What is the importance of water content of the body?

1. The importance of water content of the body

• Regulates body temperature
• Moistens tissues in the eyes, nose and mouth
• Protects body organs and tissues
• Carries nutrients and oxygen to cells
• Lessens burden on the kidneys and liver by flushing out waste products
• Dissolves minerals and nutrients to make them accessible to your bod
• It helps create saliva
• It protects your tissues, spinal cord, and joints (Lubricates joints)
• It helps excrete waste through perspiration, urination, and defecation
• It helps maximize physical performance
• It helps prevent constipation
• Helping your brain function

1.1. It helps create saliva

Water is a main component of saliva. Saliva also includes small amounts of electrolytes, mucus, and enzymes. It’s essential for breaking down solid food and keeping your mouth healthy. Your body generally produces enough saliva with regular fluid intake. However, your saliva production may decrease as a result of age or certain medications or therapies. If your mouth is drier than usual and increasing your water intake isn’t helping, see your doctor.

1.2. It regulates your body temperature

Staying hydrated is crucial to maintaining your body temperature. Your body loses water through sweat during physical activity and in hot environments. Your sweat keeps your body cool, but your body temperature will rise if you don’t replenish the water you lose. That’s because your body loses electrolytes and plasma when it’s dehydrated. If you’re sweating more than usual, make sure you drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration.

1.3. It protects your tissues, spinal cord, and joints

Water consumption helps lubricate and cushion your joints, spinal cord, and tissues. This will help you enjoy physical activity and lessen discomfort caused by conditions like arthritis.

1.4. It helps excrete waste through perspiration, urination, and defecation

Your body uses water to sweat, urinate, and have bowel movements. Sweat regulates body temperature when you’re exercising or in warm temperatures. You need water to replenish the lost fluid from sweat. You also need enough water in your system to have healthy stool and avoid constipation. Your kidneys are also important for filtering out waste through urination. Adequate water intake helps your kidneys work more efficiently and helps to prevent kidney stones.

1.5. It helps maximize physical performance

Drinking plenty of water during physical activity is essential. Athletes may perspire up to 6 to 10 percent Trusted Source of body weight during physical activity. Hydration also affects your strength, power, and endurance. You may be more susceptible to the effects of dehydration if you’re participating in endurance training or high-intensity sports such as basketball. Negative effects of exercise in the heat without enough water can include serious medical conditions, like decreased blood pressure and hyperthermia. Extreme dehydration can cause seizures and even death.

1.6. It helps prevent constipation

Eating fibre isn’t the only way to prevent constipation. It’s also important to maintain your water intake so your bowel movements contain enough water. If you don’t consume enough water, magnesium, and fibre, you may be more likely to experience constipation. If you’re already constipated, you may find that drinking carbonated water Trusted Source as well as plain water can help ease your symptoms

1.7. It aids in digestion

Contrary to what some believe, experts confirm drinking water before, during, and after a meal will help your body break down the food you eat more easily. This will help you digest food more effectively and get the most out of your meals. Research the body adapts to changes in the consistency of food and stomach contents, whether more solid or more liquid.

1.8. It helps with nutrient absorption

In addition to helping with food breakdown, water also helps dissolve vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from your food. It then delivers these vitamin components to the rest of your body for use.

1.9. It helps you lose weight

Studies have linked body fat and weight loss with drinking water in both overweight girls Trusted Source and women Trusted. Drinking more water while dieting and exercising may just help you lose extra pounds.

1.10. It improves blood oxygen circulation

Water carries helpful nutrients and oxygen to your entire body. Reaching your daily water intake will improve your circulation and have a positive impact on your overall health

1.11. It helps fight off illness

Drinking enough water can help prevent certain medical conditions Trusted Source. These include:

• constipation
• kidney stones
• exercise-induced asthma
• urinary tract infection
• hypertension

Water also helps you absorb important vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from your food, which will increase your chances of staying healthy.12. It helps boost energy

1.12. Drinking water may activate your metabolism

A boost in metabolism has been associated with a positive impact on energy level. One study found that drinking 500 milliliters water boosted the metabolic rate by 30 percent in both men and women. These effects appeared to last over an hour.

1.13. It aids in cognitive function

Proper hydration is key to staying in tip-top cognitive shape. Research Trusted Source indicates that not drinking enough water can negatively impact your focus, alertness, and short-term memory.

1.14. It helps improve mood

Not getting enough water can also affect your mood. Dehydration may result in fatigue and confusion as well as anxiety.

1.15. It helps keep skin bright

Adequate water intake will help keep your skin hydrated and may promote collagen production. However, water intake alone isn’t enough to reduce the effects of aging. This process is also connected to your genes and overall sun protection.

1.16. It prevents overall dehydration

Dehydration is the result of your body not having enough water. And because water is imperative to so many bodily functions, dehydration can be very dangerous.

Severe dehydration can result in a number of severe complications, including:

• swelling in your brain
• kidney failure
• seizures

Make sure you drink enough water to make up for what’s lost through sweat, urination, and bowel movements to avoid dehydration.

2. Where Is the Fluid In The Body Contained?

60% of the average adult weight is fluid. The % of total body fluid varies in individual body.

Factors Affecting Total Body Fluid

• Age- 75% of the weight of infants is fluids. As people age increase, the water content decreases. After 60 yrs old, water content drop to 45%.
• Body Fat- fat does not contain water
• Gender- men generally have a slightly higher percentage of fluid than women

Fluid = Mainly water + Electrolytes

3. Compartments In The Body Contains Fluid

• Intracellular: There are 75 trillion cells in the body. There is fluid inside each cell of the body
• Extracellular: Fluid outside the cell
1. Interstitial Fluid: found between the cells contains lymph
2. Intravascular: found in the blood vessels (Blood volume 5L) outside the RBC i is called plasma (3L)
3. Transcellular
• Cerebrospinal fluid (cranial cavity)
• Pleural Fluid (pleural cavity)
• Peritoneal fluid (peritoneal cavity)
• Synovial fluids (synovial cavity in bone joints)

4. Distribution of Body Fluid

40% body weight is solid.

60 % body weight is fluid.

• 40% of the fluid is within the intercellular space
• 15% of the fluid is within the interstitial space
• 5% is plasma

INTRACELLULAR: Inside the cells (inside the cell) Fluid component is water K (high), Mg, PO4, SO4, Na (low) and protein molecule. All of these necessary for cell growth, repair and other functions.

INTERSTITIAL: Surrounds the cell low in protein drained away as lymph Na, Cl, HCO3

INTRAVASCULAR: Within the blood vessels Fluid is Plasma Na, Cl, Protein molecules.

5. Homeostasis

A state of balance among all the body systems needed for the body to survive and function correctly. In homeostasis, body levels of acid, blood pressure, blood sugar, electrolytes, energy, hormones, oxygen, proteins, and temperature are constantly adjusted to respond to changes inside and outside the body, to keep them at a normal level.

Homeostasis has become the central unifying concept of physiology and is defined as a self-regulating process by which an organism can maintain internal stability while adjusting to changing external condition.

Three examples of homeostasis are:

• Body temperature regulation
• Blood pressure regulation
• Blood sugar regulation.

5.1. Homeostasis and its function

The state of balance within all physical systems needed for a body to function properly and survive is homeostasis. In a state of homeostasis, body levels are constantly adjusting in response to changes outside and inside the body. Some of the systems that constantly adjust to stay at normal levels are: blood sugar. Its major activities or functions are responding to changes in the body's environment, exchanging materials between the environment and cells, metabolizing foods, and integrating all of the body's diverse activities.

4 types of homeostasis

• Blood glucose homeostasis
• Blood oxygen content homeostasis
• Extracellular fluid pH homeostasis
• Plasma ionized calcium homeostasis

Examples of homeostasis in the human body include thermoregulation, blood glucose regulation, baroreflex in blood pressure, calcium homeostasis, potassium homeostasis, and osmoregulation.

The body's temperature regulation is controlled by a region in the brain called the hypothalamus. Feedback about body temperature is carried through the nervous system to the brain and results in compensatory adjustments in the breathing rate, the level of blood sugar, and the metabolic rate.

5.2. Failure of Homeostasis

Sometimes, however, the mechanisms fail. When they do, cells may not get everything they need, or toxic wastes may accumulate in the body. If homeostasis is not restored, the imbalance may lead to disease or even death.

What factors affect homeostasis?

Three factors that influence homeostasis are discussed: fluids and electrolytes, energy and nutrition, and immune response mediators. Cell injury induces changes in the sodium-potassium pump that disrupt fluid and electrolyte homeostasis, and surgery causes changes in functional extracellular fluid.

5.3. 3 systems maintain homeostasis

The endocrine, nervous, and muscular systems work together and maintain temperature homeostasis. Insulin, a hormone released from the pancreas, works with the digestive system and maintains energy homeostasis.

What controls homeostasis?

Hormones are responsible for key homeostatic processes including control of blood glucose levels and control of blood pressure. Homeostasis is the regulation of the internal conditions within cells and whole organisms such as temperature, water, and sugar levels

The hypothalamus is the control center for both normal body temperature homeostasis and febrile response. Muscles, sweat glands, and blood vessels are effectors; they do not serve as a control center. In response to the increasing set point, the sweat glands.

6. Electrolytes

Electrolytes are chemicals that conduct electricity when dissolved in water. They regulate nerve and muscle function, hydrate the body, balance blood acidity and pressure, and help rebuild damaged tissue.

Electrolytes are mineral compounds. Dissolve in water to form ion Sodium Chloride (NaCl), Potassium Chloride (KCl), Calcium Chloride (CaCl), Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3), Magnasium Sulphate (MgSO4)

When these mineral compounds dissolve in water, they separate into ions:

• NaCl > Na+ and Cl- ions
• KCl > K+ and Cl- ions
• CaCl > Ca+ and Cl- ions
• NaHCO3 > Na+ and HCO3 ions
• MgSO4 > Mg+ and SO4 ions

• Na, K, Ca, Na, Mg: are positively charged they are called cations
• Cl, HCO3 and SO: are negatively charged they are called anions
• Within the body the cations and anions are in a state of balance.
• Electrolytes are expressed as milliequivalents per litre (mEq/L).

6.1. Functions of Electrolytes

• Serve as essential minerals
• Control the osmosis of water between body compartments
• The normal serum osmolality range is 280-295 mOsm/kg
1. Osmolality
   * measure of total concentration of solutes in body fluids per kilogram of solvent
2. Osmolarity
   * measure of total concentration of solutes in body fluids per liter of solution
• Carry electrical current
1. allows production of action potentials and graded potentials
2. control secretion of some hormones and neurotransmitters
• Help maintain the acid- base balance

6.2. Extracellular Electrolyte Values

• Sodium (Na+) 135 - 145 mEq/L
• Potassium (K+) 3.5 – 5 mEq/L
• Calcium (Ca++) 4.5 – 5.3 mEq/L
• Bicarconate (HCO3-)
1. Arterial: 22 – 26 mEq/L
2. Venous: 24 – 30 mEq/L
• Chloride (Cl-) 90 -110 mEq/L
• Magnesium (Mg++) 1.5 – 2.5 mEq/L
• Phosphate (PO4 -- -) 1.7 – 4.6 mEq/L

What are the 4 blood electrolytes?

The blood electrolytes—sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate—help regulate nerve and muscle function and maintain acid-base balance. The acidity or alkalinity of any solution, including blood, is indicated on the pH scale.

What causes electrolyte imbalance?

A loss of bodily fluids most often causes an electrolyte imbalance. This can happen after prolonged vomiting, diarrhea, or sweating, due to an illness, for example. It can also be caused by: fluid loss related to burns.

Electrolytes are minerals that help your body carry out a variety of vital functions, such as hydration, muscle contractions, pH balance, and nerve signalling. To function properly, your body must maintain adequate levels of fluid and electrolytes at all times.

Beverages like coconut water, milk, fruit juice, and sports drinks can all contribute to hydration and electrolyte balance.

For most people, a balanced diet and adequate water intake is enough to maintain electrolyte levels. However, some instances may warrant the use of electrolyte drinks, particularly if you’re experiencing rapid fluid losses due to sweating or illness.