Diabetes is a lifelong (chronic) disease, where there are high levels of sugar in the blood. An estimated 300 million persons worldwide are living with diabetes, and this number is estimated to reach approximately 438 million by the year 2030.

Many persons are living with it and don’t even know they’re diabetic, and the bitter truth is that this condition is becoming a serious problem here in the United States and around the world. There is no cure for diabetes, and treatment usually involves medicines, diet, and exercise in order to control blood sugar and prevent symptoms and problems.

For diabetics to seriously seek to reduce their risk, a key component of their diet plan should be to drink water instead of the numerous beverages that have added sugar (this includes flavored water and sodas). Most diabetics experience frequent thirst (a warning sign that their glucose levels are high), and water is the best way to quench that thirst, and to break down those sugars. Additionally, water should be a constant, in order to keep the body functioning normally. Drinking the most healthy liquid on earth -  water – is a critical part of the process for diabetics to stay hydrated.

Every diabetic should drink at least 5 to 6 glasses of water every single day, and eat water-rich foods (fruits and vegetables). Fruits and vegetables that are especially rich in water include pineapple, grapes, citrus fruits, melon, apples, and tomatoes.

It is important to note that:

1. Drinking large amounts of less healthful liquids (alcohol, caffeinated beverages and carbonated drinks) can actually cause dehydration, and not quench thirst.
2. You can actually drink too much water, and doing so can be dangerous for diabetics. If you drink so much water that you start to ache or feel bloated, you probably have had more than enough.

1 final word about Diabetes and Water – water is life, and if you drink adequate amounts of it everyday, you will find (generally) that you are more healthy, and less susceptible to diseases and ailments.

Tags: Diabetes & Water, Diabetes and Water

You know and I know that water is good for the human body, but with the stress of day-to-day life, it’s often so easy for us to forget this or simply take it for granted. Often also, we end up consuming too much of other liquids – coffee, tea, sodas, juices – and neglect life-giving water. Just to help get and keep you on track, here are 10 great reasons to drink water:

1. It’s good for weight loss. Want to lose weight? Water has zero calories and is an excellent appetite suppressant. Water has zero fat, zero calories, zero carbs and zero sugar. Drink lots of it (instead of carbonated and sugary drinks) and you’ll certainly help your weight-loss efforts.

2. It keeps your heart healthy. Did you know that a six-year study which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 2002, found that persons who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack (during the study period) than persons who drank less than two glasses. Keep your heart healthy, drink water.

3. It keeps you hydrated. If you’re thirsty, it means you’re dehydrated, and this can sap your energy and make you feel lethargic (among other negative side effects). There’s no better way to stay hydrated than to drink water.

4. Cure that headache. Did you know that a symptom of dehydration is headaches. Many times when humans have headaches, it’s simply because he/she did not drink enough water.

5. Keep your skin healthy and beautiful. Drinking water can have amazing effects on your skin. Want that healthy glow, drink water.

6. It helps your digestive system. In order to properly digest food, the human body needs copious amounts of water. Water can also help soothe stomach acid problems, and did you know that water along with fiber can cure constipation (which is often as a result of dehydration).

7. It cleanses your body. Yes, the human body uses water to help flush out toxins and waste products.

8. Reduce your cancer risk. Did you know that drinking a healthy amount of water has been shown to lead to a reduction in the risk of colon cancer by 45%, and by 50% for bladder cancer. Potentially it could also (reportedly) reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Tags: Reasons To Drink Water, Why Drink Water, Why I Need Water, Why Water, Why You Need Water

Water is the single most important eliminator of waste in the human body, and the single most important thing you can ingest in order to live a healthier life. Thus, everyone should prioritize the advancement of their knowledge on how to safeguard that they drink the cleanest and healthiest water as much as possible. If you normally drink tap water, you may very well be astonished to learn of the myriad ways that you will benefit from drinking h2O natural spring water instead!

First of all, natural spring water has a much better taste than most tap water, because it is clean and mineral-filled. It has been proven that tap water typically contains numerous impurities, and municipal water facilities often have no option but to add chlorine and other chemicals in an effort to annihilate harmful organisms such as bacteria and dangerous parasites which exist in the typical public water supply.

Fluoride is another additive that many disapprove (especially parents). Would you really want to be ingesting those harmful chemicals on a daily basis? Conversely, our natural spring water is 100% pure, which it reflects in its lovely, clean, crisp taste! If you haven’t already done so, we recommend a simple taste comparison in order to confirm for yourself.

Finally, and most importantly, natural spring water is undoubtedly safer and more convenient than regular old tap water. Who wants the hassle of filling up bottles with water from the sink when you’re headed out the door to work, the gym or the beach when they can simply grab a cold environmentally-friendly bottle of h2O from the fridge.

It is important to note also, that h2O natural spring water minimizes the consumer’s impact on the environment, while at the same time providing a safe drinking experience with absolutely no danger of chemical leaching. h2O’s award-winning, renewable, aseptic carton packages are multi-layered, providing superior protection and insulation, keeping purity in and impurities out. They are made mainly of paper, a renewable resource and are recyclable, providing superior ecological benefits as well.

Where to find h2O? In the MidWest, we are available at your local Meijer Supermarket. We are also available online at Alice.Com and at some Whole Foods Markets and Kmart locations. If you can’t find h2O in locations near you, please print this request sheet and hand it to the manager at your favorite local supermarket/store/restaurant!

Tags: Bottled vs Tap Water, Buy h2O, Drink h2O, Drink More Water, Drink Water

Here are 10 reasons why you should be drinking more water!

1. WATER: A VITAL COMPONENT OF THE HUMAN BODY. The human body is composed of roughly 43% to 75% of water – depending on age, body fat, etc (if fat is extracted from this consideration, the nominal water content is about 72% of body mass). You could possibly survive for 4 to 8 weeks without food, but it is estimated that lack of water could result in death in about 10 days, at room temperature.

2. WATER: THE NURTURING AGENT. Water circulates through the blood and assists in moving nutrients and oxygen towards organs and cells. It acts as a solvent for several nutrients and essential salts, facilitating their absorption in the body.

3. WATER: THE CLEANSING AGENT. Water functions as a medium for carrying metabolic waste out of the body – via urine and sweat. Hence water can be considered a detoxifying agent. This, in fact, is one of the most important functions of water in the body, though not adequately appreciated in daily life.

4. WATER: THE SAFEGUARD AGAINST KIDNEY STONES. The kidneys eliminate waste products from the blood, and channel them out of the body via urine. Increasing concentration of certain salts in the urine increases the risk of kidney stone formation – and in most cases this risk can be diminished by drinking plenty of water! It is usually recommended that adults who are prone to kidney stones drink about 12 eight-ounce glasses of water everyday (typical adult recommendation is about 8 glasses).

5. WATER: TO HELP PREVENT SUNSTROKE. Water is the single most important factor in the gravely critical function of regulating your body temperature. On sunny days, we sweat or excrete water more, and the evaporation of the sweat has a cooling effect on the body. In the absence of adequate water (when dehydration occurs) in your body, this temperature regulation malfunctions and body temperature increases, leading to sunstroke. Severe sunstroke has the propensity to damage your vital organs.

6. WATER: THE AID IN LOWERING BLOOD PRESSURE. When you lose more than optimal levels of fluid due to various conditions (not drinking adequate water, high intensity exercise, illness, etc), the body attempts to react to the loss of water by constricting blood vessels so that the rate of loss of water (due to sweating and respiration) is lessened – which in turn leads to higher blood pressure. You should drink ample water in order to guard against this happening. Of course, this is applicable when the higher blood pressure has occurred due to the lack of enough fluids in the body [don’t confuse this with special diuretic treatments for certain heart, liver, and kidney conditions - in which sometimes it is necessary to eliminate excess fluids from the body to lower the blood pressure].

7. WATER: THE SHIELD AGAINST HEART DISEASE RISK. This is directly related to item #6 above. Increased dehydration causes your cells and tissues to absorb water from the blood stream, and thus lessens the volume of the blood flow (which is the likely cause of the narrowing of blood vessels and the subsequent increase in blood pressure). Increased blood pressure is a sign of a heart that is labouring excessively – it tries to pump more blood to excretory organs to compensate for the decrease in volume. This could very likely exacerbate a heart related ailment. Ample consumption of water will help shield against this occurrence.

8. WATER: THE BEST AID FOR GLOWING SKIN. In the process of sweating, the body also dispels impurities in the skin, and cleanses it – leaving you with a healthy and younger looking skin. Water-deficient skin cells can cause your skin to appear wrinkled or sagging.

9. WATER: “NON-FATTABLE”. Feel free to replace those sugary pop drinks with water; water does not contain any calories – so unlike the cola, it’s not going to pack on pounds. Some studies have led to discussions and investigations probing how increased water consumption can in fact cause weight reduction. Americans drink about 13 billion gallons of calorific drinks every year. Just imagine the net effect that can be realized by substituting all that with water. If you don’t normally, groom a new habit – whenever you go to a fast food eatery or a restaurant, ask for h2O, not pop.

10. WATER: THE APPETITE SUPPRESSANT. Because water does not have any calories, it acts as an ideal filler material in your stomach and gives you a sense of “I am full” – which in turn reduces your appetite. This works best for people who are already over-weight and are controlling their appetite in order to shed weight.

We hope you’ll keep drinking more water!

Tags: Drink More Water, Importance Of Water, Water Drinking Tip

What’s the importance of water? Life on earth depends greatly on the element of water. With two thirds of the earth’s surface covered by water, along with the fact that the human body is 75% water, it is unavoidably clear that water circulates through the land in an identical manner as it does through the human body; transporting, dissolving, replenishing nutrients and organic substances, while removing waste material. Another essential task of water in the body involves regulating the activities of fluids, tissues, cells, lymph, blood and glandular secretions.

An average adult body contains 42 liters of water, and with just a minor loss of 2.7 liters, a person can experience dehydration, display symptoms of irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, headaches and consequently develop an acute disease.

A HISTORY OF WATER

Water has been utilized since antiquity as a symbol of devotion and purity. Some cultures, such as the ancient Greeks, went as far as worshiping gods who were thought to inhabit and control the waters. Whole cities have been constructed with the consideration of the location and availability of pure drinking water being paramount. The place to meet was around the wells, which is perhaps the origin of the present day building of fountains in the middle of piazzas.

Traditional and modern medicine have taken advantage of the psychological and physiological diverse properties of water, in all forms of hydrotherapy (water therapy). We all know of the uncomplicated, effective and soothing qualities of a warm bath or its counterpart- the energizing qualities of a cold shower. For centuries, numerous healing springs worldwide have featured prominently for their widely reputed benefits. The famous Belgium spas in the Ardennes is a fitting example. Historical records of these cold springs have declared ‘cures’ since the fourteenth century. The hot Californian spas, the healing spas of Loutraki in Greece, the Dalhousie hot springs on the border of South Australia and Northern Territory, Moree in NSW, Hepburn mineral spas in Victoria are just a few examples.

WATER TODAY

Unmistakably differing from the past, our recent, developed, technological society has become nonchalant to this miracle of life. Our rivers, seas and oceans are being exploited, mistreated and contaminated.

The population decline of the marine and riparian life, the presence of green algae in the rivers and the stench and slime that comes as a result of putrefaction in the water, are glaring signs of the depth and extent of disruption that has been caused to this intricate ecosystem. It is imperative that government bodies and water authorities make a concerted effort to educate the world about this global alarm. At the same time, awareness and action is everyone’s responsibility, as we forge ahead to become our own educators, physicians and innovators. Socrates once said: “an unexamined life is not worth living….“. It is time to think about an element of essential importance and how we can treat it with the respect and reverence it deserves.

Honor water. Preserve water. Drink water. Drink h2O.

Tags: History Of Water, Importance Of Water

Below we’ve featured a few useful and interesting facts about water.

1. Properties of Water
SCIENTIFICALLY speaking, water is a substance that’s made from two elements – hydrogen and oxygen. Thus, its chemical formula is H2O. Water is the only substance found naturally in three forms: solid, liquid or gas. Once evaporated as a gas, a molecule of water spends ten days in the air. The liquid forms into ice when it freezes at 0°C whilst it boils at 100°C to become steam or gas. Water is the most common substance found on Earth, and its existence is obviously essential for life on Earth! One gallon of water weighs approximately 3.8kg.

2. Global Health and Water Conservation
AROUND THE WORLD, 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water, which equates to approximately 1-in-8 people.  Did you know that the water used in a five minute shower in a developed country would be equivalent to an entire day’s water usage of a poorer person in a less economically developed country? The simple act of flushing a toilet uses two-to-seven gallons of water.

3. Household
In areas without proper running water facilities, there is a need to collect/save water for the household. Did you know that over 200 million hours are spent each day by millions of persons collecting water. The working hours lost via collecting water is greater than the total number of weekly hours worked by employees at McDonalds.

4. Water, the Human Body and the Environment
• Approximately 72% of an adult’s body comprises water.
• When a person experiences thirst, they would have already lost 1% of their total water composition.
• The weight a person loses directly after planned physical activity is water weight, not fat.
• Although a person can survive without food for more than a month, a person can only survive without water for approximately a week.
• Hippocrates, also called “The Father of Medicine, told people in Greece to boil and filter water before drinking it.
• The average person needs around 2.4 litres of water a day to supplement a healthy lifestyle.
• Less than 1% of the world fresh water supplies are reachable for human use.
• The water cycle involves water evaporating from oceans, rivers or lakes, ascending into the sky, cooling then condensing to form minute water droplets or ice crystals that we see as clouds. Water then falls back to earth as rain, snow or hail before evaporating again and repeating the cycle.

Tags: Facts About Water, Interesting Facts About Water, Useful Facts About Water, Water Facts