This is no great surprise. We all kind of know that a heart healthy diet and drinking water must be connected, in some way.
Makes sense. Your heart is your most important organ and water is really a heart healthy food. It is the most important nutrient you take in.
But now research suggests that there is an indisputable connection between drinking water and heart health.
In a 6 year study of 20,000 men and women, the Journal of Epidemiology (2002) found that women who drank 5 or more glasses of water per day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack then those who did not drink at least 5 glasses a day.
Men did even better.
Now, does that prove conclusively that drinking water prevents heart attacks? No, because it was not a controlled experiment and many other factors contributed to the findings. Also, some water drinkers did die of heart attacks.
Research is not always clear cut.
But doesn't this finding make sense? Hey, if you're drinking more water maybe it's because you're are exercising more. If you are drinking more water maybe you are drinking less soda, eating less and staying closer to your ideal weight. All that is true.
But water also acts as a blood thinner and that may explain water and heart health.
So here is one of the most important healthy heart tips:
Make it a habit to drink water. You should be drinking a glass of water every 2 hours or so, minus the 8 hours that you sleep. That adds up to 8 glasses a day, the recommended minimum.
Even better, divide your weight in half. That's how many ounces of water you should be drinking daily.
