Nightmare

Not drinking enough water can be the cause of many
different health problems
The human body is about 75% water and 25% solid
matter. The brain is said to be 85% water and is
extremely sensitive to any dehydration or depletion of
its water content. It is water that regulates all the
functions of the body, including the action of all the
solids that water carries around.
There has been a groundbreaking medical breakthrough
that is very significant. Simply put, it is the "new
scientific understanding" that chronic unintentional
dehydration can manifest itself in many ways--as many
as we in medicine have invented diseases. Tragically,
this medical breakthrough is not reaching the public
through the health maintenance systems.
It is estimated that more than 110 million people in
America are prone to suffer from various pains; in
some cases with crippling intensity. "Pain of
dehydration" afflicts Americans in various ways not
usually associated with dehydration. They are:
1) Arthritis
The largest sector of our society manifests their
chronic unintentional dehydration in the form of
arthritic pains.
2) Heartburn
Reflecting dehydration, heartburn destroys many a
nightÂ.´s rest or a dayÂ.´s peace of mind for millions of
people.
3) Back Pain
This devastating pain is a periodic yearly affliction
for over 30 million people.
4) Migraines
The debilitating pain of migraine headaches devastates
the lives many.
5) Colitis
This pain is associated with constipation and
digestion and affects a large sector of our society.
6) Fibromyalgia
The pain felt in the muscles and joints all over the
body is a crippling problem.
7) Angina
Since angina (chest pain) is an ominous sign of
impending heart attacks and possible death, it is the
most feared of all body pains.
To relieve these devastating pains, a variety of pain
medications have been produced and prescribed by
doctors who never realized the physiologic
significance of why the human body possesses a pain
alarm system at all, and what is the common factor and
trigger mechanism for these pains. Since these pains
are felt in different locations, obviously they meant
different diseases, or so it seemed! Because pain
research has until now focused entirely on its solid
composition, the common factor of water shortage in
the interior of the body had not been apparent.
The new scientific understanding since 1987 is that
localized or regional dehydration is the primary
common factor and pain-producing problem of the human
body. It becomes established when there is persistent
regional water shortage, including in the interior of
the pain-sensing nerve cells in the human body. This
is the common factor to all body pains. In drought
management mode, and when there is not enough "fresh
water" to go around and wash out the toxic by-products
of metabolism from the areas that are engaged in
continuous activity, the nerve endings in those areas
sense the increased toxicity, sound the alarm of pain
and force the person to stop doing whatever is
increasing toxic waste production--hence the loss of
function in painful areas.
For example, when the heart muscle itself is short of
"fresh water" and yet has to beat faster and
forcefully to cope with any strenuous physical
undertaking, pain is produced. In that instance, pain
means thirst for "fresh water," even if it is believed
that the blood flow to the heart muscle is reduced
because of narrowing of its blood vessels.
Interestingly, even cholesterol plaque formations in
the heart arteries are caused by the same dehydration.
In treatment of chronic pains of the body, simple
water has natural medicinal effects far superior to
any pain medication. Pain medications shut down the
crisis calls of the body for water, but do not correct
the "fresh water" shortage in the interior of the
body. On the other hand, water intake corrects the
basic pain-producing drought and saves the body from
further danger.
F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.