How to reduce water retention in our body

There are many causes of water retention - hormonal changes in women during the time of the month, kidney problems, heart, liver thyroid malfunctions and insufficient water intake. The last cause is actually pretty common in a lot of us but we do not realize it as one would think that having a lower intake would result in less water being retained in the body instead.

However, that is not the case because our bodies actually goes into dehydration ("starvation") mode and store as much water as it can get just in case the water supply runs out. Does this make sense now?

I have found some simple remedies to reduce water retention that you can easily implement into your day-to-day lives and would be sharing them in this hub.

Drink up your daily water requirement by 7.30pm. It is recommended that we have 8-12 cups of water depending on our weight, activity and environment. There are many different schools of thoughts about the exact amount of water to drink but we would not be going into that in this article. Personally, I subscribe to the 2 litre or 8 cups of water theory.

Drinking after 7.30pm tend to cause our bodies to retain the water hence it is best that you minimize any water drinking after this cut off time. For the first few days of embarkation on this habit, you will notice yourself running to the bathroom pretty often. Your body is only trying to get used to the increased water intake and change in schedule of your normal water consumption habit. Do not worry about it, your body will adapt to the change and you will get past this inconvenience soon enough.

Too much salt in our diets will cause our bodies to retain unnecessary water. When there is too much salt in the body, due to our natural need to maintain a balance of sodium levels in our bodies, water will be kept in us to dilute the salt levels. You will also find yourself getting thirstier more often. Hence if you reduce your salt intake from you diet, it will help to reduce the retention problem.

We all know the benefits of exercise - helps keep us healthy and it is a natural cure for many ailments. Exercise can help reduce water retention by providing you an outlet to sweat it out and enabling more fluid to pass through our kidneys which in turn flush out excessive fluids from our body. A brisk walk is all it takes, you do not need anything complicated as long as you engage yourself in activity.

Please do note that if you have a serious water retention problem with swollen ankles, fingers, feet and other abnormal symptoms, please consult a doctor immediately. This article is by no means intended to be a medical cure to a water retention illness. It was just meant to share some ways which personally worked for my water retention issues that was recommended by my dietician. That being said, I hope this article has been useful and if you have any more tips on reducing water retention, please do comment and share it here with everyone.

Here's a toast to you with water. Cheers!