World-renowned water expert Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, in his bestseller, Water and Salt - Your Healers Within, has studied how many conditions we label as disease are truly the body's many cries for water. According to Dr. Batmanghelidj with consistent and long-term intake of fresh, clean water can help the following conditions: Heartburn, arthritis, lupus, asthma, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer formation, obesity, hot flashes, menstrual problems, chronic fatigue, ME, angina, gout, kidney stones, diabetes, skin conditions, allergies, and the list goes on. Whether or not these can all be related to dehydration, we all need to understand more about water nutrition and the importance of water to our health.
Dr. Batmanghelidj has stated, "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."
I found the research that Dr. Batmanghelidj to be very interesting and completely makes sense when you look at the human physiology. We all know how important water is! The earth is comprised of mostly water, our brain is 75-80% water, blood is mostly water, and we would die after a few days without water. So it would make sense that most disease would occur without the appropriate amount of fresh, clean water.
In Chiropractic school we learn how important the nervous system is and how it essential runs and communicates with every part of the human body. This is why the chiropractic philosophy revolves around the spine and making sure the spine functions in a way that minimizes impedance or irritation to the nervous system. An important part to understand is that the human body needs water or a medium to communicate those messages effectively. The human body is essential a bioelectrical water machine. Water is used by the body for digestion, detoxifying cells, watering the lungs, lubricating joints, keeping the body alkaline and many cleaning type duties. Every cell in the body must have an adequate amount of water to properly function. When it doesn't the body will ration what it does have, cutting back on certain functions and prioritizing system like the brain.
The truth is that most people are actually dehydrated to some degree. Instead of drinking water we have decided that flavored drinks taste alot better. "I drink coffee in the morning, tea for lunch, a diet soda at break and usually have a beer with dinner. But they contain water so that should be ok, right?" Everything from coffee, tea, beer, soda, flavored water and sports drinks are all contributing to cellular dehydration. Your body was made to run on pure, fresh, clean water! There is a common misconception about most drinks available today. That is that they DO NOT hydrate but actually act as a diuretic (water-expelling). At some point in time many of us decided its ok to have pop at anytime of day, at any age, just because we are thirsty? The problem with this besides all the sugar and other chemicals in these drinks is how acidic most drinks including pop, flavored water, sport drinks, coffee and tea are. The reason they act as a diuretic is because of how acidic they are to the body. This then causes the body to give up water and alkalizing minerals to combat the acid waste of these liquids we consume everyday. For example diet soda is especially bad, as it requires large amounts of body-water to neutralize the phosphoric acid (pH 2.8) that it contains.
Next time you grab a soda because your thirsty, think about yourself and if your body will become hydrated with that drink or is it going to reject it and use up energy to get rid of it! For more information on super-hydrating water used at Living with Motion Chiropractic please visit www.livingwithmotion.com. Be sure to check out the next presentation on Water Nutrition and see first hand the most effective way to get water into your cells and become hydrated. You cells life depend on it!
