Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water - Albert Szent-Györgyi

Water. As a molecule, we call it H2O. It’s everywhere. It covers two thirds of the earth’s surface and makes up over three quarters of the human body (the other quarter, my doctor tells me, is cholesterol).

Water. It’s all around us. The continents are surrounded by it. We wash with water. We bathe in it. We shower, brush our teeth, and swim in it. Our toilets are household shrines to water. Give us a decent slope and we’ll ski on it. Freeze it and we’ll skate on it.

Water. It’s up there all the time. When there’s too much of it, it condenses and falls from the sky like manna. We cover our heads to shield ourselves and slap at it with our wiper blades. It reminds us of how relentlessly vital it is.

Water. We float in it when we’re born. We enter the world in a gush of it. Many of us are baptized in it. When we cry, our tears are filled with it. For our entire lives, we need it to survive. If we are deprived of it for more than five days, we die. Only two things are more precious to survival: oxygen and computer data.

Water. We feed it to our pets. We distribute it for our livestock. We pour it on our fields and gardens. We sprinkle it on our lawns. We pipe it to our houses and, just to keep it flowing, we pipe it from our houses. Without water, essential stuff like water beds, swimming pools, Jacuzzis, hot tubs, and slip-‘n-slides would look pretty stupid. Let’s face it: without water, no one would probably have bothered to invent the SuperSoaker.

Water. Our cars need water. If we forget to put it in our batteries, our cars won’t start. If we neglect to pour some in the radiator, first we see a red light. Then we see steam (another form of water). Then we see a car mechanic. Then we see the loans department at the bank. Then we see red again. This is known as The Water Cycle.

Water. Is there anything more valuable? Consider what happens to the price of land if it happens to be waterfront. Even “ocean view” or “ocean glimpses” will make you pry open your wallet.

Water. If you could bottle it, you could make a fortune. Oh wait a sec, somebody has already thought of that. The fact is, though, we buy water in bottles as if we were Bedouins herding our camels through the Sahara desert. Whether it’s mineral or carbonated, we realize the value of good, clean, safe water. At the rate we’re going, it’s not too far into the future we’re bound to hear somebody protesting that their water has been “beered down”.

Water. It always flows downhill. It finds its own level. It’s the “Universal Solvent “. If we didn’t have water, our language would be depleted. Think about it. If there was no water, what could you lead a horse to and not make it drink? What would be thinner than blood? Still what would run deep? What couldn’t you mix with oil, come hell or high what? What would you be treading if your argument couldn’t hold any what? If it was really cold, what would you have to break to get to know someone? If it was really hot, you would have to let off a little what (in its gaseous state) so you didn’t blow up?

Water. It only takes a couple of letters of the alphabet to change “purify” to “putrefy “. It takes less to do it in reality. We are constantly trying to clean our water. We boil it. We distill it. We filter it with everything from carbon to ozone. Words like “e coli”, “typhoid fever”, and “cholera” frighten us because, even though we can’t see these microscopic beasts, we know that they can live in the very same water we need to survive.

All this brings us to the big question. When it comes to hydration, how much is too much? How much is not enough? For decades, the health experts have been recommending that we drink 6 to 8 glasses of water per day to keep from getting dehydrated.

Have you ever tried drinking eight glasses of water? You might as well suck up the contents of a hot tub through a straw.

There are many pundits in the health field who refer to this hydration number as a scam. They call it the “water myth”.

Here’s the math. Our kidneys filter about 180 liters of blood per day. We have about 5 liters of blood inside us at any moment. This means that our kidneys filter our entire blood volume 36 times a day. Drinking a few more liters of water a day isn’t going to make that much difference when compared to the volume our kidneys already filter. In fact, you can probably get all the water you need from a regular diet. Drinking more water than you need will not do a better job at flushing out the toxins more efficiently, and will not help your kidneys.

It turns out that the 6 – 8 glasses number originated decades ago and was recommended by the US Food and Nutrition Board. What most consumers did not realize was that the equivalent 2.5 liters of water suggested was obtainable mostly from food sources.

We humans are the most water inefficient creatures on earth. About 1.5 to 2 liters of water are lost per day through respiration, sweating, and urination. We can’t do anything about that. We do, however, have a mechanism for telling us when we do need water. We get thirsty.

Water. We’re full of it. We can survive 70 days without food but, as already mentioned, only 5 days without water. How much is too much? How much is not enough? Your kidneys will probably let you know. Although, in rare cases, too much water can lead to heart failure, kidney disease, and edema swelling in the lower extremities, the only change you are most likely to notice is your urine’s harmless change in color from yellow to clear.

Water. How much is the right daily amount? Don’t sweat it. If you’ve been eating properly, you’ve unconsciously been getting your 6 – 8 glasses every day of your whole life.

Water. Now you know the score. Half empty or half full, take good care of your kidneys and they’ll take good care of you.