Social media is rife with videos and posts about the so-called benefits of drinking hot (or warm) water.
Some people say it helps with digestion, while others say it’s good for weight loss, but doctors told HuffPost there’s more to these claims than the messages included in a quick video on Instagram.
First, the idea of drinking hot water comes largely from Chinese medicine and Chinese culture. “And I think that it’s really important. Even though, yes, I’m a Western medicine doctor, I do appreciate and respect the cultural significance of warm water, and that’s where I think a lot of these trends come from,” said Dr. Vanessa Buie, a bariatric surgeon at UChicago Medicine. “In traditional Chinese medicine, as well as Ayurvedic medicine, there is an idea around digestion and warmth and improving your chi that is culturally based, and so I think that’s important.” (Chi is your body’s energetic force.)
Drinking hot water is also part of drinking tea, which is also an integral part of many cultures, said Dr. Elizabeth Kazarian, a family medicine and obesity medicine physician.
“It’s very soothing, and that is very important,” Kazarian explained. The relaxing, de-stressing and calming effect of drinking warm fluids is good for you.
If it’s part of your culture or routine, certainly continue the pattern. But for those who are drinking hot water for specific health goals, you may be disappointed. Here’s what to know.
Drinking water at any temperature is hydrating.
“Drinking water at the temperature you enjoy is good, and overall, being hydrated is good,” Buie said.
This is true for drinking hot water, warm water, room-temp water and cold water. Staying hydrated allows your body to function optimally, benefiting your organs, joints, cells, body temperature and more.
Drinking warm liquids of any sort can help facilitate flow in the GI tract and help you poop.
“Any kind of hot fluid or warm fluid … affects the sphincters throughout the GI tract,” said Dr. Isaiah Schuster, the associate director of gastroenterology at St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center in New York. Throughout the GI tract, from your mouth to your rear, these sphincters are “muscles that control flow,” he said.
“Warm fluids, whether it’s water or anything — coffee, in particular, in the morning ― stimulate the relaxation of these sphincters and … it can facilitate flow, and so it can help the esophagus empty better,” he added. This helps things move through your GI tract.
Research shows that drinking warm fluids does impact esophageal motility, according to Schuster. Certain patients with esophageal diseases or issues are encouraged to drink warm beverages, he added. How much warm fluids actually help is unknown and unclear, though.
Drinking warm liquids can also stimulate the gastrocolic reflex as part of this process. “When you consume warm fluids, it actually stimulates the colon,” Schuster explained, “and can facilitate people having a bowel movement, improve some constipation.”
Buie took it one step further and said drinking liquids of any temperature helps you defecate.
“Whether it’s coffee, water in the morning, anything in the morning that stretches out your stomach does signal … gastrocolic reflux and stimulates defecation,” Buie said.
But drinking hot water likely won’t specifically help digestion.
According to Buie, there are multiple studies that have looked at how the temperature of water (both hot and cold) aids digestion. “And they basically found that cold and warm drinks emptied more slowly than body-temperature drinks, so cold drinks significantly slowed your intestinal gastric emptying,” she said ― and the same goes for hot drinks.
“Ultimately, our digestive system, all of our systems in our body, work best at body temperature, which is 37 degrees Celsius. So any extreme temperatures can transiently disrupt your gastric motility and digestion,” Buie explained.
“Digestion is hormonally regulated,” Buie said. Your stress levels, how you’re sleeping are going to impact digestion much more than a mug of warm water, she said.
Tara Moore via Getty Images
Drinking hot water can help keep you hydrated, but isn’t known to help with digestion or weight loss.
It also won’t help weight loss goals.
“There is currently no data where I can, with a good heart, sit across from a patient in clinic and say, ‘hey, part of your obesity care is going to be drinking hot water, because one it aids digestion, and it helps you lose weight,’” said Kazarian. “I could never say that, because I don’t have any evidence to say that.”
Drinking water is a way to replace caloric beverages, which can be helpful for weight loss, Buie added. But this applies to drinking cold water, too.
Drinking hot water is not a cure-all by any means, or a necessary habit to start.
“The true measured effects of all of this are, we don’t know. It can help some folks … we don’t know what degree of this is placebo or not,” said Schuster.
Drinking warm water likely isn’t harming you, but it has the same benefits as drinking cold water, Kazarian said.
“If it’s just water, and they talk to their providers, and they run these things by their docs, and if it’s not causing any harm and it’s making you feel better, then there’s really no problem with doing it,” Schuster noted.
Don’t expect any major health changes from this habit, though.
“There’s no scientific evidence to suggest that hot water, uniquely, detoxifies, improves digestion, boosts metabolism or causes weight loss,” Buie said. “The scientific evidence isn’t there.”
“But to each their own. If you find that hot water in the morning helps with your grounding rituals, with your mood, with how you start your day and your rituals, your habits. I think all of that is beneficial,” Buie added.
