We have all heard that it is important to drink enough water

Today I’m going to share three common-sense reasons why, not only drinking enough water, but how drinking about half of your day’s water in the morning can be very important to your health and longevity.

The first common sense reason comes from human evolution.

The second has to do with how your liver needs water to detoxify your whole body.

The third has to do with the physical capacity of your cells to eliminate waste.

From a purely practical point of view, it only makes sense that human beings would drink most of their water first thing in the morning, and then head towards another water source.

Human evolution, the way our bodies have adapted to our environment, the way our bodies have adapted to different food supplies, and of course the way our bodies have adapted to how much and when we drink tells us a lot about what our bodies need.

What if your body has adapted to expecting (and needing) to enjoy some fresh water first thing in the morning?

Yes, even before you eat anything, and before you get up to wander the land looking for food, fun, and new friends.

Your Liver NEEDS water first thing in the morning.

Now that you can appreciate some evolutionary common sense – let’s look inside your liver.

Imagine that your liver has two conveyor belts in it, like a tiny little factory. Imagine the blood moving through your liver, going from one end of the factory to the other, passing across each conveyor belt, one at a time. When you eat, the food breaks down and goes from your gut through your portal vein to your liver. Chemically speaking, everything changes from digested food to very useful and bio-available molecules like vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and proteins.

That process can create some highly toxic material and, given that we live in the most toxic environment that the human liver has ever had to deal with, those conveyor belts are already very busy – all day, every day.

The reason why I describe the liver as having two conveyor belts is because there are two distinct biochemical processes or stages of liver function. They both have to work together, and at the same pace for optimal health. The first conveyor belt (called the P450 Cytochrome Enzyme System) takes the toxins that come into your liver and binds them with a fat molecule to keep them from causing destructive reactions. The hybrid/toxin fat molecules are stuffed into a fat cell as a short-term ‘prison’. The second conveyor belt (called the Conjugation Enzyme Pathway) combines neutralizing molecules with the toxins from the fat cells to make the less harmful, or even inert.

Gradually, and especially at night while you are asleep, both conveyor belts collaborate to turn those fat-soluble toxins into water-soluble waste. This means that they are no longer as harmful to your body.

And, if you are well hydrated, you can safely pee and poo them out in the morning.

Now imagine that you are your liver. I often do this little cartoon-like dance with my patients, to help them imagine that their liver is busy with its little liver hands, moving the toxins across both conveyor belts. Imagine your liver’s hands all covered in mud. Every morning, your liver takes its little muddy hands (mud being water soluble) and reaches them out until your hands are underneath of your stomach. waiting for that essential water. That clear and refreshing water that has always come first thing in the morning.

Now imagine your liver washing off its muddy little hands.

Goodbye mud and hello breakfast or lunch!

Now imagine what would happen if you placed your busy little liver hands underneath of your stomach; and instead of getting water, you get some really bad coffee and a muffin (probably with a lot of sugar).

Now make the facial expression of your liver as it takes those muddy hands (all of the water-soluble waste) and has to put all of those toxins into as many different corners of your body as it can – including back into a few billion fat cell prisons.

One of the worst things that can happen, often daily, is turning some of those water-soluble wastes back into fat-soluble wastes, so that your liver can be ready to deal with today’s environmental toxins, today’s nutrient-poor food, and of course, any other 21st Century chemicals that are moving through your blood.

In Traditional Chinese medicine, this is an important aspect of Liver Qi Stagnation and/or Counterflow!