This is why I'm a cynic. For more than fifty years, the public has been told by doctors etc to drink MORE water, to drink atleast 8 glasses of water a day. But the advice is worthless and worse could be harmful.

A University of Pennsylvania study now reveals that NOT A SINGLE study has recommended eating 8 glasses of water a day. So we've been wasting the world's dwindling water supply for nothing!

In fact you can drink too MUCH water --resulting in water intoxication, hyponatraemia (low salt levels) and even death. The obsession with maintaining hydration has led to an increasing rate of collapse among distance runners in the last decade who drink so much they suffer water intoxication.

Exception --The benefits of drinking a pint of water before bed after a night's drinking to ward off a hangover are, separately, well established.