Getting Hydration Right Is As Simple As Using a Urine Colour Chart

BySteve Purves

An estimated 50-75% of an adult's body weight is made up from water alone. That is about 40 litres (about 70 pints) for a typical adult male.

Water is incredibly important for our body's well being, we all know that but it is surprising how little a variation can have a significant impact on how the body performs.

Reducing stamina, performance and even slowing down your weight loss and reducing fat burn.

Athletes know that as little as 3% dehydration can severely affect their performance.

This level of dehydration will also have a significant effect on you and I, making it more difficult to stay cool, leading to higher heart rates and heavier breathing during your training sessions.

Apparent exertion can increase significantly.

You'll be able to do much less that you would if you were well hydrated and you won't feel good about your exercise session.

Improving Hydration

In order to re-hydrate and stay hydrated, the best thing that you can do is get into the habit of drinking water regularly throughout the day, every day.

In a temperate climate like the UK, the average person will lose 2.5 litres of water a day. As you are exercising regularly during the training plan you will likely lose additional 500ml to 1 litre through sweat.

So aiming to drink 3 litres (about 5.5 pints) in water and other fluids (besides tea, coffee or alcohol) a day when you are training is a good target. For warmer climes, you'll need to increase those levels accordingly.

However, the body can only re-hydrate so quickly and the average person is only able to absorb 500-800ml (1-1.5 pints) of water per hour. So drinking a large glass of water just before your run is not going to have an immediate effect, you need to work on you hydration over longer periods of time leading up to your running session for re-hydration to be effective.

The best thing that you can do is work on staying hydrated throughout the day, by drinking small glasses of water regularly and keeping check on your urine colour.

Hydration Check

You can check your hydration each and every time you visit the bathroom by taking note of you urine colour and comparing this to a urine colour chart.

A consistently clear or a light straw coloured urine means you are well hydrated.

That is the ideal zone to be in.

Yellow or dark straw coloured urine means, you are already dehydrated and should start regularly drinking water until your urine colour improves.

Very dark urine is a sign of severe dehydration or possible infection. Maybe time to seek some medical advice!

Make staying hydrated a daily habit.

If your urine is too dark, keep drinking small glasses of water over the course of a few hours or a day and watch for our urine colour improving. It will and once it does work on keeping it there.

Remember drinks like tea, coffee and alcohol will dehydrate you further, even though you do take on some water in them, so you should also moderate those.

As a result of being well hydrated, you will have a better exercise session, feel less tired and recover from your training more quickly.

I started running to lose weight sustainably and healthily by following an appropriate beginners training programme.

Gradual increases in exertion, avoiding over-exertion and using manageable interval training methods are the key to getting into regular running that, after the first few weeks can become effortless and enjoyable.

For a gentle, manageable plan to get your running and weight loss started and for help, advice and inspiration to keep you going visit http://www.runningtoloseweight.co.uk

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Health and Fitness
Steve Purves

Email Address:SubscribeHealth and Fitness Article FeedFind More ArticlesSearchRecent ArticlesBotox and Our Fascination With YouthLiposuction - What Is It?Subjects You Must Know To Work In Medical Billing and CodingWhat Is a Leaky Gut?Getting a Sports Physical FastA Career in Health Care Is a Dream Job in Today's EconomyBuying a Hearing Aid: What You Should Be Aware OfCan a Hearing Aid Help You?Buying a Hearing Aid: When to Exercise CautionDiet, Exercise, and ConsistencySubmitted On April 17, 2012. Viewed 11 times. Word count: 542.

MLA Style Citation:
Purves, Steve".".17 Apr. 2012EzineArticles.com.25 Apr. 2012 .APA Style Citation:
Purves, S. (2012, April 17). . Retrieved April 25, 2012, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-­Hydration-­Right-­Is-­As-­Simple-­As-­Using-­a-­Urine-­Colour-­Chart&id=7008179Chicago Style Citation:
Purves, Steve "." EzineArticles.com. http://ezinearticles.com/?Getting-­Hydration-­Right-­Is-­As-­Simple-­As-­Using-­a-­Urine-­Colour-­Chart&id=7008179EzineArticles.com© 2012 EzineArticles.com
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Safer Drinking Water Using Sunlight And Lime Juice

Looking for an inexpensive and effective way to quickly improve the quality of your drinking water? According to a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, sunlight and a twist of lime might do the trick. Researchers found that adding lime juice to water that is treated with a solar disinfection method removed detectable levels of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) significantly faster than solar disinfection alone. The results are featured in the April 2012 issue of American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

"For many countries, access to clean drinking water is still a major concern. Previous studies estimate that globally, half of all hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from a water-related illness," said Kellogg Schwab, PhD, MS, senior author of the study, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program and a professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health Sciences. "The preliminary results of this study show solar disinfection of water combined with citrus could be effective at greatly reducing E. coli levels in just 30 minutes, a treatment time on par with boiling and other household water treatment methods. In addition, the 30 milliliters of juice per 2 liters of water amounts to about one-half Persian lime per bottle, a quantity that will likely not be prohibitively expensive or create an unpleasant flavor."

In low-income regions, solar disinfection of water is one of several household water treatment methods to effectively reduce the incidence of diarrheal illness. One method of using sunlight to disinfect water that is recommended by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is known as SODIS (Solar water Disinfection). The SODIS method requires filling 1 or 2 L polyethylene terephthalate (PET plastic) bottles with water and then exposing them to sunlight for at least 6 hours. In cloudy weather, longer exposure times of up to 48 hours may be necessary to achieve adequate disinfection. To determine if one of the active constituents in limes known as psoralenes could enhance solar disinfection of water, Schwab and Alexander Harding, lead author of the study and a medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, looked at microbial reductions after exposure to both sunlight and simulated sunlight. The researchers filled PET plastic bottles with dechlorinated tap water and then added lime juice, lime slurry, or synthetic psoralen and either E. coli , MS2 bacteriophage or murine norovirus. Researchers found that lower levels of both E. coli and MS2 bacteriophage were statistically significant following solar disinfection when either lime juice or lime slurry was added to the water compared to solar disinfection alone. They did find however, that noroviruses were not dramatically reduced using this technique, indicating it is not a perfect solution.

"Many cultures already practice treatment with citrus juice, perhaps indicating that this treatment method will be more appealing to potential SODIS users than other additives such as TiO2

Treatment Of Gynecologic Cancers Reduced From 5 Weeks To 3 Days Using New Radiation Therapy

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About 71,500 women in the United States are diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Researchers from University Hospitals Case Medical Center have developed a more effective way to treat gynecologic cancers, shortening radiation treatment time from five weeks to three days. The method is published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

The new method, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has been used on other types of cancer, but Case Medical Center is the first treatment facility to apply it to gynecologic cancers. Dr. Charles Kunos, who co-authored the article, said the radiation therapy machine "looks like a robot you would make cars with, and targets specific cancer cells."