Q: Good morning Dr. May you kindly illuminate on recommended quantity of fluid one is required to take each day  My concern is that after taking a glass of water, 5 mins later, I am going to bathroom. Is there something wrong with me?

A: Thanks for writing in. Water is important for life and we use it for very important functions daily: taking a bath, washing clothes, washing dishes, cooking and of course, drinking. The water we drink is very critical for a lot of bodily functions like digestion, excretion (when we urinate, pass faeces and sweat), movement of nutrients all around the body, keeping your joints nice and supple etc. If you also consider the fact that a healthy body contains about two-thirds, water, then it is clear that we can’t joke with our fluid intake per day.

Five tips to help you with this:

• Though, there are recommended amounts to take daily, it really depends on your activity level (notice how much more water you appear to need after a hectic workout?), where you live (notice how much water you also seem to drink when you live or visit the tropics as opposed to when you live in or visit a temperate region) and your health condition (for instance, people with UTI need to drink some more water).
• Generally, we are encouraged to drink 8 8-ounce glasses of fluid per day. This is approximately 2 litres of water per day.
• Any fluid counts e.g. milk, fruit juices, beverages etc. But try to remember that these other fluid sources, other than water, may contain calories that you probably don’t need
• An easy way to check whether your body is getting enough water in a day is to check your urine colour. If it’s dark yellow, you’re probably not getting enough. If it’s pale yellow in colour, you’re doing good
• If you don’t like the taste of plain water, you can jazz it up with a slice of lemon or limeand if you don’t like the taste of plain milk, like most children, you can add some flavor like vanilla to it.

Water is necessary for life itself. Be sure that you’re drinking sufficient quantities of this daily.