THE secret of good health is not mainly in your diet or fasting, but in the glass of water that you drink. Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj has been researching on the effects of water and dehydration on the human body.
In his book,Your Body's Many Cries for Water, he says water makes up 75 per cent of the body and 85 per cent of the brain. The remaining 25 per cent of the body and 15 per cent of the brain is solute matter. Just as plants require copious water to sprout from seeds and to grow sturdy and strong, our body too uses water for its metabolic chemical reactions, to create energy and to remove waste and acid from tissues.
Every day, we lose two quarts of water through perspiration. People drink caffeinated beverages instead of replacing the lost water with more water.
The doctor's research points out that dehydration or having less water in the body causes fatigue, depression, anxiety, localised chronic pain and many other chronic problems. In another book on Asthma, Lupus and Water he says that conventional medical treatment uses antihistamine drugs. He says that the suppression of histamine ignores physiology and the effects of dehydration.
The body produces more histamine when it is dehydrated. Histamine is a neurotransmitter involved in rationing water. It regulates the thirst mechanism. During dehydration, the immune system is suppressed. In order to cope with pollens and other antigens, histamine and its sub-ordinate chemicals channel water to the nose and eyes to remove pollens through tears and nasal secretions. The doctor says a well-hydrated body produces more antibodies to neutralise organic antigens. However, this cannot protect the body from toxic chemicals and gases. The body tries to prevent entry by constricting breathing.
The doctor says that in November 1979, he was aware he was on a "god-given assignment to research the awesome medicinal properties of water and share the information with scientists and the public."
In his book Your body's many cries for Water, this London-educated doctor of Iranian origin stumbled upon the curative properties of water by accident. Boderlands – a quarterly research journal says that when the Shah was overthrown, the doctor was arrested and jailed with over 3000 victims of the Khomeini revolution. While many awaited execution, the doctor was assigned as their medical officer. He had no medical resources other than water. Forced to use only water, he was surprised in following up his patients who reported complete cures for asthma, arthritis, high blood pressure and ulcers.
His recipe for health is to have six to eight 250 ml glasses of water a day. Beverages containing water such as coffee, tea, soft drinks and alcohol is not counted as water as they are diuretics. He says that we interpret thirst signals as pain and treat them with drugs which silence instead of cure the problem. "Dehydration eventually causes loss of some functions, the various signals given by the water distribution system regulators during severe and lasting dehydration have been translated as indicators of unknown disease conditions of the body."
Also, he says we can drink water between meals and not with meals. For best results, drink half hour before and two and a half hours after meals. This will help digestion, rather than dilute it.
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