Hydration?

You know water keeps you hydrated, right?  Simple question, I am sure, but what does hydrated mean?    By definition hydrated means 'chemically combined with water.'  When you drink water not only are your sweat glands able to secrete, and your mouth able to salivate, but your cells are able to breath. Cell respiration is the basal function within the body that supports cellular health, cellular energy and, thus, homeostasis.  How did we get there from here?  Let's take a walk~

Back in the 6th grade we learned that cellular respiration is dependent on water.  Remember that word Osmosis?  Osmosis is the process by which water (or other liquids) can pass through the wall of a cell.  Each cell in the body has an optimal water content level necessary to ensure proper cell function. Osmosis allows water to pass through our cells and, as one cell takes what it needs, it passes the rest on so other cells, too, can remain hydrated.  This optimal hydration allows the cell to gain energy, produce energy and dispose of waste; cellular respiration.   This, of course is an overly simplified glimpse at cellular respiration, but it's extremely important to touch upon because the body is made of Cells!

Drink that in for a moment.  Each cell needs to be continually hydrated to be able to gain and produce energy, and to also secrete waste.  Each system in the body is made up of different types of cells making up different types of tissues which comprise different organs that perform different functions.  Some organs clean our blood, some move the blood.  Some tissues transfer information, some organs interpret information.  Some organs move food while other organs and tissues supply enzymes and acids necessary for the digestion of it.  Not one organ works on its own and not one organ is without cells.  If each cell in the tissues of each organ are hydrated and able to gain and produce energy and able to discard waste, each organ will be able to function in synergy with other organs.  Almost~

If water is provided, what else is needed?  Well, where do cells get energy?  Just as we get energy from the food we eat and the air we breath, cells trap energy from the molecules within the food we eat and the air we breath.  Amino acids.  Sugar.  Fatty acids.  Oxygen.  What the body can't make on its own we need to find in food.  Enjoying clean protein, natural, unrefined sugar, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and clean water enables your cells to breathe!  When you provide those delicious ingredients to your cells, homeostasis is not only achievable but likely.

Geez~  That sounds like a lot of work!  While you digest all of the boring science of cellular respiration, make a delicious meal with real, nutritious food.  Drink a glass of cool, crisp water.  Maybe grab some vitamin rich fruits to support the nutrients you make.  And, because germs love to attack our cells, the very ones we are trying to hydrate and support and protect, remember to wash your hands.  (Hydration and nutrition isn't all that hard after all~)

Anna~