HOW TO ADJUST YOUR WATER INTAKE BASED ON YOUR CURRENT HEALTH

Your body is a collection of ecosystems, with various climates, temperatures, and species co-existing.

And here on planet Earth, if you want to understand what’s going on with an ecosystem, then you need to understand the availability and flow of water through that terrain. Your body is no exception.

We can think about hydration and flow of water - including blood, lymph, sweat, urine, and fluids bathing your cells and joints - in a number of ways.

Globally, you may simply want to know if your body has enough fluid. Is it topped? Or is it dry? This is a good place to start.

But within the body, what we really want to know is where is this water? Is it where it should be? Is it in the blood vessels? Or is it stuck in the digestive tract? Or it going right through you?

Has it gotten stuck in the lymph, making you feel all swampy and creating an environment for the growth of pathogens and biofilms?

We actually can get an indication of our fluid status by looking at our tongue: when the tongue is fat, it may mean that the heart and lungs aren’t able to push it around adequately, so it’s pooling and become swampy.

Or mold is breaking down cells and making everything leaky.

In fact, here at the Synthesis Health Lab, you may have noticed that I’m fond of using the metaphor of renovating a house when discussing how to restore your health. This is an excellent metaphor here as building design in many ways is about safely designing and maintaining structures in regards to the access to and containment of water.

We want running water. We want it to be reliable and clean. We don’t want leaks in our pipes. And we don’t want water from outside, due to rain and snow, getting in.

We want it there in specific places, with controllable pressure and excellent quality. We want to control humidity. We need to have good drainage to prevent flooding.

This is exactly like your body. Understanding it in this way can help you tease out how to approach your strategy when it comes to hydration.