Calculation frenzy

How many glasses of water a day should an adult person drink? I heard of 8. I also heard about calculating it based on body weight. Many times I have seen people downing large bottles of water, often fresh out of the refrigerator.

However, my health problems have taught me the opposite. Virtually everyone who speaks about problems with dry skin or atopic dermatitis advises to drink as much water as possible. In my case, for a long time it was something that worsened the condition of my skin enormously. I understood this when I found out about NMT (No Moisture Treatment) therapy practiced by a doctor in Japan who was helping people with post-steroid complications (like mine). Of course, this is a special case, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to temporarily lower your fluid intake, including food, to less than 1 litre per day and keep all contact with water to an absolute minimum. However, I would like to mention that this very practice has helped many of us with Topical Steroid Withdrawal to soothe our extremely irritated skin.

This is an extreme example, and of course it does not mean that drinking water is harmful in itself. Without the right amount of water in the body, the flow of life force - prana is made difficult. However, Ayurveda teaches that moderation is very advisable, because drinking too much water, especially cold water, weakens digestion, extinguishing the so-called agni, or digestive fire, and also strains the kidneys, thus impairing their work. As we know, it is extremely difficult to achieve full health without proper digestion. Add to that, for example, microplastics found in water from plastic bottles or other toxins from unfiltered tap water - and we're likely to do more harm than good.

With the post title I refer to a certain trend, actually present for many years now, of calculating everything according to norms, statistics, body weight, etc. Isn't it better to just listen to our body's signals and drink exactly when we are thirsty? Do the mechanisms of the human body really mean nothing? Why do we not trust them at all? Science does not fully understand how our body works, and instead of responding to its calls with great gratitude, we ignore them and prefer to act according to one formula or another, or some general recommendation we hear from the Doctor on TV.

Everyone is unique and everyone has different needs. From my perspective, this applies just as much to your musical taste as it does to your water needs. Similarly, I do not see the point in counting steps, calories or protein in the diet, because I have the impression that these are just a poor substitute for listening to your body's needs, merely quick fixes.‏‏‎ ‎What is worthwhile always requires a bit of time, attention and respect - even in the form of trial and error self-testing - but that's just my opinion.‏‏‎ ‎