Lack of water leads to back pain?

A person needs to consume half their body weight in ounces of water each day, and more if you are doing things that cause excess water loss like sweating.

This means, if you are a 200-pound person, you need 100 ounces of water per day. Dehydration occurs when your body does not have enough fluids to perform its normal functions. This can happen when your body loses more water and other fluids than it takes in, leading to potentially serious medical conditions.

Excessive sweating, the use of diuretics, excessive alcohol use, smoking, serious diarrhea, fever and vomiting can cause dehydration. Failure to drink fluids during exercise or in hot weather also can cause dehydration. While dehydration can happen to anyone, children, the elderly and people with serious illnesses are at special risk for dehydration. Fluids should be replaced in the body before dehydration occurs.

When even a small percentage of water in the body is lost, every bodily function suffers, especially your spinal discs. Your discs act like little water storage sacks in your body. When your body is lacking water, it robs water from the areas it needs the least (spinal discs and joints) and keeps the water for where it needs it the most, primarily for your brain and blood.

Symptoms of chronic dehydration will begin to appear when the body loses as little as two to three percent of total body water. Similar to planet earth, the human body is, on average, about 75 percent water. The average adult loses about 10 cups water every day, simply by breathing, sweating, urinating and eliminating waste, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Researchers also estimate that 50 to 75 percent of Americans suffer from chronic dehydration and don't realize it. This is partly because the symptoms of chronic dehydration are often mistaken for illness.

According to Dr. Dave Carpenter, author of Change Your Water, Change Your Life, the following are 12 of the more common symptoms of chronic dehydration:

Joint pain or stiffness, fatigue, constipation, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, acid-alkaline imbalance, digestive disorders, asthma and allergies, weight gain, skin disorders, bladder or kidney problems and premature aging.

As one of the doctors at Disk and Spine Northwest in Coeur d'Alene, the one common denominator that I have seen in our herniated/bulging disc patient is dehydration. At birth, 80 percent of the disc is composed of water. In order for the disc to function properly and keep from degenerating and bulging, it must be well hydrated. The nucleus pulposis, within the disc, is the major carrier of the body's weight and relies on its water-based contents to maintain strength and pliability. Dehydration over time causes the spinal discs to become stiff and brittle, which leads to the disc being less able to adjust to compression.

If you have chronic back pain or health problems, try drinking the recommended amount of water each day for 1 week, you will be amazed by the results.