The risk of dehydration is a myth, British scientists said
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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British scientists said that the risk of dehydration is a myth, reports the Daily Mail. According to the traditional opinion of physicians, drinking plain water follows for the prevention of kidney disease and obesity, recalls journalist Sophie Borland. The British Ministry of Health, as well as leading doctors and nutritionists say that you should drink 1.2 liters of water per day.
But Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner from Glasgow, stated in an article for the British Medical Journal that the advice to drink 6-8 glasses of water a day is "not just rubbish, but nonsense, completely debunked." According to McCartney, the useful properties of water are often exaggerated by interested organizations - for example, manufacturers of bottled water.
According to research, if a person drinks water "just in case", at moments when he does not feel real thirst, concentration of attention in him decreases, but does not increase. "There is also evidence that the chemicals that disinfect bottled water can be hazardous to health," the article said. And if you "drink water," you'll have to get up at night, which disturbs sleep. "According to some studies, drinking water can even cause kidney disease instead of preventing it," the author writes.
McCartney also warned that from excessive drinking of water, a rare but potentially fatal disease of hyponatremia may develop: the level of salt in the body decreases, and cerebral edema is possible .
For his part, the American metabolist Stanley Goldfarb did not find any confirmation of the hypothesis that water helps to lose weight, as it suppresses the appetite.
Whatever it was, the newspaper notes, in 2010 the British drank 2.06 billion liters of bottled water, but even more tea and beer (respectively, three times and five times more).