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You could probably survive over a month without food, but 10 days without water and you’re a goner!

Why is it so important? For one thing, about three-quarters of your body is made up of water. Your blood is 83 percent water, your 15 billion brain cells are mostly water, and “dry as a bone” is a relative term – your skeleton is about 22 percent water.

Even if you’re a couch potato, you lose up to 10 cups a day through sweat, urine, even breathing. And if you’re active, you lose even more. To stay healthy, you must constantly replenish your body’s supply of water.

Drink at least 8 full glasses a day, minimum – just don’t count alcohol or caffeinated drinks, like coffee and soft drinks. These actually increase the rate your body loses water. And don’t wait until you’re thirsty to head for the water fountain since thirst is not always a reliable gauge of your body’s needs. You can lose 2 percent of your body weight in fluids before you even begin to feel thirsty.

Let’s look at 6 ways water keeps you healthy.

1. FLUSHES AWAY CANCER

The solution to bladder and colorectal cancer may be as basic as water – drinking lots of water. Research proves it. One study found that drinking six 8-ounce glasses of water a day reduced the risk of bladder cancer by 50 percent. The bottom line is the more water that flows through your urinary tract, the healthier it will be. Carcinogens and other toxins are simply washed away or diluted.

2. HELPS KEEP YOU TRIM

Drinking calorie-free water instead of sweetened cola, tea, or juice is one easy way to cut calories from your diet. And many waistline watchers believe that drinking a tall glass of water just before a meal dulls your appetite, fills your stomach, and helps you eat less.

While cutting calories is one part of a successful weight control program, exercise is just as important. Drink water before and during exercise to avoid dehydration and to get more out of your workout.

3. SHIELDS YOUR JOINTS

If you’ve ever slept on a waterbed, you know water can be a comfortable cushion between your body and the hard floor. Water can also provide padding and lubrication for your joints – making them more comfortable, too. If you have arthritis, particularly gout, drink plenty of water. Not only does it cushion your joints, but it helps dilute and flush out the uric acid that causes gout.

4. PREVENTS KIDNEY STONES

If you need an incentive to drink more water, experience the pain of kidney stones and you’ll be gulping away in no time. An Italian study divided people who had kidney stones into two groups. Researchers told one group to drink lots of water, while the other got no special instructions. During the five-year study, the high-water group developed half as many kidney stones. If you’re at risk of kidney stones, water should be your first line of defense.

5. COOLS YOUR BODY

One of water’s most important jobs is to keep your body temperature within a safe range. If you’re a senior, you’re especially vulnerable to dangerous heat illness because of risky conditions like heart disease. You are also more likely to take medications that may keep your body from sweating properly – another risk factor.

Heat cramps and heat exhaustion are mild forms of heat illness, but heatstroke is a life-threatening emergency. Symptoms include headache, slurred speech, dizziness, faintness, and hallucinations. If you suspect someone is suffering from heatstroke, act quickly to cool him or her off.

To prevent heat illness, try to stay cool, and make sure you drink extra water during hot weather or whenever you exercise.

6. MOISTURIZES YOUR SKIN

Summertime isn’t the only time you should drink lots of water. During cold months your skin can become dry and your lips chapped. Drinking lots of water helps keep your lips and your skin cells moist and comfortable.

By: Dr.Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, Your Body's Many Cries for Water

1. Water prevents and cures heartburn. Heartburn is a signal of water shortage in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a major thirst signal of the human body. The use of antacids or tablet medications in the treatment of this pain does not correct dehydration, and the body continues to suffer as a result of its water shortage.

  Tragedy: Not recognizing heartburn as a sign of dehydration and treating it with antacids and pill medications will, in time, produce inflammation of the stomach and duodenum, hiatal hernia, ulceration, and eventually cancers in the gastrointestinal tract, including the liver and pancreas.

2. Water prevents and cures arthritis.
Rheumatoid joint pain – arthritis – is a signal of water shortage in the painful joint. It can affect the young as well as the old. The use of pain-killers does not cure the problem, but exposes the person to further damage from pain medications. Intake of water and small amounts of salt will cure this problem.

3. Water prevents and cures back pain.
Low back pain and ankylosing arthritis of the spine are signs of water shortage in the spinal column and discs – the water cushions that support the weight of the body. These conditions should be treated with increased water intake – not a commercial treatment, but a very effective one.

  Tragedy: Not recognizing arthritis and low back pain as signs of dehydration in the joint cavities and treating them with pain-killers, manipulation, acupuncture, and eventually surgery will, in time, produce osteoarthritis when the cartilage cells in the joints have eventually all died. It will produce deformity of the spine. It will produce crippling deformities of the limbs. Pain medications have their own life-threatening complications.

4. Water prevents and cures angina.
Heart pain – angina – is a sign of water shortage in the heart/lung axis. It should be treated with increased water intake until the patient is free of pain and independent of medications. Medical supervision is prudent. However, increased water intake is angina's cure.

5. Water prevents and cures migraines.
Migraine headache is a sign of water need by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up if dehydration is prevented from establishing in the body. The type of dehydration that causes migraine might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eye sight.

6. Water prevents and cures colitis.
Colitis pain is a signal of water shortage in the large gut. It is associated with constipation because the large intestine constricts to squeeze the last drop of water from the excrements – thus the lack of water lubrication.

  Tragedy: Not recognizing colitis pain as a sign of dehydration will cause persistent constipation. Later in life, it will cause fecal impacting: it can cause diverticulitis, hemorrhoids and polyps, and appreciably increases the possibility of developing cancer of the colon and rectum.

7: Water and salt prevent and cure asthma.
Asthma, which also affects 14 million children and kills several thousand of them every year, is a complication of dehydration in the body.

It is caused by the drought management programs of the body. In asthma free passage of air is obstructed so that water does not leave the body in the form of vapor – the winter steam. Increased water intake will prevent asthma attacks. Asthmatics need also to take more salt to break the mucus plugs in the lungs that obstruct the free flow of air in and out of the air sacs.

  Tragedy: Not recognizing asthma as the indicator of dehydration in the body of a growing child not only will sentence many thousands of children to die every year, but will permit irreversible genetic damage to establish in the remaining 14 million asthmatic children.

8. Water prevents and cures high blood pressure.
Hypertension is a state of adaptation of the body to a generalized drought, when there is not enough water to fill all the blood vessels that diffuse water into vital cells.

As part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis, when water from the blood serum is filtered and injected into important cells through minute holes in their membranes, extra pressure is needed for the "injection process." Just as we inject I.V. "water" in hospitals, so the body injects water into tens of trillions of cells all at the same time. Water and some salt intake will bring blood pressure back to normal!

  Tragedy: Not recognizing hypertension as one of the major indicators of dehydration in the human body, and treating it with diuretics that further dehydrate the body will, in time, cause blockage by cholesterol of the heart arteries and the arteries that go to the brain. It will cause heart attacks and small or massive strokes that paralyze. It will eventually cause kidney disease. It will cause brain damage and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease.

9. Water prevents and cures early adult-onset diabetes.
Adult-onset diabetes is another adaptive state to severe dehydration of the human body. To have adequate water in circulation and for the brain's priority water needs, the release of insulin is inhibited to prevent insulin from pushing water into all body cells. In diabetes, only some cells get survival rations of water. Water and some salt will reverse adult-onset diabetes in its early stages.

  Tragedy: Not recognizing adult-onset diabetes as a complication of dehydration will, in time, cause massive damage to the blood vessels all over the body. It will cause eventual loss of the toes, feet and legs from gangrene. It will cause eye damage, even blindness.

10. Water lowers blood cholesterol.
High cholesterol levels are an indicator of early drought management by the body. Cholesterol is a clay-like material that is poured in the gaps of some cell membranes to safeguard them against losing their vital water content to the osmotically more powerful blood circulating in their vicinity. Cholesterol, apart from being used to manufacture nerve cell membranes and hormones, is also used as a "shield" against water taxation of other vital cells that would normally exchange water through their cell membranes.

11. Water cures depression, loss of libido, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy. These conditions are caused by prolonged chronic dehydration. They will clear up once the body becomes well and regularly hydrated. In these conditions, exercising one's muscles should be part of the treatment program.