Introduction
In our ongoing search for a miracle fast hair growing product we often reach for hair vitamins but skimp on an important ingredient. A natural "miracle" that supports hair vitamin consumption is surprisingly water.
Did I say water? Yes indeed. If you are going to make the emotional, mental, financial and long term commitment to hair growth vitamins, it is important that you also be prepared to crank up your daily water quota.
Drink 8 to 10 glasses (8 ounce serving) of water a day to get gleaming healthy tresses. Water makes up approximately one fourth of the weight of a strand of hair and when hair has the proper amount of water, it will respond by being supple, and shiny. Water is essential for proper hair growth. Be sure to get plenty of that H2O for growing healthy hair that is soft, supple and lush.
The human body is generally composed of approximately 60-80% water. When deprived of adequate water to sustain cell health and reproduction, the body becomes dehydrated, which directly impacts hair growth.
You can be sucking down fistful of hair vitamins and related hair growth supplements, but if you are not downing enough H2O to meet your body's daily minimal levels, your cells that drive hair growth will not even reproduce and your hair will become parched.
On a regular day the average human body loses 2 to 3 quarts of water. While water is lost through sweat, urine and other waste removal, it is also lost in a number of other ways. Human skin has a high concentration of water which is constantly evaporating in tiny air-borne droplets.
Healthy Hair From The Inside Out
Like skin, hair needs lubrication from the inside out. If your hair roots are deficient in adequate water levels your tresses will eventually become dry, brittle and may stop growing at your maximum genetic rate. Even worse, hair that is deprived of proper daily water supplies may stop growing completely.
The roots of the hair are the means by which water is transported. Roots soak up what water they can and provide hydration to the rest of the hair.
Human hair is an appendage of the skin. The actual hair that we can see flowing from the roots consists of keratin, which is a protein in the skin.
All hair grows directly from the roots, which is situated deep in a layer of skin known as the dermis. Hair roots may extend quite deeply into the skin. Hair, which has its base inside the skin, contains cells that are nourished by water and blood from inside the body. As a result these nutured cells divide and grow hair.
Benefits Of Water For Your Hair
Water is life. It is the natural regulator of all physiological functions. How does water regulate all physical functions?
By controlling the following body functions:
Cellular Activity
Water is the key source of energy for every single cell of the body including the cells that drive hair growth and overall health.
Generating electrical and magnetic energy.
Water provides the core power to sustain life through hydrolysis.
Activates all the nerve endings & sensors in the scalp & skin.
The scalp and roots of the hair have many photosensitive and energy-sensitive nerve endings that receive and transmit signals. Water energizes the nerve endings so that they are more responsive, thus enhancing the natural vitality of the skin and hair roots.
Flushes free radicals.
Water acts as an antioxidant by flushing free radicals out through the kidneys. This is the basic way the human brain cells get rid of the excess hydrogen ions produced by hydrolysis and maintain an alkaline environment.
Membranes That Cover All Cells
Lack of proper daily water supplies creates another problem with the membranes that cover all cells including skin cells, the cells that cover the scalp and impact the hair roots.
There are two very distinct membrane layers. In a well-hydrated membrane, water serves both as adhesive material and as a type of passageway between the layers for enzyme activity.
In a dehydrated membrane, cholesterol takes over to prevent further loss of water and thus obstructs the waterway and its potential to deliver chemical and nutrients. Potentially cholesterol takeover can negatively impact hair health and growth.
Preventing Dehydration For Healthy Hair
The best way to avoid dehydration of your body, skin and hair is to drink lots of water, especially on hot, dry and windy days. Water is always the very best option as compared to other liquids such as juice, tea, coffee or soft drinks.
Caffeine is a diuretic which makes you urinate more frequently and thus depleting your water sources. Experts believe that for every 8 ounces of coffee that you drink you should drink two 8 ounces of water.
The amount of water that is required is dependent on a number of factors ranging from how much water you get from your food and how much your are sweating from physical exertion.
Plan to add more water when you are ill, exercising or spending time in a hot climate.
Part 2
How Much Water Do You Need Every Day?
Determining how much water everyone needs on a daily basis is not a simple matter. Depending on the person and their level of activity, the amount of water needed varies.
The Institute of Medicine evaluated national food surveys that analyzed people's average fluid intake. Based on their findings they recommended that men consumer an average of 3 liters or 13 cups of total beverages a day. Women were advised to consumer 2.2 liters or approximately 9 cups of total beverages a day.
It is generally believed that if you drink between 8 and 9 cups of water per day, produce a normal amount of urine that is colorless or slightly yellow and feel well, that you are probably meeting your daily water needs and thus contributing to the development of healthy roots and tresses.
Additional water should be consumed if you do regularly drink coffee, tea, alcohol or related water draining liquids. Exercise helps to redistribute water but the more you exercise, the more water you should drink to compensate for water loss through sweat.
Dehydration & Hair Problems
It is currently believed that as much as 60% of current diseases could be avoided by drinking enough water and balancing it with enough salt. It is also believed that drinking enough water can eliminate a lot of hair and scalp challenges including dandruff and hair thinning.
It is believed that the list of potential diseases that are directly or indirectly related to lack of water in the body include (but are not limited to)
angina
morning sickness
rheumatoid arthritis
painful colitis
diabetes
Alzheimer's disease
cancer
multiple sclerosis
allergies
high sensitivity to pain
Other Symptoms
Edma or body puffiness can appear where mild to severe dehydration is present. When water is not available to get into the cells freely, it is filtered from the salty supply outside the cells and injected into overworked cells which can result in water retention.
Other water intake and distribution regulators such as prostaglandins, kinins and PAF (another histamin-assocate agent) can cause pain whey they come across pain-sensing nerves in the body.
Ironically pain - other than that caused by injury - can also be a crisis signal of water shortage in the body.
How does the body determine priorities when its water supply is insufficient? The answer is a very sophisticated water distribution system which assures an adequate amount of water, along with the hormones, chemical messengers and nutrients that water carries - to the most vital organs such as the brain and heart first.
The skin is one of the major organs of the body and water is essential to the workings of its cells. But if the body's overall water supply falls short, the skin may have to wait until other organs receive their ration of water first. The same is true of hair roots. The brain, for example, is 85% water. While constituting only 1/50th the weight of our body, the brain gets 20% of all the blood that is pumped by the heart.
In fact, the brain is the final governor of water rationing to every cell and organ of our body. Each organ monitors its own supply and release, but only according to constantly changing quotas that are set by the brain.
Hair Dehydration
There are other factors in hair dehydration. The surface skin that composes the human scalp that houses hair roots is made up of a thicker tissue than the interior tissues of the body. Circulation comes to the base of the skin that covers the scalp and the hair roots, and the water has to seep upwards through all the layers of the skin to reach the outer layers.
It's not unlike a flowering plant that must receive adequate water through its roots or the supply will fall short of reaching the budding lowers.
Of course the exposed surface of the hair roots are also constantly losing water due to environmental factors such as sun, wind, hard water, and chemicals to name a few examples, creating a kind of double jeopardy.
When the body is dehydrated, circulation to the base of the outer skin, the scalp and hair roots, may be shut down as an emergency measure by the body's drought management system so that water is not lost through evaporation from the skin's surface. If circulation to the base of the skin is shut down, we develop gray skin.
Next the cells of the skin gradually lose structure and go from a plump state into a prune-like state. Chronic dehydration shows in the face with wrinkles, lines and furrows. It also manifests as
Proper water intake on a regular basis can prevent ore verse this process of dehydration. When the skin is fully hydrated the circulation to the skin also increase. The result is a rosy complexion.
Failure to recognize the body's many signals of dehydration may trick us into thinking there's no problem. Thirst of a dry mouth is not the only way to determine if we are hydrated.
Is Your Body Hydrated?
Failure to recognize the body's many signals of dehydration may trick us into thinking there is no problem.
Thirst or dry mouth is not the only way to determine if you are dehydrated. In fact, saliva will flow even if the body is approaching a state of dehydration because the system of rationing water is based on priorities, with certain areas shutting down and other areas allowed their rations. The body has no storage reservoir for water.
What you drink throughout the day is what you get. The body's emergency mechanisms simply shift the water from one place to another.
With stressful, fast-paced lifestyles, we may opt for beverages such as coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol instead of pure water. We may think that we are quenching our body's thirst. In reality caffeinated drinks make things worse by forcing water out of the body, creating an even greater need to compensate with more water.
Excess insulin that is released to respond to sugary drinks and snacks also dries out the body and robs it of needed water. Certain medications, especially diuretics, contribute to dehydration.
The body adapts to this continual shortage by rationing in survival mode. A little at a time, many of the body's organs and systems become used to being chronically dehydrated.
The brain may respond to the stress by producing endorphins, the body opiate-like substance, to make a person endure the hardships while the underlying problem goes unattended.
Symptoms Of Dehydration
Although a key symptom of dehydration is thirst being thirsty is not the first warning sign. By the time most people feel thirsty they may be already dehydrated. Other symptoms of dehydrations include the following:
Dry or sticky mouth
Feeling dizzy, lightheaded or off-balance
Darker urine or urine with strong odor
Less urge to urinate or producing very little urine
General muscle weakness
Overall fatigue
Headache
As dehydration worsens, you may experience a worsening of the symptoms as the body's organs become more impacted.
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