We were making our way across the Amazon River basin in Bolivia with difficulty and our bodies were sweaty, the clothes that were insects that we wore covered our bodies from the top of the head to the soles of the feet so that we protected us from mosquito swarms spread in the air, and we were keen not to trample our feet on the roots of the plants, grammar, and giant ants. I was accompanied by my local research aides, Dino Nate, and my wife Kelly Rosenger, we were all following the steps of Kholio, one of my friends from the people of Al -Tasimani and our guide on that day, and the people of Al -Tasimani are a group of people who combine the cultivation of orchards and the search for food and live in this hot, high humidity area, He was directly following the three -year -old son Khulio, who was lightly walking through the roads of the forest, not heat and insects, although he was not wearing any protective clothes; This made me feel shy because of my sweat for the effort I made.
We stopped in front of a tree that seemed small in size, but it turned out that it was a huge dignity. With each blow, and within two minutes he had cut a branch of the tree with a meter length, and the water began to flow from that branch, so he brought it close to it, and he drank a few seconds until he narrated his thirst, then he made me, and put my two loads under the vineyard and gathered in it the equivalent of a cup of Water, the taste of water was very good, you feel light, and a class chalk to some extent, and it is almost like a taste of soda water.
In the context of my field studies, I was asking questions on Kholio and on other people from the people of Al -Tasimani about how to get the drinking water they need in different places, including their homes and fields, and inside the river and forest, the man told me that they use only two types of generosity to get Water, as for the rest of the species, it is not suitable for that or it is nauseous, but when he referred to his hands to the other generosity he intended, I have to show the difference, the generosity is a hidden source of water, so the notes of Kholio raises a fundamental question related to human being: How we have formed with us Through our long evolutionary history, those strategies we use to meet our water needs, especially in environments where access to water is easy?
In that forest, we were in a relatively rich environment with water, but with our departure from water tables, Khulio still knew exactly where and how he got water, and the effect of the natural sources of water is not a minor on humans;Many animals draw maps in his mind of the things surrounding him so that he remembers the places of important resources, but some of them change their environment for water, but we humans are distinguished by the uniqueness in taking much more extreme measures.
Throughout history, people were keen to create their environments in a manner that guarantees them access to water, for example, to take the historical Roman city of Caesarea in what is currently known as the State of Israel, if we go back to history to a past of more than 2000 years at the time of building that city, it was not in The region is enough of fresh water to ensure the continuity of life there, and given the geographical importance of the city in consolidating the pillars of the colonial rule of the Romans, they began - through harnessing slaves - to construct a series of water canals to transport water from the springs over a distance of 16 km, and thanks to this The procedure, up to 50 thousand people got the water at approximately 145 liters per day per day.
Cities today use wide distribution networks to provide drinking water, which has led to noticeable improvements in public health;When we have a lot of water, we already lose sight of how important it is, but when it becomes dear or rare, our concern becomes, as soon as we hear news about the interruption of water or a pollution in its sources, we have a state of concern about the lack of water security.
فمن دون كميةٍ كافيةٍ من الماء، تتدهور وظائفنا الجسدية والإدراكية، ونموت في غضون أيام عند انعدام الماء تمامًا، من ثمَّ، يعتمد البشر على الماء اعتمادًا يفوق الكثير من الثدييات الأخرى، وقد سلطت الأبحاث الحديثة الضوء على جذوراحتياجاتنا المائية، وكيف استطعنا التكيُّف لإرواء ذلك العطش، واتضح أنه على قدر ما شكَّل الغذاء تاريخ التطوُّر البشري، لم يكن دور الماء أقلَّ أهمية.
Stepping is sweaty
In order to understand how water affected the path of human development, we need to return to a pivotal chapter of prehistoric times; From a period ranging from about three million and two million years ago, the drought of the climate in Africa, in which the Huminins (human family members) arose, for the first time, during that period, the gender of early human similar known as Australopithecus has given the way to our human race. Known as "Homo", and during that the transformation, body lineage changed; While the "Australophexx" person was short and full of the body, the structure of the "homo" person was longer and thinner, and the area of the body surface was greater, and these changes have reduced the exposure of our ancestors to solar radiation at the same time that allowed the wind to be more exposed, which is what They increased their ability to waste heat and make them more efficient in water consumption.
This transformation in the body of the body was accompanied by other basic adaptations;When climate change led to herbal lands in the forests, and the semi -human semi -human being became more efficient in walking on two feet in open environments, they lost their bodies and grew more sweat glands.Liverpool John Morsi in England, these adaptations have strengthened the ability of our ancestors to get rid of excess heat, thus maintaining a safe temperature for the body while moving.
Ethnic glands also represent an important part of the story that we tell, mammals have three types of sweat glands, they are the flawless glands, sebaceous glands, and the glands, and the role of the sparkling glands filling water and electrolyte inside the cells to produce sweat, and it is indicated here that humans have more empty ethnic glands than any Another being in the majority sect, and a recent study conducted by Daniel Aldia from the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues has reached that the repeated mutations in a gene called English 1 may have led to this abundant number of bridal sweaty glands, and in relatively dry environments similar to those in which the likes of humans arose The first, the evaporation of sweat cools the skin and blood vessels, which in turn cools the body from the inside.
It has become able to the first human beings, and they have been armed with the strong cooling system that we referred to, to be more active than other princessFood in our ancestors, a strategy they could not use had it not been for them to have a way to avoid high body temperature.
However, this enhanced ability to sweat also has its negative aspects, as it raises the risk of exposure to dehydration, Martin Hora of Charles University in Brag and his assistants recently explained that Homo Erectus was able to practice perseverance for a period of five hours in the hot savannahs before That 10% of his body mass loss, and human loss 10% of the body mass as a result of dehydration is the maximum in general that begins to appear serious risks, which are physiological and cognitive problems or even death, and when this percentage exceeds, drinking becomes difficult, The need for intravenous fluid use to treat dehydration.
The ability to expose the human body to dehydration is inferred that humans are more dependent on the external sources of water compared to their cousins from the main sect, and much more than the animals adaptive to the desert such as sheep, camels and goats;As these animals can lose an amount ranging between 20% and 40% of the water in their bodies without being at risk of death, these animals have an additional space in their guts called the front stomach, the water can be stored in them for the body to benefit from it in the abundance of dehydration.
In fact, the mammals that live in the desert adapt to the scarcity of water in many various forms, some of these features relate to kidney functions, which maintain the balance between water and salts in the body, and mammals vary in terms of the size and shape of the kidneys, and thus in terms of their ability to increase the concentration Urine and then preserving the water in the body, for example, the desert pocket mouse can live months without water, due to the intense ability of its kidneys to increase the concentration of urine, and human beings can do the same to some extent; When we lose large quantities of water due to sweating, a complex network of hormones and nerve circuits work to direct the kidneys to keep water by increasing the urine concentration, but our limited ability to do this means that we cannot dispense with fresh water for a long period of approximately that period that can For a pocket mouse to spend it without water.
Likewise, we cannot mobilize our bodies with water in advance. The descendants can drink and store enough water to rely on it for weeks, but if a person drank a lot of fluids, his production soon increases, and the size of our intestine and the rate of emptying our equipment limits the speed that we can It has fluid compensation and re -moisturizing the body, and worse than that, if we drank water too much and too quickly, we can thus sift our electrical balance and an infallible bachelors in the blood of sodium Its fatal danger that adjusts the danger of drought if it does not exceed it.
Even in light of the favorable circumstances, and with the availability of food and water easily, people do not generally restore all the quantities that they lost from water as a result of the hard exercises over a period.
How do we tell our thirst
My question to Khulau did not come about the hidden sources of water - such as the generosity used by the people of Al -Tasimani - from a vacuum;One evening, a few weeks after the first field of field work I conducted in Bolivia in 2009, a feeling of hunger and thirst paid me together, after eating dinner, to eating a large fruit of papaya, the flow of fruit juice and alarmed on my chin and I eat the ripe fruit, I did not thinkMany of that at that moment, but shortly after my entry under the mosquito network for sleep, it became clear to me the mistake I made..
The degree of humidity in the Amazon basin area in Bolivia at night reaches 100%, I was every evening before I went to sleep. , About an hour after I entered under the mosquito network and lying on the bed and I invited to come a windy wind from my body heat, I had a frightening feeling: I needed urination, and since I know the amount of effort required to wear my clothes, spend my need, then fold my clothes from New arrangement and return to the bags, I regretted anger on my decision to eat the papaya, and the worst that I had to repeat the same process again later on that night, I began to think about the amount of water contained in that fruit, which is three cups, as it became clear to me, No wonder, then I had to urinate.
ربما تكون مرونة أنظمتنا الغذائية هي الآلية الدفاعية المُثلى لدينا في مواجهة الجفاف، فكما عرفت من التجربة الصعبة التي مررت بها في تلك الليلة شديدة الحرارة، تُسهم كمية الماء الموجودة في الطعام بنصيب في الكمية الإجمالية للماء التي نشربها، ففي الولايات المتحدة، يُسهم الطعام بنحو 20% من كمية الماء التي يشربها الناس، لكن من خلالعملي البحثي في وسط شعب التسيماني وجدت أن الأغذية -متضمنةً الفواكه- تُسهم بنسبة تصل إلى 50% من إجمالي استهلاك هؤلاء البشر من الماء، كذلك فإن الأشخاص البالغين في اليابان، الذين يشربون في المعتاد كمياتٍ أقل من الماء مقارنةً بنظرائهم في الولايات المتحدة، يحصلون أيضًا على ما يقرب من نصف كمية الماء من الأغذية التي يتناولونها، وتستخدم شعوبٌ أخرى إستراتيجياتٍ غذائيةً مختلفة لتلبية احتياجات أفرادها من الماء؛ فرعاة "الداسانك" في شمال كينيا يستهلكون كميةً كبيرةً من الحليب، الذي يُشكِّل الماء 87% من محتواه، كما أنهم يمضغون الجذور المُشبَّعة بالمياه.
In addition, the chimpanzees - the closest relative of the living main - shows food and behavioral adaptations to obtain water; Those animals lick the wet rocks and their members use the leaves as a kind of sponge to collect water, and the main science specialist has found the Bruce generation from Texas State University that it is in very hot environments, such as the savanna regions in Funjoli located in Senegal, chimpanzee animals seek shelter in cold caves and search for their food At night instead of the day; In order to reduce thermal stress and preserve the water in its bodies, but the main non -humans in general get most of their water needs from fruits, leaves and other foods..
A new research conducted by Hermann Bontzer from Duke University and his colleagues showed that we humans have evolved, so we have used less water compared to the chimpanzees and other types of monkeys, although our ability to sweat is much greater, however, our greater dependence on ordinary water instead of derived water From food, it means that we must work hard to keep our bodies wet, but there is a contrast between the population groups, but between each person and another in the specified amount of water that can be considered healthy, and there are currently two different recommendations regarding the amount of water that our bodies need, including water The derived from food, while the first recommendation is the American National Academy of Medicine, and its owners are advised to drink up to 3.7 liters of water daily for men and 2.7 liters for women, while they advise pregnant women and breastfeeding women to increase the amount they drink by 300 and 700 milliliters, respectively, and the second recommendation comes from the European Food Safety Authority, which is recommended to drink two and a half liters per day for men and two and two for women, with the application of the same increases inIt belongs to pregnant women and breastfeeding women, men need more water compared to women;Because their bodies are larger and have more muscle tissue on average.
These are not strict and binding recommendations, but rather they were calculated based on the population averages drawn from surveys and studies conducted on people in specific areas, and the purpose of these recommendations is to meet most of the needs of water in healthy people who have moderate activity who live in moderate environments and their climate is often subjectTo control, some people may need a larger or less water, and depends on several factors that include living habits, climate, level of activity and age.
In fact, the amount of water that the body consumes a great variation, even in areas that relatively enjoy water security, such as the United States;Most men consume between 1.2 and 6.3 liters, and women between 1 and 5.1 liters per day, and throughout the history of human development, it also also varied the amount of water that our ancestors used to drink a great contrast based on the level of activity, temperature, extent of exposure to wind and solar radiation, along with the size of the body and the extent of the availability of water.
However, there is another case that consumes two similar people in age and physical condition and live in the same environment as quantities of water that varies a great variation and both are in good health, at least in the short term, this may be related to early life experiences; Humans go through a sensitive period during the growth of the fetus that affect many physiological functions, including how the body balances the water, there is no doubt that we receive signs and evidence about our nutritional environment while we are in the womb and during the breastfeeding period, perhaps this information is determined The shape that our offspring needs will take into the water.
Experimental studies have shown that reducing the quantities of water that the rats and sheep in pregnancy lead to decisive changes in how the offspring of these animals discovered physical drought, the offspring that is born to these mothers deprived of water will be more dry (meaning that their father and blood will be more focused) compared to the offspring.The newborn of mothers is not deprived of water before they feel thirsty and search for water, these results indicate that the point of determining the extent of the sensitivity of drought is present in the womb..
Hence, the signs of moisturizing the body that we receive during development may determine when people feel thirsty, as well as the amount of water they drink in later stages of their lives, in other words, these early experiences work to prepare and prepare offspring in order to adapt to the amount of water in its environment If a pregnant woman lives in an environment that suffers from a scarcity of water and chronic dryness, this may lead to her child drinking less than water permanently at a later time in life, and this is a feature of adaptation in places where it is difficult to find water, however There is a need to conduct more research to test the validity of this theory.
Keep water clean
Perhaps the early life experiences may determine the amount of water that we drink without realizing this, however, determining the places of safe sources of water is something that we learn to do with consciousness and activity; In contrast to my discovery by chance the moisturizing effects of papaya fruit, the people of Al -Tasimani search for foods rich in water on intentionally. I found in my studies that the sons of Al -Tasimani who were getting the largest part of the water needed for their bodies of foods and fruits, such as papaya fruit, were less likely to develop diarrhea.
Many societies have appeared in food traditions that include wine drinks that contain a low percentage of alcohol; As these drinks can be as basic sources of moisturizing the body since the fermentation kills bacteria, (on the other side, drinks that contain high levels of alcohol increase the diuresis, and thus drain the water stock in the body), and similar to other peoples inhabited The Amazon River Basin area, members of the Tsaimani people drink a vein drink called "Chicha", and they make it from yuka or Casava, and the eating of the "Chicha" drink in the men of the Tsaimani people has been associated with the low chances of their drought..
يُعد الحصول على كمية كافية من الماء أحد أقدم التحديات وأكثرها إلحاحًا في تاريخ تطوُّر البشرية، ولذا فمن غير المستغرب أن نرسم في عقولنا خريطةً ذهنيةً لمواقع مصادر الماء، سواءٌ أكانت استراحةً على الطريق السريع، أو نبعًا في قلب الصحراء، أو نباتًا في الغابة، فبينما كنت أرقب خوليو وهو يقطع غصن الكرمة، كان ابنه يراقبه أيضًا، ويتعلم أين يكمن ذلك المصدر المهم للماء، هذا المشهد أعطاني لمحةً عن كيفية حدوث هذه العملية عبر الأجيال، وبفضل هذا، أدركت أن Stepping is sweaty وإيجاد طرقٍ لتعويض ذلك الماء المفقود يُعد جزءًا جوهريًّا من ماهيتنا كبشر.