I’m sure you’ve heard that drinking water is good for your health. But do you really need 8 glasses of water per day? And should that be an 8-ounce glass? 12 ounces? How do you know how much to drink?

First, let me say, water IS important for our bodies. Imagine a houseplant. What does it do when it does not get enough water? It withers, becomes fragile and frail, and almost sinks in on itself. In essence, that is what happens to our bodies as well when we do not get enough water. Another example I like to use is to compare our muscles to a sponge. Imagine a dry sponge. It is stiff and almost unable to move. Imagine a wet sponge. It is pliable and can move and bend any which way. Our muscles need water to function properly.

Not only is water important for our muscles, it helps our organ systems, helps promote better balance, helps with memory, helps prevent bladder infections, and the list goes on.

So how much water should you drink? There are fancy equations out there where you can calculate your body weight with your activity level, but a good general idea is to drink half of your body weight in ounces. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds, drinking 90 ounces of water would be your goal. Now there may be other factors in your health that would make this too much water for you to drink, so it is always a good idea to ask your doctor about this.