As we can see, water is a very important factor in order to maintain a healthy body, which includes our brain. Poor hydration can easily affect the brain’s chemistry the more viscous the solution is less effective biochemical reactions are.
Doctor F. Batmanghelidj spent 2 years and 7 months in an Islamic prison. During his time in jail he made a very interesting discovery, he was experiencing abdominal pain and upon drinking water the pain went away… later on during his incarceration officials brought him two prisoners with peptic ulcer pain but he did not have any medications so he offered them tap water and for his surprise the pain went away as well. No more to say he spent the remaining time doing observations on water as a treatment and once released he kept studying, researching and documenting his findings. Now he believes that a comprehensive understanding of physiology from an anatomical to a molecular perspective can shed light on many diseases that nowadays afflict humanity.
He found that many humans are dehydrated even if their mouth is not dried causing chemical imbalances at a cellular-molecular level. Dehydration can cause poor performance of vitamins, minerals and even amino acids. According to F. Batmanghelidj, MD prolong dehydration can create imbalances that eventually, if perpetuated, can be passed on to the offspring, meaning genetic mutations, resulting in diseases such as asthma, allergies, depression, diabetes and many other genetic disorders. This dehydration pushes the body to make its best to survive in a system with less water. The consequences are ample, as I previously mentioned, but one aspect that is more interesting is that the liver uses tryptophan and tyrosine as antioxidants substitute, which causes a lack of tryptophan and tyrosine in the brain (or body). All these information that water is nourishing and life supporting and a deficiency of this nourishing and life supporting liquid points out to what ancient Chinese medicine practitioners called yin and/or jin, ye deficiency. After all what they were explaining was exactly what science is now able to explain by means of a total different jargon, dehydration can cause biochemical imbalances which in turn will manifest pathologically.
I would like to expand on this yin, jin, ye deficiency concept by quoting a portion of Lei Jing Fu Yi (Wings to the Classified Canon) written by Zhang Jing-Yue, a famous Chinese physician from the Ming dynasty
Yin cannot exist without yang; without qi, form cannot be engendered. Yang cannot exist without yin; without yang, form cannot be carried. So, substance is engendered because yang engenders it, and substance is formed because yin forms it. This so-called original yin and original yang and is also called true essence and true qi. […] Early heavens causes qi to transform [into] form; this is yang engendering yin. Later heaven is form transforming [into] qi; this is yin engendering yang. Form is essence and essence is water. Spirit is qi and qi is fire. The two qi -yin and yang- most importantly should not be imbalanced. If they are not imbalanced, qi is harmonious and can engender substance. If they are imbalanced, qi is disharmonious and kills substances. […] Those who are good at treating essence are able to make qi be engendered from within essence; those who are good at treating qi are able to make essence be engendered within qi. This follows the mysterious use of [the fact that yin and yang] are separate but indivisible. (This quotation was taken from the book Principles of Chinese Medical Andrology by Bob Damone. Blue Poppy Press, 2008 pp 16.)
While I was reading this quote I could not stop thinking on what Doctor F. Batmanghelidj explained on his book that by hydrating the body by means of water (yin in nature or jin-ye) the body will start creating ‘hydroelectricity’ (qi) by rushing water through cell membranes’ pumps. Rehydration of the cells will bring into the cell more nutrients (yin) which would be used by the mitochondria to create more ATP’s (qi). By having more water (yin) at the cellular level the minerals, amino acids and proteins will be able to flow freely and faster (from a stagnant situation they are quicken by water) and engage into energy producing cycle known as Kreb’s cycle. From my perspective, Dr Batmanghelidj has developed a paradigm that closely relates with what in Chinese medicine we call yin, jin or ye deficiency. The difference is that for Dr Batman a big chunk of ailments, disorders, syndromes and diseases spring from what we call in Chinese medicine yin, jin or ye deficiency. He believes that we humans are not aware of the body’s messages. Confusing thirst with hunger (food and water are late heaven) deprives the body of water which over time will start suffering a ‘drought’, the body will be able to manage it but its cumulative effect will start mounting to the point that serious degenerative conditions are manifested. Here we see a lack of water or cellular dehydration (yin deficiency) leading to disharmonious qi (lack of energy production) which in turn will damage yin even more by activating histamine and renin-angiotensin (qi or yang in nature).
Signs of Dehydration
Doctor Fereydoon Batmanghelidj grouped signs and symptoms of dehydration into four categories these are feelings, drought and resource management, local dehydration and fourth dimension. For simplistic reasons I will propose to call these groups differently acute, sub-acute, chronic and degenerative. Under the acute (Feelings) category the person will start complaining of heaviness sensation in the head, irritability, anxiety, anger, impatientness, low spirits and feeling inadequate, depressed mood, attention deficits, poor concentration, poor memory, shortness of breath without any pathological evidence, malar flush, red nose and chin, tiredness, sleep disturbances, craving coffee, tea, sodas or any other beverage, and agoraphobia. Batmanghelidj proposes that dreaming of water, rivers, oceans, lakes or anything similar might be a subconscious signal that the person is dehydrated. A person with a sub-acute dehydration will experience what he calls cannibalistic processes where the body starts attacking its own tissues in order to obtain the water that it needs. The conditions that he believes are part of what I call sub-acute dehydration are asthma, allergies, hypertension, constipation, type 2 diabetes and autoimmune disorders. The third stage, which I call chronic dehydration, the patient will start manifesting localized pain due to an accumulation of acid inside the cell; these signs are heartburn, gastritis, duodenitis, esophagitis, and indigestion after eating, angina, lower back pain, arthritic pain (even rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis), migraine, colitis, fibromyalgia, bulimia, edema and morning sickness. Once the chronic stage has started, degeneration of tissues and organs is underway leading to the last stage called degenerative. Some of the diseases or disorders due to severe dehydration (degenerative) are obesity, high cholesterol and triglycerides, plaquing of arteries, coronary thrombosis, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, heart failure, strokes, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson’s, scleroderma, cancers and AIDS.
How Much Water
Every twenty-four hours the body recycles an equivalent of forty thousand glasses of water. From that amount of water a healthy human (note that healthy is in bold which means that people that are not healthy might need more) lose approximately 2 liters of water per day; of that amount 50% is loss via urine while 5% is lost in fecal matter while the remaining 45% is lost through our lungs and skin. On a cellular level, at least 75% of the cytoplasm content is water, 25% at an extracellular level while 8% of water is in the blood as serum. Now imagine what will happen if there is dehydration present. To make this easier to understand let us compare this with a budgetary deficit. When governments start facing deficits resources have to be re-allocated some areas will suffer severe cuts, other less and there will be some that will not experience any disturbance yet if the deficit keeps growing more cuts and restructuring will occur and if the deficit keeps mounting it will come a day that governments will go bankrupt. Something similar happens with the body when dehydration takes place. First the body will take water at an intracellular level, then extracellular level…the body will rationalize the water to the most important organs brain, liver, kidneys and heart. While this process of rationalization is taking place, the mitochondria will keep producing energy and their “waste” will start piling up, which creates an acidic intracellular environment and later on an acidic extracellular environment. A shortage of water will shrink the cell and the cytoplasm will become more viscous. It is good to mention that as humans get older their thirst sensation decreases. At this point, you might have an idea of how many physiological consequences dehydration exerts in the body, it is no wonder to see people suffering with some of the signs and symptoms previously mentioned, and it is rightfully correct to ask how much water I should be drinking.
As a rule of thumb I always advice to drink 2 glasses of water as soon as waking up and one glass of water 30 minutes to 1 hour before and after having a meal or snack. This routine will certainly keep your cells well hydrated and equipped to transport nutrients, hormones, other substances and the proper methylation and hydrolysis processes. You could take your weight and convert it into ounces and divided it by two; the result is an estimate of how much water a person should be drinking.
Doctor Batmanghelidj believes that we have been deceived to believe that coffee, tea, soda, alcohol and other liquids can replace water consumption. His point of view is that nothing can replace the life giving and sustaining liquid known as water. He advises that in order to re-hydrate our cells we need to add sea salt to the water we drink. I highly recommend reading his book if you are more interested in his paradigm.
Certainly water plays a major role in our body biochemistry therefore increase your water intake to flush out lactic acid out of your system, increase oxygenation at a cellular level, promote stronger molecular bonds, facilitate enzymatic activity and other reactions so necessary to produce cellular energy and good health. Cheers!
Emmanuel Arroyo is a New York State licensed acupuncturist, certified chinese medicine herbologist and iridologist. Can be contact by email at dr.agujas@gmail.com or by phone at 917-324-1140
This information should not be copied or published without written consent from Emmanuel Arroyo.
Certainly water plays a major role in our body biochemistry therefore increase your water intake to flush out lactic acid out of your system, increase oxygenation at a cellular level, promote stronger molecular bonds, facilitate enzymatic activity and other reactions so necessary to produce cellular energy and good health. Cheers!
Emmanuel Arroyo is a New York State licensed acupuncturist, certified chinese medicine herbologist and iridologist. Can be contact by email at dr.agujas@gmail.com or by phone at 917-324-1140
This information should not be copied or published without written consent from Emmanuel Arroyo.
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