Are You Chronically Dehydrated?
Did you know that water is the ‘magic pill’ that everyone is looking for? Water has the ability to cure everything from heart disease to allergies! If your mouth gets dry, that isn’t your body’s first sign of dehydration, it’s one of the last! Health starts with adequate amounts of pure water. When we don’t get enough water day after day, month and month, year after year, that is when serious bodily issues arise. Chronic dehydration can lead to many body aliments including asthma, allergies, heartburn, back pain, arthritis, migraines, aging, weight gain, etc. If this is you, stop reading this and go drink a glass of water to sip on while you continue reading. How hydrated you are plays a huge factor on your health.
Check this Doctor out; F. Batmanghelidj, M.D. He wrote the book Your Body’s Many Cries for Water. His main point is to treat bodily pains with water, not medication. In his book, he scientifically describes these following health concerns…
· Alcohol can become addicting
“Alcohol suppresses the secretion of vasopressin from the pituitary gland. Lack of vasopressin in circulation will translate to pan-dehydration, even in the brain cells…” this causes the body to release hormones including addictive endorphins (65).
·Caffeine is dehydrating
“Excess caffeine will also deplete the ATP-stored energy in the brain and body-a possible contributing factor for shorter attention span…or for chronic fatigue syndrome as a result of excess coffee consumption in later life…caffeine inhibits a most important enzyme system-phosphodiesterase-that is involved in the process of learning and memory development (72).”
· Bad cholesterol and weight gain
When the body does not have enough water for enzyme movement, the body will manufacture cholesterol to hold on to the little water it does have. In other words; if you are not drinking enough water, your body will produce cholesterol and fat cells (88-89).
·Heart Disease
“…heart disease begins with the deposit of cholesterol plaques in the arteries of the heart…heart disease begins when constriction-producing chemicals from the lungs spill over into the circulation that goes to the heart (94).” Also, this ‘spillover’ into the bronchioles can cause other breathing issues.
·Asthma and allergies
“Salt is a natural histamine. People with allergies should begin to increase their salt intake to prevent excess histamine production (121). A pinch of salt on the tongue after drinking water fools the brain into thinking a lot of salt has arrived in the body. It is then that the brain begins to relax the bronchioles. Alcohol and caffeine contribute to severe asthma attacks. People with asthma should slightly increase their salt intake (122).”
When people suffer from asthma and allergies, the body is increasing “the neurotransmitter histamine, the sensor regulator of water metabolism and its distribution in the body. Histamine…has responsibilities in antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-foreign-agent defense systems in the body…At a dehydrated state of the body, to the point that histamine activity becomes exaggerated for water regulation, an immune system activation of histamine producing cells releases an exaggerated amount of the transmitter that is held in storage for its other functions (117).” Below is a quote about the relationship between histamine and salt:
But keep in mind to get a good salt like Celtic salt or Real sea salt; the common table salt is the lowest quality of salt*
This is only a glimpse of Dr. Batmanghelidj’s research! Water is key for living a long and healthy life. One or two cups of water a day is not sufficient. There are different recommendations on how much a person should drink daily, but one good rule of thumb is to drink ½ of your body weight in oz. For example, if a person weighs 150lbs, they should drink about 75oz of water per day (that's about 3x 24oz glass mason jars!)
Make sure you get good and clean drinking water. Tea, milk, soda, coconut water, nothing will suffice for pure water. I recommend drinking either distilled, reverse osmosis, or spring water. The current water I’m drinking is a local Colorado spring sourced water. What I love about this company is that you can order your water in glass containers! The company is Indian Peaks Spring Water; here is their link: http://www.indianpeaksspringwater.com/
Heal your body with water, not medication! So raise a glass and start drinking more water!
Here is link to his book online: Your Body’s Many Cries for Water
Here is a link to his website: www.watercure.com
