Water
Why Good Water?
Water is essential to life and good water even more so.
By good water I mean water that is pure, unpolluted, chemical free and with a hint of trace minerals. You know, the kind that tastes good and is enjoyable.
Whenever I hear someone say they can’t stand the taste of water I know they must be drinking city tap water and I agree it taste horrible. If that’s what you used too then I can understand why you hate it.
Let’s save that for later.
Truth is…We Are Mostly Water.
It’s hard to think about anything that’s more important than clean water to basic health and yet it’s seldom looked at in relation to disease.
Between 60—75% of our body is water depending on our size.
The human brain is nearly 70% water.
The next time your feeling sluggish and can’t clear your head think about trying a glass of water; that is if you can think at all.
The reality is water is a basic need and something most people never, ever think about. Water regulates the flow of blood and the delivery of vital nutrients throughout the body.
It controls the disposal of cellular waste, the flow of lymph, nerve impulses, brain function and hormones.
In Chinese Medical theory Chi follows Blood so a lack of blood has a pronounced effect on your overall energy. Blood is over 80% water so it’s not hard to assume being short on it would affect your energy. It’s easy to say that it exerts an influence on everything.
Not having any water will kill you faster than anything except oxygen and yet it’s taken for granted.
Believe It Or Not, Almost Everyone is Dehydrated.
Oh, we drink plenty of fluids during the day. Soda pop, tea, coffee, beer or wine and they all contain water but it’s not the same.
They all contain chemicals the body needs to get rid of and that require even more water.
Excessive consumption of non-essential liquids also throws off our thirst mechanism and we lose our ability to know when we are thirsty.
Chronic dehydration has many symptoms including asthma, pain, constipation, dry skin, acidosis and even the shrinking of internal organs and the brain.
Combine a few drinks a day with inadequate water intake and you can create your very own incredible shrinking brain.
I’m not kidding.
With the technology in modern medicine a doctor can scan your brain and pretty much tell you how often you drink.
Water is a tricky one.
It’s easy to go through life a little dehydrated and never know it until a crisis occurs.
So, you ask, how’s come I don’t feel dehydrated right now?
Let me tell you, if you don’t feel it now, you will.
The human body is an amazing thing. It has it’s own inherent wisdom on how it run every process within certain guidelines and as long as you supply it with what it needs you’ll probably experience robust health.
In fact it is so amazing that this simple system of regulation, homeostasis, will actually run a endless list on checks and balances to keep you from killing yourself even when you poison yourself on a daily basis.
Think of it in terms of the current credit crisis.
You don’t have any money in your checking account so you run up some bills on your credit cards. Your cards fill up so you transfer the balance on to another card and now this one is free so you max it out again.
After years of unchecked spending and countless transfers you finally reach the end.
Credit is tapped out and you’re broke.
The whole system needs an overhaul and it’s a very painful process.
Your body is the same.
After years of being deficient in sleep, water and nutrition even homeostasis breaks down and can no longer keep the ship righted and the system fails.
It also is a very painful process that can be labeled cancer, autoimmune, arthritis, osteoporosis or host of other chronic debilitating diseases that signal that something broke down.
The average person consumes so many beverages that kill the thirst mechanism that it’s hard to notice.
You seem to be doing fine because you don’t associate all of the little annoyances your body develops with dehydration.
You think your just getting older and your right.
It’s happening faster than you think because of dehydration. The body adapts so well that it’s hard to notice. It can extract water from solid food, fruit and liquids; even water from your intestines to keep going but eventually it will give out. Humans require at least 2 liters of good clean water a day. That’s the bare minimum. If you’re eating 75% fresh food in the form of fruits and veggies than that will do. If you exist on heavier processed food the requirements go up. Just start with 2 litres and go from there.
I guess I should clarify what I mean by good water. So much has been written about the surge in bottled water usage. It’s great that more people are aware of the need for water but bottled water is expensive and good water shouldn’t break your budget. You are truly blessed if well water is your main source and it’s been tested and the purity has been established. Most of us aren’t that lucky. City dwellers have tap water. Countless articles have appeared in newspaper touting the safety and purity of tap water in the USA. It’s true we do have the safest, best water system in the world. The problem is that it’s just not fit to drink. That is if you care about your health.
On average, tap water in the USA contains about 2000 toxic chemicals that have been linked to cancer, leukemia, brain damage and a host of other ailments. That’s pretty good considering the smorgasbord of chemicals, 100,000+, that have been let loose in the environment. Since most of the tap water is recycled from rivers filled with agricultural and industrial waste, 2000 is a pretty good number. Plus we add our own chemicals to make it safe and for other marketing purposes. When you consider that some of the water that comes out of your tap has already passed through someone else’s toilet then the thought of a little chlorine doesn’t bother you so much. But it should. Chlorine has a disastrous affect on your health but it absolutely has to be added to water to kill the water-borne diseases that will kill you much faster than chlorine. Your job is to remove all of these things on your own to transform it into the life giving substance it was meant to be. So let’s look at a few of the problems with water and how something so basic could ruin your energy.
Chlorine and it’s by products are some of the most toxic substances you’ll ever put in your body on a regular basis. Chlorine in all of its forms are carcinogenic. Chlorine has been shown to increase your chances of getting breast, bladder, esophageal and rectal cancer. If it’s linked to those then you should assume it might play a role in any cancer. The problem with most carcinogenic chemicals is the fact that we are exposed to thousands of them on a daily basis and it’s easy for the system to be overwhelmed. The human body has a very unique way to get rid of carcinogens but it is dependant on many things, nutrition for instance, and eliminating as many as possible from your diet can only help. Chlorine is also linked to heart attacks and stroke, compromised immunity and premature aging of the brain or dementia. Any of these reasons should be enough to convince you to remove it from your water before you drink it.
No article on water safety would be complete without addressing the subject of fluoride. The fact that it is still added to drinking water in this country is a testament to the power of big business over the health concerns of actual people. The dental benefits have widely been proven non-existent and its use has been banned it most European countries and numerous others around the world. Not only should it never be added to water but please stop buying fluoride toothpaste. It’ll make into the bloodstream within 5 minutes of brushing by absorption through the cheeks and gums. Add that to the amount you get from food as pesticides, in soda pop and pharmaceutical drugs, and your easily over the allowable daily limit set by the EPA. It also accumulates so you’re always adding to the amount in you already have.
Actually there is no allowable limit for the type used in your water. Everyone assume the fluoride they’re drinking is a naturally occurring mineral but it’s not. The fluoride being used is hydrofluoric acid, a chemical byproduct of aluminum, cement, steel and various other manufacturing processes. It’s also used to refine high-octane gasoline, fluorocarbons for air conditioners, herbicides and toothpaste. How you can make the leap from using something as a pesticide to kill cockroaches and rats to a healthy boost to the water supply of humans is beyond me. So let’s look at some of the ways fluoride disrupts your health.
There is evidence that it increases cancer and heart disease, destroys immunity, vision problems, dementia, brittle bones. The list is practically endless. It’s toxic! The one study that’s particularly troubling is the one that showed after drinking fluoridated water for 3 weeks at the EPA limit, scientists were able to measure the level of fluoride in the mitochondria of bone marrow cells. The mitochondria are considered the cells powerhouse where it manufactures energy. The mitochondria vary with each type of cell and can range from a few hundred to thousands.
The fluoride currently being dumped in 90 percent of drinking water in the U.S. is added in the form of hydrofluoric acid, a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing. It is one of the most caustic of industrial chemicals.
Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine high octane gasoline, to make fluorocarbons and chlorofluorocarbons for freezers and air conditioners, and to manufacture computer screens, fluorescent light bulbs, semiconductors, plastics, herbicides … and toothpaste.
