Water and Physical Exertion

In a health report entitled “Human Performance & Water Intake,” HR Magazine carried an interesting item from South Africa that determines the relation between human performance and water intake.

One of the first studies was carried out to counter the then existing belief among men that it was unwise to drink any liquids during underground shift. The study revealed that the heart beat for unacclimatized men increased continuously during a four-hour work shift, and finally reached value in excess of 160 beats per minute.

In comparison, those men who were fully acclimatized and given adequate water during similar periods , recorded heart beats of below 120 beats per minute. In other words, the beneficial effects of heat acclimatization were entirely eliminated when water was withheld from men working under hot conditions.

The psychological effects of dehydration are as serious as the physiological ones. This was shown in a study of army recruits during a march of 30 kilometers.

Men who marched on a restricted water supply, if only a liter for the duration of the march put up the worst performance. As a group, they were difficult to handle, became morose, aggressive and disobedient. They showed obvious signs of fatigue, and 40 percent were unable to complete the march. In contrast, men whose supplies of water were not restricted, maintained high morale throughout and only one collapsed because of fatigue.

One can deduce from the studies that water is indeed very important not only to men who do moderate to hard physical work in hot and humid environments but also to those who regularly do physical and conditioning exercises.

Diet and Senility. The most important element to keep your brain fine tuned – and escape early senility – is DIET, according to Executive Fitness Newsletter.

Research shows that the brain needs B-complex vitamins to preserve memory and clear thinking. And in a case that dramatically illustrates this fact, continues the Newsletter, doctors from England reported that a 65-year-old woman, hospitalized after weeks of “severe clouding of consciousness,” was cured of her mental difficulties in two days with supplements of B-complex vitamins.

And while you are taking B-complex supplements, you might also take ZINC. That a zinc deficiency contributes to senility is the hypothesis of Australian Nobel prize winner F. Macfarlane Burnet. He points out that senility may be due to decrease in the zinc content of the enzymes crucial to memory function, and suggests that taking a zinc supplement “may prevent or delay the onset of dementia in those genetically at risk.”

As Burnet emphasizes, zinc’s relationship to senility is only theory. But he also points out that “zinc is almost completely non-toxic” – so zinc supplements do you no harm – and maybe a lot of good.