Water plays a vital role in your overall health. In fact, you can do without food for a while, but not without water. They say that water is life. And it really is.
But now, here comes the big deal…choosing between hot and cold water.
Most individuals are always confused when it comes to choosing between hot and cold water. Well, each has its pros and cons.
In this post, we discuss what will happen to you if you drink hot water daily.
There are benefits and risks involved hence the need for you to familiarize yourself with what you’ll be exposing yourself to every time you take a cup of hot water.
Potential Benefits of Drinking Hot Water Daily
Although staying hydrated is highly important regardless of the temperature of the water, there’s enough evidence to back up the benefits of drinking hot water daily.
These health benefits include:
Better Digestion
Switching from cold to hot water promotes digestion. The hot water breaks down food faster, unlike cold water, which can harden the oil in your food, creating a fat deposit in your intestines.
The hot water also dilates blood vessels in the gut and acts as a catalyst that aids digestion.
Aids Body Detoxification
Hot water supports detoxification as it raises body temperature causing sweating. Sweat glands help the skin get rid of toxins out if the body.
The hot water improves the functions of the kidneys and river to dilute toxins in your bloodstream.
It makes it a lot easier for the body to expel waste material.
According to National Library of Medicine, USA, Drinking hot water can also minimize or eliminate discomfort caused by acid reflux. The reflux occurs when the valve connecting the stomach to the food pipe is weakened, making the acid from the stomach to flow back into the food pipe.
Aids Blood Circulation
Hot water can relax the muscles, expands blood vessels, and positively impacts circulation. This assists in cardiovascular function, pain relief, and overall health maintenance.
Weight Loss
Drinking hot water every morning prepares your gut for the rest of the day, which may contribute to weight loss.
The water clears the intestines, prevents bloating, and eliminates excess water weight through the contraction of the bowels.
Experts also argue that hot water increases core body temperature, making the body expend energy and lower its temperature back to normal. The energy expenditure promotes metabolism.
Keeps You Hydrated
Drinking water at any temperature will keep you hydrated. If you drink hot drinks such as coffee or tea in the morning, you will also get the hydration benefits of hot water.
Should you replace the coffee with drinking hot water, it’ll reduce the harmful effects of caffeine.
Clears Nasal Congestion
Drinking hot water every day can help nasal congestion. The warm vapor from a cup of hot water clears out mucous in the nasal passage within a short time.
Better for Your Teeth
Avoid drinking cold water daily if you’ve had multiple teeth fillings and don’t want to escalate this problem. Some white filling materials contract when exposed to cold water, and this can make the filling to debond off the teeth.
Drinking hot water daily is also the best option if you have sensitive teeth as well.
Relieves Stress
Drinking hot water daily calms your nervous system, which controls how your brain responds to stress. When dehydrated, your central nervous system can be thrown off, starting a vicious cycle.
Taking hot water can help alleviate stress-induced high blood pressure or hypertension. It warms your body, helps increase blood flow, and might lower blood pressure.
Relieves Constipation
If you’ve suffered from constipation, you know how painful the experience can be. In fact, you dread going to the toilet to defecate.
To avoid suffering from constipation, make it a habit of taking hot water daily. The water makes the bowels contract. When your bowels contract, you pass stool easily.
Side Effects of Drinking Hot Water Daily
- Can Mess Up Your Sleep
Timing is important if you intend to drink hot water daily. Taking the water earlier in the day is the only best way to do it.
Reason? Drinking a lot of water when retiring to bed can mess up your sleep. You’ll wake up countless times to urinate.
Sleep is essential to your well-being, and disrupting it regularly can have detrimental effects.
- Can Burn Your Mouth
Drinking water that is too hot can be dangerous. You’ve probably burned your mouth once or several times from drinking hot tea, soup, coffee, water, or other hot fluid.
The best way for you to drink hot water is keeping it under 140 degrees F. And since you might not always have a thermometer when taking hot water or any other hot drink, use common sense.
You just can’t sip hot water when it’s clear that you’ll burn your mouth, right?
- Can Cause Internal Burns
Drinking hot water above 140 degrees F every day increases the risk of developing esophagus cancer by 90%. The burn in the esophagus can lead to inflammation and DNA damage, leading to cancer.
- Can Dehydrate You
If you drink hot water every day, you’ll feel less thirsty. Is this a good thing? Not at all. If you feel less thirsty, you’ll end up drinking less water than the recommended amount.
This can be very dangerous, especially on days when your body loses a lot of water through sweating. For instance, when working out, you need to drink enough water to cool your body down and blood pumping for the intense workouts.
Conclusion
Drinking hot water every day comes with a lot of health benefits. It encourages detoxification, alleviates stress, aids weight loss, clears nasal congestion, and relieves stress and constipation.
However, it can also dehydrate you, mess up your sleep, burn your mouth, and worse still, cause internal burns.
The bottom line is to drink hot water below 140 degrees F to avoid burning your mouth. Additionally, drink the water hours before bedtime to avoid disrupting your sleep and avoid drinking it when you know that you’ll be hitting the gym or engaging in strenuous activities.