An employee stands in front of shelves of bottled water in a supermarket in Bangkok on March 4, 2020. (AFP / Lillian Suwanrumpha)

Experts refute claim that drinking water at specific times can have different health benefits

This article is more than one year old.
Published on March 5, 2020 at 08:20
1 min read
By AFP Philippines

An infographic shared thousands of times in multiple social media posts purports to show the health benefits of drinking water "at the correct time", claiming that drinking water at specific times during the day can have different health benefits, such as lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of a heart attack. This claim is misleading; health experts say there is insufficient evidence that drinking water at specified times during the day can have additional health benefits to staying hydrated.

The graphic was published here on Twitter on February 15, 2020. It has been retweeted almost 10,000 since.

The post advises that drinking water “after waking up”, “30 min before a meal”, “before taking a shower” and “before going to bed” each have differing health benefits, from "helps activate internal organs” to “helps to avoid heart attack”.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading tweet:

Screenshot of post

The graphic has also been shared alongside similar claims hundreds of times on Facebook here and here.

These claims are misleading.

“There is no clinical trial to support these claims," Dr. Nannette Rey, a board member of the Philippine Heart Association, told AFP in an email on February 27, 2020.

Such claims “are actually derived from known benefits of water and just extrapolated and passed on as clinical recommendations, when in fact the only recommendation is just to drink enough fluids," Rey said. “What is recommended is to keep yourself hydrated the whole day for vital body function."

Dr. Ranulfo Javelosa Jr., the Chief of the Preventive Cardiology Division of the Philippine Heart Center, also told AFP that the claims are "medical myths."

During a phone conversation with AFP on February 27, 2020, Javelosa said that heart diseases most often arise from a combination of factors including “cholesterol, sugar, stress and smoking.”

“If you reduce those, you reduce the risks of heart attack,” he said. “Drinking a glass of water will not change all those.”

Fact-checking organizations Africa Check and Full Fact have also debunked similar misleading claims about timing water intake here and here.

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