You know you need liquid to survive. Less well accounted is that to live well you need good quantities and quality. Your personal water resource is crucial to optimise your physical and mental well-being.

Recently I had cause to do some basic maths and found to my frustration that instead of being easily able to do the sum I was instead both irritable and unable to think. My beloved upon seeing my plight handed me a bottle of water with the gentle command to drink. I swallowed half a litre in a moment and minutes later was relieved of my tension and easily able to complete the task.

Water accounts for about 60% of your body’s mass and we lose at least 5-10% of that each day. When you exercise, and or use medications, alcohol, cigarettes, or salty food, your need to replenish increases.

In the short term even small percentage discrepancies (2%) have a significant effect on your intellectual / emotional function and physical stamina. A drop beneath 10-15% of liquid body mass will likely cause your death.

Like a gnarled and grisly plant that’s rarely watered you can survive on minimal liquid, but there’s a consequence to this lack. Chronic dehydration means you’ll be variously weaker, stupider, and crankier than they would otherwise have been. Chronic dehydration is also thought to severely affect a range of organ functions that in turn can lead to deadly dangerous diseases.  

This effect is all the more insidiously powerful with the elderly. Moreover as you age you’re less inclined to feel your thirsts demands. As such you need to think to ensure you drink.

Any drink is better than not getting enough however the quality of liquid you imbibe is important. Obviously cordial, fizzy drink or booze is far from the best. Bottled water is dead in its package.

H2o created via reverse osmosis is devoid of the minute quantities of natural salts so it leaches your body of the salts in your cells. Even tap water contains chemicals such as chlorine and also, bizarrely, the poisonous chemical fluoride.

The best source of water for your body and mind comes from the rain and the natural springs and streams. Getting enough good quality water is a challenge but it is well worth the effort.

Martin Hunter Jones is an honorary member of the Australian Counselling Association.