"Drink more water" really works! The latest research shows that drinking more water can help lose weight and treat kidney stones...

As we all know, when we want to care about someone but don’t know what to say, we can send the universal sentence "Drink more hot water".

This all-purpose advice may seem a bit perfunctory, but "proper hydration is good for health" is indeed common sense. However, what are the specific benefits of drinking water? Most people may have heard some sporadic popular science, but they don't have a systematic concept. This is normal, because scientists don't have it either. Recently, authoritative experts summarized previous studies related to drinking water and conducted a systematic analysis. The conclusion is: drinking water does have a variety of clear and potential benefits, and it is worth further evaluating the health benefits of drinking water. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Network Open) at the end of November [1].

Drink plenty of water

Good for weight loss and treating kidney stones

This systematic analysis found 1,464 studies from multiple databases and ultimately included 18 population-based randomized controlled trials published between 1999 and 2023.

Three studies found that overweight or obese adults who drank 1500 ml of water before meals each day for 12 weeks to 12 months lost more weight than overweight and obese adults who did not drink water before meals (about 100%, 87% and 44% respectively compared with the control group).

However, another study involving 38 participants showed that drinking water before meals did not correlate with body weight. This may be related to factors such as drinking water before meals to enhance satiety, reduce total dietary intake, and replace high-calorie beverages.

Two studies revealed the relationship between increased water intake and the risk of kidney stones. A study of healthy adults aged 25 to 50 years found that those who drank an additional 2000 ml of water per day had a decreased risk of kidney stones, and vice versa. Another study conducted a control experiment on patients diagnosed with calcium kidney stones for the first time. The experimental group increased their water intake to a urine volume of ≥2000 ml/day. Five years later, compared with the control group, the number of recurrences decreased by 15 per 100 participants, and the recurrence time of kidney stones in the water drinking group was also significantly later. In other words, drinking more water can not only reduce the risk of kidney stones in healthy people, but also significantly reduce the risk of recurrence and delay the recurrence time of patients with kidney stones.

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Drink plenty of water

Possible effects on a variety of diseases

Prevention and relief are beneficial

Two studies have shown that drinking more water can lower fasting blood sugar levels in diabetic patients. The mechanism may be related to the fact that drinking water before meals helps control weight and daily drinking water increases plasma fluid volume.

Limited evidence suggests that increasing water intake may be beneficial for the prevention and treatment of migraine, and the specific mechanism may involve both objective influences and subjective psychological factors.

For women with recurrent UTIs who consume less than 1500 ml of fluid per day, drinking an additional 1500 ml of water per day can reduce the number of recurrent UTIs and prolong the time between episodes.

In young adults with hypotension, increased water intake was associated with an increase in daytime mean arterial blood pressure.

Healthy drinking water

Also need to pay attention to these

After reading this, have you been encouraged to drink a glass of water? Don't be in a hurry. If you want to drink water to be good for your health, you also need to pay attention to the following points:

1

Drink water in moderation

Drinking too little water and causing dehydration is certainly not good for your health, but drinking too much water also has risks. In the past, there have been reports of people drinking too much water too quickly and causing water poisoning. The Chinese Residents' Balanced Diet Pagoda (2022) recommends a daily water intake of 1500~1700ml. Everyone has different heights and weights, so you can increase or decrease the amount according to your body shape.

It should be noted that the water intake from food is also included in the total daily water intake. In hot weather, physical labor, physical exercise and other situations where a large amount of water is consumed and excreted, it is necessary to increase water intake.

So, how do you determine whether you are drinking enough water? For healthy people, the frequency of urination is a reference indicator. The British Bladder and Bowel Community recommends that most people urinate 6 to 7 times a day, but if you don’t find it bothersome, 4 to 10 times is normal [2].

2

The water temperature should not be too high (<65℃)

In fact, rather than saying “drink more hot water”, a more appropriate statement should be “drink more warm water”, because thermal damage from high-temperature diets is a clear risk factor for esophageal cancer [3]. A large number of studies have shown that the incidence of esophageal cancer is significantly increased in areas where people are accustomed to eating high-temperature diets.

In 2016, a working group of 23 scientists from 10 countries met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France to assess the carcinogenicity of drinking coffee, yerba mate, and hot drinks. The group studied more than 1,000 studies on more than 20 types of cancer and concluded that drinking any beverage at a temperature above 65°C may be carcinogenic to humans. The results of the study were published in The Lancet Oncology, a subsidiary of The Lancet [4].

For those who are used to drinking hot water and hot soup and can tolerate high temperatures, 65℃ may not be a hot temperature. People who have no idea about this temperature can use a kitchen thermometer to test the temperature of hot water or hot soup, drink it when it is around 65℃, remember the feeling of your body, and you will have a clear idea of ​​how to judge high-temperature food in the future.

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3

Drinking beverages ≠ drinking water

When doctors and scientists talk about "drinking more water," they mean drinking more water through your daily diet. Some people choose to drink soup or beverages to replenish water because they dislike the blandness of plain water. In this case, although this can increase water intake, you need to be wary of excessive amounts of other substances in the liquid. For example, sodium salt and oil in soup, added sugar, caffeine and other food additives in beverages, etc., excessive intake may increase health risks.

4

Special populations follow doctor's advice

If you suffer from a disease that restricts water intake (such as certain cardiovascular diseases, certain kidney diseases, overactive bladder, urinary incontinence, hyperemesis gravidarum, etc.), you need to follow the doctor's advice to plan your water intake according to the specific situation and do not blindly increase your water intake.

Okay, now you can get up and drink a glass of water, and remind your family and friends to drink more (hot) warm water!

References

[1]HakamN,GuzmanFuentesJL,NabavizadehB,etal.OutcomesinRandomizedClinicalTrialsTestingChangesinDailyWaterIntak e:ASystematicReview.JAMANetwOpen.2024;7(11):e2447621.Published2024Nov4.doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.47621

[2]https://www.bladderandbowel.org/bladder/bladder-conditions-and-symptoms/frequency/

[3]AbnetCC,ArnoldM,WeiWQ.EpidemiologyofEsophagealSquamousCellCarcinoma[publishedcorrectionappearsinGastroenterology.201 8Oct;155(4):1281.doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2018.09.048].Gastroenterology.2018;154(2):360-373.doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2017.08.023

[4]LoomisD,GuytonKZ,GrosseY,etal.Carcinogenicityofdrinkingcoffee,mate,andveryhotbeverages.LancetOncol.2016;17(7):877-878.doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30239-X

Planning and production

Author: Doctor Feidao Duanyu

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association, National Health Science Popularization Expert