This is the subtitle to Dr F. Batmanghelidj's famous book "Your Body's Many Cries for Water". I have written about this book before but felt it needed another mention as I have just started a new group on facebook called "water drinkers".
I figured we all should be in this group but unfortunately, many of us are not. We poison our bodies with too much tea, coffee, soft drinks and alcohol. Even so-called "healthy" drinks like fruit juice are really no good for us as a substitute for water. Our bodies treat any drink that is not water as a collection of chemicals that have to be processed. When our cells are crying out for life-giving water, the last thing they need is to process some concoction to try and extract any water from it. That just overburdens them more. Then there are our much-ignored, long-suffering kidneys who's job it is to try and maintain our blood's balance. To do this in a typically dehydrated 21st century body, they must concentrate our urine and glean water from other parts of our body which puts them under incredible stress. Over time they start to malfunction and this is why kidney disease is so rampant in our western society. Our kidneys were never meant to work so hard.
Another interesting fact is that edema (often showing up as puffy ankles) is a direct result of not drinking enough water. I know that sounds crazy but Dr B. explains this phenomenon (as well as many others) in his book.
When we are chronically dehydrated and the kidneys must glean water from other areas of the body to maintain the correct fluid balance in our blood, the brain directs the kidneys to retain more fluid and salt in the body. This is why we get edema when we are dehydrated.
When we drink enough water to produce clear urine, the body can also pass out excess salt that was held back when we were dehydrated. That is how we can get rid of edema naturally, not by taking diuretics! Water is the best diuretic available and has no side effects.
However, in people who have had severe edema and irregular heart beats, they should gradually increase their water consumption and limit salt intake for a few days until the excess salt is flushed out of their body.
Once edema is cleared, salt should not be withheld from the body as it is vital for cellular functions.
Pharmaceutical companies don't want us to know all about the life-saving effects of simply drinking adequate water because then we wouldn't need to take all their medications. They keep us sick so we must depend on them to find ever more cures! The problem is that when our bodies are really just thirsty for water, all the meds just make us sicker and eventually terrible illnesses like cancer occur in our bodies.
Those who have discovered they don't need all those meds - just plenty of pure fresh water are the lucky ones. If they can also live a low stress, healthy life with plenty of good food, exercise and laughter, they should be able to avoid many of the chronic illnesses from cancer to heart disease and diabetes that plague our modern world. It sounds too simple but it can be true for most of us.
Even "normal" pains such as lower back pain, neck, shoulder and head pain can be avoided when a person stays well hydrated. I sound like I am trying to educate people to never need to see therapists like myself again but I know that will never happen. Unfortunately, even with all the best intentions, our modern jobs mean that we tend to develop aches and pains that need therapy to help us overcome them. But when we are well hydrated our pains are fewer and more easily fixed so we can get on with enjoying our lives. Regular Bowen therapy helps us achieve this ideal.
Some other interesting benefits of drinking more water include losing excess weight naturally, improved digestive and bowel function, clarity of mind and improved problem solving abilities, clearer, wrinkle-free skin, shinier hair, improved hormonal and sexual function and reduction of anxiety and depression symptoms.
What's not to like in all that? If you don't like water, I can only urge you to keep trying it; it will grow on you and then you will have no problem drinking it and enjoying it. It's what your body needs and desires and soon you will too.
How much water should we drink? I am often asked this question and it's harder to answer than you think. Health articles usually advise people to drink 6-8 glasses of water or 2 litres per day. This is a good average for most people but there are often reasons why this is too little or too much. I have already mentioned the caution for people with edema. They need to increase their consumption gradually.
Also, older people have usually lost most or all of their natural thirst reflex. Others confuse thirst with hunger (don't get me started on the obesity epidemic).
Anyway, for various reasons it is often counterproductive to ask people to go from drinking virtually no water to 2 litres per day overnight. They simply wont sustain it.
Women are also worried about bladder leakage with increased water consumption. The good news is that increased water consumption helps cure bladder leakage problems. This is because as the bladder adapts to greater quantities of urine, the muscles that hold the urine in have to get stronger, so the leakage stops. It's when we don't drink enough water that our bladder muscles get weak from not having to hold much liquid in that we develop leakage problems. Once again, pharmaceutical companies don't want us to know that. They make millions of dollars out of selling grown women incontinence pads. The ads on TV make it sound like every woman suffers from this problem and it's as normal as periods in young women. It shouldn't be so!
I usually advise clients to try and double their intake of water - so if they currently drink 2 glasses per day, they should try and drink 4 glasses. Over time they can get it up to 8 glasses - though experience tells me most never will.
Another thing that works well is to advise people to check the colour of their urine. If they are well hydrated, it should be the colour of light straw. Any darker means they need more water. That allows for heat and exercise (when we need to drink more water).
Dr B. also advises when it is most beneficial to drink your allocation of water. He suggests 2 glasses about an hour before each meal. This hydrates the digestive system and prepares it for food. It also means there is plenty of digestive juices available to help digest the food well.
He then advises little or no water be consumed with the meal and for up to an hour after the meal so that the digestive juices aren't diluted. That way they function more effectively.
He then advises another glass of water be consumed about an hour after each meal to help the digestive system push the food and waste through the complex system of tubes that make up our small and large bowels.
He explains that drinking water at these times (as well as for normal thirst) will ensure food is always digested effectively without peptic pain and bowel function will be normalised - also without pain. Furthermore, with a good diet and regular exercise (he recommends an hour of walking each day) most people will find their weight normalises too as an added benefit.
If you have enjoyed this article, I can really recommend Dr B's book. There is so much more information in it and it will become a book you return to again and again. It's available at book depository.co and is less than $20. You will save that in no time as you won't need to buy pain meds again.
