Drinking warm water is good for Psoriasis

This article doesn’t promote the idea of drinking warm water as a cure for psoriasis. Drinking warm water instead of normal cold water can speed up the process of body detoxification of your body along with several other help benefits which would definitely help you in healing/managing your psoriasis. This is the whole idea behind this article.

As we all know, more than 70% of earth’s total surface is water and water is the basis of all life on this earth. Hence, it is not very difficult to understand that drinking pure water in good amount is one of the most fundamental requirement to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. Almost all the skincare and health professionals recommend drinking enough water to keep your skin and your body healthy.

All of us lose enough fluid from our bodies throughout the day by activities such as – urine discharge, bowel movements, sweating and breathing. To make up for this loss of fluid and to avoid dehydration, we need to intake sufficient amount of fresh drinking water.

When we talk about drinking warm water instead of normal cool water to get enhanced benefits, then getting curious is obvious.

Let us try to understand by this simple example- We all know how to wash dishes. So tell me which one would work best to clean greasy oily food plates? Cold water or hot water? Obviously, hot or warm water. In the similar fashion, drinking warm water would help your body to flush out accumulated toxins, uric acid, deposits of oils (and fats) and other waste materials more effectively than cold water.

Drinking warm water is good for Psoriasis

Drinking enough water is one of the foremost requirement for a healthy body metabolism. Going further, if we drink water which is a little warmer than normal cool water, then the benefits multi-folds.

If you remember, Indian female journalist, Alaka Dhupkar also mentioned drinking warm water in her list of healthy habits to manage her psoriasis.

Let us try to find out how warm water can be a better option than normal cool water:

• Body detoxification

Your skin is a reflection of your internal body functions. Healthy body metabolism means healthy skin and vice versa. For me, eliminating accumulated body wastes (toxins) and not letting any further accumulation of body toxins is the best way of managing my psoriasis. I have found three different ways in which drinking warm water can help you lower down the level of body wastes in your body:

1. Just like liver and kidney, your skin is also one of the eliminatory organ of your body, involved in the elimination of body toxins. It acts as a “third kidney” performing multiple functions and elimination of body wastes in the form of sweat is one of your skin’s primary jobs. Drinking warm water increases your body temperature. Your body tried to cool down through sweating.
2. Drinking warm water aids in digestion process. Drinking normal cold water after meals can harden the oil present in your food developing fat deposits on the inner wall of your intestine which can lead to all sorts of gut related disorders. Drinking warm water will avoid this problem. Apart from that, warm water will fasten the process of breaking down foods in your stomach to keep your digestive tract on track. Improved digestion implies lesser body wastes and hence lower level of body toxins.
3. Drinking water in the morning empty stomach is the best remedy for constipation. All of us have heard and experienced this idea. Constipation simply means dried stools accumulated in your body due to lack of fluids (water). Replacing normal cold water with warm water (with lemon water squeezed in it) can really dissolve these hardened stools far more quickly to experience smooth and regularized bowel movements.

• Promotes weight loss

Drinking warm water does help you in shedding a few pounds. Almost every weight loss treatment regimen advises drinking warm lemon water in the morning empty stomach. Warm water increases your body temperature to speed up the metabolism process. A study shows that drinking 2 liters of warm water can increase your body metabolism by 25-30%. This increased metabolism rate help your body to consume more calories. Warm water helps your body break down the body fat to dissolve them gradually. Adding lemon water in it will help in controlling food craving because lemon contains pectin fiber.

•  Pain reliever (anti-inflammatory)

Warm water reduces various types of body pain ranging from menstruation to headache. It also demonstrates anti-inflammatory properties by providing a soothing and calming effect on various joint muscles. Warm water increases blood flow to the skin and help relax joint muscles and hence can help in dealing with psoriasis arthritis in particular.

• Increases blood circulation and improves your skin health

Drinking warm water improves blood circulation in your body. Drinking warm water melts fat deposits in your body to speed up blood circulation in your body.

Blood is the carrier of oxygen in your body. Proper blood circulation ensures enough infusion of oxygen to each and every internal organ of your body. Enough oxygen in your internal body organs has numerous health benefits such as:

> Elimination of body toxins and uric acid (accumulation of uric acid in your blood stream can cause joint pain and arthritis).

> Promotes improved functioning of your body’s nervous system and other body tissues

> Strengthen your body’s immune system

> Helps in digesting your food and absorb vital nutrients from it

How much to drink 

There is a popular rule of 8 by 8-  drinking 8 glasses of water a day and each glass amounts 8 ounces of water. It equals to around 2 liters of water or half a gallon.

If you have psoriasis, this is not enough!

You have a sluggish body metabolism; your liver is impaired; your digestion is not up to the mark; you may have certain food insensitivity (towards gluten, dairy etc.). Hence, you should drink at least 3 liters (0.80 gallons) of water a day. It equals around 12-14 cups of water a day

If you falls in any of the below category, then you need to drink more water:

• Regular physical exercise can be a game changer in psoriasis. It is highly recommended. Don’t do hardcore exercises. Listen to your body and do exercise in an intelligent way to kick start your body metabolism. If you are doing regular physical exercise, then you must be losing some fluids from the body in the form of sweat. Hence, you need more water- 3.0 to 4.0 liters of water.

Read more: Exercise and Psoriasis

• If you are pregnant or you are breastfeeding, then also you need more water to compensate for the lost fluids from the water- 3.0 liters for pregnant ladies and 4.0 liters for breastfeeding ladies.
• If you are suffering from health conditions like diarrhea or vomiting, then also you need to drink more water to keep your body hydrated.

Indications that you are not drinking enough

If your urine is light yellow colored, it is an indication that you are drinking sufficient amount of water. On the contrary, if your urine is deep, dark yellow in color, then you need to drink more water.

Similarly, if your urination frequency is too less, then you need to pour in more water in your body.

Making sure that you drink enough water

Drinking 3-4 liters of water a day; around 0.8 to 1 gallon- it sounds quite a lot. Now, break it into parts. Then this target would look achievable.

You just need a commitment and an analytical approach.

Plan a schedule for your daily water consumption. Divide your total water consumption in parts- early morning, after exercise, after lunch, in the late evening and after dinner.

For example:

• Drink 3-4 cups of water in the early morning, preferably warm water with lemon juice in it.
• Drink 1 cup after the breakfast
• 2 cups in between breakfast and lunch
• Drink 2 cups of water after the lunch
• After lunch, before leaving the office, drink 2 more cups of water
• In the late evening after returning from the office, drink 2 cups of water; preferably warm water with lemon juice in it
• After the dinner, drink 2 more cups of water with lemon juice added in it.

Read more: Benefits of lemon water for Psoriasis

Try to make sure that out of your total water consumption, at least half should be warm water. 

Avoid Chilled water/ beverages

Drinking chilled (refrigerated) water means slaughtering your digestive system with your own hands. It is something like- pouring cold water on a burning piece of wood. Chilled water causes shock decrease in internal body temperature which can extinguishes the digestive fire to hamper the digestion process badly.

Always drink normal temperature water and other beverages.

Beverages other than pure water

Pure drinking water is the best drink to gulp. Apart from that, there is a variety of other healthy beverages available:-

• Coconut water– It is fortified with magnesium and whole range of minerals and vitamins. For some people, drinking coconut water brings remarkable improvement in scalp psoriasis.

Read more: Coconut water for Scalp Psoriasis

• Buttermilk– It is a natural probiotic drink, used in the treatment of various disorders related to digestive system and inflammation. Even if you have dairy intolerance, you can drink buttermilk without any trouble.

Read more: Buttermilk benefits for Psoriasis

• Lemon water– It makes your body alkaline, aids in digestion and it is one of the best liver detox drink. Lemon water helps in avoiding constipation and helps in maintaining a healthy gut flora.

You need to stay away from unhealthy choices like soda, carbonated sweetened beverages, diet Coke/Pepsi. Also, limit the consumption of coffee and tea.

Conclusion

Drinking warm water is good for psoriasis healing because it accelerates the body metabolism to facilitate smooth elimination of toxins from your body. It aids in digestion, reduces inflammation and helps in getting rid of unwanted fats from your body.

Hence, replacing your morning tea/coffee with warm water (preferably with lemon water squeezed in it) is definitely an intelligent idea.