by Fern Shaw | Apr 9, 2021 | water cooler
Eyes contain a whole universe their own. Some of the names of parts of the eye include trenches, radial contraction folds of Schwalbe, cones, rods and more Latin than one can oculus.
Whereas we often refer to how vital drinking enough water is to our body’s health and well-being, and in particular, how much water is needed for optimal organ function, there is a tendency to focus on the more obvious, such as heart or kidney health.
The truth is our eyes, just as with any other body part, require us to drink enough water in order to stave off reduced function, infection and poor eye health.
Dry eye occurs when there are insufficient tears to nourish the eye, and tears are necessary for providing clear vision. Tears wash away foreign matter in the eye and help reduce the risk of eye infections. Symptoms of dry eyes include irritation, excess watering, blurred vision and feeling foreign matter in the eye. As a symptom of dehydration, the best treatment for dry eye is rehydrating by drinking plenty of water.*
It’s also wise to be mindful of how much you blink: in an age where the average adult’s screen time is 8 hours and 41 minutes per day, and screen use has been found to reduce the amount we blink, it makes sense to close our eyes a little bit more. Each time we blink, we moisten our eyes with tears, banishing some of the classic, uncomfortable dry eye symptoms.**
What has become a common problem is referred to as ‘computer vision syndrome’ – an umbrella term for conditions that result from looking at a computer or smartphone screen. According to Dr. Matthew Gardiner, an ophthalmologist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, “It’s most prevalent with computers, and typically occurs when looking at a screen at arm’s length or closer.”
All said it’s rather encouraging there is potentially such a simple solution to healthier, hydrated eyes – drink water and blink more. Should you wish to find out more about installing an AquAid water cooler, providing a constant supply of refreshing drinking water, leaving not a dry eye in the house (or premises or your organisation), contact us.
sources: *from a blog by Kate Green, Optimax Eye Surgery **from an article at essilor
by Fern Shaw | Mar 30, 2021 | water cooler
Traditions at Easter are observed and celebrated globally and have been for centuries – many of which are common knowledge – irrespective of the faiths and beliefs one might follow. However, there are quite a few a little more obscure which may not be that well known – although they are certainly interesting!
Easter Crime in Norway
Every Easter, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians indulge in crime fiction, known in Norwegian as påskekrim (Easter crime). Television channels run crime shows and a slew of new detective novels are commissioned to come out just before Easter. People across the country escape into their mountain cabins and spend the weekend with the ‘Whodunit’ television shows or books.
The phenomenon was triggered by the immense popularity of a crime novel in 1923, set on the famed Oslo to Bergen railway.
The world’s biggest Easter omelette in France
Every Easter Monday, the residents of Haux crack more than 4,500 eggs into a gigantic pan to create a massive Easter omelette that serves over 1,000 people.
Each family breaks the eggs in their homes in the morning and they gather in the main square where the eggs are cooked for lunch. And dinner. And breakfast the next morning…
In Greece, red Easter eggs and red Easter Poppies
Easter is known around the world for multi-coloured, decorated eggs. However, in Greece you will find only red eggs. Red is the colour of life, as well as a representation of the blood of Christ.
From ancient times, the egg has been a symbol of the renewal of life, and the message of the red eggs is victory over death.
According to legend, Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, created the poppy after the loss of her daughter, Persephone. The twin brothers Hypnos and Thanatos (gods of sleep and death) are typically depicted wearing crowns of poppies or carrying poppies in their hands. In the Greek Orthodox Church, crimson poppies represent the blood of Christ on the cross on his journey to Golgotha.
Last but by no means least; it wouldn’t be an AquAid blog if we didn’t provide a water reference:
A time to splash out, Hungary
In Hungary, in the Paloc community of Holloko, there is an Easter water pouring ceremony where on Easter Sunday women dress up in traditional clothes and water is splashed over them. Traditionally men and boys pour buckets of water on women and girls. The men recite a poem to the women before the pouring, asking for their permission.
From our perspective, all we’ll add is water would be flying in all directions, irrespective of gender and, we recommend not using the water from your water cooler for this ceremony.
sources: Omelette and Norway crime: Life in Norway and Wanderlust; Eggs and poppies: Wanderlust and Katerina’s Kouzina, Water ceremony: BBC and Wanderlust.
by Fern Shaw | Mar 16, 2021 | touch free water coolers, water cooler, water dispenser
Dehydration is serious for all of us, but not more so than to our children. Children, especially those younger than ten, are often unaware of the need to drink water regularly and will only do so when they are already thirsty. By this time, their cognitive function is already reduced, by up to 20%. This loss of function affects their ability to concentrate, assimilate information as well as easily perform both mentally and physically.
Here, at AquAid, we understand how vital it is to have easy access to a constant supply of drinking water throughout the school day. This is why we have made sure that we have a range of high quality water coolers available, specifically designed to cater for a high demand of refreshing water on a continual basis.
High capacity water dispensers like the AquAid Hydrator. Designed specifically for use in schools and high usage areas, this mainsfed unit can supply up to 40ℓ of cold drinking water per hour.
Another suitable option is the AquAid Ecofill Touch-Free water dispenser; offering a host of features that include a non-contact dispense point; large bottle clearance height; ‘Freshield’ anti-microbial components and electricity free function.
The AquAid Hydrator and AquAid Ecofill Touch-Free are but two examples of a range of suitable water dispensers ensuring children have easy access to drinking water.
After all, a properly hydrated child means a healthier and happier child – more able to pay attention in class, a better capacity to learn while having sufficient (but not sugar-filled) energy to get through the day.
Not sure which water cooler is best for your school’s requirements? Not to worry, contact us at AquAid and one of our experts will guide you to establish the optimum water cooler for use at your school, gym or play area.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 23, 2021 | water cooler
While the current cold weather seems wont to extend its icy hold over the UK our instinct may be to hydrate less, this is a mistake.
When it’s cold, we may tend to think that we dehydrate less easily than we do when it’s warm, but this is often not the case. *What occurs is the body’s thirst response diminishes – as much as by forty percent, even when we’re already dehydrated. This happens due to the body’s blood vessels constricting when cold in order to prevent blood from flowing freely to the extremities. This enables the body to conserve heat by drawing more blood to its core. Because of this, the body is fooled into thinking it has properly hydrated, e.g. you don’t feel as thirsty and your body doesn’t conserve water. What may also occur is as you are less inclined to drink more water voluntarily; your kidneys don’t receive the signal to conserve water and urine production increases, again potentially leading to dehydration.
This increased urine production and reduced thirst response are only two of the contributing factors. Some others include:
- When wearing multiple, heavy layers of clothing, our bodies have to work between ten and forty percent harder. As such, we sweat more and lose more fluid.
- We also experience increased respiratory loss. This is when you lose water vapour through your breath, which means there is an increase of fluid leaving your body.
- The fact that sweat evaporates more quickly in cooler temperatures means your body is, once again, fooled into thinking you need less fluid.
The simplest method to counteract cold weather dehydration is to keep an eye on how often you drink water, similar to how you would during warmer weather. If you usually make regular trips to replenish your water container from the work water cooler, carry on doing so. Should you work from a home office or remote location, set a repeat alarm on any tech gadget you use. If chilled water is too much to consider drinking, drink ambient (indoor) temperature water. If you can only consider drinking piping hot water drinks, that’s fine, however, try to balance out each hot drink with a drink of cool water and keep yourself healthy and hydrated come rain, snow or ice.
*source: First Aid For Life
by Fern Shaw | Feb 21, 2021 | instant tap, Water Boilers, water cooler, Water Coolers
There are many items used to keep warm externally during when the weather is cold – something we blogged about previously. From furry pets (the best bed warmers), fuzzy socks, heavy coats to hot water bottles, options abound.
Of course, with the advent of the microwave, external body heaters mean we can avoid possible water spillage or leaking as well as negate the possibility of burns filling up a hot water bottle from the kettle. We now have heating pads available containing wheat, buckwheat or flax seed, which may sound like an alcohol brewing starter pack, but it isn’t.
As we’ve covered external body warming, we now look at hot water for warming yourself internally.
This leads us to introduce the AquAid range of water boilers. Each of these high quality, well-designed machines maintain your hot drinking water at an even temperature of 98 °C, thereby ensuring a constant supply of filtered, piping hot drinking water for all your warming hot drinks, combining both practicality and self-service all within a variety of stylish units.
For an alternate hot drinking water solution, we also supply AquAid Instant Taps. These elegant, convenient and environmentally friendly taps are space saving, compact and discreet, providing instantly ready and limitless boiling filtered water at the touch of a button.
Ideal for any workspace, office, remote work location, establishment, medical facility, university, college or school, AquAid Hot Water Boilers and Instant Taps are the perfect hot drinking water solution, meeting your requirements, all while saving you time, energy and money.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 8, 2021 | bottle fed water coolers, water cooler, Water Coolers
You may ask what the connection is, rightly so. It stems from family advice passed down through the generations – if you wanted your puds to rise and stay light and crispy during roasting in piping hot oil, ice-cold water was needed for the batter mixture. According to my Mum’s Nan, the best Yorkshire puds resulted from snapping off icicles and adding those to the batter.
It would seem that with the current weather we’re experiencing harvesting icicles for baking is a doddle. Now that we have that best baking tip sorted out, next we look at if it’s safe to use icicles or snow for your drinking water.
Generally speaking, it is safe to eat clean ice and snow during the winter in the wild outdoors. The same is not always true in urban areas where pollutants may be present. In the outdoors, pay attention to where you gather icicles. Gathering icicles from an evergreen tree in the countryside is one thing; snapping icicles from a roof edge another. If you hold an icicle up to the light and it looks clear and clean, it’s usually safe. However, there are other toxic reasons not to crunch on a snowball or lick an icicle.
Eating snow and icicles is tempting, especially when working up a sweat outside. However, you’ll want to consider where you find your seemingly delicious snow or ice. For instance, icicles formed on older homes may contain lead or other metals that are unsafe for consumption.
As we continue with self-isolation, working remotely or at a distance in the office or you if you have set up a home office, you may well ask if the chilled water from your AquAid water cooler is suitable for your food batters. It may be, however, although the cold water dispensed from your water cooler may be the perfect temperature, we would suggest that you reserve your water cooler water strictly for drinking. Especially if you are in a shared office. Whereas some of your colleagues (or family) may be delighted with your resourcefulness using chilled water from your water cooler in your baking efforts, others may not be.
Remember, for all your chilled, cool and hot water dispensers, whether Bottle-Fed or Mains-Fed; Hot Water Boilers; Hot and Cold Instant Taps as well as our range of Touch-Free Water Dispensers, speak to us at AquAid.
We remain operational and continue to take all precautions and necessary steps to reduce any risk to both staff and customers. Read our Covid-19 risk assessment.
