Interesting Facts About Water

Ask Men has a feature, "5 Things You Didn't Know About Water" that has some interesting and obvious benefits to the clear, tasteless stuff. Here's a summary of the 5 Things:

Improves mental performance: Water helps the brain move enzymes and nutrients around, and clears out free radicals that can damage cells. Clinical tests show dehydration can impair your short-term memory.

Can prevent critical ailments: Surprise, surprise! Water flushes toxins which helps prevent "minor bugs," and can "decrease the chance of developing cancer." It also helps keep joints lubricated, and flushes excessive salt from your system (which can be hard on the heart).

Keeps you trim: Water is a "proven appetite suppressant," and it speeds up your metabolism. A lot. By 30 percent, according to the piece. This equals up to 5.3lbs of fat per year.

Fights cavities: Saliva neutralizes the acids in your mouth that prevent tooth decay, and has "special minerals that aid in tooth repair. Stay hydrated to keep the saliva coming.

Don't overdo it: Too much water can lead to "digestive problems, seizures or even coma." But to get to that point, you would have to regularly consume two gallons of water per day. And I doubt that's even close to likely for 99 percent of the people that are reading this. So, "I'm trying to avoid a coma," is not a reasonable excuse for passing on a glass of water. Drink up!