Does drinking water at certain times help digestion, prevent high-blood pressure, strokes and heart-attacks?

Question

There is a poster in our breakroom at work that states this about drinking water:

• 2 glasses of water in the morning helps internal organs
• 1 glass before meal helps digestion
• 1 glass before shower prevents high-blood pressure
• 1 glass before bed helps prevent strokes or heart-attacks

I have had trouble finding evidence of any of these claims because the poster doesn't cite any sources and when I search myself I get mixed answers (not many peer-reviewed).

Answer 1

This poster that you saw recalls from my memory a famous email I received once:

HEART ATTACKS AND WATER !

How many folks do you know who say they don't want to drink anything before going to bed because they'll have to get up during the night. . . . .

Very Important. From A Cardiac Specialist!

• Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body
• 2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
• 1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal helps digestion
• 1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
• 1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack

Dr. Virend Somers is a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, who is lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 a.m. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame.

1. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night. The reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life;" therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the aspirin would be strongest in your system.

2. FYI, aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest, for years, (when it gets old, it smells like vinegar). . . . ⁽¹⁾

After this message has gone viral online: circulated on social media and people's emails; the Mayo Clinic, on behalf of Dr. Somers, exposed the falseness of this circulating email, and they said:

Neither Dr. Somers nor Mayo Clinic contributed to this email, which contains some information that is inaccurate and potentially harmful. We recommend that you speak with your physician if you have specific questions.⁽²⁾

This is an online hoax that you should immediately disregard.

^{(1) What Bad Advice Did This Heart Attack Survivor Get? Huffington Post. 09/24/2013}

^{(2) Misleading Aspirin Email. Mayo Clinic News Network. Feb 28, 2010}