1. Drinking water can reduce your risk of colon cancer over your lifetime?

2. Every American must have at least eight glasses of drinking water each day?

3. A person can live without drinking water for up to a month?

4. The human body is made up of 50 percent water?

5. Everyone stays thirsty – we just have to pay attention?

Answers:

1. True. Recent studies in Journal of Oncology show correlations between those individuals who drink lots of water on a regular basis to lower rates of colon cancer.

2. False. While the “eight glasses a day” rule is a nice way to remember to drink adequate water, some people (athletes, those who are larger, and those who perspire a lot) should drink more – and others should drink less (such as those with kidney failure). Those who eat fresh fruit all day long are getting a lot of fluid through eating, while those who never eat their veggies should up their water intake.

3. False. Although a person can live without food for more than a month, a person can only live for approximately one week without water.

4. False. The human body is made up of approximately 65 percent water! The brain is 70 percent water, the lungs 90 percent water and our blood is made up of 83 percent water. The Earth is 75 percent covered in water. Celery is 95 percent water. Those last two facts have nothing to do with dehydration – just thought it was interesting.

5. False. Researchers at Austria’s Howard Florey Institute and the University of Texas have identified a key region of the brain that governs water requirements… When scientists gave two groups of participants – one aged 21 to 30 and the other 65 to 74 – salty water intravenously to induce thirst, they found the older group consumed half as much water as the younger group. Using PET imaging, they found in the older people, the mind cingulated cortex was turned off much earlier by drinking smaller volumes.