Try the simplest solution first

Dramatic events have compelled me to write once again about the powerful impact on our bodies and minds of drinking enough water.

I researched the issue of proper hydration in 2009 when I was writing my ebook about insomnia.  What I learned compelled me to write a post about it, and to finally figure out how to guarantee that I consumed at least 64 oz of water every day.

The solution was brilliantly simple – every day I would write the numbers 1 2 3 in the bottom corner of my daily planner. I kept a beautiful blue water bottle on my desk, and each time I filled and drank the contents I circled one of those numbers. And voila, I became a regular water drinker!

Fast forward to a month ago. It was time to get a new daily planner, and the store no longer had my favorite notebook. I kept thinking I would find it somewhere else, so I just started making my daily list on random pieces of paper until I found my special notebook. After a few weeks I finally gave up and bought a different notebook, and went back to my old system.

With one important difference. I had lost the water habit somewhere in this transition, and forgot to begin again with entering the 1 2 3 on the lower corner of my notebook.

I was busy. A lot was going on in our lives. So my trusty blue water bottle sat quietly on my desk, waiting for me to rediscover it.

Then last week I really took a dive emotionally. I felt fatigued, depressed, unable to concentrate, and had trouble remembering things. I would look at some notes I’d made a day or two before and could not figure out what I was talking about.

Oh my God, I thought, this is it, this is the beginning of Alzheimers. My mother, grandmother and aunt had it, and now here it is. I was petrified – how could it be happening this early? I started talking to friends about how scared I was, how I would have to cut back on what I was doing, how my mental capacity was slipping away each day.

And then, a few days later, as I was sitting at my desk, resigned to a life of small projects and simple thoughts, I noticed my blue water bottle on my desk. Wait a minute, when did I stop drinking water? I remembered how the effects of being dehydrated had been so powerfully imprinted in me when I collapsed some years ago during the Avon Breast Cancer Walk in 100 degree heat. Granted, that was an extreme event, but – could some of what I was feeling be because I had stopped my water habit?

I grabbed the blue bottle and ran downstairs to fill it up. I came back upstairs, filled my glass, and drank it down as though I had been walking in the desert for days. Then I wrote 1 2 3 in the corner of my planner, and poured another glass.

That day I drank my three bottles of water. And the next day I did the same. And — this is so remarkable I understand that you may have trouble believing it – the next day my mind cleared! The fog rolled out, energy poured back into my body, the depression lifted. I felt like one of those people you see in the movies who drops to their knees and yells out to the world that they’ve have been cured.

So guess what, no onset of Alzheimers. My brain cells were just crying out for water and were trying to get my attention. No chronic fatigue, just my body’s cells begging for water. No depression, just my entire being trying valiantly to remind me how good it was to be given the water it needs to perform its excellent work every day.

I understand that this little story may seem simplistic. And I know that there are many other causes for many of the ailments and diseases we struggle with. But from my research, and from this dramatic incident in my own life, I say with all my heart – please do yourself a favor and figure out how to drink enough pure water every day. Guideline is 64 oz a day just to replace what we lose. If you drink a lot of coffee or exercise heavily, drink more than that.

And now, I need to call some people to let them know I am still able to discuss complex issues. . .

Tagged as: health, hydration, Sleep, water