By Phillip Day
‘I
never drink water because of the
disgusting
things fish do in it.’ – W C Fields
In spite of the University of Pennsylvania saying that water does not doing anything, the human body is a bio-electrical machine that requires a quart of water a day for every 50 lbs of body-weight. [1] The blood alone is made up of a large percentage of watery/salty serum. The lymph fluids which transport waste and nutrients comprise four times the volume of blood in the body and are made from the water we consume. Every cell that makes us who we are literally owes its life to an adequate supply of fresh, clean water . When the body does not receive a reliable supply of water , it has to ration what is available and cut back on certain functions to make it go around. Essential systems like the brain are prioritised while others are cut back until the brain has decided a reliable source of water has been garnered.
Here’s the rub. Most citizens have become chronically and dangerously dehydrated (especially the young and elderly), since we decided water was too bland to drink in favour of tea, coffee, beer, wine, addictive sodas, flavoured water and other chemical-laced alternatives. A disastrous and dangerous move for society’s health, to be sure, but one further compounded by the fact that most doctors today cannot readily identify the many water -deficient diseases and associated pains. Thus the underlying dehydration process continues while drugs are prescribed to switch off the warning signals (symptoms).
World-renowned water expert Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj maintains that common conditions can be the body’s many cries for water , complaints dramatically improved when a consistent, long-term intake of fresh water and unrefined salt is introduced . Dr Batman’s best-selling book, Water and Salt, Your Healers From Within, has helped thousands quash long-term health problems effortlessly and inexpensively. [2] He writes:
‘The report of my having successfully treated with water more than three thousand people with symptoms and clinical signs of peptic ulcer disease was published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in June 1983. I came away from that experience with the understanding that the people I treated were thirsty, and I uncovered the phenomenon that ‘pain’ in the body indicates thirst, even though the condition is classified as a disease.’ [3]
Water is used by the body for digestion, detoxifying cells, watering the lungs, lubricating joints, keeping the body alkalised and a host of cleaning duties. Many symptoms arise out of the body’s inability to neutralise or rid itself of acid, a common enough complaint given the number of antacids sold around the world each day. And the dangerous misconception that fuels it?
‘I drink coffee,
tea, diet sodas, beer and a host of other liquids. They contain water, don’t
they?’
Many of today’s designer drinks are diuretic in their effect (water- expelling) because their mostly acidic compositions require the body to give up water in order to eliminate their harmful residues. Sodas especially are to be avoided since they require large amounts of body-water to neutralise the phosphoric acid component (2.8 pH) and carbon dioxide (the fizz, which is acidic). Cells that started off healthy and ‘plum-like’ shrivel to prunes as water, the stuff of life, is progressively denied them. The sick in our hospitals are fed the sodas, tea and coffee they ask for in woeful ignorance of the damage wrought to their micro cell-world within.
Your Body and Dehydration
Batmanghelidj’s extraordinary work should rightly be considered by a mainstream medical community ever fixated on the drug cure:
Brain function: The brain comprises 2% of the body’s total weight, yet receives 15-20% of the blood supply, mostly comprised of water. Dehydration will affect cognitive ability drastically, and, through histamine’s action, can create depressive states (many anti-depressant medications are anti-histamines).
Bone function: Bones require plentiful supplies of water. 75% of the weight of the upper body, for instance, is supported by the water core contained in the fifth lumbar disc, the remaining 25% by muscle fibres around the spine. [4]
Nerve function: Microstreams exist along the length of nerves, which transport nutrients and conduct energy along microtubules to the synapses to transmit messages. Dehydration disrupts proper nerve function, resulting in the sensation of pain.
Hydrolysis: Far from being an inert solvent, water is intricately involved in the body’s water-dependent chemical reactions. Lack of water means incomplete or faulty metabolic processes, with obvious implications for health. Proteins and enzymes do not function as well in acidic solutions of higher viscosity (stickiness) when the body is dehydrated.
Cellular energy: As water is drawn through the cell membrane, its osmotic flow generates a voltage gradient which can be used in the manufacture of ATP and GTP energy. Dehydration will affect the proper functioning of cells, even kill them.
Histamine: This neurotransmitter activates systems which encourage water intake when dehydration is detected. Functions in the body which consume large quantities of water are cut back, namely the bronchial tubes constricted to cut down on water use in the lungs; increased peristalsis in the bowels to wring more water out of faecal material, and so on. Other signs of histamine’s activity, namely allergies, asthma, depression and chronic pains, are interpreted by the physician as ‘disease’ and treated with steroids, anti-histamines, painkillers (analgesics), etc. Thus the signals of thirst are turned off but the dehydration state continues unabated.
Dyspepsia (heartburn/reflux): Over time, this can lead to ulceration and even cancer. Dr Batmanghelidj recommends that these conditions - also gastritis and duodenitis – be treated with water alone as they are one of the body’s major thirst signals. Arrested in his native Iran by the Revolutionary
Council during the troubles of the late 1970’s, Dr B was confined to Evin
prison, Tehran, during which time he successfully treated with water alone over three thousand people complaining of dyspeptic
pain and associated symptoms.
Digestion: Requires plentiful supplies of water. The stomach relies on mucus lining the walls to shield it from the effects of the stomach’s hydrochloric acid. A bicarbonate solution is produced from the cells in the lining which neutralises any acid attempting to break through the mucus. Water is needed to maintain this effective defence system. Too little water, and the mucus barrier is ineffectual, the acid will penetrate and lead to pain. Ideally, water should be consumed half an hour before a meal, in time to anticipate the production of digestive acid from glands in the stomach wall.
Ulcers: Often located at the valve between the stomach and duodenum. Said to be caused by curved bacteria known as helicobacters. Many people have helicobacters in their small intestine, yet not all of them suffer ulcers. Histamine-producing nerves are located at this site, which monitor the through-put of acidic food chyme from the stomach into the intestine. Dr Batman reports histamine has growth-hormone effects on these micro-organisms, resulting in small intestine bacterial overgrowths (SIBOs). An adequate regime of water intake, he maintains, will allow all the functions relating to digestion to normalise. Prolonged water intake should be considered before more drastic drug treatments are entered into.
Summary
You can go without
food for a month, but seven days without water and you’re all done. Your
body cries out for it, your blood is made up of it, nerves, heart, lungs,
bowels and brain don’t function without it, yet we answer the body’s thirst
signals with tea, coffee, Fanta, Diet Coke, Red Bull and drugs. Hardly any
wonder most western nations have a pub/bar culture to deal with the ravening
thirst of their citizens.
Many illnesses
respond well to adequate hydration. Mental performance is enhanced. Limbs
operate. Blood thinned. Pain banished. Bowels happy. Skin lustrous and clear.
Toxins flushed away. Water, the stuff for life. Are you getting enough?
· Drink two litres of water a day
· Avoid fluoridated water! [5]
· Don’t drink tap water unless filtered by reverse osmosis or better [6]
· Bottled water is OK, if a little old and expensive
· Avoid water served in soft plastic bottles, as these impart oestrus activity
· Eat high-water-content fruits and veggies
Water and Salt – Your Healers From Within by F Batmanghelidj
Water – The Stuff of Life by Phillip Day
Simple Changes by Phillip Day