heat, high altitude, sun, alcohol, long baths―and avoiding stripping soaps can also prevent the loss of natural oils. Diet can play a role in strengthening your skin's ability to maintain moisture, too. Foods rich in the essential fatty acids found in walnuts, flaxseed, salmon, and olive oil can help skin cells stay hydrated.

A study by the Institute of Experimental Dermatology in Germany, also revealed that women who took flaxseed- or borage-oil supplements (2.2 grams a day) for 12 weeks experienced a significant increase in skin moisture and a reduction in roughness. A healthy diet with three to five servings a week of foods rich in essential fatty acids will suffice for the average person.

Concluding Remarks

You do not need to be chugging water all day long like a fish. Dry skin is a result of both genetic and environmental factors that cannot be fixed solely by oral hydration. Perfecting skin's hydration is dependent on a multitude of factors working together―in addition to drinking adequate amounts of water―to make sure that the rest of your body functions well.

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