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Drinking Water Reduces Brain Power?

Posted by michael on from the turn-down-a-glass dept.

stewart.hector writes: "BBC Online reports on research that suggests drinking water at the wrong time can reduce brain power. Here's the story."

12 comments

  1. Not the only liquid with this property by Bojay+Iverson · · Score: 2

    Drinking beer at the wrong time also reduces brainpower. Mmmm, beer...

    --
    Psychos do not explode when the sunlight hits them, I don't care how fucked up they are.
    1. Re:Not the only liquid with this property by peccary · · Score: 2

      And another link at the same site tells us that Beer 'may be good for you'.
      So there you have it.
      Beer: good
      Water: bad

  2. It's proven NOW! by sysv · · Score: 1

    Beer is much better.

  3. Chewing gum effect in reverse by Stormie · · Score: 4

    Dr Rogers thinks that the temperature of the drinks might explain part of the effect. The body has to divert resources to deal with the local cooling effect in the gut.

    When I was at uni, I read in the newspaper one day that a study had shown improved mental performance from people who were chewing gum. The theory was that while you were merrily chewing away, the exercise your jaw was getting required extra blood to be pumped to your head. Some of this ended up in your brain, and it performed better, all pumped up with nice fresh oxygenated blood.

    (OK, that's a horrible pseudoscience explanation, but I'm no biologist, I'm a programmer!)

    Anyway, from that day on I always took a pack of gum into exams, to chew while I worked. Dunno if it helped, but at least psychologically it probably did. :-) Is this a similar effect in reverse? All the blood rushes to your stomach to warm it up after your glass of ice-cold water, and leaves your brain starved? Nice one.

    1. Re:Chewing gum effect in reverse by School+Bully · · Score: 2

      What helps more is to write cheats on the chewing gum wrapper!

  4. strange how this works by brad2600 · · Score: 3

    water has been known to reduce brain power (as have most cold beverages), coffee on the other hand does nothing for your brain power short of being mildly carcinogenic. tea on the other hand (especially green tea) has been proven many times to heighten brain activity, stimulate your mind, as well as mildly reproducing brain cells. pretty amazing being as how tea is basically warm water after having tea leaves added to it.

    .brad

    behold my .sig!


    Drink more tea
    organicgreenteas.com
    --
    flesh eating ants records
    1. Re:strange how this works by daveb · · Score: 1
      (non-referenced) Research aside ... I think you'll find that more revolutions have been attributed to coffee houses than to tea drinking. Don't forget that the little squabble in boston wasn't about drinking tea - just the purchase price (IIRC). Coffee houses have been the meeting pllace of rebels & somewhere to whinge about govt's for ages (and where insurance schemes started I think)

      I wonder if that's because coffee really does make you think more about your situation ... or does it just make you pissed off with those in control.

      now where's my coffee & rifle ....

    2. Re:strange how this works by brad2600 · · Score: 2

      its been proven that coffee tends to speed up reaction time a bit for a fairly short period of time, only to lead to a crash (regular old caffeine high). tea on the other hand tends to raise mental stimulation considerably for longer periods of time, without any form of crash, mostly due to the significantly lower amounts of caffiene in tea.

      .brad

      oh yea, that boston thing, it was about a tax on tea, as a result, most countries still dont tax loose tea sales.


      Drink more tea
      organicgreenteas.com
      --
      flesh eating ants records
  5. Luke Warm by jjr · · Score: 1

    This is a why I always drink my water romm temperature It does not hit my body as hard as the cold water

  6. Ich sage "Ja" zu Deutschem Wasser! by gloth · · Score: 1

    In der einzigen Diskussion, bei der man heute noch live Deutsches Wasser trinken kann!

  7. drinking water bad for brain. by derryboy · · Score: 1

    Well i just had a huge glass of real cold water and i would just like to say.@##%^&o9iuytghbmn.?49*90)(

    --
    derrick the annoited one
  8. Water Detoxification Diary by i_know_it · · Score: 1

    Its day three now of my water detoxification experiment. I feel as if my neural connections are being reestablished with my corpus callosum, allowing better communications between the two hemispheres of my brain. I feel enlightened to the voice of God; my long lost psychokinetic powers seem to have returned to me.
    Let me tell you, water is a hard habit to break. Harder than to quit smoking. The first day isn't so bad. The second day is agony, though. To give myself enough determination to quit drinking water, I purposely lost myself in the Mojave Desert. I also did this to avoid food; most food products are contaminated with some sort of water, as well.

    I'm on the road to recovery, though, thank god for that. Tommorrow, it would've been 4 days since my last drink!