Water for the body is like oil for a car.  Without it the body will not function to it’s fullest potential and will eventually breakdown.

Water is very important to the health of the body:

• The elimination of toxins.
• Keeping your blood thin and flow well.
• Cellular and bodily functions such as digestion.
• Relieving constipation.
• Suppressing appetite, and
• Metabolizing stored fat, thus helps with weight loss.

Some quick facts:

• You can live 40 days without food, but only 3 without water.
• You can loose 50% of your glucose, body fat or protein and survive, but if you loose 20% water, you’ll die of dehydration.
• Babies are 90% water, adults about 70%, elderly about 60%.

Most cooked food doesn’t contain much water:

• Bread 30%,
• Butter 16%
• Cheese 40%
• Cereal 5%.

But raw vegetables have a lot:

• Cucumbers, celery and lettuce 95%.
• Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, peaches, strawberries 90%.

Signs of dehydration:

• Headache
• Fatigue
• Dark-colored, pungent urine.
• Allergies.
• Excessive thirst
• Hard stool, constipation.
• Low energy and weakness.
• Little to no urination
• Muscle weakness
• Dizziness/Lightheaded
• Dry mouth or lips.
• Dry skin.

Water is crucial to your health. It makes up, on average, 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. The average urine output for adults is 1.5 liters a day. You lose close to an additional liter of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements.

How much water do you need?
Every day you lose water through sweating – noticeable and unnoticeable – exhaling, urinating and bowel movements.

Studies have shown that men drink up to 3 liters (about 13 cups) as where women consume 2.2 liters a day.

Factors that influence water needs
You may want to adjust total water intake from these required amounts depending on several components, including how active you are, the climate, your health status, and if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding.

• If you excercise you may to increase your fluid increase of 2 or more glasses of water.
• If you live in a hot or humid enviroment increase water.
• If you are ill, vomiting, have fever and/or diarrhea drink more water.-Also increase electrolytes!
• If you are breastfeeding you want to drink 13 or more glasses a day.

Fruits and vegetables contain lots of water!

• watermelon 90-95%
• tomato 90-95%
• cucumber 95%
• orange 87%

Thirst is not always a reliable gauge to indicate whether or not you need more water as the feeling of thirst lacks more and more as we get older. Also make sure to drink more water before during and after exercise to keep the body at a good water cycle.

Increased thirst and urination, both in volume and frequency, can be symptoms of diabetes. Excess blood sugar (glucose) in your body drains water from your tissues, making you feel dehydrated. To alleviate your thirst, you drink a lot of beverages or water, which leads to more perpetual urination.

It may not be diabetes and you should have a check up with your doctor to be on the safe side. It may be something else or nothing at all.

It is feasible, though exceptional, to drink too much water. Drinking enormous proportions can drown your kidneys’ strength to dispose of the water. This can spark hyponatremia, a situation in which surplus water intake decreases the normal amount of sodium in the blood. Older people who have certain medical conditions  such as congestive heart failure and cirrhosis, or who are taking certain diuretics are at elevated risk of hyponatremia.

Lose Weight with Water!

Believe it or not, the simplest way to lose weight can all depend on your water intake!  Drinking before after and during meals will help to fill your stomach and making your food more fluffy which in turn makes you feel full! While it suppresses appetite it also helps to remove stored fats.

The science: Kidney’s can not function to their fullest without enough water.  When they can’t function properly their load is then discharged to the liver.  One of the liver’s leading roles is to convert stored fat into energy for the body to use.  So if the kidney isn’t doing it’s homework then the liver has to therefore less fat can be converted and thus more weight gain.

Fluid retention:  The best treatment for this, believe it or not, is to drink more water!  When your body does not receive it’s needed dosage of water, the body goes into stress and holds onto the little water it has.  Lack of water reads as a threat to survival. This will show up as swollen hands, feet, ankles etc as the water is stored in extra cellular spaces (outside the cell). When you give yourself what you need (extra water) then the symptoms digress.  This is true with most all other health symptoms.  Don’t be stingy with the raw foods folks!

Perpetual problems with water retention may be due to a surplus of salt. Sodium can only be endured in certain concentration. The more salt you eat the more water your system absorbs to dilute it. One way to cure this is to eat less salt or increase your water intake.

So who needs more water?  The thin person or the overweight one?  Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the over weight person needs more water.

Working out is a great way to get the blood flowing and the sweat cleaning out the skin, needless to say it also maintains muscle tone by  aiding them properly to contract all while preventing dehydration!  Don’t forget the wonders it does for the skin by that tends to sag especially after weightloss.  The skin is refreshed with water that helps to plump the skin leaving it with a healthy, clear glow!

Water helps relieve the body of waste. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to eliminate. Water aids this waste removal.

Constipation is another symptom for lack of water. When your colons do not have enough water it drains it from your other organs thus causing more damage to the body.

So what is the outcome of all this water drinking?

• More fat is used as fuel because the liver is free to metabolize stored fat.
• There is a loss of hunger almost over night.
• Endocrine-gland function improves.
• Natural thirst returns.
• Fluid retention is alleviated as stored water is lost.

Dehydration linked to Illness

More than twenty years of clinical and scientific research on the role of health benefits of H20 for the body, Dr. F. Batmanghelidj MD, a pioneering physician and acclaimed author, shows how water can relieve an excellent compass  of medical conditions. Simply adjusting your fluid and salt intakes can help you treat and prevent numerous illnesses, avoid expensive prescription drugs, and enjoy sparkling new health.

Below are some of the “incurable diseases” in his perspective. He sees them as nothing but labels given to various stages of drought. Here are a few of them:

Rheumatoid Joint Pain and Arthritis: A signal of water shortage. It can affect the young as well as the old. The use of painkillers does not cure the problem, but exposes the person to further damage from pain medications. Intake of water and small amounts of salt will cure this problem.

• Benefit of drinking water to prevent and treat Low Back Pain and Ankylosing Arthritis of the Spine are signs of water shortage in the spinal column and discs. These cushions that support the weight of the body, can be seriously damage by dehydration.

High Level of Cholesterol: I had the occasion to advise a man in his early forties whose angiogram had revealed partial blockage of his coronary arteries. Tells Dr F. Batmanghelidj MD. I advised him not to have bypass surgery without first trying a conservative treatment for his condition. He agreed to adjust his daily water intake and to begin by taking two glasses of water exactly half an hour before every meal. I advised him to walk one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening (to start with, twenty minutes at the beginning, increasing gradually to one hour)

Three months later the man went to one of the famous centers in Houston for a final checkup and an assessment of his need for bypass surgery. His angiogram showed no sign of previous blockage. He no longer needed surgery.

Heart disease and stroke: Hydration is essential to help prevent clogging of arteries an the heart and brain.

Hypertension: Hydration is crucial in treating it without using diuretics or medication

Brain Damage: On average, the human brain weights 1.4 Kilograms (about 3 pounds). It is estimated that the brain consists of 85% water. The brain is extremely sensitive to water loss. It is said that the brain cannot tolerate even a 1% loss of water. If it were to be dehydrated to the point of being only 84% water for long, the brains would not function properly. (Remember that nerve cells in the brain are one-time-living units. They don’t multiply like other cells in the body and don’t regenerate). Dehydration can cause damage in the blood vessels in the brain, leading to bleedings and plaques, which are at the base of most neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Alzenheimer’s disease.

Depression: hydration helps the body naturally replenish its supply of the neurotransmitter serotonin

Sleep disorders:hydration is needed for the production of nature’s sleep regulator, melatonin

Lack of energy: water generates electrical and magnetic energy in every body cell, providing a natural power boost

Attention Deficit: a well hydrated brain is continually energized to imprint new information in its memory banks.

Osteoporosis: The strong bone formation is related to proper hydration and Dr F. Batmanghelidj MD believes that dehydration is responsible of the los of calcium from our bones as we age.

Cancer: Benefit of drinking water to prevent and treat Leukemia and Lymphoma: water normalizes the blood-manufacturing system that can aid in the prevention of many forms of cancer

Skin Health: To promote healthier skin, prper water intake is essential.  When water does not reach the skin, skin repair does not take place and dry skin will show as well as well as wrinkles. These are dehydrated cells.