The Water Component in the Human Body

It is a well known fact that of all the substances in the human body, water takes the first place in terms of quantity. The water percentage in the human body was approximated in the 19th century by Claude Bernard in a most ingenious way: the French biologist weighed Egyptian mummies - which were completely dehydrated, and then compared their weight to that of living people of the same height and with similar physical characteristics. According to this process, the human body contains 90% water, which is wrong, because the mummies had lost through the drying process other substances beside water.

Subsequently, exact measurements were carried out and now, physiology manuals show that water represents 40-60% from the weight of an adult, with a higher percentage for men (approximately 55%) than for women (approximately 50%). The body of a 75 kilos man contains a total of 42 liters of water, 28 of which can be found inside the cells (approximately 2/3 of the entire water in the body), the rest being found outside the cells.

Individual variations in the water content of the body depend mainly on the adiposity of the body - the bigger the adipose tissue is, the smaller the percentage of water ( this explains a smaller percentage of water in women than in men). Taking into account the adipose tissue, water represents 72% of the human body, no matter the sex of the person.

5. Legends of the water

Legend: Excessive water consumption is bad for the health. Reality: Except for some cases due to diseases, your body uses only the amount of... [read more]