A new research shows that the human body uses between 30% and 50% less water per day than chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans.
For the first time, it has been precisely measured how much water humans lose and replace each day compared to our primate cousins.
Sweat glands
The study compared the water renewal of 309 people with a variety of lifestyles, from farmers and hunter-gatherers to office workers, with that of 72 apes. Water intake through food and drink, on the one hand, and water lost through sweat, urine and the gastrointestinal tract were calculated. The average person processes about three liters, or 12 cups, of water per day. A chimpanzee or gorilla living in a zoo suffers twice as much.
Our bodies are constantly losing water: when we sweat, we go to the bathroom, even when we breathe. That water must be replaced to maintain the volume of blood and other body fluids. But an ancient change in our body's ability to conserve water.
As the main author explains Herman Pontzer, associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University:
Even just being able to go a little longer without water would have been a huge advantage when early humans began making a living in the dry landscapes of the savannah.
The next step, Pontzer says, is to pinpoint how this physiological change occurred. At the moment, only a few hypotheses are being considered,
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The news
We know we need to drink less than other primates but we don't know why.
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.