Should you or shouldnât you drink 8 glasses of water a day? (Part 3)
So I've been thinking about this, on and off, for a few days. That's why I'm back so fast. Also, I guess I should continuously mention how long this is going to be. LONG. You guys. SO LONG. (I'm not all that sorry about it.)
As always, Link will appear, to bring us one post back in time. And also, remember that archive? Of course you do.
Last time I went through two points, so we're at like... 4 now? And I want to go through three this time. Strive to be better in everything you do, or whatever, I don't know.
4.) Youâre throwing off your electrolyte balance
Maybe it's just me, but prior to the research I did for this article, I had no idea what electrolytes were from a scientific standpoint. Everyone who talked about them around me specifically said it was sodium (or something), and if I asked, "why? we already have a word for sodium in your blood, it's... ah, sodium. We measure that." then they'd be like, "I dunno.". Also, when it was spoken about, it was always questioning, as in, "So I guess that throws off your electrolytes or something?"
So, I went to the NIH, questions abound. What are electrolytes? How can you throw them off balance? Can you have too many electrolytes? What are the symptoms of low or high electrolytes?
According to the NIH, electrolytes are minerals in your blood that carry an electric charge. And that includes sodium! Also, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and chloride all are electrolytes.
How can you throw them off balance? To put it simply, it has to do with fluid. So, if you drink too much water, you know, then bam. Electrolytes off balance. And too little, pow, electrolytes off balance. Also you'll be in an Adam West Batman episode (citation needed).
One of the links on the previous page leads to the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. They ask, How Much Water Should You Drink A Day? Unsurprisingly, they have this to say:
How much water should you drink each day? It's a simple question with no easy answers. Studies have produced varying recommendations over the years, but in truth, your water needs depend on many factors, including your health, how active you are and where you live.
Although no single formula fits everyone, knowing more about your body's need for fluids will help you estimate how much water to drink each day.
Water is your body's principal chemical component and makes up about 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells, and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues.
Lack of water can lead to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don't have enough water in your body to carry out normal functions. Even mild dehydration can drain your energy and make you tired.
Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements. For your body to function properly, you must replenish its water supply by consuming beverages and foods that contain water.
So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly about 13 cups (3 liters) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is about 9 cups (2.2 liters) of total beverages a day.
Everyone has heard the advice, "Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day." That's about 1.9 liters, which isn't that different from the Institute of Medicine recommendations. Although the "8 by 8" rule isn't supported by hard evidence, it remains popular because it's easy to remember. Just keep in mind that the rule should be reframed as: "Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," because all fluids count toward the daily total.
Now, you might find that people are on the fence about what's better to drink for athletes. Penn State, for example, has an article about how sports drinks are better than water for athletes trying to replenish themselves. Harvard disagrees, saying that water is better than sports drinks. There have been studies done, too. These scientists studied on only females with no control group, so their conclusions are slightly weaker, but apparently for walking uphill for 90 minutes they found that Gatorade is better than water for hydration. But there's the thing, OK? Almost anytime anyone does anything related to electrolytes and sports drinks, excercise and activity are a huge part of it.
I don't want to say that Butter is a inactive person. Because I don't know if that's true. What I do know is that an average everyday person seems to be fine without sports drinks and just water. I also know that scientists seem to agree with the 8 by 8 reasoning that Butter is hemming and hawing at. So here's what I have to say about point 4: If you are the type of person who needs to continuously rebalance your electrolytes, you probably already drink plenty of water since you are clearly some sort of athlete.
Also, Butter brings up animals and I wish for the love of God that people wouldn't compare animals to humans like we need to eat the same stuff and our bodies work exactly the same way. I don't have the best sources for this, I mean I try to get really good sources for everything but in this case it was incredibly difficult to find one because I really didn't know where to look. But here's what I've found.
The first thing I asked myself when I read Butter's paragraph was "Is the vet looking for the same thing in cat pee that doctors look for in human pee for the same reason?" Only... I couldn't find anything on clear cat pee from any sources that were reputable. So, I changed my question. If a human has kidney disease, will their pee be the same as a cat who has kidney disease? That's essentially what I wanted to figure out. Now as it turns out, Information on humans is straightforward to get and information on cats and dogs, no so much. However, I went to colleges of veternary medicine for answers as well as prodding around on the NIH's website. In particular, Washington State University had an article on CKD, chronic kidney disease in cats and dogs. I went through this document, they don't talk about the color of the urine. I'm not sure if the color changes much if at all. They instead talk about frequent unrination and leaking. In humans, one sign of kidney disease is blood in the urine, hematuria. This isn't mentioned in the paper by WSU. I'm not saying that cats DON'T have this problem. I don't know. I AM saying that there certainly isn't enough evidence here to say that humans and cats are so similar, you could then say that any symptoms we see in a cat similar to a human's symptoms for kidney disease means that the cat has a kidney disease. I searched high and low for a good source to use for this, and the only thing I could find was this stub on diagnosing hematuria in cats and dogs. And it seems that blood in a cat's urine doesn't mean that they have kidney cancer. According to Cornell, it means that the cat has feline urinary tract disease. For cats, CKD manifests differently. They urinate more and lose weight and vomit. In humans, CKD manifests similarly in the sense that vomiting and weight loss also occurs in humans. But again, for us, blood in urine is a sign of kidney failure. In cats, it seems that this does not hold true (or maybe it does at a microscopic level, but I feel as though someone would've mentioned that).
What I'm trying to say here is that bringing animals into this water discussion, frankly, is silly. Here Butter is, diagnosing your cat for you, saying that if your cat's urine is clear, then there's a problem. Where's the proof? She brings up specific gravity. Interesting, that. Humans have a specific gravity of 1.000 to 1.030 normally. This vet manual has cats normally at 1.020â1.040. Those numbers mean nothing without some context. Khan Academy explains specific gravity here, but if you can't watch videos right now, I'll explain: specific gravity is the density of an object divided by the density of water, which is 1000 kilograms per meter cubed. Khan Academy explains by using gold. The density of gold is 19,300 kg/m^3. So, the specific density of gold is 19.3. (In case you've forgotten your math, right? This particular measurement has no units because you're dividing kg/m^3 by kg/m^3. It's the ratio of densities. I had to add this in because after talking with someone they were convinced I was wrong because there are no units, so... yeah.) If you're interested in specific density, I suggest watching the Khan Academy video. They're great.
Humans and cats have similar specific gravities for urine. But they are not the same. And remember, this is a ratio of density to density. It gets more and more different with dogs and horses (the two other animals that Butter mentions). We know now that a) symptoms that mean one thing for humans do not necessarily mean that the same thing for cats and b) specific gravity for cats and for humans are not the same. So implying that the specific gravity for cats and humans and the color of urine in cats and humas would elicit the same response from a vet or doctor is to be quite frank, irresponsible on Butter's behalf. OK? I tried for the most part to give Butter the benefit of the doubt for her theories on humans because whatever. It works for you, I guess. If you feel like science isn't honest enough for you, that's cool. But there are people out there who have already killed a cat by trying to feed it a vegetarian diet when cats are carnivores that will sometimes eat grass and stuff. This is another living creature you're trying to diagnose. Are you a vet? Are you a doctor? No? then defer to vets and doctors, people who study this stuff, instead of willfully putting people's animals and health in danger. That's all I'm saying.
And before I end point 4, Here is an infographic that summed up what I read about urine from the NIH. This isn't by the NIH, but the information is the same. I just didn't want to link like 20 pages. But if you want them, ask. I got you.
5.) Overhydration sucks
I would love to skip this since I talked sooo much about overhyrdation in part 1. However I want to talk about some SAT prep work that might help you and Butter better understand X is to Y as A is to B. Analogies.
Butter uses the commonly quoted phrase, "By the time you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated." "Duh," she says, "That's like saying âOnce you feel hungry, your body already needs food.".
No, Butter. It's NOT like that. Thirst is to dehydration as hunger is to starvation. So it would be like saying "By the time you feel hungry, you're already starving."
Why nitpick something like this? Honestly? I'm kind of butthurt. But also because Butter could take like, 2 seconds to see if this is a real thing. Most people will just believe stuff that looks pretty well researched and also is something that follows their biases, and Butter seems to be very much like this. I am also like this. That's why I provide my sources so that you can decide whether or not I am talking out of my ass. Anyway, literally the first thing that comes up is the Huffington Post, saying:
Myth: If you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated.
Fact: It's not too late. In fact, thirst is the body's way of telling you to drink water, and you're not at risk of becoming dangerously dehydrated the minute you feel a little parched. "When you get thirsty, the deficit of water in your body is trivial -- it's a very sensitive gauge," Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, told HuffPost in January. "It might be only a 1 percent reduction in your overall water. And it just requires drinking some fluid." In fact, drinking when you're thirsty (sounds pretty basic, right?) is a pretty fail-proof method of staying hydrated, says Dr. Timothy Noakes, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and author of Waterlogged. "You don't tell your dog or your cat when to drink, they've got a thirst mechanism," he tells HuffPost. "Why should it be that humans should be the unique animal in the world who have to be told when to drink?" He attributes this "you're doing it wrong" attitude largely to the bottled-water and sports drink industries. "Commercialization and industrialization have told us that humans are weak," he says, when in reality our ability to run in the heat helped us outsmart our ancient predators like lions and tigers, he says. "We should never have survived, and suddenly we're told no one knows when to drink?"
Huffinton Post links to themselves a lot, in a way that sort of is a bit... dishonest? Like if you follow that link, you'll see they they've linked to themselves, and the link to themselves doesn't have to do with the topic at hand (if you're thirsty you're already dehydrated) just something marginally close enough(drink 8 x 8 glasses of water a day) that it would fool someone who didn't read the article. And they do actually mention in that article the if you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated argument, but it's not sourced. It's just a guy who was talking with them or happened to say it somewhere else (that they don't source) and he's a doctor. And that's all well and good, right? But I don't know who this doctor is. Just some rando off the street? You know that a teenager was arrested in Florida for opening up a doctor's office, right? All I'm saying is that ONE guy who's credentials are literally "he's a doctor" and "he spoke to us at the Huffington Post" isn't enough for me, personally. That's why I don't like them as a source. I do like NIH, though, and they don't make a peep about this "thirsty = dehyrdated" claim. So I'm going to go ahead and say that this is ridiculous. Which is exactly what Butter is saying, that the idea behind that saying is silly. OK? I'm just butthurt about it.
She also has some "symptoms" of water intoxication that I presume came clean out of nowhere. I refer you to part 1 if you want to learn about water intoxication and how she's wrong about things.
So I looked at her next two points and thought, "Those go well together and I don't really want to have a 10 page dissertation on how Butter is wrong, plus I feel like I was just slightly mean to her in this post, but I'm not going to change what I wrote because screw that." I wrote a lot and I feel like anything mean I said to or about Butter is slightly justified. Slightly. Mostly not, but I mean... you have sources that aren't mean, you don't have to listen to me.
So I guess come back next time for the final part of Butter's 8 Reasons not to drink 8 glasses of water a day. But just so you know, right? I don't think you should drink 8 glasses of water a day. Well, I mean, you can. I'm not saying it's wrong to do so. I overall agree with the point Butter is making, you know, that you're probably drinking enough water without following this rule of thumb. I say the list is quantifiable BS because it's a list of things that are generally correct, except it's like Butter just pulled it all out of a hat and is like, "Yeah, listen to me over science and doctors, I know what I'm talking about". Then when what she says is kind of correct, she's like, "See? I'm smarter than your doctor!" I just think maybe instead of bullshiting and acting like she knows better than everyone, she could sit down and write something much shorter than what I've written using literally just the NIH for sources. Like for real, half the stuff she says isn't wrong, but she just uses the stupidest logic and it bugs the crap out of me.
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