by Fern Shaw | Mar 14, 2024 | water cooler, Water Coolers
It’s World Sleep Day this week. The day is dedicated to bringing attention to the vital role adequate sleep plays in maintaining health and well-being. With millions of Britons suffering from a similar ailment – an inability to get enough sleep – we look at how good hydration can assist in creating better sleep.
Does drinking enough water aid our ability to sleep better?
The short answer is, yes it does.
How so?
During deep sleep, your body works to repair muscle, organs and other cells. Chemicals that strengthen your immune system start to circulate in your blood. If you are properly hydrated, your body is better fuelled, more easily able to effect these vital repairs.
How soon before bed should you drink water?
The rule of thumb is not to drink lots of water (or any liquids) at least two hours before bed. Ideally the bulk of your water consumption should be during the day or well ahead of bedtime.
Although dehydration can occur during sleep, this is easily repairable by drinking water upon waking.
What is the drinking water after bedtime conundrum?
Drinking a small amount of water before bed can keep you hydrated overnight, but too much and you’ll disrupt your sleep cycle with trips to the bathroom.
Having access to a constant supply to refreshing drinking water throughout the day is essential to ensure you can easily maintain sufficient hydration. Which is yet another reason to make sure you visit your water cooler regularly during the day, keeping yourself properly hydrated and well prepped for a good night’s rest.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 27, 2024 | water cooler, water cooler
At AquAid Water Coolers, we’ve been in the business of water provision for over 24 years, supplying a wide range of high-quality water coolers and drinking water to customers throughout the UK.
We value our customers as we understand that they are the backbone of our business, enabling us to grow from our humble beginnings in 1998 to now, one of the UK’s largest water cooler suppliers.
Just as important to us, and an integral part of our business ethos since we began, is our commitment to helping those in need. In this manner AquAid has, to date, donated over £20 million to charity and helped more than three million people secure sustainable safe water resources.
Another organisation (and valued customer) committed to protecting their clients is Frontline Safety UK.
We recently invited them to take part in a charity initiative: this involves the building of a water well (known as an Elephant Pump) which enables a community in Africa direct access to safe drinking water. This pump building program is instituted by an AquAid founded charity – The Africa Trust – that has, since its inception in 2010, built more than 8,000 such pumps throughout sub-Saharan Africa, providing potable water to more than two million people.
During our communications about this initiative, we found out a little more about Frontline Safety UK:
‘At Frontline Safety, we’re proud to align ourselves with AquAid’s mission of making a positive impact beyond business operations. As a leading provider of safety equipment and solutions in the UK, our commitment to community welfare and sustainable development runs deep. Collaborating with AquAid’s charity initiative resonates with our ethos of corporate responsibility and social contribution.‘ ~ Callum Brown – Digital Marketing & Website Executive
We are delighted they have agreed to partner with us on this very worthwhile cause and look forward to being able to present them with a photo of their pump, a certificate and a letter of thanks once the pump has been built and named.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 27, 2024 | water cooler, Water Coolers
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, by as much as 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, much like 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 from your hot water boiler, that’s fine, however, try to balance out each hot drink with a drink of cool water and keep yourself well hydrated, whatever the weather.
*source: First Aid For Life
by Fern Shaw | Feb 19, 2024 | water boiler, water cooler, Water Coolers
We’re not referring to being in hot water, mind, rather we’re referring to how drinking hot water (and most derivatives thereof) in cold weather boosts our sense of well-being, makes us happy, helps us maintain good hydration habits and as a consequence contributes towards our health too.
Mind how you go. As with anything that you ingest or consume that purports to be healthy, there’s usually a proviso. Of course there is. That’s why we’re not suggesting that you can drink as many of those marshmallow topped, cream laden hot chocolates as you like and still be in the peak of health, but we are stating that by drinking hot water drinks (not just hot water) you will achieve more than just one goal – you’ll warm yourself up, increasing your body temperature; you’ll feel comforted which increases your sense of well-being and if you’re drinking the right hot drinks, you’ll keep yourself hydrated, which means you’re maintaining your good health.
Don’t be fooled. Unless you were hibernating for the last few decades, you should no doubt be aware (by now) that sugar-free doesn’t equal better health. In fact, the ‘cheat sweeteners’ can be as bad for your waistline if not worse than could good old granulated sugar. If it tastes oddly synthetic, chances are it usually is.
What’s left, then? Quite a bit actually. Here are a few ideas to keep your precious little self hydrated, your tummy warm; and you fighting fit this winter:
- Install either a hot and cold water cooler or a hot water boiler at your premises. Visit it, often.
- Once you’ve installed your hot water maker, speak to those around you – ask them what hot water drinks they enjoy which don’t pack on the pounds.
- Go exploring. Virtually of course. You’ll find plenty of benefits arising from good hydration habits and a number of tips about hot water drinks at the AquAid Water Coolers blog There’s plenty to choose from, each which will hopefully inspire your hot water drinks journey.
However you choose to warm up when the weather is cooler, we wish you happy hydration health.
by Fern Shaw | Feb 12, 2024 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Sneaky because maintaining good hydration habits in winter can be just that: studies show that we can be up to 40% less thirsty in winter.
Dehydration is less noticeable in winter: During the summer in the UK, it’s far easier to equate how thirsty we are with how dehydrated we may be. Hot weather tends to make us sweat more, making dehydration much more noticeable. However, in winter, thirst isn’t as immediately apparent and perspiration turns to water vapour very quickly. As an example, when you step outside from a warm environment into a cold one and you can see your breath – that’s water vapour, which means you’re dehydrating.
Staying hydrated in winter helps us stay warm: Our bodies use water to help maintain our core body temperature. Dehydration can cause our core body temperatures can drop. Therefore the benefits of staying hydrated in winter are twofold: we stay hydrated and we keep warm when it’s cold outside.
… And gives your immune system a welcome boost: Our instinct in winter is to hibernate, especially indoors. Modern life, however, makes this untenable: we’re in and out of doors on a daily basis and the radical changes in temperature can easily and negatively affect our immune system as our systems fight to bring our body to the right temperature. That’s why it’s important to make sure we don’t decrease our water intake during winter. A good hydration habit is one of the simplest and best ways to keep the immune system boosted and ready to battle common winter illnesses like colds and flu. Whether you’re at home, at work, at school, installing a water cooler or hot water boiler will help you to easily keep up your water consumption, with refreshing drinking water available at the touch of a button.
Weight maintenance and loss: The cold weather can often lead us to exercise less and eat more. Weight gain because of this is often further exacerbated by not staying hydrated through winter. Maintaining hydration enables our bodies to be more efficient at breaking down fats and converting them to energy.
A few tips to maintain proper hydration during winter:
- Keep water in your line of sight – keep a water bottle on your desk or put a glass next to the kitchen sink to remind you keep drinking. Remember too, AquAid have a range of desktop and countertop water coolers making them the best reminder there is.
- Set yourself a reminder – An alert on your phone can remind yourself to top up your water bottle.
- Eat water rich foods – soups, salads or fruit as mentioned in our series on water rich fruit.
- Plump up your plain H2O – Adding a slice or wedge of lemon, lime or even cucumber gives your water an extra refreshing burst of flavour.
At AquAid Water Coolers, we provide a wide range of water dispensers to a broad and diverse set of customers from small, medium and large businesses through to medical facilities, universities, colleges and schools.
With more than 24 years’ experience in the provision of the right water coolers, water boilers, Instant Taps and water fountains to more than 34,000 customers, you can be assured that we will have the right water cooler to help keep you properly hydrated, whatever the time of year. Speak to us, we’ll be happy to help.
by Fern Shaw | Jan 30, 2024 | Water, water boiler, Water Boilers, water cooler, Water Coolers
You might be thinking that Aquaporins are a new product from AquAid. You’d be wrong – although the name is reminiscent of pouring water, so perhaps not such a stretch.
But what are they exactly?
Dumb bunny explanation:
Membranes which replicate the way nature removes salt from water, for example in the kidneys or in mangroves.
Slightly less dumb bunny explanation:
An aquaporin is a specialized protein located in the cell membrane of body cells. It forms the mechanism responsible for pumping water into and out of the cell as needed. Aquaporins are part of the large family of major intrinsic proteins, proteins that form pores or channels in the cell membrane, and work to regulate the composition of the inside of the cell.
The aquaporin was discovered by Peter Agre of Johns Hopkins University in 1992. Agre won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery. He discovered aquaporins serendipitously during a study on the Rh blood group antigen, confirming long-held suspicions by the scientific community that a mechanism for transporting water across the cell membrane existed.
Aquaporins conduct water into and out of the cell, but prevent the movement of ions and other solutes across the cell wall. A specialized form of aquaporin, called an aquaglyceroporin, does allow the movement of some solutes into and out of the cell, but like regular aquaporins, it does not allow charged particles, or ions, to pass through. Some solutes that aquaglyceroporins allow to cross the cell membrane are ammonia, carbon dioxide, and urea. The types of solutes allowed through by aquaporins depend on the size of the protein channel.
How else could Aquaporins benefit mankind?
They could dramatically reduce the energy needed in desalination and the scope there is far reaching – think space suits.
Remember, with AquAid’s water coolers; water; boilers – you won’t need any desalination set up – as you’ll have a consistent supply of refreshing drinking water (and of course, your clever body will take care of the rest).
