There are 12 systems in the body (Respiratory, Skeletal, Circulatory, Digestive, Immune, Endocrine, Lymphatic, Nervous, Muscular, Reproductive, Urinary, Integumentary), and I already know that I have at least one defective one, so it seems to me that I should be making sure that the others are functioning as optimally as possible in order to best protect my 5 most essential organs (lungs, brain, heart, kidneys & liver).
The fact of the matter is that the body is interconnected and that things we do to one part of the body have effects on others. If I take care of my whole body, besides just focusing on my lungs, I feel like my lungs will benefit the most. Transversely, if I take better care of my lungs the rest of my body will also benefit.
I'm starting out simple. I'm trying to drink 2 liters of water per day. According to the Mayo Clinic, I will be positively impacting just about every part of my body.
More importantly, there are some real, direct implications of making sure you have enough water as an asthmatic. As I was doing research on this, I found a number of blogs and articles that are convinced that asthma can be cured by just increasing water intake. That's not what I'm saying. Science doesn't say that either. However, what I am saying is that water is good for you, and it may have particular benefits for those who do have asthma and is a very simple habit that could have significant positive effects.
First of all, let's take a look at what actually makes someone asthmatic:
As this picture shows, one of the primary trademarks of asthma is increased mucous production and inflammation. Since our asthmatic bodies seem to LOVE to keep mucous production high, it would make sense that we would want it to be as thin or viscous as possible so that a) when we flare up it doesn't become so thick that it is impossible to cough out and b) if we can keep it working properly when we do come in contact with one of our triggers our bodies can expel it as quickly as possible and thereby reduce the amount of time we spend in a more severe state. Dehydration can also trigger histamine production and in itself trigger an inflammatory response.
Water is also what our muscles need to stay moist and our lungs are really no different. In fact we lose about a pint of water per day just by exhaling. When we have an acute exacerbation we lose even more and we add more stress to our water needs by needing to repair irritated sinus passages and throats from all that hacking and wheezing. Adding more water just allows our bodies to do what it needs to do most efficiently and effectively.
What else does water do? It helps all of the nutrients and medications that we take to be delivered to the right places and then It helps us rinse ourselves from the inside out. All of those germs, depleted medicines and viruses that we take in have to get filtered out. Right now I'm on a pretty typical course for a severe exasperation: I'm taking prednisone, singular, dulera, xopenex... all of which have to be filtered through the body. And when you don't rinse your body of these medicines there are additional side effects, like yeast infections, thrush, constipation, etc. The water also helps to ensure that those same medications are able to travel to the places they are needed most and then leave the body as soon as they are no longer helping.
When we get sick for any reason, whether it be a cold, flu, tummy ache or just generally run down, it is always recommended that we drink water if even just to help our bodies work as efficiently as possible. Why would it be any different for asthma? And if water can help us improve our immune systems by flushing out the bad stuff before it has a chance to get more inflamed and react, then we can get one step ahead of the control game.
What I'm doing to keep track of my water intake: I have a 1 liter bottle that I really like and I fill it up in the morning and then fill it up again when it's empty. I used to set a timer to remind me to drink every hour, but I found it annoying and not helpful, so I stopped that. If it works for you though, by all means! I log my intake in my current health tracker of choice MyFitnessPal, which is joined to my FitBit Flex. (Perhaps I'll discuss those trackers another day).
BTW, prednisone does have the side effect for some people causing them to urinate more often... I feel like I've been peeing like every 30-40 minutes... don't get discouraged! Water is good!
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