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Does Drinking Water Help Your Skin? Learn The Benefits
Does drinking water help your skin? The short and simple answer is “yes” — but perhaps not in the straightforward way you were expecting. There’s no direct evidence linking increased water intake with improving your body’s largest organ, but there is a lot of research suggesting that drinking more water impacts your body on a cellular level. And this can have visible effects.1
What does this mean? In a nutshell, chugging a few extra cups of water won’t solve your skin woes. But keeping yourself amply hydrated may help keep you healthier overall — and when you’re in good shape, chances are, your skin will show it.
Read on for ways adequate hydration helps your body (and your skin), and get the lowdown on what you can and should do to support supple, healthy skin.
What Are Some Potential Benefits Of Drinking Water For Your Skin?
When you drink water, it goes straight to your cells through your blood. This helps keep your body and your skin hydrated. Proper hydration helps your body flush out toxins. So, drinking water directly supports your body’s organs, and can influence how your skin looks and feels.2
Skin Tone
Poor circulation or blood flow is often associated with improper or inefficient delivery of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body, and this can be visible in your skin. Your complexion might look pale, dull, or uneven.3
But evidence shows that improved fluid intake means better blood flow throughout your body. So, this boost in blood circulation can help support the appearance of a more even complexion. Studies suggest that this is especially noticeable in mature women.4
Consistent water consumption also plays an important role in supporting your immune system and helping flush toxins from your body — both are integral to helping support clear and smooth skin.5
Dehydration
There isn’t solid scientific evidence supporting the idea that drinking more water can improve your skin’s moisture. But there is evidence that not drinking enough water per day can cause dehydration linked to skin dryness. So, when you amp up your water consumption, it can help support optimal skin hydration.6
Water loss on a cellular level could cause the outer layer of skin to look and feel rough and dry. Replenishing the water in your body helps infuse your cells with the hydration it needs, helping keep your skin supple..7
Wrinkles And Skin Sagging
Water is essential for collagen production and strength, which is one of your skin’s powerhouses against aging. Collagen loss or weakness leads to skin-aging issues — like more pronounced wrinkles and fine lines and a lack of elasticity. So, making sure your body has sufficient hydration levels to keep producing collagen can help support the appearance and quality of maturing skin.8
Puffy Eyes And Dark Circles
Ironically, puffiness in your facial area may be the result of water retention from consuming too much sodium in your diet. But this doesn’t mean you should drink less water to combat it. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Drinking more water can help your body flush excess water out, supporting circulation in the capillaries around your eye area and potentially lessening the appearance of puffiness and dark circles.9,10
How Much Water Should You Be Drinking Daily?
Again, your goal is to achieve optimum hydration to help keep your body working properly (and your skin healthy). The standard advice on exactly how much water everyone should be drinking is about eight glasses of water a day. The truth is, you need to take into account your lifestyle (how much you sweat), any health conditions you may have, and your age (adults may need between 2-3 liters of water a day). Here’s a good baseline to consider: Observe your urine quality. If it’s pale yellow or clear, that’s a good sign that you’re well-hydrated.11
How To Increase Your Water Intake
If you’re not much of a water drinker, here are some ways you can help get the extra water your body needs:
- Try water infusions or flavor your water with healthy ingredients. Just make sure to watch the sugar content. Try adding fruit and herbs to plain water, or consider drinking water with lemon.
- Have a water bottle handy at all times, and make sure you take a sip before meals and after bathroom breaks.
- Keep a bottle of water in places you can easily access, like on your work table and in your car, so you’re constantly reminded to drink.
- Add more water-rich foods to your diet. The high water content of certain fruits and vegetables (like watermelon and zucchini) can help contribute to your overall water intake, so consider eating more of these foods.12
Other Ways To Help Support Clear And Glowing Skin
Drinking enough water can be a great way to help support healthy skin. Even if you’re already getting plenty of daily H20, there are additional things you can do to help support clear, glowing skin. It’s always a good idea to pay particular attention to your diet, your skin care products, and your skin care routine.
- Consider a moisturizer with hyaluronic acid, a humectant that helps your skin absorb and retain more moisture.
- Avoid bathing and washing your face with hot water, which can dry out skin. Lukewarm water is best.13
- In addition to foods high in water, you may also benefit from a healthy diet rich in essential fatty acids that contribute to skin health.14
Hydration Helps Your Skin
Making sure you drink enough water is just one of the many ways you can help support healthy and glowing skin. With the right lifestyle habits, diet, skincare products, and a good relationship with a dermatologist or doctor, you’re well on your way to get that youthful glow you crave.
Sources
https://www.byrdie.com/drinking-water-stay-hydrated
https://medium.com/@mdsun_1688/blood-circulation-and-the-skin-part-1-how-increased-blood-circulation-can-affect-the-skin-3443fa7dd2c5
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17352748/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/does-drinking-water-help-acne#immune-function
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4529263/
https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/how-drinking-water-helps-skin/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150126125011.htm
https://www.multipure.com/purely-social/science/how-drinking-water-helps-skin/
https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-get-rid-of-puffy-eyes-5105091
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/9013-dehydration
https://www.self.com/story/how-to-drink-more-water
https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-skin/can-you-hydrate-your-way-to-healthy-skin/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-foods-for-healthy-skin
