Hydration theory all washed up?

There was a feature on the local TV news recently about some new anti-aging product – I don’t recall what it was, but there was some controversy about its effectiveness – and the anchor wrapped up by summarizing what we all take for granted about anti-aging behaviors: get enough sleep, exercise, and drink lots of water. That last piece of advice seems to be widely applied, judging from the number of people lugging water bottles around as though they are concerned about suddenly wandering out of damp Seattle and finding themselves in the Sahara. Does drinking lots of water really make us healthier, or are we just wet behind the ears?

Intuitive reasoning bears on this behavior. By making an effort to drink more water, we are flushing out the “toxins” that are so harmful, right? And our skin needs lots of water so that it will stay well-hydrated and youthful, so it seems like a no-brainer. But there is a disconnect here between intuition and clinical science. What, if anything, can be proven about this theory?

Some have suggested that dehydration is an inflammatory state, and we do know that inflammation is an important underlying process in premature aging. But even that conclusion is based on pretty scant data. And to take it a step further by recommending extra hydration (as opposed to adequate hydration) is a wholly unproven proposition. There just isn’t any research data to back it up, and I have looked. Further, the notion that we can convince out bodies to bypass all of the normal mechanisms that determine how much water to hold on to and put some of the excess into our skin, or flush out more toxins, is a theory that just doesn’t hold water. Our kidneys are smarter than that.

You may be saying, “Well, it makes sense anyway, and what can it hurt?” Other than having to schedule your day around proximity to lavatories, there actually is a potential downside. Even water can be harmful in excess, as tragically demonstrated by a woman who died trying to win a water-drinking contest from a local radio show last year. That is admittedly an extreme case, but it illustrates how it is a possible to throw a lot of things out of balance by not simply listening to your body and drinking when you are thirsty. Our bodies are pretty well fine-tuned to inform us when we need a drink. So drink enough water, just don’t go overboard.