Your body is about 60% water. There's water inside your cells and out. There's water in your bloodstream and in your organs. There's even water inside your bones (synovial fluid) and your spinal cord (spinal fluid).

Like any healthy body of water — a swimming pool, a lake, an ocean — the water in your body needs to stay clean. And to stay clean, it needs a filter.

Fortunately, your body has one. In fact, it has two — your kidneys. They filter out toxins and wastes and send them to the bladder for disposal.

The kidneys also help control the alkaline/acid balance of the body (critical for optimal health), cellular levels of electrolytes (potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium), and blood pressure levels.

Meanwhile, your bladder is the storage container that holds your urine, so you can control your urination to when it's convenient. Unless of course your bladder is irritated, in which case you go when IT wants you to!

If your kidneys and bladder are in tiptop shape, you'll feel clean and clear from the inside out, helping you maintain abundant energy and a sharp mind.

Here are a few simple but highly effective tips for the care and maintenance of your filtering system.

It's hard for your kidneys to flush toxins out of your system if you're dehydrated. But exactly how much water should you drink every day? There are a lot of different recommendations — and I think you should ignore them all! Just check your lips and mouth. If they're dry, you need to drink more water. It's as simple as that!

Another simple method is to check the color of your urine. If it's a dull yellow, then there's not enough water diluting it and you should drink more. (Urine can also turn bright yellow from taking B vitamins, but that's different from the murky yellow of overly concentrated urine.)

A third method is that when you feel tired, drink a glass of water and see if your energy improves in a couple of minutes. If it does, you were dehydrated.

Another method, which I often use to tell if I'm dehydrated: when I'm thirsty, I can easily chug a whole glass of water; when I'm not thirsty, I prefer to sip it.