hey there guys I'm Morgan Radford and it's time to get healthy [Music] did you know that your body is made up of about 60% water that's a whole lot of water and it's really up to you to keep it inside your body but you're constantly losing it see every time that you sweat you digest your food or even breathe you're really losing water so you have to replace it but many studies show that kids aren't drinking enough water so what's up with that because you have to have it I'm dr. John Torres an emergency physician
and the NBC medical correspondent hydration means that you're getting fluid into your body the majority of what we have inside of us is water and we need that water in order to survive you have to get that from external sources meaning you have to drink it all right so to keep your body hydrated we're not telling you you have to go crazy and down one of these each morning in fact some of the foods you eat like fruits and vegetables they can help you stay hydrated but your body must have water once you drink it
it goes into your intestine goes into your guts and from there it goes into the body into all the cells once it gets done with the cells it goes through our bloodstream and gets filtered out through our kidneys so exactly how much do you need just remember the number eight nine years old and above neat eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day this is an eight ounce glass it's a very normal amount of water so does that seem like a lot just pace it out throughout the day but if you skip it you could end
up causing a lot of problems for your body every cell in your body uses water to function if it can't get that water that cells gonna start shrinking it's not going to work as well and this includes your brain cells so what's gonna happen is you're gonna start getting confused you're gonna start getting a headache your muscles aren't gonna work as well you might even start cramping up a little bit as you get more dehydrated that's going to get worse and worse if you get too high dehydrated you can get in a world of hurt
alright so you don't want that and don't think that you need less in the winter when you aren't sweating as much because you still need to remember eight to keep all those cells functioning so here's the tricky part how can you be sure you're really getting enough water here are some tricks you'll be able to remember the worst way to know if you dehydrate is to wait until you're thirsty because by then you're already dehydrated one of the things you can do is you're why looking around and just pinch the skin on the back of
your hand if when you pinch it and let go it goes flat then you're fine that means you're perfectly hydrated all right well it looks like I'm doing pretty well how about you there's something else that you can do and it's actually the most reliable just listen to this look at your pee next time you go to the bathroom if it's really dark I'll give you some examples here that means you're dehydrated so the pee gets darker because it's more concentrated and that means that you need more fluids if it's kind of middle-of-the-road that means
you're doing okay you might want to push a little bit more fluids drink another glass or two to make sure that you get it down to the point where it's this light yellow and that's what you want because that means you're perfectly hydrated you're right exactly where you need to be don't worry that was just apple juice but you get the point so here are just a few things to remember to make hydration easier back a water bottle and just put it in your backpack in case you don't have a water fountain nearby and you
may love those sugary drinks like soda but drinking that much sugar a day could actually cause you other health problems and nothing beats plain old water to make you feel your best you also need to drink more when you're outside in the heat if you're exercising you're playing sports make sure you drink that water your body and your mind will thank you for it
