Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life (25 page)
Alcohol can be addictive and functionally depressive.
Alcohol can cause impotence.
Alcohol can cause liver damage.
Alcohol can suppress the immune system.
Alcohol consumption may increase the chances of developing cancers.
Alcohol produces free radicals (acidlike substances) that normally attack and damage some sensitive tissues if allowed to circulate freely. Among other things, melatonin is used up to scavenge these free radicals. This results in low melatonin content in the body.
Alcohol addiction may be caused in part by dehydration of cell membranes, particularly brain cells.
Dehydration promotes the secretion of the natural endorphins in the body—the addictive factor.
Now that I have mentioned alcohol, let me also tell you that most alcoholics are actually searching for water. Water has a natural satiety impact through the hormones motilin, serotonin, and adrenaline, which culminates in the enhanced action of the body's endorphins. Alcoholics learn that alcohol, through its stressful dehydrating action on the brain, will also cause the release of endorphins. This is how they become addicted to alcohol. If alcoholics begin to increase their water intake, or reach for a glass of water in place of a beer or a shot of their favorite hard stuff, their cravings for alcohol will tend to decrease and they will be more likely to kick the habit with surprising ease.
The natural action of alcohol on the brain is an across-the-board inhibition of all its functions, including its pain-sensing centers. The inhibitory centers of the brain are depressed first. This is how some people get an emotional release in the presence of others from taking alcohol. If these people are by themselves, alcohol will probably put them to sleep. In short,
alcohol is a depressant.
Depressed people should not take it. Water, on the other hand, does not depress the brain, and it provides a more satisfying and enduring high, with lots of energy to perform whatever is desired.
JUICES AND MILK IN PLACE OF WATER
Replacing the water requirement of the body with juices or milk causes different problems. Too much orange juice increases histamine production and can cause asthma in children and adults. Even the natural sugar in juices will program the liver into fat-storing mode—a prescription for getting fat.
Milk should be considered a food. Infants who receive formulated milk other than mother's milk need it in a much more diluted form than is manufactured at present. Non-breast-fed babies should receive more water in their diet. It has been shown in some autopsies that infants who were not on mother's milk had developed heart arteries that showed signs of cholesterol. It is true that milk is a good watery source of calcium and proteins for health maintenance, yet milk should not be taken as a total replacement of the water that the body needs. It should be remembered that cow's milk is naturally designed for the calf that begins to walk within hours of its birth. To give undiluted milk to babies or children who are not moving much may be inviting trouble.
It is clear that the human body has many distinct ways of showing its general or local water needs, including its production of many localized complications such as asthma and allergies. Other drastic signs of the body's water needs are localized chronic pains such as heartburn, dyspepsia, rheumatoid joint pain, back pain, migraine headaches, leg pain when walking, colitis pain, and a most advanced sign, anginal pain. Complications such as hypertension, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, cholesterol blockage of the arteries (leading to heart attack and strokes), and diabetes may also be connected to dehydration. Ultimately, cancers, I believe, may also be a major health problem connected to persistent water shortage of the human body.
Chronic dehydration produces many symptoms, signs, and, eventually, the degenerative diseases. The physiological outcome of the sort of dehydration that produces any of the problems mentioned earlier in the book is almost the same. Different bodies manifest their early symptoms of drought differently, but in persistent dehydration that has been camouflaged by prescription medications, one by one the other symptoms and signs will kick in, and eventually the person will suffer from multiple “diseases.”
We in medicine have labeled these conditions as outright “diseases” or have grouped them as different “syndromes.” In recent years, we have grouped some of the syndromes—with some typical blood tests—and called them autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, insulin-independent diabetes, and so on.
Medical research has until now been conducted on the assumption that many conditions—which I consider to be states of dehydration or its complications—are diseases of unknown etiology. From the presently held perspectives of human health problems, we are not allowed to use the word
cure.
We can at best “treat” a problem and hope it goes “into remission.”
From my perspective, most painful degenerative diseases are states of local or regional drought—with varying patterns. It naturally follows that, once the drought is corrected, the problem will be cured if the dehydration damage is not extensive. I also believe that to evaluate deficiency disorders—water deficiency being one of them—we do not need to observe the same research protocols that are applied to the research of chemical products. Identifying the shortage and correcting the deficiency is all we have to do.
It is now clear that the treatment for all dehydration-produced conditions is the same—a single treatment protocol for umpteen number of conditions. Isn't that great? One program solves so many problems and avoids costly and unnecessary interferences with the body.
The first step in this treatment program involves a clear and determined upward adjustment of daily water intake. Persistent dehydration also causes a disproportionate loss of certain elements that should be adequately available in the stored reserves in the body. Naturally, the ideal treatment protocol will also involve an appropriate correction of the associated metabolic disturbance. In short, treatment of dehydration-produced diseases also involves correction of the secondary deficiencies that water deficiency imposes on some tissues of the body. This multiple-deficiency phenomenon, caused by dehydration, is at the root of many degenerative diseases.
A change of lifestyle becomes vital for the correction of any dehydration-produced disorder. The backbone of The Water Cure program is, simply, sufficient water and salt intake; regular exercise; a balanced, mineral-rich diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables and the essential fats needed to create cell membranes, hormones, and nerve insulation; exclusion of caffeine and alcohol; and meditation to solve and detoxify stressful thoughts. Exclusion of artificial sweeteners from the diet is an absolute must for better health.
It should also be remembered that the sort of dehydration that manifests itself as asthma leaves other scars within the interior parts of the human body. This is why asthma in childhood is such a devastating condition that leaves its mark on children and may expose them to many different health problems in later life. My understanding of the serious damaging effects of dehydration during childhood is the reason I have been concentrating much of my efforts on the eradication of asthma among children.
The first nutrient the body needs is water.
Water is a nutrient. It generates energy.
Water dissolves all the minerals, proteins, starch, and other water-soluble components and, as blood, carries them around the body for distribution. Think of blood as seawater that has a few species of fish in it—red cells, white cells, platelets, proteins, and enzymes that swim to a destination. The blood serum has almost the same mineral consistency and proportions as seawater.
The human body is in constant need of water. It loses water through the lungs when we breathe out. It loses water in perspiration, in urine production, and in daily bowel movements. A good gauge for the water needs of the body is the color of urine. A well-hydrated person produces colorless urine—not counting the color of vitamins or color additives in food. A comparatively dehydrated person produces yellow urine. A truly dehydrated person produces urine that is orange in color. An exception is those who are on diuretics and flush water out of their already dehydrated bodies and yet produce colorless urine.
The body needs no less than two quarts of water and a half teaspoon of salt every day to compensate for its natural losses in urine, respiration, and perspiration. Less than this amount will place a burden on the kidneys. They will have to work harder to concentrate the urine and excrete as much chemical toxic waste in as little water as possible. This process is highly taxing to the kidney cells. A rough rule of thumb for those who are heavyset is to drink a half ounce of water for every pound of body weight. A two-hundred-pound person will need to take one hundred ounces of water. Water should be taken anytime you are thirsty, even in the middle of a meal. Water intake in the middle of a meal does not drastically affect the process of digestion, but dehydration during food intake does. You should also take at least two glasses of water first thing in the morning to correct for water loss during eight hours of sleep.
MINERALS ARE VITAL
Certain minerals need to pass through the acidic environment of the stomach before they can be absorbed through the mucosa of the intestine. They are
zinc, magnesium, manganese, selenium, iron, copper, chromium,
and
molybdenum.
The list is in the order, in my view, of each element's importance to the human body. The mineral elements that the body needs in largest quantities are sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium.
Sodium will enforce the osmotic needs and balance of the fluid environment outside and around the cells of the body, vitally important to brain function. If someone overhydrates and forces salt out of the body without replacing it, the brain cells will gradually swell up; the person could suffer brain damage and die. This happens from time to time if people exercise regularly, sweat profusely and lose salt, and then keep on drinking only water without replacing the lost salt. As I have said repeatedly, salt is not bad for you. It does not raise the blood pressure. It is the insufficiency of other minerals that normally hold on to and keep water inside the cells that causes a rise in blood pres-sure. Given in conjunction with other minerals, salt will actually lower blood pressure to normal levels.
Potassium, calcium, magnesium, and zinc are the main minerals that regulate the water levels inside the cells. These elements are needed to keep the interior of the cells in the body in osmotic balance and in good working order. These are the elements that work with sodium to keep blood pressure in its normal range.
All one-a-day vitamin supplements are now composed in such a way that the daily requirements of the essential minerals—other than sodium, calcium, and potassium—are provided. The rest of the vital minerals are fully available in the variety of foods we eat. Vitamin and mineral supplements are thus recommended for insurance in case your daily diet is not high quality and contains insufficient fruits and vegetables.
The toxic mineral elements are mercury, lead, aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, and, in large quantities, iron. These minerals should be avoided—they are absorbed better by the body if the stomach is less acidic than normal.
As we grow older, some of us manufacture less and less acid in our stomachs. The condition is called achlorhydria. People with achlorhydria can become deficient of vital minerals in their bodies. They also have difficulty in digesting meat.
In older cultures, eating pickles with food was a pre-cautionary measure to prevent this problem. The use of vinegar in salads eaten with meals has the same effect, if the salad dressing is sour in taste. If the meal contains a lot of meat, the stomach normally secretes plenty of acid to break down the meat into small digestible particles. These smaller particles are then further reduced to the size of their amino acid components in the intestines and get absorbed. People who have difficulty digesting food should get into the habit of taking some lemon or pickles with their food.
A good pickle for this purpose would be finely chopped cauliflower, green tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, eggplant, and cabbage, with salt and pepper. The ingredients should be put in a jar, covered with a good vinegar, and left for a few days to season. When eaten, the small vinegar-soaked particles will mix with the food in the stomach and acidify their immediate vicinity for the enzymes to become activated for digestion. Middle Eastern food markets have these kinds of pickled foods available for ready use.
SALT: THE ETERNAL MEDICATION
Salt is a vital substance for the survival of all living creatures, particularly humans, and especially people with asthma, allergies, and autoimmune disease.
Salt is a “medication” that has been used by healers throughout the ages. In certain cultures, it is worth its weight in gold and is, in fact, exchanged weight for weight for gold. In desert countries, people know that salt intake is their insurance for survival. To these people, salt mines are synonymous with gold mines.
After many years of salt being badmouthed by ignorant health professionals and their media parrots, the importance of salt as a dietary supplement is once again being acknowledged and recognized. I was one of the early voices bringing about this change.