Question

My counselor said that water will flush out your system. I told her that water is not going to
change the mechanisms and reactions going on in the body. WAter enables them to run in their reactions, all variuous substrate to prodcuts, but the metabolims and enzymes are fashioned by the genes, and are allready set in place. Obviously I think if water altered the mechanisms the reactions enzymes themselves, then it would change and altere their mechanisms at the molecular level. I think she is wrong.
anyhow water is necessaryy for maintainingy our
reactions and health. But our metabolisms

Answer 1

Our cells and our bodies are mostly water because all of our biological chemical reactions have evolved to operate in a water context. Water is just really fundamental to how everything works. It's pretty much unimaginable to think that you could replace H2O with anything else and expect anything to work the way it does now.

Water is a really unusual molecule with interesting properties. Did you ever stop to think how amazing it is that water expands when it freezes rather than contracting like most other materials? If it were the other way 'round then when water froze its density would increase meaning it would sink, so that the oceans would freeze from the bottom up, and chances are that Earth's oceans would be mostly frozen ice with maybe a thin liquid layer on top.

For the most part water provides the environment in which biological reactions take place. It's a central player in certain reactions, but for many it simply is the background in which the more complex biological molecules move.

As far as the effect on humans of more or less water, the body is actually very good at maintaining proper balances in the face of a wide range of hydration states. A little more or a little less water consumption is not going to have a big effect, but no water or extreme amounts of water are definitely not good things.

Acute water intoxication can result from extreme water intake, such as when a marathon runner consumes so much water that every organ in the body goes into edema, and eventually the brain can't release the pressure into the spinal system and you expire unpleasantly. Dehydration can also be nasty as well, and you can mess up your sodium balance with either too much or too little water.

People used to recommend that you need like nine glasses of water per day to maintain proper health. Recent studies have shown this to be (relatively speaking) nonsense. I think you should avoid any extremes in hydration. Drink when you're thirsty, and when you *are* thirsty, even if you're craving a sugary cola, or alcohol, or whatever, just remember that a cool clear glass of water will be as satisfying as anything else.

But there's no reason to "flush" your body with water (it's actually quite good at taking care of itself) and in extreme cases too much water consumption can indeed be bad for you. Relax. Have a drink (of cool clear water) and don't worry about any need to "flush out the toxins" or whatever you're being told.

Z.

Answer 2

Counselors statements and your thoughts both are correct but on different perspective. For a bad example, you drink extreme 15 glasses of waters in 10 hours and you will flush out all water soluble vitamins (along with toxins) from your body. Hence the system mechanism will alter in absence of anti-oxidants with visual changes in your body functioning. Similarly, with each glass of water you help kidney filter wastes and toxic substances pass in urine. At a molecular level water is integral part of most enzymes. Simulations have shown that the protein structure hence mechanism will crumble in absence of water.