According to WebMD, the old idea of drinking eight glasses everyday is a mere guideline and it is not based on scientific evidence. But, this doesn’t imply that you may not drink eight glasses a day, since there are many health benefits that you can get from drinking a lot of water, such as avoiding dehydration, maintaining the balance of body fluids, controlling calories, energizing muscle cells, keeping the skin looking good, keeping the kidneys healthy, and maintaining normal bowel function.
But surprisingly, a new study shows that over 50% of American children and adolescents are not drinking adequate amounts of water a day. Boys were 76% more likely to get dehydrated than girls and non-Hispanic blacks were 34% more likely to get dehydrated than non-Hispanic whites.
A professor of the practice of health sociology and who is at the helm of the study, Steven Gortmaker, stated in a press release, “The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution. He added, “If we can focus on helping children drink more water - a low-cost, no-calorie beverage, we can improve their hydration status, which may allow many children to feel better throughout the day and do better in school.”
The research team scrutinized information from 2009 to 2012 from over 4,000 children and adolescents that are aged 6 up to 19. The researchers examined the urine concentration to discern hydration. The data was extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a yearly study, whipped up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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