Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life (8 page)
3.
Feeling irritable and unreasonably short-tempered.
Irritability is a copout process so as not to engage in a brain-energy-consuming involvement beyond that particular moment. Give irritable people a couple of glasses of water and you will see them calm down and become fairly amiable.
4.
Feeling anxious.
This is a perceptive way in which the frontal part of the brain can reflect its concern over water shortage in its domain of activity. I cannot imagine a more eloquent way for the thinking brain to reflect its anxiety about dehydration in the body of its delinquent owner. Obviously, when the body wanted water, it must have been given other beverages that did not satisfy its real needs.
5.
Feeling dejected and inadequate.
The capital assets of any body are its essential amino acid reserves. These types of amino acids are used in so many different functions, including for neurotransmission, that their shortage in the body means loss of assets that the brain assesses as insufficient and inadequate for its undertakings. Dehydration depletes some of these amino acids incessantly, and this shortage triggers a feeling of dejection.
6.
Feeling depresssed.
This heralds a more serious phase of dehydration, in which the body, in the absence of water, has to use up some of its vital assets as antioxidants to cope with the toxic waste of metabolism that has not been cleared by sufficient production of urine. These assets include the amino acids tryptophan (pronounced
trip-toh-fan)
and tyrosine, which are sacrificed in the liver as antioxidants to neutralize toxic waste. For the manufacture of serotonin, melatonin, tryptamine, and indolamine, the brain uses tryptophan; all of these elements are vital neurotransmitters that are used to balance and integrate body functions. If they are inadequate in the body, depression sets in. Tyrosine is another amino acid that the brain uses to manufacture adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine, which are the “go-getter” neurotransmitters. Their insufficient activity will ground a person into inactivity and a sorrowful state of mind.
As I was editing this book, an article on depression in the
Washington Post
of Tuesday, May 7, 2002, revealed a deep-rooted deception by the pharmaceutical industry. Headlined AGAINST DEPRESSION, A SUGAR PILL IS HARD TO BEAT, the article exposes how the drug industry has bent the truth in clinical trials to show an edge in favor of Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, whereas a simple sugar pill—placebo—produced more positive results in relieving depression. This article surmises that the splendid results of the sugar pill against the much-touted drugs could be because, in the clinical trials, the subjects received much more attention and care than a depressed person who visits the doctor for a few minutes a month. It seems there is an infinitely greater healing power within a person who is cared for. In medicine there used to be a dictum, now for-gotten—“The duty of a doctor is to amuse the patient while nature heals.” Doctors have to show empathy to their patients.
Now that I am addressing the role of water in emotional problems, let me quote from a reader review of my book
Your Body's Many Cries for Water,
posted on the Barnes & Noble Web site,
www.bn.com.
M. S. writes: “‘Water’ has made a difference in my life.” It seems that M. S. had been diagnosed with mild manic depression and had been given lithium for four to five years. He says he started on water and salt and some vitamins, according to the instructions in the book, and within two months he was able to stop taking his lithium. He had been visiting his doctors for nine years without significant improvement, and now writes, “My LIFE has been truly ENHANCED from reading the book.”
7.
Feeling heavy-headed.
This is the sign that the brain is commanding more circulation for its needs. It could be the heralding sensation for a migraine headache that may ensue if the increased blood flow to the brain does not result in adequate hydration of the brain cells. Do not forget that the brain cells, in their constant activity, produce toxic waste of metabolism, which must be cleared at all times. The brain cells cannot endure a buildup of acidic materials in their interior environment. The initial heaviness felt in the head could reflect this phase of brain physiology.
8.
Disturbed sleep, particularly in the elderly.
The body will not have a restful night's sleep if it is short of water. A full eight hours' sleep will further dehydrate the body because much water is lost in respiration and possible perspiration under heavy bedcovers. If the body receives water and a little salt, sleep rhythm will be reestablished immediately. The following letter is from a man who found my Water Cure program instrumental in relieving many problems, including an interrupted sleep pattern. His story highlights a number of the perceptive symptoms of dehydration I have pointed out already.
My name is D. H. and I was turned on to your Web site by a friend on the Internet. Firstly, I read much of what is on your Web site and have been impressed by the content. In fact, I opened a chat room on paltalk devoted to directing people to your site and discussing the benefits of drinking water with salt. I have been on The Water Cure for about three weeks now and I can definitely say I'm feeling better. My blood pressure is lower and my heart rate is around 58. I seem to sleep better at night and I have better energy level during the day. Also, I have a peaceful feeling now and seem to worry less. All in all it has been a positive experience. I thank you for promoting The Water Cure and I have joined your bandwagon to spread the good word. Thanks again for helping others unselfishly. D. H.
9.
Anger and quick temper.
These more expressive ways of showing dehydration were explained in section 3 under the heading Feeling Irritable.
10.
Unreasonable impatience.
Maintaining your patience to stay on a course or an assignment is an energy-consuming undertaking for the brain. If it doesn't have a sufficient stored reserve of energy, it has to put an end to the undertaking as quickly as possible. This process of quick disengagement is labeled “impatience.” Don't forget, water manufactures hydroelectric energy at a rate that can replenish the used-up amount. Energy from food has to go through many steps of molecular conversion until it is stored in the energy pools in the cells. Even this process needs water for hydrolysis to make the components of food usable as sources of energy.
11.
Very short attention span.
This is another disengagement process for the brain that needs energy to focus on a topic or a learning process. The more hydrated the brain, the more energy it can manufacture to imprint new information in its memory banks. Attention deficit disorder in children is similarly produced by dehydration when children choose sodas as their preferred drinks.
12.
Shortness of breath in an otherwise healthy person without lung disease or infection.
People who want to exercise without feeling short of breath should drink water before they exert themselves in any form of physical activity.
13.
Cravings for manufactured beverages such as coffee, tea, sodas, and alcoholic drinks.
This is the way your brain tells you that you need to be hydrated. These cravings are based on a condition reflex that associates hydration with the intake of these beverages, which actually dehydrate the body further. The process of continuous dehydration is stressful and causes the brain to secrete stress hormones, which include endorphins—the natural opiates of the body that help it get through its environmental crisis. One of the reasons why people continue drinking these beverages is their increasing addiction to the level of their own endorphin production. This is why caffeine and alcohol are addictive substances and cause withdrawal symptoms. The next stage to this kind of addiction could be the use of harder drugs that put a constant drive on endorphin secretion by the body. Thus, if children are to be directed toward a drug-free form of life, it should start with eliminating caffeine from their diets.
14.
Dreaming of oceans, rivers, or other bodies of water
is a form of subconsciously generated association to reach a source of water to quench thirst. The brain has a tendency to simulate an experience in order to give instructions to the person to perform a function, even in deep sleep.
There is usually some significance to dreams. I will never forget a dream I had when I was a house doctor working at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. At the time, I was responsible for the daily care of thirty acute beds (as they were known) in a very active surgical unit of the hospital. I could never get more than three or four hours of sleep at night. Naturally, when my head hit the pillow in those days, I slept like the dead. On one of those busy days, I reached my lunch late and had to eat it many hours after it was cooked. It was a plate of crayfish and some vegetables.
I was too busy to feel any discomfort after eating the food. I went to bed in the early hours of the morning and all but died in bed. Not long into my sleep, I started to dream that I was in a boat on rough seas. The boat was being thrown about, up and down and side to side, motions dictated by the choppy sea. I started feeling more and more nauseated until I could no longer hold down what I had eaten, and only just managed to reach the sink in my room to throw up the food that had obviously gone bad. My brain could not have translated my need to get up and get rid of the contents of my stomach any other way. It could only prepare me by exposing me to associated thoughts around nausea and vomiting. What better way than to take me through a sort of dry-run experience of sea-sickness?
THE PRIMARY DROUGHT-AND RESOURCE-MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS
From the vantage point of the new medical science, the following conditions should be considered labels placed on the physiological processes in the body that denote a form of rationing and resource management when there is a limited supply of free water and other primary elements in the body:
1. Asthma
2. Allergies
3. Hypertension, or high blood pressure
4. Type II diabetes
5. Constipation
6. Autoimmune diseases
If you don't drink water regularly every day of your life, and don't understand the significance of pain, shortness of breath, and allergies as signs of dehydration, you will force your body into a disease state. Any of the above conditions will herald the beginnings of body decay produced by local or general water shortage and the associated chemical environmental changes.
Reversal of autoimmune conditions is not easy and not always possible. To reverse them requires an in-depth understanding of the importance of the acid-alkaline balance and the metabolic aspects associated with dehydration, such as the loss of a range of amino acids, insufficient absorption or loss of vital minerals like zinc and magnesium, and the absolute need for essential vitamins and fatty acids.
ASTHMA AND ALLERGIES
What is asthma? It is said people have asthma when they become short of breath, without any warning, to the point of nearly suffocating. Several thousand people die from suffocation due to asthma every year. Sometimes the onset of asthma is associated with repeated dry coughs with each breath. There is always an associated wheezing when exhaling, without an apparent infection in the lungs. Asthma affects more than seventeen million Americans, mostly children. I believe that asthma and allergies are the body's crisis calls for water.
They denote a state of dehydration in the human body. They herald continuing degeneration of the body until other complications of dehydration get established and can cause early death.
My experience and research tell me that the body possesses a number of highly sophisticated emergency thirst signals. We need to be aware of these newly identified indicators of water shortage in our body. All you may need to do to cure some of your health problems is drink water instead of other fluids.
Question:
What has all this got to do with asthma?
Answer:
Asthma and allergy—conditions mainly treated with different kinds of antihistamine medications—are important indicators of dehydration in the body. Histamine is an important neurotransmitter that primarily regulates the thirst mechanism, for increased water intake. It also establishes a system of rationing for the available water in the drought-stricken body. Histamine is a most noble element employed in drought management of the body. It is not the villain that we have been led to believe due to our limitation of knowledge about the human body.
In dehydration, histamine production and its activity increase greatly, and this generates the emergency thirst signals and indicators of the water-rationing program that is taking place. Increased histamine release in the lungs causes spasms of the bronchioles, making them constrict. This natural spasmodic action of histamine on the bronchial tubes is part of the design of the body to conserve water that normally evaporates during breathing— the winter “steam.”