Hydration is a vital component of wellness, particularly during the cold and flu season. When the air is cold and dry and sickness starts to make its way around town, people are often concerned about handwashing, bundling up and sanitizing door knobs. But hydration is just as important for your health as any of those practices, and is a key to both resisting and overcoming sickness, especially the flu. At Virginia Vein & Wellness Center, we want you to be able to stay as healthy as possible, so here’s what you need to know about how hydration can help overcome sickness.
Liquid Life
Water provides us with energy, chemical balance, joint lubrication, body temperature regulation and much more. It also helps keep your immune system running strong, so if you’re trying to avoid getting sick, or if you’re trying to prevent a current sickness from getting worse, water is the go-to fluid for helping you stay well. Helping with digestion, excretion and waste removal, it also carries toxins out of your body so they can no longer harm you. Staying hydrated is a great way to both promote your personal wellness and keep problems at bay.
How Hydration Helps Defeat the Flu
Even if staying hydrated doesn’t keep you from coming down with the flu, it can still help you fight it in several ways.
- It helps lower fevers – Fevers drastically change your body temperature due to the way the body fights infection. Since water helps regulate body temperature, it’s important to drink a lot of it to keep your body as cool as possible as it heats up. Fevers also cause the body to sweat, which in turn causes you to lose essential fluids and electrolytes. Ingesting plenty of fluids helps replace them so your body can continue fighting well.
- It eases aches and pains – Hydration regulates your blood volume and circulation. This means that being dehydrated can cause symptoms like dizziness, cramps, headaches and acute pains, because the places that are hurting—especially the brain, which requires a lot of fluids to run properly—are not getting adequate nutrients and oxygen from the blood.
- It replenishes electrolytes – Electrolytes are minerals that promote essential bodily function and wellness. Some of these include potassium, sodium and chloride. But when your body expels waste when you’re sick, they are easily lost along with the toxins that it’s actually trying to get rid of. Drinking plenty of water and other fluids helps recover the nutrients you’ve lost to sickness.
- It moisturizes membranes – When you’re sick, it can be easy for mucous membranes in the sinuses, eyes and mouth to become dry or swollen. Staying hydrated heals these membranes and keeps them functioning, helping flush out unwanted bacteria and prevent infection.
- Improving digestion – Water is a major part of digestion, and when you’re sick, normal digestive processes are disrupted. Drinking plenty of water helps the digestive process along by improving your body’s absorption of nutrients and getting rid of waste.
How Virginia Vein & Wellness Can Help
At Virginia Vein & Wellness Center, we perform outpatient procedures that can help you overcome various wellness issues. To that end, and with the importance of hydration in mind, we offer IV hydration services and Myers’ cocktails so you can heal from sickness and get back to feeling your best. Contact us today to schedule an appointment!