HEALTH NEWS YOU CAN USE-Eating Well
Written by: Dr. Robert Neposlan
For the rest of the summer, I challenge you to make a resolution for yourself to drink sufficient water for your weight. Why? As the information presented below suggests, the body needs it. I urge you, if you have not done so, to join me as we move through the rest of the summer and into the 2019, Fall school/work year to incorporate this change into your life. Little changes like this will lead to a healthier you!!
Your Body Needs WATER
It is a well-known fact that essential for all life on planet earth is water. The human body is comprised of 75% water and 25% solid matter. The primary agent for ALL activity in the body is water. While this is a known fact in science, organized medicine has done very little to understand the consequences of improper hydration and its role in modern disease.
I came across Dr F. Batamanghelidj’s (M.D) book, The Body’s Many Cries For Water, several years ago. I highly recommend that you get this book and read it. While there are some who would argue against Dr. B.’s findings, I find that he presents a compelling case that when combined with my own experience and all other materials I’ve read, the information can not be ignored.
In this book we’re introduced to a term that I’ve not seen before… Chronic Cellular Dehydration. Through the books 170+ pages Dr B. outlines his work and understanding that many illnesses can be traced back to the body’s need for proper hydration. He does a great job showing how all processes in the body rely on water and how improper hydration leads to their breakdown.
The book goes into great detail, often dedicating entire chapters, regarding the role of water or the lack of in many chronic symptoms including: heartburn, rheumatoid pain, neck and back pain, angina pain, headaches, leg pain on walking, fibromyalgia, colitis, constipation, morning sickness—just to mention a few. Being tired, anxious, depressed, irritable or flushed can also be due to improper hydration. Dr B. describes how asthma and ALLERGIES, hypertension, Type II diabetes, constipation and autoimmune diseases are all “Drought Management Programs” of the body.
In modern medicine, many of the above conditions, especially the “pain syndromes” would be alleviated through the intake of drugs that would block the pain signal rather than attempt to search for the cause of the pain. Thus, in biochemical (pharmaceuticals) medicine, while the symptoms of pain may be relieved, the root cause or the origin of the problem is not addressed. Further, the effect of long-term pharmaceuticals can be devastating as indicated by the health stats presented in the book’s preface on page 15.
While inadequate water may be the culprit for many of the disorders above, our intake of diet drinks, coffee, tea and alcohol all tend to deplete water from the body and hence contribute to cellular dehydration. For example, caffeine in many drinks has a strong diuretic action on the kidneys, thus releasing water from the cells. In other words, people who think drinking coffee, tea or soda can quench their thirst are actually doing two wrongs: they are basically ingesting diuretics which rid the body of the little water they have in the body and do not replace the water lost.
And so…how much water should we be drinking? And what kind of water would be best?
As a general rule, we should consume approximately ½ ounce per pound of body weight. And so for a 200 pound male, 100 ounces of water should be consumed daily. At 100 pounds, the amount would be 50 ounces. As an indicator of proper hydration, your urine should be colourless. There has been a lot of controversy recently regarding Bisphenol and its release from bottled plastics. For that reason, and the fact that there has been a considerable controversy over what water is actually in bottled water, I am not recommending bottled water. As much as I’m not an advocate of drinking tap water, I believe, at this stage, that we are better off drinking it than we are bottled water. Having a reverse osmosis system or some other filtration system would certainly be better.
In my previous articles I’ve shared with you the 4 Pillars of Health concept of living well, eating well, moving well and thinking well. We presented research showing that we do not live in ways that are congruent with our genetics. As we approach the end of the summer season, I strongly recommend that you consider drinking more water (not tea, not juice…WATER). In my mind, the evidence presented in DR. B’s book strongly supports this idea. I believe that his message is consistent with what we’re trying to share in our 4 Pillars. We need to move back to drinking the beverage that was the only one that was available to early man…WATER.
Until the next HEALTH NEWS YOU CAN USE,
Drink more (water)!!!
Dr. Rob
A nice summary of the book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water can be found at: http://islandgrove.ozwide.net.au/your_bodys_many_cries_for_water.html