Can Hot Water Improve your Health? Benefits of Drinking Hot Water with Honey, Lemon, and Ginger

Are you looking for ways to improve health and lifestyle, and asking yourself about the benefits of drinking hot water, when, and how much to drink?

Or you might be asking yourself, can honey, lemon, and ginger, when added to hot water, make it even more beneficial for your skin, hair, and weight loss program?

This article will try to answer these and a few more important questions about hot water usage and potential risks.

Our bodies are made up of between 50 and 70% water which is vital to almost every bodily activity, so if we don't drink enough water, lots of bad stuff can happen to us – fast.

Most of us know we can survive 72 hours without water before the body starts to shut down; however, few know about the benefits of drinking hot water and the healthier it can make us.

Really?

Apparently, it does.

What does the science say about drinking hot water?

There has been little research into the benefits of drinking hot water, but there is some interesting anecdotal evidence it is good for your health.

Drinking a glass of hot water (120 to 140 F) first thing in the morning will help kick start your digestive system avoiding constipation.

The same hot water habit in the evening before bed keeps your body hydrated during the night, increases your blood flow, and raises your core body temperature.

This means you will sweat more, removing toxins and other waste products from your body as you sleep and help clean your skin. It will also clear your nasal passages and aid your sleep quality.

If you can introduce a few glasses of hot water each day as part of your daily water intake, even better.

It's hard to believe it was as late as 2004 before advice on daily water consumption was given, according to the Institute of Medicine. The recommended daily water consumption is 3.7 liters a day for men and 2.7 liters for women.

Of course, many of us start the day with a hot drink like tea or coffee, both of which have the added benefits of caffeine and antioxidants, so perhaps you feel you are doing enough. First off, plain hot water is cheaper, coffee and tea cost money, and many of us add milk, cream, and sugar – not quite so healthy now, is it?

However pure hot water is best without anything added, but some folks may not like the taste of water alone, especially in large cities where the water can taste awful, and bottled water is not cheap.

But it doesn't have to be bland or tasteless; you can add so many different and beneficial things to your heated water. Let's look at a few examples and their potentially positive effects on your health and body.

I don't like the taste of hot water. What can I do?

The best way to improve the taste of hot water and increase consumption is to add the flavor, such as; lemons, ginger, honey, apple cider …

The benefits of drinking hot water with lemons

Adding lemons to hot water improves your water's taste, which may help you drink more. It has loads of Vitamin C and potassium, enhancing your immune system and helping remove toxins from your body. It benefits your skin and reduces blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular diseases like strokes.

Simply add a few slices of fresh lemon to a glass of hot water at the start of every day. It's a good idea to drink it with a straw to protect your teeth' enamel, then clean your teeth afterward.

The benefits of drinking hot water with ginger

Ginger in hot water helps your digestive system, kick-starts your metabolic rate, and is an efficient detoxifier. Additionally, it has anti-inflammatory properties, which are beneficial to your body; it helps regulate blood sugar levels and controls the impulse to eat – great if you are trying to lose weight.

The benefits of drinking hot water with honey

Honey in hot water is delicious, the higher quality, the better, and raw honey from the hive is the ultimate. Apart from the awesome flavor, and there are hundreds of local varieties, it's packed with antimicrobial and anti-bacterial advantages. It can boost energy and calm nerves.

Add it to a hot drink rather than sugar or man-made sweeteners. It may lose some beneficial properties when added to a hot drink, but it's still an excellent and tasty natural health food. Even better is if using warm water instead.

The benefits of drinking hot water with apple cider

Drinking hot water with apple cider has a number of beneficial health qualities, which include active antimicrobial and antioxidant effects. There are suggestions it may help with weight loss, LDL (bad cholesterol) reduction, reducing blood sugar levels, and diabetes symptoms control.

There are specific dosage guidelines available here.

The benefits of drinking warm water with garlic

Grated and boiled in water, then allowed to cool to the correct temperature, it makes powerful garlic water. Garlic water is antibacterial and has a detoxifying effect. It promotes the reduction of LDL cholesterol, UTI and kidney infections. It combats hair loss, boosts immunity, and helps weight loss. It helps fight cancer and blood clots.

Garlic can be strong to taste, so frequently, it is combined with lemon and honey to improve the flavor and boost the effectiveness of the warm water drink even further.

The benefits of drinking warm water with cinnamon

Soak a cinnamon stick in hot water and sip it regularly. Cinnamon is antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral, and it will boost your immune system. It has been noted that cinnamon water may ease the effects of menstrual cramps. It has anti-inflammatory effects and may help with arthritis and joint pain as it improves blood flow.

According to the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, cinnamon may be effective in slowing the advancement of Parkinson's disease.

Still not convinced? Keep reading about hot water benefits, safety, and positive effects on the skin, hair, weight loss …

These are some of the excellent additions to your hot water drink, and there are many more; plus, you can be creative and combine ingredients to your own personal taste. Everyone's taste buds are different. Mix, match, and experiment until you have your range of hot water drinks.

A good example is to combine lemon with ginger and honey – an awesome and healthy blend of flavors. Honey's antioxidant and antibacterial properties help improve your digestive system and boost your immunity.

When you combine all three, you have powerful protection for your body, ready in minutes and which tastes great.

Clearer skin and looking younger, all from changing to drinking hot water. If you drink hot water, it's better for your skin and stops early aging. It softens wrinkles, hydrates dry skin, and reduces dark spots. It also helps the body get rid of dry, dead skin so you look and feel better.

How easy is that?

If you change to drinking simple hot water, it will help stimulate your hair's health and boost growth. The reason is the hot water energizes the hair roots, encouraging them to respond and grow. Your scalp will also benefit from being hydrated, which will fight dandruff.

If you have a few pounds you would like to say goodbye to, one of the benefits of shifting to drinking hot water is it will help support you on your quest to lose weight. If you drink hot water in the morning, it boosts your metabolism, which in turn will burn more energy in the form of calories which will assist you in losing weight. Plus, the hot water cleans out any waste from your intestines, which helps you lose weight faster.

Potential risks of drinking hot water

While drinking hot water can have many benefits, there are also some potential risks that you should be aware of.

One of the most obvious risks of drinking hot water is the risk of burns. If the water is too hot, it can scald your body parts, causing painful burns. It's important to make sure that the water is at a safe temperature before drinking it, which is between 120 F and 140 F. 

It's also important to note that the risk of burns may be higher for children, the elderly, and those with sensory impairments.

While drinking hot water can be a good way to stay hydrated, it's important to remember that water temperature doesn't affect your body's hydration levels. Drinking too much hot water without balancing it with enough cool water can actually lead to dehydration.

Drinking very hot water can also cause mineral imbalances in your body. This is because hot water can leach minerals like calcium and magnesium from your teeth and bones. While this is not usually a problem if you drink hot water in moderation, excessive consumption could lead to mineral deficiencies.

Drinking extremely hot water can also cause inflammation and scarring in your stomach lining, damaging your digestive system and leading to gastrointestinal issues.

Recommendations

The Environmental Protection Agency sets stringent legal regulations for safe drinking water. They strongly advise you to never use water from your hot tap to drink or cook with, as contaminants dissolve more easily in hot water than in the cold. They also set standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which sets out criteria for states to independently set and enforce their own drinking water standards, provided they are, at a minimum, as strict as EPA's standards.

They suggest using fresh cold water and heating it in a kettle or other separate water boiling device before using it. Using filters on your cold supply will minimize contaminants and further protect you and your family.

If you use a tankless water heater, then you could fit a filter to the feed side of your system, which means the cold water going into your heater is filtered before heating and should then be safe to drink. If your system has a storage tank, you should never drink hot water from that.

It is possible to fit a water filter on the hot supply to your faucet, but hot water either diminishes the effectiveness of your filter or totally destroys it.

There are instant water boilers available with different volumes to suit every household, and with fresh cold water, they produce safe hot water to the temperature you need quickly.

If your required volume is high, then a tankless water heater with a filtered supply would be the healthiest way to go.

Conclusion

So, it would appear there are huge health benefits for you when you change to drinking hot water, and strong advice from the EPA about NOT drinking or cooking with water direct from your hot tap unless you have a filtered tankless water heater.

If you plan to try it out, always check with your health professional before you do it, and remember the claimed health benefits are just that – claims, as few of them are supported by research from relevant bodies.

The suggestions here are a guide to what's available and are not in any way intended to be professional medical advice.

It's a simple change, and if your medical professional gives you the go-ahead, it certainly won't harm you.

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