Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life (26 page)

Water, salt, and potassium together regulate the water content of the body. Water regulates the water content of the interior of the cell by working its way into all the cells it reaches. It has to get there to cleanse and extract the toxic waste of cell metabolism. Once water gets into the cells, the potassium content of the cells holds on to it and keeps it there—to the extent that potassium is available inside the cells. Even in the plant kingdom, it is potassium in the fruit that gives it firmness by holding water in the interior of the fruit. Our daily food contains ample potassium from its natural sources of fruits and vegetables, but not salt from its natural source. That is why we need to add salt to our daily diet. Note: Do not take too much potassium as a dietary supplement. It could cause trouble.

Salt forces some water to keep it company outside the cells (osmotic retention of water by salt). It balances the amount of water that is held outside the cells.

Basically, there are two oceans of water in the body: One is held inside the cells of the body, and the other is held outside. Good health depends on a most delicate balance between the volumes of these two oceans. This balance is achieved by the regular intake of water, potassium-rich fruits and vegetables that also contain the vitamins needed by the body, and salt. Unrefined sea salt, which contains some of the other minerals that the body needs, is preferable. Sea salt may not contain enough iodine to keep the thyroid gland working normally, and it may enlarge into a goiter. Regular intake of a multivitamin that contains iodine is essential. Another source of iodine is dried kelp capsules, which are available from vitamin shops.

When water is not available to get into the cells freely, it is filtered from the outside salty ocean and injected into cells that are being overworked despite their water shortage. This secondary and emergency means of supplying important cells with injected water is the reason, in severe dehydration, that we retain salt and develop edema—to have more water available to draw from for filtration and injection into the cells.

The design of our bodies is such that the extent of the ocean of water outside the cells is expanded to have extra water in reserve for filtration and emergency injection into vital cells. To achieve this, the brain commands an increase in salt and water retention by the kidneys. This directive of the brain is the reason we get edema when we don't drink enough water.

When water shortage in the body reaches a more critical level, and delivery of water by its injection into the cells becomes the main route of supply to more and more cells, an associated rise in injection pressure becomes necessary. The significant rise in pressure needed to inject water into the cells becomes measurable and is labeled “hypertension,” or high blood pressure.

Initially, the process of water filtration and its delivery into the cells is more efficient at night when the body is horizontal. In this position, the collected water, which settles mostly in the legs during the day, does not have to fight the force of gravity to get into the blood circulation. If reliance on this process of emergency hydration of some cells continues for long, the lungs begin to get waterlogged at night, and breathing becomes difficult. The person needs more pillows to sit upright to sleep. This condition is called cardiac asthma, and it is the consequence of dehydration. However, in this condition you must not over-load the system by drinking too much water at the beginning. Increases in water intake must be slow and spaced out—until urine production begins to increase at the same rate that you drink water.

When we drink enough water to pass clear urine, we also pass out a lot of the salt that was held back. This is how we can get rid of edema fluid from the body. Not by diuretics, but by more water! Water is the best natural diuretic that exists.

In a person who has extensive edema and whose heart sometimes beats irregularly or rapidly with little effort, the increase in water intake should be gradual and spaced out, but water should not be withheld from the body. Salt intake should be limited for two or three days because the body is still in an overdrive mode to retain it. Once the edema has cleared, salt should again be added to the diet. If there are irregular heartbeats, or the pulse is fast and furious but there is no edema, increased water, salt, and other minerals such as magnesium, calcium, and some potassium will alleviate the problem.

SALT: SOME OF ITS HIDDEN MIRACLES

Salt has many other important functions than just regulating the water content of the body.

• Salt is a strong natural antihistamine. It can be used to relieve asthma: Put it on the tongue after drinking a glass or two of water. It is as effective as an inhaler, without the toxicity. You should drink one or two glasses of water before putting salt on the tongue.
This type of salt use is only for emergencies.
Normally you should add it to food or to water before drinking it.

• Salt is a strong antistress element for the body.

• Salt is vital for extracting excess acidity from inside the cells, particularly the brain cells. If you don't want Alzheimer's disease, don't go salt-free and don't let them put you on diuretic medications for long!

• Salt is vital for the kidneys to clear excess acidity and pass the acidity into the urine. Without sufficient salt in the body, the body will become more and more acidic.

• Salt is essential in the treatment of emotional and affective disorders. Lithium is a salt substitute that is used in the treatment of depression.

• Salt is essential for preserving the serotonin and melatonin levels in the brain. When water and salt perform their natural antioxidant duties and clear the toxic waste from the body, essential amino acids, such as tryptophan and tyrosine, will not be sacrificed as chemical antioxidants. In a well hydrated body, tryptophan is spared and gets into the brain tissue, where it is used to manufacture serotonin, melatonin, and tryptamine—essential antidepressant neurotransmitters.

• Salt, in my opinion, is vital for the prevention and treatment of cancer. Cancer cells are killed by oxygen; they are anaerobic organisms. They must live in a low-oxygen environment. When the body is well hydrated and salt expands the volume of blood circulation to reach all parts of the body, the oxygen and the active and motivated immune cells in the blood reach the cancerous tissue and destroy it. As I have explained, dehydration— shortage of water and salt—suppresses the immune system and the activity of its disease-fighting cells in the body.

• Salt is vital for maintaining muscle tone and strength. Lack of bladder control and involuntary leakage of urine could be a consequence of low salt intake. The following letter from Dottlee Reid, in her sixties, speaks volumes. It reveals how salt intake helped her get over a knee problem as well as constant involuntaiy leakage of urine. I have chosen to print this letter here to share with millions of senior citizens in America—who might be on diuretics—the good news that adequate salt intake can possibly save them from the embarrassment of having to constantly wear pads.

Dear Doctor Batmanghelidj:

June 25, 1999, I had to go home from work because the pain in my knee became unbearable. (This was an old wound, years ago caused by a chiropractor, that had been bruised again.) I was staying in bed a lot as it was too painful to try to walk.

I got your book and tapes
(Your Body's Many Cries for Water).
By July 3, 1999, I decided to try to walk around the block. I made it and July 4, 1999, I walked six blocks to church. On July 5, 1999, I rode in the car for seven hours, only stopping twice to use the rest room. I have a very weak bladder and had even taken spare clothing as I was sure they would be needed. I arrived with not a drop of anything on my clothing, and for the first time in my life was not tired and I even took a walk before I went to bed.

I was very thin and was limited on what I could eat. Suddenly I find I am eating things I have not been able to eat in years—peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, pineapple, and even sweets—and I was enjoying them with no side effects.

I had not been drinking anything but water for years, but I had talked myself off salt. A bad mistake! My muscles were really screaming as well as many parts of my body. I still have problems to be worked out, but I'm learning how to listen to my own body and I hope to see the day I won't have any more problems with gas, digestion, circulation, and allergies. I can truthfully say most days I do feel better than I have in many years, and I can never thank you enough for your help.

• Salt can be very effective in stabilizing irregular heartbeats and, contrary to the misconception that it causes high blood pressure, is actually essential for the regulation of blood pressure—in conjunction with water and the minerals I have mentioned. Naturally, the proportions are critical. A low-salt diet with high water intake will, in some people, actually cause the blood pressure to rise. The logic is simple. If you drink water and do not take salt, the water will not stay in the blood circulation adequately to completely fill all the blood vessels. In some, this will cause fainting; in others, it will cause tightening of the arteries to the point of registering a rise in blood pressure. One or two glasses of water and some salt—a little of it on the tongue—will quickly and efficiently quiet a racing and “thumping” heart and, in the long run, will reduce the blood pressure. Talk with your doctor about the right balance of water and salt for your diet.

• Salt is vital for sleep regulation. It is a natural hypnotic. If you drink a full glass of water, then put a few grains of salt on your tongue and let it stay there, you will fall into a natural, deep sleep. Don't use salt on your tongue unless you also drink water. Repeated use of salt by itself might cause nose-bleeds. Routine intake of water and the
addition of some salt to the diet
will regulate the sleep pattern.

• Salt is a vitally needed element for diabetics. It helps balance the sugar levels in the blood and reduces the need for insulin in those who have to inject it to regulate their blood sugar levels. Water and salt can reduce the extent of secondary damage to the eyes and the blood vessels associated with diabetes.

• Salt is vital for the generation of hydroelectric energy in all of the cells in the body. It is used for local power generation at the sites of energy need by the cells.

• Salt is vital to the communication and information processing of nerve cells the entire time that the brain cells work—from the moment of conception to death.

• Salt is vital for the absorption of food particles through the intestinal tract.

• Salt is vital for clearing the lungs of mucus plugs and sticky phlegm, particularly in asthma, emphysema, and cystic fibrosis sufferers.

• Salt on the tongue can help stop persistent dry coughs.

• Salt is vital for clearing up catarrh and sinus congestion.

• Salt can help in the prevention of gout and gouty arthritis.

• Salt is essential for preventing muscle cramps.

• Salt is vital in preventing excess saliva production to the point that it flows out of the mouth during sleep. Needing to constantly mop up excess saliva indicates a salt shortage.

• Osteoporosis may be the result of a salt and water shortage in the body.

• Salt is absolutely vital to making the structure of bones firm.

• Salt can help you maintain self-confidence and a positive self-image—a serotonin- and melatonin-controlled personality output.

• Salt can help maintain libido.

• Salt may help reduce a double chin. When the body is short of salt, it means the body really is short of water. The salivary glands sense the salt shortage and are obliged to produce more saliva to lubricate the act of chewing and swallowing and also to supply the stomach with the water that it needs for breaking down foods. Circulation to the salivary glands increases, and the blood vessels become “leaky” in order to supply the glands with more water to manufacture saliva. This leakiness spills to areas beyond the glands themselves, causing increased bulk under the skin of the chin and the cheeks and into the neck.

• Salt may help prevent varicose veins and spider veins on the legs and thighs.

• Sea salt contains about eighty mineral elements that the body needs. Some of these elements are needed in trace amounts. Unrefined sea salt is a better choice than other types of salt on the market. Ordinary table salt that is bought in the supermarkets has been stripped of its companion elements and might contain additive elements such as aluminum silicate to keep it powdery and porous. Aluminum is a very toxic element in our nervous system. It has been implicated as one of the primary causes of Alzheimer's disease. Sea salt is not rich in iodine, which needs to be taken as a supplement.