Did you know that drinking adequate amount of water can keep skin ageing away? Half of your skin worries can be sorted if your body is adequately hydrated.
Lack of internal hydration prevents your skin from performing key functions like cell renewal, immune defense, thermoregulation and others. Thus, the ancient scriptures of Ayurveda mention in detail the quantity and timings of water intake required for an individual. It further recommends certain natural ingredients, which when added to water, benefits your overall skin health.
Scroll down to know the correct quantity of water that should be consumed daily to achieve glowing skin.
Highlights:
Does Drinking Water Make Your Face Glow?
According to ancient Ayurvedic practices, your face is considered the mirror of your health. Disruptions in body functions, imbalances, onset of diseases can all be diagnosed through a careful speculation of your face. Similarly, when your body is deprived of adequate hydration, it first reflects on your face through a deterioration of facial skin health.
Thus, skin specialists believe that meeting your daily water requirement has amazing skin benefits. From reversing the effects of skin ageing, enhancing skin elasticity, flushing out harmful toxins to improving the overall physical appearance of your facial skin, water does it all. Hence, the concept that drinking water makes your skin glow is completely backed by dermatological research.
What Does Drinking Water Do For Your Skin?
Your body is composed of 60% water, making it a key component of your cells, tissues and body fluids. According to medical research, your daily water requirement is partially met through food and beverage consumption and metabolism. The rest needs to be replenished with additional water intake.
Drinking water can give you healthy, younger looking, glowing skin as it aids several skin functions and helps maintain your skin health.
14 Benefits Of Drinking Water For Skin
There are innumerable advantages of drinking water for skin. Here we have listed down the most important ones.
1. Improves Skin Elasticity
Dietary water consumption ensures your cutaneous layer has more moisture [1]. This improves skin elasticity and enables your skin to return to its original state every time it is stretched and pulled.
2. Prevents Premature Skin Ageing
You can bid farewell to lines, wrinkles and skin sagging by simply drinking adequate water. Skin that is well hydrated appears firm and supple. This is also due to the enhancement of collagen density. Collagen, that provides your skin its physical structure is made up of about 60 percent water. Drinking water boosts your collagen levels and prevents premature skin ageing.
3. Strengthens The Skin Barrier
The epidermal or skin barrier is your body's first line of defense against invading pathogens. Skin dehydration can cause cell damage and weaken your epidermal barrier. This makes your body vulnerable to microbial infections. Drinking water enhances your skin health and strengthens your epidermal barrier, letting your body easily fight off pathogen attacks.
4. Enhances Cell Turnover Rate
Research shows that skin that lacks moisture is unable to produce healthy new cells at a quick rate. This causes dead skin to accumulate. With a delay in natural exfoliation, these dead cells tend to block your pores, causing comedones and acne lesions to appear. Drinking water increases your cell turnover rate and helps your skin maintain equilibrium.
5. Prevents Dry Skin
Dry, dehydrated skin can lead to a number of skin conditions such as eczema. Drinking plenty of water moisturizes your skin and prevents skin damage and other dry skin related issues.
6. Aids Thermoregulation
Water consumption directly affects your skin’s ability to regulate body temperature [2]. Drinking water enhances blood circulation and allows your body to dissipate excess heat through sweating. However, if a body is dehydrated, blood circulation reduces to maintain necessary moisture levels and as a result stores the excess heat. This can disrupt body functions.
7. Helps Maintain Skin pH Balance
It is believed that daily consumption of water can help your skin maintain its pH balance of around 5.5. The acid mantle which plays a role in maintaining the pH balance of your skin is formed of lipids and amino acids derived from your sweat. Lack of moisture in your can affect your acid mantle and thereby your skin's pH balance leaving your skin vulnerable and damaged.
8. Prevents Heat Related Skin Conditions
Drinking water helps your body release excess heat through sweating and urination. This prevents unwanted heat storage in your body that can lead to heat boils or skin rashes.
9. Hastens Wound Healing
Skin that is hydrated is able to heal faster from external injuries [3]. This is because a moist environment promotes wound healing. Moisture helps cells to proliferate faster, to seal the injury. It also ensures prolonged presence of wound benefitting growth factors at the site of injury.
10. Helps Maintain Skin Water Balance
Your skin has a natural moisturizing mechanism that allows it to maintain its soft supple texture. This is known as the skin water balance. Drinking adequate amounts of water can help your skin maintain this fine balance of water and oil and smoothly execute various activities.
11. Helps Flush Out Toxins And Body Wastes
Accumulation of toxins and wastes in your body can directly show up as various skin problems. Drinking water helps remove these harmful toxins and wastes through your urine and stool. There is a popular belief that drinking water can cause skin whitening as a detoxified skin naturally looks clearer and emits a healthy glow.
12. Aids Skin Nutrition Supply
Drinking water enhances blood circulation, which provides your skin oxygen and nutrition. Moreover, your drinking water contains many skin benefitting minerals that enter your body through your regular water intake.
13. Aids The Lubricant Function Of Skin
The lubricant function of the epidermal layer of your skin protects it from mechanical wear and tear. Dry skin is often more prone to injuries from friction due to the lack of adequate moisture and sebum. Drinking water helps keep your skin moisturized and prevents chances of textile dermatitis.
14. Benefits Skin Microbiome
Your skin's microbiome is made up of good microbes that protect your skin from harmful pathogen attacks. It thrives best on skin that has a good moisture balance.
How Can You Get Glowing Skin By Drinking Water?
According to Ayurveda, dehydration results from an aggravation of Vata and Pitta Doshas. An imbalance in your Doshas directly affects your body functions and puts your body in a state of disease. Vata-Pitta vitiations result in various skin problems such as 'rukshta' ( dryness), 'kandu' (itch), inflammation and erythema.
Drinking water can help flush out harmful Ama toxins from your body. Proper intake of water also brings balance in your Vata Pitta levels with the release of excess heat and adequate moisture supply to your skin. This restoration of balance rejuvenates your skin, bringing about a natural glow.
Research conducted to establish the effects of drinking water for skin before and after concluded that there was a noticeable change in skin physiology in the subjects. An increase in hydration resulted in an improvement of skin functions and skin overall skin texture. This proves the benefits of drinking water for healthy, glowing skin.
Vedix Tip: According to Ayurveda, sipping water before and during meals benefits the digestive process. A small amount of water before meals helps maintain the required pH which aids digestion and during meals helps break down the food and ensures easy digestion. However, avoid drinking water immediately after meals as it dilutes important digestive enzymes.
Water Add-Ins For Glowing Skin
Water add-Ins are a great way to give your body some extra goodness as you replenish its daily water needs. Depending on the weather outside and your body’s requirements, here's a list of minerals, herbs, antioxidants and essential nutrients that you can add to your water for good health and glowing skin.
1. Lemon And Honey
One of the best ways to detoxify is by adding lemon and honey to your water. Packed with antioxidants like Vitamin C, a regular intake of lemon juice can reduce skin damage from oxidative stress. Honey is antimicrobial and rich in amino acids. Both lemon and honey effectively remove harmful toxins from your body, thus giving your skin a fresh glow.
2. Black Salt
The hot summers can rob your body of essential electrolytes, which may result in dehydration and dry skin. Add a little black salt to your water to replenish these much needed minerals. Black salt helps the production of bile and supports digestion. It also helps you detoxify by relieving bloating and constipation problems.
3. Fruit Extracts
If you haven’t got the time to munch on some healthy fruits, add some fruit concentrates or fruit pulp to your everyday drinking water. Fruit concentrates are the best ways to make your skin glow. Rich in skin benefitting vitamins and minerals they help boost collagen, fight free radical damage, enhance skin hydration, purify your blood and improve skin tone.
4. Cinnamon And Kesar
Cinnamon is a great way to keep your blood sugar in check. A rise in blood sugar can give your skin a dull look. Cinnamon also improves blood circulation and ensures your skin is better hydrated. Adding Kesar or saffron along with cinnamon helps improve skin tone, giving you a clear, blemish free look.
5. Tulsi
Tulsi is a common plant found in most Indian households. Pick a few leaves and add it to your regular drinking water for a great boost of skin health. Rich in flavonoids, tulsi moisturizes your skin and prevents dry skin related problems such as inflammation and skin irritations. It is also antimicrobial and helps keep infections at bay.
6. Mint
The amazing cooling effects of mint make it a great summer herb. Adding mint to your water helps relieve excess body heat and ensures smooth digestion. You can either mash some mint leaves and directly add it to your water or boil some in your drinking water and strain it to make a mint infused drink.
7. Ginger
Ginger has a plethora of skin and health benefits. It is widely used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat various skin disorders. Its anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial nature helps prevent various skin infections and inflammatory skin conditions like edema. Adding ginger to your water nourishes and rejuvenates your skin and helps improve its physical appearance. It has amazing digestion boosting and detoxifying properties that key points to a glowing skin.
Simply boil ginger in your drinking water for 2 to 3 minutes. Strain and cool it. You can add some lemon, mint and salt to it to make a tasty summer drink.
8. Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is a great source of hydration for dehydrated skin. Rich in antioxidants, adding aloe vera pulp to your water can reduce chances of skin ageing, acne and sun damage.
9. Giloy And Amla
Giloy is the Ayurvedic super herb. Adding a small amount of giloy powder to your regular water prevents chances of dehydration, improves appetite, keeps your blood sugar in control and prevents various skin problems. Amla pulp in your water is a great source of Vitamin C which rejuvenates your skin, helps in wound healing and prevents premature skin ageing.
10. Turmeric
Turmeric is not the tastiest of water add-ins but a great antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial herb. Curcumin [4] in turmeric helps improve your skin complexion, enhances cell renewal, prevents acne, stomach ulcers, boosts immunity, prevents skin infections and inflammations. It also helps maintain your blood sugar. Add a small amount of turmeric powder or boil raw turmeric in your drinking water, strain, cool and consume it as an everyday drink.
A recent study revealed that the skin benefits of turmeric were further enhanced with the addition of black pepper. This boosted the effects of the compound curcumin. So add a pinch of black pepper to your turmeric infused water for greater health benefits.
How Much Water Should You Drink For Skin?
There isn’t adequate research that confirms a fixed quantity of water required to meet one’s daily water needs. However, recent claims state that a total of 2.7 litres/ day for an adult female and 3.7 litres/day for an adult male is sufficient to stay hydrated. This includes the water supplied to your body from the daily consumption of foods and beverages.
However, your water needs may change according to changes in weather conditions. People living in hot, humid weather may need additional liquids to stay hydrated than people living in cold climates. Jobs that involve heavy physical labour may also change your water needs. Pregnancy and breast-feeding mothers may be advised to increase their water intake.
Proper hydration ensures your skin is well nourished and moisturized, making it appear healthy, soft and supple.
The Last Word
Water is an irreplaceable source of health and nutrition for the body and skin. Drinking water allows smooth functioning of all skin bio mechanisms such as immunity, thermoregulation, moisturization. However, excess water intake is not advised as it can lead to certain serious complications due to water accumulation in your body. This may also lead to conditions such as hyponatremia. So stick to the recommended daily water requirement to get skin that looks firm, young, healthy and glowing.
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