Interesting health tip

I happened to catch today's Dr. Oz show. I don't normally watch the show. I happened to have the tv on that channel when I finished watching a show recorded on the DVR. One of his topics was dehydration. Since I have an ongoing battle with dehydration, I watched to see if he mentioned anything of value. He did and I'm glad I caught it.

I know that caffeine is a diuretic. I don't consume a lot of caffeinated beverages, but I don't avoid the stuff, either. When I do have some coffee, or tea, or a diet soda, I don't count those drinks in my daily fluid intake. I thought I was being smart by doing that. Come to find out, that's not enough. It turns out you have to drink extra water to counteract the diuretic in the caffeine! So it's not enough to drink two liters of water along with your two cups of coffee. You have to drink two extra cups of water, as well.

This explains a lot. As I mentioned, I battle dehydration. My body is very sensitive to it and I will retain water the moment I fall short of the needed fluid intake. The other day, I indulged in two glasses of Diet Cherry Pepsi over the course of the day. I also drank about a half gallon of water. The next day, I was retaining water. I was baffled, but now I know why. I didn't compensate for the two large glasses of soda.

It makes a lot of sense, but it's something I never thought about. So I wanted to share with my friends out there this health tip. Especially my friends whose primary fluid intake comes from Starbucks.

Off to Houston

I fly out to Houston tomorrow afternoon. It's a direct (and cheap) flight on Southwest from Jax, so it takes less than 2.5 hours plus airport time. I'm traveling with my aunt Jody and meeting up with my cousin Jason, but my main purpose is to go and see what Houston's like. Where it's a holiday weekend, I won't be able to go and meet anyone at the university. But I hope I can at least go and see the campus and have a walk around.

Mainly, I hope I like Houston. I'm going to be living there for a few years. It'd be helpful if I liked it. When Steve and I travel somewhere new, I always imagine what it'd be like to live there. Some places speak to me when I do that, like New York. Others do not, like Chicago. And others have to grow on me a bit first, like Boston. Here's to Houston being either a New York or a Boston rather than a Chicago.