With the New Year quickly approaching, people are going to start making and implementing their grand 2010 New Year’s Resolutions. Ultimately a lot of people will choose to “be healthier”, which is a great resolution but people tend to fall off the “healthy” wagon (hence why so many make new commitments each year to it). But being healthy can be super easy if you make your number one health goal to DRINK LOTS OF WATER!

Water is an understated, underrated, underappreciated necessary nutrient because hydration is so important to the functionality of the human body. Water helps with digestion, removes toxins (get rid of the toxic pumpkin pie sitting in your gut), cushions joints (as you start your new workout routine), controls body temperature and most importantly helps with mental performance (like, duh).

It’s been estimated that up to 80% of the U.S. adult population goes through their normal day in at least a mildly dehydrated state. And, if one reports for work, school or life dehydrated, the odds of that circumstance improving during the day aren’t very good. In addition, dehydration can be masked in hunger pains so when a person feels hungry it could just be the body screaming for water. So hydrate, hydrate, hydrate with tap water and reusable water bottles – your body, mind and landfills will thank you!

From May 2009 issue of Parents Magazine

Kidney stones may seem like an adult condition, but doctors say this painful problem is rapidly on the rise in children, typically striking around age 5.  Experts don’t fully understand what’s behind the increase, but they think kids are eating too many high-sodium foods (think fast food and quick-fix dinners) and not drinking enough water.  Stones form when kids’ urine is too concentrated with salt and other minerals.

If your child has pain in her mid to lower back or belly, and blood in her urine, a fever, or vomiting, go to your doctor or the E.R. right away – she may need surgery.  Once a child has had one stone, she has a 50 percent chance of having another, says Pasquale Casale, M.D., director of minimally invasive urologic surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  He suggests looking at her pee before she flushes.  If it’s golden and the smell is strong, she could be dehydrated.  If it’s almost clear, she’s in the clear too.