As it turns out, one of the best-kept secrets for healthier, younger-looking skin is as easy to find as turning the tap. Water makes up a large percentage of your body weight, and when you don't drink enough of it, it shows in your skin. Without enough water, your skin looks dull, and prematurely aged.
Water helps you stay healthy, avoid dehydration and reduces your risk of getting a hangover. Staying well hydrated could also help slow aging, according to a recently published study by the National Institutes of Health.
“Everyone wants a quick fix when it comes to making skin look better, but drinking more water isn't going to help get rid of wrinkles or plump up your skin unless you are extremely dehydrated,” says Elizabeth Damstetter, MD, a dermatologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Specifically, researchers found that in individuals with low daily water consumption — that is, those who were dehydrated to begin with — increasing water intake had a positive effect on skin appearance and helped maintain skin hydration levels.
"You may feel a difference within minutes of drinking water," explains Mary Stewart, R.D., L.D., the founder of Cultivate Nutrition in Dallas. "In fact, one study found that participants experienced an increase in caloric burn 24 minutes after drinking water."
4) Water makes your face glow
As well as splashing warm water on your face to open pores and cold water to close pores, drinking enough water will also add to your healthy glow as it delivers essential nutrients to your skin cells and keeps your skin replenished.
People who had just 2 or 3 more cups of water a day seem to have less fat, sugar, salt, and overall calories through the day. That means proper hydration could help you lose weight. Extra water can replace empty, sugary calories many people drink with meals.
In fact, water is about 60 percent of collagen's total weight. Experiments that remove water from collagen have shown that it dramatically impacts the tensile force of the protein, which has serious implications for skin health. Drinking more water will keep your collagen hydrated, and wrinkles at bay.
Tighter Skin
A great way to help tighten the skin around your jawline, stomach, arms, and legs is to drink more water. That's because water helps improve skin elasticity, making it bounce back from sagging.
Media Articles on the Benefits of Drinking Water
It went: “Doctors recommend drinking 8 glasses per day; however, we say make it a habit to drink at least 12 glasses a day. Not only will these keep you healthy, but will leave a radiant glow on your skin, which will make you look younger.”
When your skin becomes dehydrated you experience symptoms of dryness, flakiness, roughness, irritation, and cracking; hence the look of prematurely aged skin. These symptoms can be eliminated by replenishing the Natural Moisturizing Factor and normalizing the Stratum Corneum.
When you drink too much water, your kidneys can't get rid of the excess water. The sodium content of your blood becomes diluted. This is called hyponatremia and it can be life-threatening.
If the outermost layer of the epidermis doesn't contain enough water, skin will lose elasticity and feel rough. Despite this connection, however, there's a lack of research showing that drinking extra water has any impact on skin hydration or appearance.
Boosts skin glow
Drinking water increases the blood flow to the skin, making it look healthier and giving it a glow. A study by the University of Missouri-Columbia revealed that, increased blood flow to the skin can also even out skin tone and complexion.
How Much Water To Drink For Glowing Skin? The recommended amounts of water that you should be drinking according to experts is 3.7 litres for men and 2.7 litres of water for women [6]. This includes any beverages, fruits and vegetables you drink with high water content.
When you drink a glass of water, it takes approximately 15 minutes for your body to absorb the fluid. However, when you're dehydrated, it can take about three times as long (45 minutes) for fluids to make their way from the stomach into the bloodstream and to the rest of the body.
Whether you want to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, have more moisturized skin, or clear up redness, the best vitamins to meet your needs include vitamins E, C, A, D, B, and K.
Loss of muscle tone and thinning skin gives the face a flabby or drooping appearance. In some people, sagging jowls may create the look of a double chin. Your skin also dries out and the underlying layer of fat shrinks so that your face no longer has a plump, smooth surface.