Water

October 4th, 2006 | general

Young whippersnappers don’t appreciate how important the watercooler once was.

In the fifties, air conditioning was a luxury. Bottled water was not available. Hanging out at the watercooler fostered the camaraderie you see among smokers huddled together outside office buildings except that you didn’t need to be addicted to carcinogens to join the party. The closest equivalent of the old watercooler today is the coffee room.

Watercoolers are not the only way that water impacts learning and innovation.

A 160 lb. person needs to drink 80 oz. of water daily just to keep up with evaporation and elimination. That’s three large bottles of San Pellegrino daily. Or eight large glasses.

What’s this have to do with learning? If you are dehydrated (along with a third of American adults), your metabolism slows down. You’re more likely to get tired at work and have back pain, fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with baisc math, and difficulty foucusing on the computer screen or a printed page.

Coffee, tea, booze, and colas are less good for you that water. Further, the best water to fight dehydration is warm water. Who knew?

Drink more water, become a better learner.