Can You Survive with Only Water?

No, you cannot survive with only water.

Water plays a huge role and is essential for various body functions, but this does not mean that one can survive on it alone. This is because water does not provide all the nutrients required by the body to function.

In some situations, some people go for days drinking water only to lose weight, but many professional health practitioners don’t encourage it. As a survivalist, I have gone for days surviving on water alone, but eventually, the body starts wearing off due to the lack of required nutrients.

Risks of drinking water only

Your body lacks essential nutrients

When one decides to survive on water only, the body will miss essential nutrients needed for development. This will result in fast weight loss, which is not healthy. The fast weight loss will be due to losing the water you take in very fast and not the fat.

Without the essential nutrients provided by food, one eventually gets a weakened immune system and gets sick more often. You also become weak as a result of starvation.

You will lose the wrong weight

Another risk that comes with survival with only water is that one loses muscles at an alarming rate, even much faster than those losing weight from a recommended and planned calorie reduction.

Since the body requires energy to function and you can’t get all the required energy from water, the body starts utilising the body fat and the muscles. This will also reduce your metabolic rate since the body utilises the fats and muscles, slowly taking away your energy.

You may become dehydrated

Surviving with water only will not guarantee you get all the water needed by the body. Some percentage of the water in the body comes from the food we eat, and this requirement cannot be met when you survive with only water unless you drink more water than the required amount.

There are several signs of dehydration like headaches, dizziness and lack of energy, which leads to low productivity and many more.

Can surviving on with only water be beneficial to you?

To some extent, it can benefit one, but with proper advice from medical experts. Some people decide to drink only water for days to lose weight, which can bring several advantages to their health. However, this weight loss process does not mean you survive with water only forever. Below are some of the benefits of taking part in a water diet.

One gets to practice autophagy

Autophagy is a healthy process where the old cells in the body are broken down to be used again by the body. This process is advantageous to the body as it helps one fight against heart diseases, cancer and even Alzheimer’s disease.

When cells are broken down, the risks of getting diseases such as cancer are greatly reduced since the cells are already broken down to be reused.

You can lower your blood pressure

Long water fasting can benefit those who suffer from high blood pressure. However, this treatment must be approved and supervised by a medical doctor so that you don’t harm yourself. Even though some tests have shown this to be true from various patients who have undertaken long water fasting for high blood pressure, there is still not much research showing the connection between fasting and how it treats blood pressure.

It reduces the risks of one getting some chronic diseases

Various studies have shown that the risks of getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases are greatly reduced after one undertakes only water fasting. Through water fasting, one loses excess triglycerides and cholesterol, the main causes of heart diseases.

By surviving with water only, the heart is protected from the free radicals that can cause damage, which plays a big role in eliminating chronic diseases. Also, the genes that help the growth of cancer cells could be suppressed by surviving with only water. All these procedures should be undertaken with the supervision of a qualified medical doctor to not bring more harm to yourself.

How many days can one survive with only water?

Various studies and observations show the human body can survive for up to eight weeks with only water, but this is considered an extreme case of starvation that is not healthy. In such cases, the body will start utilising its protein and fat reserves to keep the body going. This will damage various organs and cause rapid weight loss, meaning you cannot survive with only water.

Conclusion

From the above, it is evident that you cannot survive with only water because:

• Your body lacks essential nutrients
• You will lose the wrong weight
• You may become dehydrated