Here’s What Drinking More Water Can And Can’t Do For You

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By Sophie McEvoy/Sept. 9, 2021 11:57 am EDT

Staying hydrated isn’t as easy as it sounds. Keeping track of the amount of water you drink in a day can be an arduous task, especially if your mind is focused more on work, family, and other things that you need to get done in the day.

However, not drinking enough water can actually be the cause of some of the most common medical conditions including persistent headaches, migraines, fatigue, and brain fog (via Henry Ford Health System). This is because about 60% of the body is made up of water, according to EatingWell, which means that maintaining a solid hydration level throughout the day is a must to prevent yourself from suffering from debilitating headaches and other conditions that can negatively impact your day.

Drinking lots of water can also benefit your physical appearance, too. According to The Harley Street Dermatology Clinic, drinking more water can reduce the amount of toxins in the skin as well as provide moisture to help unclog your pores, reduce inflammation, and help with scarring.

Water can't solve everything, according to an expert

There are some things that water can’t do for your body, and while it’s important to stay hydrated, water can’t solve everything. 

For starters, staying hydrated isn’t an acne solution that will work for everyone. As The Harley Street Dermatology Clinic noted, acne is “such a complicated skin condition” that can’t be treated with just an uptake in water consumption. While drinking more water can help remove toxins and bacteria in the skin, you shouldn’t expect drinking more water to be a “prime solution” for ridding acne.

On the weight loss side of things, drinking more water can lead to short-term weight loss, but only when done in a sustainable way. As VeryWell Fit noted, techniques like water fasting can help you lose weight in the short term, but there’s not much evidence that water fasting leads to positive long-term benefits. In fact, there’s more evidence that it leads to health complications (via BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine) like chronic kidney disease or diabetes. 

And as for avoiding a hangover, drinking more water isn’t a huge help either. According to molecular biologist Patrick Schmitt (via Insider), taking swigs of water in between alcoholic drinks won’t help as hangovers aren’t caused by dehydration — they’re actually a result of how well your body can metabolize and expel alcohol. “Since the body isn’t actually getting dehydrated, drinking water alongside alcohol has absolutely no effect on whether or not you end up with a hangover,” Schmitt concluded after conducting his own study (via Berliner Morgenpost). 

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