Drinking water during meals aids tissue normalcy and digestion, while consuming water after meals can result in abdominal fat accumulation and obesity. Drinking water before meals can lead to indigestion and body weight loss.
Cold water alleviates various conditions such as madatyaya, glani, murccha, chardi, srama, bhrama, trsna, usna, daha, raktapitta, visa.
On the other hand, hot water aids digestion, helps digest undigested food, purifies the urinary bladder and is beneficial for throat ailments. Hot water is recommended for hiccups, abdominal distension, vata and kapha disorders, after cleansing therapies, acute fever, cough, ama conditions, running nose, dyspnoea and pain in the flanks.
The preparation of hot water varies based on seasonal and geographical factors as well as its heaviness or lightness.
Ksinapada involves boiling 4 parts of water and reducing it to 3 parts.
Tribhaga involves boiling water and reducing it to 1/3 of the original quantity, while
Ardhabhaga involves reducing water to half its original quantity.
Kvathita is boiled water heated to the boiling point.
Water heated using methods such as immersing red-hot iron balls, gold, silver, mud, or bitumen, or exposing it to sunlight, mitigates all tridoshas and is easily digestible, making it ideal for samsarga and sannipataja rogas.
Boiled water loses its dipana and pachana properties and increases all tridoshas when stored for 2-3 days, so it should be prepared daily and not stored. storing boiled water overnight (stale water) can aggravate all tridoshas.
Hot water has similar properties to cold water, such as being sweet in taste and cold in potency, and is recommended for thirst and fever. In cases of amajlrna and vistabdha-ajlrna, hot water is also recommended.
Water obtained from Candrakanta stones is sweet, cold, and easily digestible. It has the ability to remove evil spirits, visa disorders, and fevers caused by pitta dosha.
Boiled and cooled water is also easy to digest and does not cause abhisyandi, making it beneficial in conditions where pitta is associated with other doshas.
It’s not a good idea to drink more water than your body can handle. If someone has health issues like agnimandya, gulma, pandu, udara, atisara, arsas, graham dosa, sosa, sopha, they should drink less water than they normally do. Even healthy people should limit their water intake, except during autumn and summer seasons.