assistant public health officer
My secondary school teacher taught me that as humans, large percentage of our body weight is composed of water. Onward and upward mobility through the academic ladder has confirmed this to me, thanks to my physiology lecturer. And also, geography too has it that the planet we occupied is largely covered by water. That makes water not only a significant component of our make-up, but also a significant neighbor to us. In fact, it’s that substance we cannot survive without. This article seeks to put to your knowledge how staying hydrated is indispensable to good health.
A winkle observation of an average Gambian fluid intake daily would suggest that we don’t drank much or enough in a typical day. In fact, some would drink water thrice daily just like they would consume three meals a day. They only drank water after every meal. If you are to give a Gambian youth 1.5 litre Naturelle water bottle after every meal for three days; it wouldn’t surprised me to found six bottles sealed at the end of the third day. She/he is must most likely going to use one per day. Interestingly, a cursory inspection in our hospital wards would suggest that the commonest intervention that is instituted for almost every patient regardless is hydration. Next to every bed is a small metal bar on which is a normal saline bottle trickling into the patients’ vein through a given set. Why did they all need this; is it that we never took enough fluid before our sickness? I would refer to my doctor on this phenomenon.
Medically, the recommended fluid intake for an adult is 3000MLs per day; that quantity is enough to respond to all fluid needs of your body on daily basis. But then, are you taking such quantity every day? Good hydration has numerous health benefits. These includes but not limited to: foster food digestion, enhanced good blood circulation and indispensable in maintaining electrolyte balance in the body. Aside from complex physiological benefits, we might bring down to a layman level certain noticeable benefits of good hydration. Example, when you drank plenty water in a day, you feel good and urine output increase with improve color and odour. Further to that, visiting the toilet would become easier without struggle because the stool is moist and semi-solid in most cases. The opposite is true for poor hydration as well. Therefore, I asked you to habitually take plenty water daily and keep yourself hydrated. Don’t wait for tomorrow, start today and now.
We must also scrutinize the water we drink. You have probably heard it said that “germs make black man fat”. We can’t be settled for such mediocrity any longer. The village boy from the farthest region in the land is a graduate now, thanks to UTG. We have come to know that underground water often contains minerals, much of which have been proven to be of benefits to the body. Two among them is iodine and fluorine. Interestingly, iodine deficiency could lead to stunted and poor cognitive growth in children. I know the water in Kartong isn’t short of iodine that’s why Galleh is super smart. But hey, I haven’t drunk any water in this country that taste better than my nature Jam city; our water is the best. It may interest you to know that fluorine deficiency is also believed to be responsible for considerable amount of dental decay. Therefore, it is prudent to drink water that is safe and of good quality.
As we are witnessing a surge in drilling boreholes in recent times to source drinking water, we should go further to standardised the water in meeting the specific basic parameters for a safe drinking water. In as much as we can’t survive without it, water could be extremely harmful when it becomes the vehicle for transmission of diseases. You may have heard about water-borne diseases before. John Snow a man who is referred to as the father of epidemiology is remembered for his ability to traced an outbreak of cholera to water source drawn from a pump at Broad Street and helped to prevent perhaps thousands of cholera cases. In fact, one major route of entry for pathogens into human body is through ingestion. Drinking water shouldn’t be synonymous to introducing bacteria to your body. Thus, it’s important that we drink good, safe and quality water for a better and sustainable health.
