By Tommie Weber
Most health experts are coming to the realization that we have ignored water as a primary fuel for the system for much too long, and are beginning to recognize water as a nutrient. It is clear that the information out in the marketplace is not only complicated, it is often times misleading and at times just false.
Health, wellness and fitness issues, and the goals that go with them in the western world are as varied as the people who populate it. We know people need a simple road map to follow. The problem is everyone travels on a different road. We are all created similar, not equal. The importance of getting on a simple path that works for you is paramount.
It is clear that the information out in the marketplace is not only complicated, it is often times misleading and at times just false, especially in the areas or pharmacology, personal training, supplementation and HYDRATION. I capitalized hydration because it is a simple baby step for everyone and everyone needs to hydrate their body. It is probably one of the most important yet over-hyped and misrepresented areas of wellness. We can not hydrate our bodies with sports drinks, soda, coffee, tea or any of the varied sugar-loaded fruit juices we consume. They didn’t exist when the “machine” we walk around in was created. Pure water is what fuels the cells and moves the electricity around our machine.
It really is this simple. Water is a nutrient and it is fuel for our system. When the pharmaceutical model for health was being created, they chose to ignore water which makes up 70 percent of our body mass. Without the hydraulic affect of water we could not stand and support our own weight. We could not think, move or send and receive messages from the brain. We wouldn’t be able to feel anything without the support of water in the system. It is only in the last fifteen years that the enormity of this mistake is being realized. Sadly, this information has been in western medical literature for over forty years. Anyone willing to follow this simple precept, and move away from media based misconceptions, will benefit themselves and their loved ones with a huge reduction in the incidence of all degenerative disease. Imagine if this simple preventative measure reduces the risk of Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes and all the others down the line, by fifty percent. This is usually the point where I ask if everyone would follow this simple rule and stick to it. It is also where everyone nods their heads in an affirmative manner without any real conviction or belief. We really need to unwrap our minds from the media ads and begin to take control of our own health. The simple truth is…water works – especially water treated with X2O. Everything else is a poor substitute and over taxes the body. So if you haven’t figured it out, I want people to drink water. Yes, that’s it. Drink water – and in my opinion, it should be X2O water. All the benefits of drinking pure water are well documented. Energy drinks, soda, coffee and tea don’t hydrate or clean the system. All of them actually cause you to lose more fluids. Do your own test. Drink a can of soda or a cup of coffee or tea, containing eight or twelve ounces, then measure your urine output over the next several hours. You will put out more fluid than you took in.
It doesn’t matter whether you are an athlete, musician, journalist, lawyer, doctor or mail person. Water is the high-octane gasoline for your body. Sports drinks, soda, coffee and all the others don’t approach the effectiveness and benefits of properly hydrating and cleaning the system with water. An argument can be made for any liquid and its proposed benefit. None of these arguments HOLD WATER. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. There is just too much evidence to the contrary. This information is now available at the touch of a finger to a computer. The claims for many of these liquids border on, at the least, subterfuge. At the worst, outright lying. When you are thirsty, for health and vitality, stick with the “original” - water. Listen to your own body. See how it responds to taking on the fuel that God and nature intended. Water made up 70 % of your body’s mass the day you were born and quite simply the loss of it has contributed to many of the health problems we witness today.
So here it is and this is the HOLY GRAIL of well being: If you want to be healthy, if you want to be active, if you want to have more energy, be able to think more clearly, avoid depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome, panic attacks, constipation, acid reflux and a slew of other ordinary everyday complaints; drink more water.
Would you like an easy way to look at almost everything which has gone wrong with our health? Here it is: You may laugh, but I am serious; if the media is telling you something is a good idea, well it probably isn’t and they just don’t realize it yet, or they know its wrong, but have so much time and money invested in an ad campaign they won’t back away from it.
For example, back in the 1950’s there were commercials and ads which told us that cigarettes helped us breathe. Doctors were actually used to promote these beliefs. The perception became reality, and once ingrained things are hard to change. Over twelve million people have died because of our socially accepted, government supported addiction to nicotine and Cigarettes. Now, after years of fighting about the health risks associated with smoking everyone agrees, including the media that smoking isn’t good for anyone, yet it is still legal. This addiction kills more people in a year than alcohol, heroin, crack, and cocaine combined and still our children start smoking. All this shows is that change is up to the individual. What I am trying to say in the present is that maybe…THINGS DON’T “GO BETTER WITH COCA COLA,” “PEPSI MAY NOT BE NUMBER ONE”, “DOING THE DEW” ISN’T a good idea. There is a reason all of these beverage giants are getting into the “water business.” Follow the money folks.
Water is the only way to hydrate and cleanse the inside of the body. Think about the inside of your body. Try to imagine all of the effort it takes to keep everything clean and functioning at an optimum level. We can’t reach in and scrub the dirt out of our heart, lungs or liver, but we can help by making sure the things we put into the system are the best to keep it functioning.
If you have a new car you don’t put bad oil or gas in it. We don’t dump sludge into the gas tank or coat the engine with dirt and grime. The inside of your body is the same as the outside, and it should be more important than your car, yet most of us take better care of our cars. We forget this body is non-replaceable. We can’t see inside our body, so we don’t see the sludge build- ups, or the little torn tissues or a blockage in a joint. What we don’t see we don’t consider and usually it takes a major incident like a stroke, or heart attack to make us take notice. Little aches and pains or allergies or stiff muscles aren’t enough of a warning. And yes folks, little aches and pains are a warning. We choose everyday to ignore the little messages our body sends us. Because it is so wonderfully made, it over compensates for our lack of common sense and keeps running. We are the ones running out of time. The things we have done to poison the environment inside our skin has brought us to a health crisis. The children born in this generation in large part will not live as long or well as their parents. Longevity, based on pharmacology, has little or no appeal to us. Humans were not designed to be sick and infirm in their later years. We should be healthy up to and including our last day just like a squirrel, bird or any other animal. Oxygen tanks, diapers and anti-depressants can be largely eliminated by caring for our body the way we care for our car. Water is a beginning and a staple. We wash our face, our hair and our body with soap and water - not soda and coffee. If we have dirty hands, we wash them, greasy hair, same thing. It’s time to start thinking about our hearts, our lungs and all our other internal body parts the same way. Our brain and muscles are over 75% water. Our blood and lungs are 80% water.
Most health experts are coming to the realization that we have ignored water as a primary fuel for the system for much too long, and they are also beginning to recognize water as a nutrient. Take osteoporosis. This causes your bones to literally fall apart. Sixty-six percent of women over forty in the United States suffer from this problem. Now, forty percent of the men have it so we start to talk about it and research it. The simple facts have been here all along. Your bones are the foundation to your body. If the foundation or our home is leaking we try to seal it up. If it is falling apart we try to repair it before our home collapses. Our bones cannot repair themselves without proper hydration. Without healthy bones we don’t have good bone marrow. Without good marrow production we don’t have good red blood cells. Without red blood cells no oxygen to the system. Isn’t the foundation of our body worth drinking a couple extra glasses of water a day? A good book to read which will extensively explain the health benefits of pure water is: YOU ARE NOT SICK YOU ARE THIRSTY by Dr. Batmanghelidji.
A short list of things that go wrong when the body is missing water would include:
Fatigue or just feeling tired all the time
Hunger and cravings
Depression, anxiety
Mood swings
Constipation
Stiff Joints, joint pain
So there you have it. There is one more important issue. If you want to look younger, have clear eyes, better skin and actually, if you want to stay younger and active longer…DRINK MORE WATER and in my opinion, make sure that water contains X2O.
Mel Kennon
meltorious@gmail.com
