Water is essential for maintenance of our health. It plays an important role levelling body temperature, it delivers nourishment and oxygen to cells, flushes away the 'useless stuff', and protects organs as well as tissues. Water is a part of practically all physical processes in our bodies. What about mental? What role does water play in our brains’ functions and consequentially mental processes? Does it have an influence on schoolchildren’s success?

‘’Water is essential for healthy brain,’’ writes Dr Philippa Norman in her article about healthy brain. ‘’Place two fists together, with your inner wrists touching.  Your brain is about this size and shape. In contrast to the rubbery pink models we have seen, the brain is amazingly soft, composed primarily of fat and water. It is greyish and pudding-like - composed of 100 billion brain cells - called neurons, that drive our thinking, learning, feeling and states of being.  Neurons need good fats, protein, complex carbohydrates, micronutrients - vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients - and water. These nutrients are used to drive the learning functions of neurons.’’

Mental processes are actually chemical processes in our brain. Our every action, thought, spoken word (so everything we do) is triggered by different chemical compounds (neurotransmitters) which carry information to certain neurons. For fast and quality transmission of neurotransmitters among neurons through synapses, membrane’s tonus is a crucial element. This is where water steps in because sufficient hydration is the most important condition for tonus maintenance. We can say that quality food (for creation of neurotransmitters) and water (for their transport) are crucial for good and efficient mental processes.

Researches have shown that we have already lost 2% of water in our body when we feel thirst, and cognitive efficiency is lower by 10%! Next to direct, dehydration also has indirect effects – a dehydrated person is tired, unfocused and demotivated. Just think about your efficiency on a hot summer day. This condition additionally lowers the efficiency of mental processes. This article from the Telegraph webpage writes about similar results: ‘’Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry in London and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, found that teenagers' brains work less efficiently when they become dehydrated, making tasks such as problem solving far harder. The researchers carried out brain scans on ten teenagers who were asked to perform 90 minutes of exercise to induce moderate dehydration before being given a series of problems solving and reaction time tests. Although the children lost just 1.1 per cent of their body weight through dehydration during the tasks, the study showed that their brains had to work harder to carry out the same task when dehydrated. The children's ability to perform the tasks did not change, but functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans revealed increased neural effort in key parts of their brains such as the middle frontal gyrus and the inferior parietal lobule – key areas in problem solving and learning.’’

Flaška bottle offers a handy and efficient answer to these problems. ‘’Flaška is great. I drink more water since I have it,’’ is the most often answer of Flaška bottle’s owners when we ask them about their experience. The simple fact that children own a water bottle makes them drink more. Since they put water in it, not sweet and/or carbonated drinks, they also drink better quality. But is it all? Far from it! An important factor is colourful design on different Flaška bottles. They act as mental triggers – we notice them easily and they ‘remind’ us about drinking water. Compared to a transparent bottle, glass or plastic bottle Flaška is much more visible and standing out. But most important fact is that Flaška bottle is programmed which changes water’s structure. Its taste becomes softer, somewhat silky. It is of course a matter of personal taste, but most people say water tastes better.  Structured or living water from Flaška can also be absorbed more easily by our bodies. So adding all this facts together good hydration is almost guaranteed!