This is the second article about the new concept of Wellness.
What everyone can do to be responsible, be healthier, be preventive, and reduce our long term costs associated with many chronic conditions is: Drink more water!
Drinking more water is simple enough and easy to do. The problem with what is easy to do; it is also easy NOT to do! How about all the coffee I drink? Beer? Pop? Bottled water? Does being healthy require it to be water? What kind of water? Where do you get it? How much does it cost? All good questions if we are to make informed Wellness decisions.
First let’s stop and think for a minute about the importance of water to our body. Since about 75 percent of our body IS water and most of our body’s functions require fluid to work, we get a sense of how big an impact hydration or dehydration has on our body. Dr. Gordon Pederson, who has a master’s degree in Wellness and also is a Doctor of Toxicology, states these reasons for drinking water:
1. 75 percent of Americans are dehydrated regularly.
2. 37 percent of Americans believe they are hungry when they are actually thirsty simply because they have accumulated too many toxins in their system and it confuses the body.
3. A loss of 3 percent of your body’s water results in dehydration that slows your metabolism which means you may
gain weight.
4. A 2 percent dehydration or loss of body water results in short-term memory loss and differently focusing.
5. Children who don’t absorb ample water are more likely to be obese with reduced height.
6. Water reduces the craving for sweets, reduces cramping, and reduces fevers.
7. Water must be replenished every two hours because the body doesn’t store it for long.
8. Dehydration is the #1 reason for hospitalizing people over 65.
Dr. Batmanghelidj, in his book Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, states that the relationship between chronic dehydration and disease is clear and many of these are totally reversible through hydration. He even goes so far as to recommend that no medicine be tried until dehydration is excluded as a cause for the disease condition. He also points out the huge positive impact proper hydration has when medication is used. The question may be asked, “How much does it cost me NOT to be hydrated?”
“But I don’t like the taste of water! And I drink ___(your favorite beverage). Will that work?” In most cases it does not. Coffee, alcohol, and manufactured beverages do contain water, but they also contain dehydrating agents, and the end result is less water reserves in your body. How about bottled water, filtered, reverse osmosis or distilled water? While many of these waters are clean and free from pollutants they have several problems associated with them. They sometimes have so many minerals and nutrients removed that they are often considered, “hungry” water. Once ingested the “hungry” may take from your body certain properties that are unintended. They also are often delivered in plastic which if not quality grade can leach into the water especially when hot. The “ph” of processed water is also an issue to be aware of as often these purchased waters are more acidic than the body needs for good hydration.
Chlorination and fluoridation of most municipal water systems add chemicals to the water which although considered necessary for purposes of health may create problems in the body. They are another toxin which the body ends up filtering. It has been estimated that 40 percent of Americans are drinking water that the EPA considers unfit to drink. We know that water helps convert food into energy, regulates body temperature, moistens our joints, and removes toxins to the proper excretion organs.
It is not hard to understand that our body filling with toxins is a cause of many major diseases. If the body is out of balance we can regain that balance through our water drinking actions and habits. If we are out of balance we lose flexibility of our lifestyle we enjoy. Our wellness and flexibility can be improved very simply by drinking more good water.
The fluids of our body are critical to our wellness and we lose nearly six pints (12 cups) daily. Good water replenishes our body fluids which give us our energy and is essential for survival . Consider also if you are overweight that water is a key to weight loss. You need to add one glass of water for every 25 pounds overweight that you are. It is now recommended that you drink 10 glasses a day. Another measurement of how much water to drink is to take half of your weight and drink that many ounces of water. And because the water we drink becomes a part of you, wellness and healthcare professionals, along with the public are increasingly conscious of water quality.
Teaching our children and grandchildren the importance of drinking water and helping them develop good habits of balancing the body fluids certainly will have a major health impact in
their future.
The next article will be about the importance of also finding balance in our sleep, and its role in our Wellness.
Tim Nihoul, Independent Wellness Consultant, www.balancedlivingtoday.com, 541/317-9387.
