The claim: Drinking 1.5 litres of water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning has many health benefits.
Research: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/drinking-water-in-the-morning
Real Life experience: This morning routine cured my morning allergies for good
Tried and Tested by a Beyond Logistics Team member
I am a fan of home remedies for one reason: Sometimes they are all you need to get well. Interestingly, many people don’t take home remedies seriously. They read or hear about them but never take the time to test them. Drink 1.5 litres of plain boiled (room temperature or warm) water first thing in the morning is one such remedy. But how many people take it seriously? Do YOU take it seriously?
I know a few people who do. I admire them for this, but from a distance because drinking water is not my friend. I would rather take tea any day, any time, thank you very much! Quite honestly, the thought of drinking 1.5 litres, moreover on an empty stomach, is not one I was eager to entertain. Until one morning when I challenged myself to try it… just for just.
I got my three glasses of water and started sipping as I made breakfast. As it turned out, sipping that much water so early in the morning was not invented for me. Making it through day one without gagging on the water was not easy! The instructions are not to eat anything before and 45 minutes after drinking the water. And yes, stay home for at least two hours before going out, because the bladder begs to be emptied every few minutes after the first glass.
Fast forward to day three and I had had enough plain water for a lifetime. I just couldn’t drink down another glass, yet I wanted to continue with the challenge. So, I started thinking…what if I substitute water with something I like? Something healthy like unsweetened tea.
So I started drinking different types of unsweetened tea. A cocktail of herbs today, old nice warm water with slices of lemon tomorrow, ginger and holy basil the next. Sometimes I just added rosemary to my water or bits of lemon grass. Then there was mint, green tea, chamomile, peppermint, cinnamon, cloves, turmeric…
My list was rather rich, as long as I took 1.5 litres of unsweetened herbal tea first thing in the morning. Often, I ended up taking the same herbal tea for the rest of the day since tea is my go-to-drink. On good mornings, I managed a glass of water or two in addition to the herbal tea.
And then it hit me! I had not suffered from morning allergy for days! Or was it weeks? I wasn’t sure. It just hit me one morning that I was not sneezing anymore. Or feeling that irritating urge to scratch a very itchy throat and nose. Neither was I blowing my nose like I was competing for an early morning prize. Plus, I was not trying to breath through a terribly stuffy nose for the first time in ages!
Thinking back, I know all these allergies did not just stop one great morning… I just noticed one day that they were all gone. I knew it was the morning ‘water’ because it was the only new addition to my daily routine.
I couldn’t believe that I had suffered with all these allergies every single morning for over 20 years with a powerful remedy within my reach. Sometimes I suffered until the sun was properly set in the skies. Cold mornings were a nightmare with some allergies persisting well up to 12:00 pm. For the first time in years, I had no ‘morning flue’, no itchy throat (this used to start deep in the night and last all morning), no urge to sneeze repeatedly or rub my itchy nose like my life depended on it. I was allergy free! Today, I am addicted to my version of morning water and cannot start my day without it. I cannot risk suffering from the monster allergies again!