Benefits of Water

I am writing a book on “Spring Cleaning for Your Body: How to gently detox while continuing to live your life”. In doing research for my book, I am re-reading a book called Your body's Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj, MD. His message is simple and profound. DRINK WATER! Apparently I have been somewhat of a broken record on this subject, since one of my daughter's former gymnastics coaches once told me that when she sees me, she automatically checks in to see if she has consumed enough water that day. I absolutely love that! If you have limited time/energy/effort for making health changes, and you just want to make one change that will positively impact your life, DRINK ENOUGH WATER! (Not juice, not coffee, not tea. They are mostly dehydrating drinks and do not count. Water. Just water.) Do that every day and your health will improve.

As a baby, our bodies are 70-80% water. As we grow older, that number steadily reduces to closer to the 70% mark and we literally dry up like a prune. We are blessed in the U.S. with bountiful and mostly pure water that comes to our homes at the touch of a tap, yet we are a nation filled with dehydrated individuals. We buy expensive water from plastic bottles and no longer trust our water. When we don't have a bottle of water to drink from, we select juice, thinking that it is “safer” than tap water. People! Our tap water is not so terrible as to be undrinkable! I would rather see someone drink tap water than to drink tea, coffee, juice or nothing at all. The dehydration will cause more problems than the tap water will. And don't get me started on the overuse of plastics and the leaching of plasticizers into our food and water.

In my life, I have spent years being severely dehydrated. I have gotten heat exhaustion from gardening, because water didn't cross my lips literally for years. I developed symptoms of fibromyalgia, had daily headaches, chronic constipation, chronic nasty gas, hemorrhoids, excessively dry skin, and I stunk. Yes, I said that I stunk. You could smell me coming from 10 feet away and I showered at least daily and used the strongest deodorant on the market at that time. I literally pooped only once every 7-10 days, and when I did, I used Lamaze breathing to do so! I also had severe PMS and very painful periods. I tell you this so that you will know that I do know what I am talking about. I have been to the dark side.

Those of you who know me now, know that I could be called a health nut. I started this jou
ey toward health about 14 years ago. I fell down the stairs with my 6 month old daughter on my hip, bouncing down 9 steps on my side/shoulder and flipping over onto the hardwood floor at the bottom. Rinnie's head was pinned under my body and I was hysterical, thinking that I had hurt her. She had a little red mark on her temple for about an hour and I was unable to move for a week! My next door neighbor loved his chiropractor (and us) and encouraged me to go see him. I followed his advice and this changed my life completely! After I had been seeing the chiropractor for about a year, I walked into his office with a diet coke in my hand and he literally threw me out. (I was told that I was welcome to come back in, WITHOUT the diet coke.) He gave me references on Nutrasweet and told me at length why I just should not drink it. (Don't believe me. Do your own research. I have some resources at the end of this article for you to start.) He discovered my lack of water intake and was appalled. And change started.

I gradually started drinking water. I switched from diet coke to regular coke and went into a detox state. I had flu-like symptoms for about 3 weeks. I continued to reduce my coke intake and increased my water intake. About 2 ½ years after seeing this chiropractor, I started school for massage therapy and that totally changed my life. We had a mandatory nutrition course and I learned for the first time how to eat. I learned more about water. I learned that I was severely dehydrated and that I could change it. I started drinking enough water every day and doing regular cleanses.

Now, 14 years later, I drink at least 2 quarts of water every day. (I recommend that you drink at least ½ of your body weight in ounces every day. So a 200 pound person would drink 100 ounces and a 110 pound person, 55 ounces. Drink more on days when you sweat, exercise, are ill, are cleansing, or have a massage.) Other than the occasional beer or glass of wine with a meal, water is the only thing that I drink. Today, I no longer have daily pain in my body or headaches, I easily poop several times a day and only have the occasional gas (I do love lentils and garbanzo beans!). I have no hemorrhoids, and my skin is great! I use deodorant only a few times a week and I don't stink any more. I haven't had PMS in over a decade and I stopped having any pain before or during my periods. I sleep well, I eat mostly organic and mostly vegetarian foods and I have begun to work out with a personal trainer. (I have never been one to exercise for the sake of exercise. Give me a shovel and I will go to town in the garden, but please don't ask me to get on a treadmill!) I feel healthy....and my life has not been an easy one.

The truth is that when we chronically drink too little water, we lose the ability to sense thirst. Actually, thirst is one of the last indicators of dehydration. Once you feel thirsty, you are already very dehydrated. What happens during chronic dehydration, is that our body will tell us to drink, and because our message center is all screwed up, we think it is telling us to eat. Thus we overeat and become obese.

When we are tired in the afte
oon, we head for sugar or caffeine. If we would drink a glass of water, we would actually get a burst of energy that would sustain us far longer, and would be free from the crash that happens later.

According to Dr. B., many of our chronic illnesses occur simply because we are dehydrated. In his book, he gives many examples of people who have been cured from peptic ulcers, arthritis, constipation, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, depression, and obesity, simply by drinking adequate water! He gives clinical evidence for why this can happen. He further states that U.S. doctors typically medicate symptoms that are actually calls for water, further impairing the thirst mechanism and resulting in the worsening of those symptoms, more illnesses and even death.

I'd love to hear your comments and questions about water.

Respectfully submitted,
Pam Hauser, RN, LMBT
http://www.phoenixmassageofasheville.com
pam@phoenixmassageofasheville.com

Your Body's Many Cried for Water: You're Not Sick; You're Thirsty. Don't Treat Thirst with Medication. 3rd Edition. F. Batmangheliidj, M.D., Global Health Solutions, Inc. www.watercure.com. ISNB 0-9702458-8-2.

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html

http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx

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http://www.communicationagents.com/sepp/2004/04/09/aspartame_neurotoxic_coca_cola_pepsi_nutra_sweet_sued_in_california.htm

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