THE BODY CRIES FOR WATER

Preventive medicine should be the main approach to health care in any society. And the hero is water. Water is the primary substance and the leading agent in the functions that take place in the human body. The lack of water in physiological situations will eventually become disease conditions. This article describes the benefits of drinking water. The truth is that dehydration can cause diseases like asthma , hypertension , ulcers , allergies and arthritis . Everyone knows that water is good for the body but not how essential water is to well-being. They dont understand what happens to the body if it doesn't receive its daily water requirements.

Water for the Brain Within these water rationing systems in the body, the brain function takes priority over all other systems. The brain is 1/50th of total body weight but receives 18-20 per cent of blood circulation. When the bodys water regulation systems become more active, they also give their own alarm signals to show that the area in question is short of water. Its much like the radiator of a car giving off steam when the cooling system is not adequate for the uphill drive. Advanced societies think that tea, coffee, alcohol and manufactured beverages are desirable substitutes for the purely natural water needs of a stressed body. This is false. These beverages contain dehydrating agents. They get rid of the water they are dissolved in plus more from the bodys reserves! Modern lifestyles make people dependent on soda and juices. This is a selfimposed restriction on the bodys needs. At the same time, a cultivated preference

for the taste of soda will reduce the free urge to drink water even when sodas are not available. Currently, the practitioners of medicine are unaware of the many chemical roles of water in the body. Because dehydration eventually causes loss of functions, the sophisticated signals given by water-regulating systems have been translated as indicators of unknown disease conditions. This is the most basic mistake of clinical medicine. It has prevented medical practitioners from being able to use preventative measures or offer simple physiological cures for major diseases. With these signals the body should normally be provided with water for our systems to distribute. However, medical practitioners have been taught to silence these signals with chemical products. They have little understanding of the significance of this error. The various signals produced by these water distributors are indicators of regional thirst and drought of the body. At the onset, they can be relieved by an increased intake of water, yet they are improperly dealt with by the use of commercial chemical products until pathology is established and diseases are born. This sometimes continues until the use of more chemicals to treat other developing symptoms and indications of dehydration becomes unavoidable and the patient dies! The Error in Medicine The human body is 25 per cent solid matter and 75 per cent water. The brain tissue is about 85 per cent water. When the phase of inquiry into the workings of the body began, the scientific parameters and a very broad knowledge of chemistry had already been established. The idea developed within the science of chemistry applied exactly to the bodys solute composition. All applied medical research has been directed toward identification of one particular substance responsible for causing a disease. Therefore, all the possible fluctuations of essential changes are tested without a cure for any disease. Accordingly all treatments are palliative. None seems to be curative. Hypertension is not cured, but treated throughout a lifetime. Asthma is not cured; inhalers are the constant companion of the afflicted. Peptic ulcers are not cured; antacids have to be nearby all the time. Allergy is not cured; the victim is always dependent on medication. Arthritis is not cured; it eventually cripples.

The Dry Mouth It has become a practice to regard the dry mouth as the only sign of the bodys need for water. This is an erroneous and confusing view in medicine, responsible for the lack of success in finding permanent preventive solutions to disease in the body, despite costly research. Ive treated more than 3,000 peptic ulcer sufferers with water alone and discovered for the first time in medicine that this classical disease of the body responds to water. It is a state of thirst in the body.

Silencing the different signals of water shortages in the body with chemicals is detrimental to health and well-being. The established chronic dehydration inflicts permanent damage on that persons descendants as well.

Under the same environmental and clinical settings, other disease conditions seemed to respond to water by itself. The body has a variety of sophisticated, integrated signal systems which regulate the bodys water supply during dehydration. The dry mouth thirst signal is the last outward sign of extreme dehydration. The damage occurs at a level of persistent dehydration that does not necessarily accompany a dry mouth signal. To facilitate the act of chewing and swallowing food, saliva is produced even if the rest of the body is dehydrated. Chronic dehydration of the body means persistent water shortage that has been established for some time. Like any other deficiency, such as vitamin C deficiency is scurvy, vitamin B in beriberi, iron in anemia, and vitamin D in rickets, the most efficient method of treatment is supplementation. If we begin to recognize the symptoms of chronic dehydration, the prevention and cure of a large number of disease conditions becomes possible.

How to Get Hydrated As soon as you wake up, drink one to four eight-ounce glasses of roomtemperature or slightly heated water through a straw. If you drink water from a glass or a bottle, you consume mostly air and feel bloated from all the air in your stomach. When you drink through a straw, you consume 95 percent water. You can drink four times as much before you feel full. Add two teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice to your water three times a day: upon rising, mid-afternoon, and in your final water intake in the evening. The juice will help alkalize your body and neutralize acids created from digesting certain foods or normal cellular metabolism. One-half hour before each of your three meals drink one to two, eight-ounce glasses of water through a straw. If you do not have enough water in your stomach, digestion is impaired. Also, if the blood becomes too thick after eating because of lack of water, the blood will try to draw water from the cells. Water intake should precede food intake by half an hour. (Unfortunately, coffee, soft drinks, beer and regular tea do not count as daily water needs. Fruit and veggie juices do!)

If you exercise or work hard and sweat in hot weather, add four eight-ounce glasses of water per hour of strenuous exercise or work. Never drink while you are eating. The liquid flushes through the stomach quickly into the small intestine. It will dilute and drain some of the digestive juices out of

the stomach. This spells stress, as the body must secrete more digestive enzymes. If you continue to consume liquid while you eat, your bodys signals get confused. The stomach says, Quick, there are no enzymes. Secrete more, The body says, Whats wrong? Just sent some! We all know in economics what happens with a big demand and a small supply economic upheaval. The body experiences a similar upheavalof the digestive kind. If you have kidney disease, congestive heart disease or use a diuretic, consult a health-care professional before increasing your water intake.

The Importance of Regular Water Consumption Water is the most valuable and necessary 'nutrient' for the proper operation of the human body. It's very important to drink enough water daily as regular water consumption is the only way that your body can eliminate concentrated toxins from your cells. Whether cleansing or not, a deficiency of water, dehydration, can have deleterious effects on your body, possibly leading to failing health and in extreme circumstances death. Few of us are close to that stage of water loss, but if you are experiencing heartburn, rheumatoid pain, back pain, heart or angina pain, headaches, or leg pain from walking, you may be suffering from chronic dehydration. Through many studies it has been shown that joint movement is greatly facilitated by water. The cartilage lining in your joints need fluid to create a cushion between your bones. Without sufficient water, an inflammatory process can develop to compensate for the lack of water. It may appear that there is an infection or arthritis in your joints, when in reality, there is only dehydration. This occurs frequently in elderly persons as many people of increasing years drink very little water daily due to other concerns such as bloating, water retention, and kidney problems. Cutting back on water consumption is the wrong course of action for these problems as other more serious complications can result from a lack of water consumption. The correct course of action would be to drink an appropriate amount of fluids a day and to treat the causes of the specific ailment in an appropriate way.

There are many other helpful effects on the body that occur when adequate water is consumed daily. Present in your stomach and duodenum (the first portion of your small intestines)lies a mucous barrier that prevents acid penetration and damage to your gastrointestinal lining. A well-hydrated mucous barrier will retain bicarbonate and neutralize acid as it tries to pass through the mucous. Drinking proper amounts of water will provide a much better acid barrier to the mucosa than any medication on the market. Water consumption is very important for your overall metabolic health. If your double-layer cell membranes lack sufficient water, enzyme movement in and out of your cells will be obstructed. Enzymes are necessary to activate all the body's cell functions, and anything that interferes with enzyme movement will have a negative effect on all your body's systems. Hypertension or high blood pressure can be helped by optimal water consumption. When you have inadequate volume in your blood stream, the vessels selectively decrease in diameter. The vascular system adapts to volume loss by selectively closing the blood vessel lumen. One major cause of blood volume loss is insufficient body water. In chronic dehydration water is lost from the inside of some cells, from the water volume held outside the cells, and from water held in the blood vessels. The compensatory closing of the lumen to compensate for water loss causes the rise in tension recognized as hypertension.

What's the Appropriate Level of Water Consumption? A good rule to follow is to drink half your weight in 'ounces' of water every day. So, if you weigh 160 pounds, you would benefit by drinking 80 ounces of water each day. Examples: 200lbs=100 ounces of water daily 100 lbs=50 ounces of water daily You can also get some water in fruit juices, teas, sparkling water and sodas, but each of them have distinct disadvantages. For instance, when you drink any juices, you are requiring your digestive machinery and the pancreas to fire up and work. Drinking pure water allows your body to flush out toxins without having to mobilize and put stress on your digestive system. Caffeinated teas are actually a

diuretic. By drinking caffeinated teas, coffee, colas, and chocolate drinks, you are actually depleting the supply of water available in your body to dilute toxins and moisturize your system. Herbal teas often have therapeutic effects, but they can also make your body work, instead of giving it a well-deserved and needed rest. Some herbal teas are also diuretic in action. Having caffeinated drinks and herbal teas are fine, so long as it's in moderation, but the bulk of our daily liquids should be pure water. Adequate water consumption is one of the single most important tasks we must practice daily in order to live a long and healthy life. Water during Meals 1. Avoid drinking water with your meals. Drinking water with your meals dilutes the gastric juice and slows down the process of digestion in the stomach and intestines. Even if you need to drink water just sip water kept at room temperature. Ideally, Ayurvedic texts recommend sipping minimal amount of plain warm water during meals. 2. Cold water during the meals reduces the digestive fire. Digestive enzymes become inactive, digestive process is hampered and leads to accumulation of toxic waste in the body. Hence drinking of iced water, soft drinks, sodas, tea or coffee or alcohol is strictly prohibited.

3. Chew your food properly and it will easily pass down to your stomach. Do not drink water to swallow food in a hurry. If required drink water after swallowing food. When To Drink Water 4. Drink water approximately half an hour prior to eating your meals. This will quench your thirst and to some extent give you feeling of fullness. Drinking more water before meals promotes weight loss as plain water contains zero calories. Drink a glass of water when you are hungry. You can take plenty of water two hours after meals as most of the digestion process will be over by now. Other Considerations 5. Cold water should also be avoided during winter season, as the digestive fire is lower in this season.

6. Do not drink excess water with meals if you are suffering from digestive ailments like acid reflux or hiatus hernia or your digestive process is slow. In such case, drink minimum amount of water with meals. 7. If the stomach tone is less than normal, excessive water stays a long time in stomach interfering with digestion. 8. Poor gastric motility also implies inability to take large amounts of water and can be recognised by feeling of fullness, heaviness, and weight, after small amounts of food. Small amount of fluids takes away the appetite. Even in bad cases, eight ounces of fluid is generally allowable at each meal. Read this article The Truth as To Water Drinking With Meals for more information.