You know the old rule that you need to drink eight glasses of water every day? It's simply a myth, says Dr. Jen Gunter. In this episode, she explains the amazing way your kidneys keep your system in balance — and how you can really tell if you're dehydrated.
Think you know how your body works? Think again! Dr. Jen Gunter is here to shake up everything you thought you knew — from how much water you need to drink to how often you need to poop and everything in between. This TED original series will tell you the truth about what's *really* going on inside you. (Made possible with the support of Oura)
Want to hear more? Follow Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter on Apple Podcasts:
I don’t drink eight glasses of water per day, I drink at least a gallon and a half per day.
And it feels amazing. I strongly disagree with Doc on this one. I feel weird when I don’t have my gallon a day. Definitely helps with skin as well.
You should just be careful to also take in enough minerals. Than it really doesn’t matter that much.
@K LG My rusty faucet has enough minerals for me ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
True hydro homie right there
Imho, there’s a slight flaw with Dr. Jen’s advice, in practice—many people in modern societies confuse thirst with hunger, so just “listening to your body,” to paraphrase, won’t work well for many people.
That’s true! Usually, when youre hungry you just need to drink. If after drinking the hunger is still there, that means you want to eat 😀 It works for me
This was the case with my girlfriend of some years ago. She drank so little water but ate to full and nausea as a very small person, that one day she called me in some distress to say her urine was clear. She had never had clear urine. I have a good water habit, so when she picked that up from me, the change was stark!
In hot weather it’s easy getting dehydrated without noticing, better to drink water proactively than waiting for warnings from your body. Also the colour of your pee can tell you a lot, so if your pee is completely translucent (water like) for multiple days, than you might be drinking too much water, but as long as it’s yellow, or better jet light yellow, you should be fine.
lets see – its hot…
Is there such thing as drinking too much water?
You know that feeling you get that says you should drink “proactively”? It’s called a light feeling of thirst.
@mindlesstube Yes, look up hyponatremia.
@ucdcrush I think you missed the point i was trying to make. Sometimes you don’t feel thirsty, when you should already drink a bit.
03:46 “or are elderly” She should have put more emphasis on that! Thousands of elderly (and some not so elderly!) people get taken to hospital every year because they collapse while shopping or walking around town because they forgot to drink. Maybe 8 glasses are too much, but please don’t rely on your body giving you an alarm signal, because that doesn’t always work like it should!
As we get older our thirst mechanism decreases. This is why the elderly are more susceptible. Plus some take more medications, have more medical conditions which all contribute to dehydration
First place lack of adequate water in our bodies shows up is in lips…they burn, a bit.
Kidney stones are painful. My Mom had them and can create vomiting. She never drank enough water; supposedly stone are hereditary, too. Malarkey?
No one else got stones.
Yes- many elderly people end up in hospital through dehydration. A better talk would have been – when to up our water intake.
I generally never feel thirst as I have lots of fluids during the day.
I drink more like 15 a day
It helps prevent kidney stones though…
You can increase the likelihood of getting kidney stones if you don’t drink enough water but also if you drink to much. If you just drink when you are thirsty and it comes out correctly on the other end you are good. No need to over due it or anything.
@Engineer 80lvl
I like how he changes the inflection in the way he answers kidney stones each time.
Depends also WHAT you drink. Drinking is only 1 part of the process of ingesting food…… So also, what do you eat…
I think it’s more of your diet…
while i like the myth-busting approach in this video, i think its too short and ignores to benefit of drinking water. because most of the people who need rules like “8 glasses a day” nearly never drink water so thinks like: not drinking your calories, helping with digestion, making you feel full, etc. should be mentioned. psa’s are great, but this one is too simplified and might lead to further misunderstandings
I need a reminder for when I need to drink.. If I don’t, I’ll forget, and then I get a bladder infection.. Some people do need reminders for everything inclusive when to drink water and there is nothing wrong with that.
YES! I have a Google thing that literally just shouts “drink” every hour so I remember to! Bladder infections are not nice at all
I just drink enough water to have clear pee….
I think it’s a good enough rule
I endorse this comment
I’m not a doctor, but if my urine is any kind of colored, time for some water first
That’s my goal too; especially since not only do I live in the Mojave Desert but my body does not give me signals it’s supposed to.
It also says that you are not taking adequate vitamins, etc.
In the military they taught us “If you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated”.
That’s basically a very succinct way of saying what the doctor was saying.
The only reason that you feel thirsty is because you’re already in a state of dehydration.
@niccolom Well yes but you shouldn’t let yourself get to that point. You should drink more to keep your levels steady and not spiking up and down between a dehydrated and hydrated body..
@niccolom My point was that at that time you already missed a bit of water earlier, which would’ve prevented the dehydrated response.
I don’t think so. Dehydrated sounds a lot more extreme than thirsty
Agree!!
Speaking from someone who has lost a kidney due to kidney stones and dehydration, you SHOULD drink water as your body can easily be ignored accidentally (especially if you are a child in classes or glued to the TV) when it is asking you to drink water. Stay hydrated please!!
“Listen to your body” folks these days don’t even know they are cranky due to hunger or lack of sleep.
If I would listen to my body, I would be bungee jumping naked doing crack cocaine. I rather listen to my brain.
@wtp1981 brain is a part of your body
I’m one of them lol
Exactly. I learned I was always grumpy because I wasn’t sleeping enough lol
I would love a reaction video from other doctors that would be great
I live in hot environment, and I rarely get thirsty, like if I was born without the thirst option.. of course I collapsed a month ago due to dehydration
I can go a whole day without getting thirsty I don’t trust my body.
Maybe you aren’t doing anything or you get all your water via food.
I regularly confuse the signal for thirst with the signal for hunger. The implication that your body has a flawless method of informing you how much water you need is almost certainly more harmful than advocating people drink 8 glasses a day.
The pb is that I seldom feel any kind of thirst