Hydration: How important is it?

Incredibly! Picture how nice and plump your little red blood cell should look. Now imagine all the juice sucked out of it. And that poor, tortured cell wall being left brittle. Now how on earth can that little cell function with all the thousands of tasks it has to do under these conditions? Or any of your trillions of cells? They're busy trying to maintain your body temperature, your blood pressure, transport nutrients and remove waste and countless other tasks. So ya, for optimal cellular health, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

How to best do that:

H20 is great. But: are you absorbing it into your cells? Does your digestive tract pull in and absorb your water efficiently and place it into the bloodstream for transport to all the other cells in your body? How is your digestion doing these days?

Things to consider: If you're finding that you're trying to drink more water, but all you're doing is running to the bathroom, here are some tips that might help: -Do you have any minerals in your water? Electrolytes help you absorb your water. There are good electrolyte formulas out there. But there are lousy ones too, full of sugars and dyes that you don't want. Read labels. You can add celtic sea salt to your diet. Don't worry, it's not processed sodium, it's trace minerals that we need in our diets and it will help with absorption. In fact, refined salt is bleached and will often contain aluminum and sugar and anti-caking agents. None of which you want. If you have that in your cupboard, toss it.

Coconut water is another great way to add electrolytes into your diet. Heck, add the juice from a lime and a pinch or two of sea salt you have really healthy version of margarita!

-If you chug a large volume of water at a time, your body won't be able to absorb it all at once. Try to take continuous sips throughout the day.

How much should you drink?

General guideline: Your body weight in pounds divided by 2 = the number of ounces of water per day you should consume. Example: You're 150 pounds. Divide by 2 = 75. 75 ounces = 9 cups of water per day. (8 ounces are in one cup).

Keep in mind, that if you are outside in hot temperatures or performing strenuous physical activity, you will likely need to drink a bit more on those days.

Keep at it. Change won't happen right away. But slowly your body will get used to the new routine and become more efficient at it.

A little tip at bedtime: If you find you're getting up at night to use the bathroom, try having a pinch of celtic sea salt at bedtime. It will help you absorb the water into your cells instead of heading to your bladder.

A note on water filtration: Tap water often has lots of contaminants in it so most of us filter our water. But really good filters that remove the bad stuff, also remove the good stuff: minerals! Drinking over-filtered water depleted of minerals will draw minerals out of your tissues. You will need to remineralize by using electrolytes or good celtic sea salt that includes magnesium and potassium.

Headache? It's often a sign of dehydration. Before reaching for medications that tax the liver and kidneys, consider if it's possible you're dehydrated first. Drinking water can often alleviate the problem.