How much water is enough? On the average, a person needs to drink eight 8-ounce glasses every day. That is 2 quarts or 64 ounces. If you exercise briskly or if the weather is hot and dry, increase the amount you drink. When the body gets the water it needs to function optimally, its fluids are perfectly balanced.

If you stop drinking enough water, your body fluids will be thrown out of balance again, and you may expirience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain, and loss of thirst. To remedy the situation all you have to do is drink enough water again.

Let's look at some of the important functions of drinking enough water consistently:

Endocrine gland function improves.

We regain our natural thirst.

Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration.

Skin cells are buoyed by water, leaving skin clear, healthy, and resilient.

Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result? Constipation. When a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function often returns.

Drinking enough water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extra cellular spaces (outside the cells). This shows up as swollen feet, legs, and hands and puffy area around the eyes. Diuretics offer a temporary and not completely safe solution at best. They force out stored water along with some essential nutrients. Again the body perceives a threat and will replace the lost water at the first opportunity. Thus, the condition quickly returns. The best way to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs - plenty of water. Only then will stored water be released. To get rid of excess water you must drink more water. If you have a constant problem with water retention, excess salt may be to blame. Your body will tolerate sodium only in a certain concentration. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it. But getting rid of unneeded salt is easy - just drink more water. As it's forced throughout the kidneys, it takes away excess sodium.

Water normalizes the appetite naturally and helps the body metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that an increase in water intake can actually reduce fat deposit. Here's why: The kidneys can't function properly without enough water. When they don't work to capacity, some of their work load is handed to the liver. One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do some of the kidney's work it can't function at optimal level. As a result, the liver metabolizes less fat, decreasing weight loss. When we drink enough water, there is a return of natural appetite and loss of excess hunger and the liver metabolizes an increased amount of fat.