Water and healthy skin have always gone hand in hand. You can’t have the latter without the former.
If you spend any amount of time on social media, it is easy to believe that healthy skin comes from plastic tubes of serums, pumps of lotions, and an endless array of face masks, rollers, tighteners, balms, salves, ointments, creams — and the list goes on. While some of those products may help, we’re sad to break it to the many (many!) skinfluencers out there, but none of that stuff can make up for the negative effects dehydration can have on skin.
Dehydrated skin is more likely to be dry and flaky. It’s also more prone to chapping and cracking, as well as fine lines, wrinkles and blemishes.
No matter how many steps go into a skincare routine, the first should always be: drink plenty of water. And when that water is Mountain Valley Spring Water, drinking glass after glass is deliciously simple.
At Mountain Valley, unlike many bottled water brands, we don’t “source” our water from a lab or factory. Each drop of Mountain Valley Spring Water flows from the earth through a natural spring tucked into the verdant heart of the Ouachita Mountains of the Southern U.S. Our water is water as nature intended it: naturally mineralized, wholly balanced, purely refreshing. This makes Mountain Valley fantastically easy to drink.
That’s great for your health and the health of your skin.
Water and Skin Health: The myriad pros of hydration
Water is what we are made of. The human body is 50 to 75 percent water. An individual’s exact percentage can fluctuate based on age, weight, sex and how much water a person has had to drink in the last several hours. On average though, that percentage hovers around 60. And, on average, our skin is made up of slightly more water, about 64 percent.
So, yes, hydration isn’t only critical to our overall health, it’s also a key factor to the health of our skin. Keeping skin hydrated is essential to keeping it smooth, plumped, glowing and all-around gorgeous.
It is, perhaps surprisingly, quite difficult to hydrate the skin externally. During a shower or even a long luxurious bath, very little water passes through from the tap and into the epidermis. That’s because most of our skin, the largest organ we humans possess, is made up of something known as “stratified squamous epithelium.” This tissue covers much of the body and can be thought of almost like the shingles on a roof. In the stratified squamous epithelium, cells are flattened, tightly joined together and stacked. They’re built this way to protect the network of far more sensitive tissues, organs, nerves and blood vessels that lie beneath them. The epithelium is designed to keep the bad stuff out — including water.
If water were able to penetrate the skin, then a dip into a lake — or even a puddle — would spell disaster. The body would swell like a sponge, and the surge of water would wreak havoc on the delicate balance humans require for survival.
Thanks to the stratified squamous epithelium, one of the only ways to hydrate cells is from within, you guessed it, by drinking water. Many external skin products work by preserving and enhancing the water that is already in the body. But you need to drink that water to put it in place.
Water and Skin Health: How drinking water benefits the skin
Keeping skin healthy and properly hydrated requires drinking a good amount of water. In order for the water one drinks to even reach the skin, it must first pass through the intestines, be absorbed into the bloodstream and get filtered via the kidneys. From there, molecules of water are gobbled up by the body’s many internal organs and tissues before, eventually, making it to the skin.
The water that gets to the skin is crucial, yes, but even it can’t work miracles.
It is a myth that drinking water can firm sagging skin or iron out wrinkles. So, what can drinking water do? We will let the experts at Westlake Dermatology explain:
- Improve skin thickness: Research published in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science found that drinking nine or more cups of water every day improved skin density and thickness after one month. Thicker skin is less prone to fine lines and wrinkles because it’s more elastic.
- Improve elasticity: Skin is made up of three layers which act as a barrier, protecting your insides from the outside world. When dehydrated, the skin’s outermost layer, the epidermis, loses its elasticity. Drinking more water can replenish this bounce, resulting in skin that looks smoother and more youthful.
- Increase blood flow: Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia found drinking just two cups of water can improve blood flow to the skin. When circulation is running smoothly, oxygen and nutrients are better able to reach the skin. This helps the body heal from wounds and acts as a preventative, providing a more youthful overall glow.
- Boost health: A person’s health, good or bad, is reflected in the tone, texture and general appearance of their skin. Anything we can do to maintain good health in general will improve the look of our complexion. Drinking water may not get rid of acne or wrinkles, but dehydration can certainly enhance such imperfections.
Water and Skin Health: How much water to drink for healthy, glowing skin?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to how much water a person needs to drink in a day. That amount varies person to person, and even day to day. We need to drink more water when we’re outside sweating or working out intensely at the gym. We can get away with a bit less water when we’re inside sitting at a desk for hours.
The experts at Harvard Health advise that, “For healthy individuals, the average daily water for men is about 15.5 cups and for women about 11.5 cups.” They note, however, that this can likely be adjusted downward because of the water present in fruits and vegetables, which also helps to boost overall hydration.
Another interesting concept to consider when trying to drink enough water: Take your body weight, divide it by two, and that’s approximately how many ounces of water you need to drink in a day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, then, on average, you should drink 75 ounces of water each day. That’s a little more than nine cups, which is consistent with what the Harvard Health experts advise.
The benefits of proper hydration couldn’t be any clearer — nor could the health of our skin when it’s properly hydrated. To get hydrated and stay hydrated, it’s best to start with wonderful water. At Mountain Valley, that is our specialty.
Since 1871, Mountain Valley Spring Water has bottled The Best Water in these United States of America. That’s not just us tooting our own horn, Mountain Valley is in fact the most award-winning bottled water in the U.S. Our purely sourced, naturally refreshing spring water comes from our protected spring located in the heart of Arkansas’s Ouachita Mountains. We let Mother Nature do the hard work, naturally mineralizing and balancing this water over hundreds and thousands of years, then we bottle it in glass and ship it to restaurants and grocery stores coast to coast across the country.
To make healthful, hydrated skin even easier, we also offer Mountain Valley Spring Water for home delivery and office delivery. Cut out the middleman and let us do the heavy lifting by having the crisp goodness that is Mountain Valley dropped off at your doorstep. It is wonderfully refreshing and wonderfully great for you (and your skin), and all you have to do to get started is click here.
