Prof. Alessandro Zanasi, expert of the Sanpellegrino Observatory, explains how proper hydration can help keep concentration high and be a valid ally for returning to school.
From holidays to school desks, from the sea at the beginning of a new year, full of commitments, expectations and desires to be realized. The ringing of the bell has long marked a moment both awaited and feared at the same time, the return to the desks for young students, who every year find companions and friends, but also the routine that will accompany them until the next holidays. Finding your habits is never easy and you need a little time, but also some small precautions to ensure that our energies and our resources are used to the fullest.
An important help to gradually find the right rhythm and our psycho-physical well-being comes from proper hydration, an aspect that is sometimes too underestimated. In fact, water is a real food, because it contains a series of elements, such as magnesium and potassium, used by our body to carry out activities necessary for its proper functioning: "It is important to consider proper hydration, as well as a healthy diet, a useful tool for achieving psychosomatic well-being - explains Dr. Alessandro Zanasi, expert of the Sanpellegrino Observatory and member of the International Stockholm Water Foundation - In water, as well as in some foods such as dried fruit and whole foods, there is in fact the magnesium, a micronutrient that plays a key role in regulating mood and treating stress. Proper hydration based on this precious element can therefore help us to better cope with the stress of returning to school and its effects on our body and emotional system, such as a decrease in energy and efficiency, or when mood become more frequent and we suffer from difficulty concentrating or insomnia ”.
Water can also be a valuable aid especially through maintaining a correct water balance: this happens when the right amount is drunk daily, about 8 glasses distributed throughout the day. It should also be considered that in children the sense of thirst is less developed than in adults, which is why it is essential to educate them to drink correctly from an early age, so that the simple gesture of drinking water becomes part of good daily habits: "Just think that already with a condition of moderate dehydration, - continues Dr. Zanasi - with a loss of about 2% of body weight, one encounters signs such as headaches and fatigue, which can be associated with a reduction in concentration, attention , short-term memory and execution of even simple tasks ".
Drinking properly is therefore an important strategy to regain the rhythm lost during the holidays day after day: there is no function of our body that does not require the presence of water. Therefore, correct hydration can, together with a healthy diet and the right rest, help to face particularly stressful periods such as the much feared transition from holidays to the beginning of a new school year, always characterized by contrasting emotions, divided between expectations, desires. and the joy of a new beginning.