Ok, this is an obvious one. But do you know what can happen to your body if you become dehydrated?

Your brain is almost 80% water. Your brain function and overall structure is hugely affected by dehydration. Simply put, a lack of water can lead to a lack of thinking and reasoning. A tangible symptom of lack of water to your brain is a headache.

The rest of your body relies on an adequate amount of water too. Blood is more than 90% water and a lack of water can cause blood to thicken, leading to high blood pressure.

Even your lungs are made up of nearly 80% water. When you are dehydrated, your airways constrict to try to minimise water loss, but this can then lead to asthma and allergies worsening.

60% of your body is water. It is vital for cushioning your brain, spinal cord, and all your other sensitive and important organs and tissues. Keep it topped up!

We all know water helps with flushing waste from our body and keeping it running smoothly, but do you know the ‘ins-and-outs’ of the matter?

Water provides your body with the minerals and nutrients to needs to stay healthy. These dissolve in water so a good supply increases their effectiveness.

Water eliminates toxins from your body in the form of sweating, passing urine, and bowel movements. If you don’t drink enough water and become dehydrated, this affects your body’s ability to do this and leads to problems. These include constipation, acid in the stomach, and digestive difficulties.

This is another benefit to drinking water of which we are all aware. But do you ever stop to think why water is vital to healthy kidneys?

Muscles and kidneys are almost 80% water. This means they need a constant, adequate supply to function effectively and healthily.

Your kidneys control the amount of available fluid in your body. Having insufficient levels passing through these regulators can lead to serious problems, such as kidney stones and urinary tract infections. Kidney stones are formed when wastes such as salt and minerals do not get flushed out enough and build up in the kidneys, becoming stones. Water helps with preventing kidney stones by flushing out these build-ups and not allowing stones to form.

Water helps fight urinary tract infections by flushing out germs via increased levels of urine, and also allowing antibiotics to dissolve, therefore fighting the infection quicker.

Considering the effect water has on your brain function, it’s not surprising dehydration can harm your mood. Even being mildly dehydrated can cause headaches, fatigue, moodiness and problems concentrating. Fatigue can occur when your body tissues are not receiving enough oxygen in the blood, helped along its way by water.

So always make sure to drink adequate amounts of the good stuff every day, and if you’re thirsty, or have a dry mouth, you are probably already dehydrated.