Masters of Health Magazine May 2025 | Page 49

Bottom line: Hydration isn’t a wellness extra—it’s a key metabolic strategy

  • Dehydration flips the fat switch. When your cells sense water scarcity, they go into storage mode: making and holding onto fat to stockpile “metabolic water.”

  • Water helps burn fat. It boosts thermogenesis, supports fat metabolism, and suppresses appetite—benefits shown even without diet or exercise changes.

  • Hydration is protection. Clean, electrolyte-rich water supports mitochondrial function, kidney health, and efficient cellular energy.

  • Tap water isn’t always safe. Check yours—arsenic, PFAS, and other toxins are common. A solid filter is essential.

  • Electrolytes improve hydration. Oral rehydration solutions (electrolyte drink with small amount of glucose) and milk seem to retain fluid better than water alone.

    • Writing this newsletter makes me feel so inspired to make it a habit to drink more water. I know I don’t drink enough unless I’m actively thinking about it. But like with all things, there is a limit… you don’t want to drink so much that you throw off your biology — this can be dangerous. So don’t go overboard! A good rule of thumb: if your urine isn’t a very light yellow throughout the day… drink more water!

     Clean water note

    The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has a tapwater database where you can search the purity of your water based on zip code. In my community, the water contained 820 times the amount of arsenic recommended as safe.  You can use their Water Filter Guide to match your zip code’s water quality with the right filter. This showed me that reverse osmosis filtration (over a charcoal filter) was the best option for subpar LA water.

    I HIGHLY recommend investing in a high quality water filter to ensure you are getting a consistent supply of clean water, every single day. You want your water filter to do more than just make the water taste better: you want it to remove disease causing substances like heavy metals (like lead and arsenic), industrial chemicals (like PFAS), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and chlorine, fluoride, chromium-6, and more. I prefer an undersink reverse osmosis filter with a spigot, which makes it easy to use clean water for cooking and drinking throughout the day; you generally have to change the filters out once per year. There are decent countertop and pitcher versions available too, which are less expensive, and you can read more about the different types of filter technology and find a list of tested examples on the EWG website.

    With good energy 

    Dr. Casey