Hydration is Critical to Treatment Success!

We’ve heard it frequently from health and nutrition experts, “Drink more water!” Why? Let me give you some reasons that are important for the entire body, not just as it relates to physical therapy:

• We ARE mostly water! 60-70% of our body weight is water (in blood, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid, and intracellular fluid)
• Water flushes toxins out of the body
• Water transports nutrients into the cells
• Water makes us feel full (great to keep weight down)
• Water improves skin tone and keeps wrinkles away
• Water helps to regulate body temperature and pH balance

While there are many more, as it pertains to Physical Therapy, the main benefits have to do with muscle physiology, or how a muscle works.

Tight, Sore Muscles are No Fun

Most people who receive treatment in Root Cause Medical Clinic, are doing so because they are in pain and/or their bodies hold too much tension. Their muscles are tight – either all over or in certain specific areas. This can be because of an accident or injury, or just poor postural habits.

Drinking more water (hydrating oneself) can help to change the muscle consistency, and soften tight, hard muscles. Hydration is, therefore, a frequent recommendation of the physical therapists in our office. Believe it or not, we can tell by the feel of the muscles whether a person is drinking enough water or not.

Adequate Water Can Speed Healing with Physical Therapy

Much of the early work we do with patients involves loosening these tight muscles through stretching exercises. The more hydrated one is, the easier it is to stretch and the more effective the stretches will be – bringing quicker results to the patient.

Can You Wash Your Pain Away?

When you exercise hard, a substance known as lactic acid increases in your system as a by-product of speeding up the metabolism. It is this buildup that accounts for the sore muscles and joints for a day or two after you’ve pushed yourself beyond your normal activity level.

The same holds true for the side-effects of the deep muscle manipulation that physical therapists administer to their patients. It may be a little sore at the time of treatment, but you can minimize any soreness afterward by drinking a lot of water to flush the lactic acid out of your system.

How Much Should You Drink?

The recommendation for optimal hydration is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water. If you weigh 150 pounds, you would need to drink 75 oz of water a day. And we are speaking about pure water – other liquids don’t count. Think of any liquid other than water as food.

Only pure unadulterated water will do to maximize proper fluid flow in your body. What kind of water is a topic for another day: tap, distilled, filtered, bottled, reverse osmosis, spun, micro-clustered, oxygenized, etc. Drink the purest water that you can afford.

What is the Best Possible Beverage

So, drink up! Of all the liquids we drink (aside from a good herbal or green tea perhaps), water is by far the best alternative to soda, coffee, fruit juice, milk, or alcohol.

If you haven’t been drinking your fair share, you’ll soon feel the difference. And if you’re seeing a physical therapist, he or she will see the difference as well.

Please let me know what questions you have. As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I treat a wide range of conditions and I am here to help you, your friends, and your family.