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How Much Water Should You Really Drink a Day?

How much water should you be drinking a day? You should be drinking about 25%-50% of your body weight in ounces daily. It’s actually not about how much water you are getting but whether you’re staying hydrated or not. Water is vital for your health.

Biggest side effects can be headaches, lack of energy, weight gain, lack of cleansing and detoxification, weakened immune response, getting the cold and flu easily, or feeling lethargic. Proper hydration is so important to your overall health. To stay properly hydrated, I have four recommendations. First, I would recommend drinking about half of your body weight in ounces a day. I would also suggest you consume more fruits and vegetables in your diet, which are full of electrolytes. Next, I would recommend consuming all natural sea salts in your food (Himalayan salt or Celtic salt), which helps your body stay hydrated. Lastly, I would encourage you to exercise more. Exercise can support the process of hydration because movement increases circulation, increasing electrolyte levels into your cells.

For more on hydration, you can check out this article: http://draxe.com/4-reasons-you-should...

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How much water should you drink every day to stay healthy and hydrated?

With a heat wave gripping much of the country, many people are guzzling more water than usual to try to stay cool and hydrated. The convention wisdom says we should be downing eight glasses of water a day. But that number isn't based on any scientific studies, and doctors say it's not necessarily the best advice.

A new article published in the Harvard Health Letter recommends drinking 30 to 50 ounces a day, an amount equal to about four to six glasses of water.

Drinking enough water is important to carry nutrients to your cells, flush bacteria from your system and prevent dehydration, especially during hot summer months when we lose more fluids through sweat. People who are getting a lot of exercise, or women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, may need more.

And while plain water is a healthy choice that won't add extra sugar and calories to your diet, other fluids can be part of the mix. "It's really about fluids in general. Doesn't necessarily have to be water," Dr. Sharmeela Saha, director of the dialysis center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, told CBS News.

What you eat can make a difference too. Certain foods, including summer favorites like watermelon and other fruits, can count towards your daily water intake.

"Lettuce, spinach, fruits in general, soups ... those are all things that going to have a lot of water in them as well," Saha said.

Experts say don't ignore your thirst -- it's a sign your body needs more water. According to WebMD, other signs of dehydration may include weakness, dizziness, heart palpitations, sluggishness, fainting, or heart palpitations. Urine color may also indicate dehydration; if urine is dark yellow or amber colored, you're probably not drinking enough fluids.

In addition to keeping you well hydrated, some research has shown drinking water right before a meal may benefit your diet, taking the edge off hunger to help help you lose weight.

Avoid Dangerous Over-hydration this Summer

Last Updated Jun 30, 2015 12:41 PM EDT

As summer sports and outdoor activities heat up, researchers at Loyola University Medical Center want to shed light on an overlooked and potentially life-threatening condition: hyponatremia, or excessive water consumption.

Last summer, there were two reported incidences of death as a result of hyponatremia. Zyrees Oliver, a 17-year-old star football player at Douglas County High School in Georgia, drank two gallons of water and two gallons of Gatorade during practice. He collapsed at home later that day and died at a hospital. Another teen football player in Mississippi, Walker Wilbanks, was taken to the hospital during the second half of a game after vomiting and complaining of a leg cramp. He had a seizure in the emergency room and later died from exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH).

In recent years, researchers say there have also been more than a dozen documented and suspected runners' deaths from hyponatremia.

Hyponatremia is a condition that arises when athletes or others drink too much water or sports drinks. Excessive fluid consumption can overwhelm the body's ability to remove excess water, which dilutes the sodium content of your blood. Your body's water levels then rise to equalize sodium levels in your cells, which swell. The swelling can cause mild problems including muscle cramps, nausea, vomiting and seizures. If swelling occurs in your brain it can be fatal.

"It can be lethal, but essentially all deaths from exercise-associated hyponatremia are 100 percent preventable," Dr. James Winger, a sports medicine physician at Loyola University Medical Center told CBS News in an email. "We are, however, seeing hyponatremia in new settings, such as American football, paddling and long distance ocean swimming. This is supported by the common but erroneous belief that mild-to-moderate dehydration during exercise is detrimental to health or performance."

According to a July 2015 report on the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference in Carlsbad, California, smaller individuals and those who exercise at a slower pace tend to drink more than they lose through sweat. "Although the incidence of women experiencing EAH is greater than that of men, adjusted for BMI and racing time, the apparent sex difference is not statistically significant," the report states.

To prevent hyponatremia, researchers agree that there need to be more educational programs available to athletes and coaches that stress the importance of appropriate hydration practices and provide information on how to recognize and treat hyponatremia.

The Loyola researchers advise athletes to consume water and sports drinks only when thirsty. Don't drink a predetermined amount or try to "get ahead" of thirst by drinking more than you actually want.

"The risks associated with dehydration are small," Winger said in a press release. "No one has died on sports fields from dehydration, and the adverse effects of mild dehydration are questionable. But athletes, on rare occasions, have died from overhydration."