For instance does it enter your bloodstream the moment it washes over your tongue/cheeks? Or is it only once it reaches the stomach?
Also, how quickly does it reach your brain (in the instance of a dehydration-induced migraine)?
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Stomach and intestines are surrounded by a serious amount of blood vessels, and liquids (water, alcohol) pass through the lining into the blood relatively quickly (within half an hour I believe). Nutrients in the food may take up to 24 hours to be broken down by the acids and enzymes and pass through.
Once in your blood, things reach your brain as quickly as your heart pumps them, probably less than a minute.
RE: dehydration-induced migrane, you may have a different mechanism, namely your body senses that water is incoming because it washed over your mouth, and your heart beats faster just because of that, increasing blood pressure and affecting your migraine.
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You start absorbing water as soon as it hits your mouth. Water gets absorbed through membranous tissue, it’s the same tissue that lets nicotine users chew tobacco, as the nicotine follows the water into your bloodstream from the mucosal membranes of your inner lips.
Water is also absorbed in the stomach and small intestines, but most of it is absorbed in the large intestine. The main reason for this is surface area. If you think of it another way, imagine you lay out 3 trays out in the sun on a hot day, and you want to see which one can evaporate the most water overall. One is the size of a cupcake, another the size of a cookie sheet, and another the size of a blanket. You could evaporate a lot more water in the largest cookie sheet, because there is more surface for the water to be.
That example sounded better in my head before I wrote it, but I’m too lazy to think of a better one. Hope this helps!
Very good question because sometime when I drink water I feel it almost washing over dif parts of my body and I’ve always wondered this!
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