Saturday, July 18, 2009

Water and our Bodies

post by Sandra Prior

Water, next to oxygen, is the most important substance needed by our bodies. When we are dehydrated we start feeling lifeless and tired and unfortunately thirst isn't a very good indicator to when our bodies need water. Our bodies become less perceptive to thirst as we get older, which also increases our risk of dehydration.

Why Our Bodies Need To Be Properly Hydrated

1. Water helps to purify our blood.
2. It reduces the stress on our hearts and stomachs.
3. It helps to remove body toxins and flushes impurities from the cellular membranes.
4. It allows better circulation to the extremities.
5. Water prevents premature ageing. It nourishes dehydrated sagging skin, leaving it clear and healthy.
6. Water lubricates body joints and aids muscle tone and flexibility.
7. It reduces the risk of high blood pressure.
8. It reduces the risk of cancer.
9. It alleviates fatigue to the liver and kidney.
10. It helps with the recovery from illnesses.
11. Water is very important in controlling body temperature and the distribution of nutritional elements.
12. Water reduces the risk of birth defects, it protects the growth of children's intelligence and helps with baby growth.
13. It reduces the risk of Alzheimer's and it improves the memory of adults.
14. It helps with losing weight, it converts fatty deposits into energy.
15. It reduces the problem of water retention.

Existing Conditions Water Will Help Improve

1. Lower back pain
2. Diabetes
3. Chronic fatigue syndrome
4. Asthma
5. Rheumatism and arthritis
6. Allergies
7. High blood pressure
8. Depression
9. High blood cholesterol
10. Neck pain
11. Alcohol dependency
12. Colitis
13. Being overweight
14. Diarrhea
15. Headaches
16. Spastic colon
17. Heart and circulation
18. Aching bones and joints

Important Information about Dehydration:

1. When you feel thirsty your body is already dehydrated.
2. Children dehydrate more easily than adults do.
3. Water allows the body to metabolize fats more efficiently.
4. Fatigue is often a symptom of dehydration.
5. The human body has no water storage to draw on during dehydration. This is why you must drink regularly throughout the day.
6. By the time you feel thirsty, your body has lost over one percent of its total water amount. So drink before you get thirsty.
7. A dehydrated skin looks much older than a hydrated one.
8. Drinking water keeps your skin looking youthful, and vibrant.
9.Perfect Water ( a product) increases your hydration

Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration

General signs and symptoms of dehydration include: mild to excessive thirst, fatigue, headache, dry mouth, little or no urination, muscle weakness, dizziness or lightheadedness. When your urine is dark yellow or had a strong smell, you are already dehydrated. Mild dehydration (treated correctly) rarely results in complications, but more severe cases can be life-threatening, especially in the very young and the elderly. If any two of the following signs are present, severe dehydration should be diagnosed and treatment should be started immediately:

Lethargy or unconsciousness
Sunken eyes
Skin pinch goes back very slowly (two seconds or more)
Unable to drink or one drinks poorly

How Much Water Must I Drink?

If you weigh 80kg and another person weighs 40kg and you both are drinking eight glasses of water, who is getting enough water and who is not? It all boils down to a couple of factors:

1. Body weight, for every 10kg of body weight, one big glass of water. 80kg = 8 glasses of water.
2. For every cup of coffee add one glass of water on top the amount of water you have to drink, caffeine dehydrates you as well as alcohol.
3. Depends on your activity, the amount of calories that you are burning.
4. Depends on the day's temperature. You lose moisture from your lungs with every breath.
5. Other fluids are not a substitute for water.

Minerals in Water

Minerals in water are probably the most talked about and most controversial issue when it comes to water purification.

Two different kinds of minerals: The first important part of understanding minerals in water is to know the difference between Organic and Inorganic minerals.

Inorganic minerals are minerals that never lived and are unable to bring life into our cells. They have a covalent bond which the body cannot break down. They are metals and the body treats them more as toxins than as nutrients. Our body's cells reject inorganic minerals and deposit them in various tissues: Organs, joints, bones and the circulatory system. These inorganic minerals that have been rejected by the body can lead to kidney stones, gallstones and ossification of the brain, arthritis, heart disease and the hardening of arteries.

Organic minerals once were or are now living and can bring life to and be utilized by cells. They have an ionic bond which the body can break down into usable material for tissue repair and function. They are made of a plant, or living organism and the body uses them as food.

What about the minerals in our water: Although our bodies need up to 70 different minerals on a daily basis, more than 97 percent of minerals in water are inorganic and therefore undesirable in drinking water. Inorganic minerals are removed from water during nature's water cycle, that is, during evaporation from the sun, only the water itself is removed, with the inorganic chemicals behind.

The distillation process is one filtering process that mimics what nature does on its own. So, why are these minerals removed from pure drinking water? Inorganic minerals are picked up in the ground by the water supply. These inorganic, or non-living, minerals cannot be utilized by humans or animals. However, plants can. Plants turn them into the organic minerals through photosynthesis and then they're in a form that our bodies can use. Unfortunately the inorganic minerals that pass into our drinking water cannot help us and can in fact, harm us.

In closing: Water wasn't meant to be our source of minerals, plants are our source of minerals. Water function in our bodies is also far greater than being a source of food. You will be able to survive for up to 40 days without food but only six or seven days without water.

The Effect of Chlorine in Water

Chlorine is used for treatment of public drinking water because of its toxic effect on harmful bacteria and other waterborne, disease - causing organisms. But there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that chlorine in drinking water may actually pose greater long term dangers than those for which it was used to eliminate. One of the biggest problems with chlorine is the fact that it increases your risk of cancer. Firstly chlorine destroys vitamin E in our bodies. Vitamin E is a very important natural anti-oxidant which is part of our resistant against diseases like cancer. That is also why your skin itches and dries out after you have taken a swim in a swimming pool that has chlorine in it. The second thing that happens when chlorine is added to water is the chlorine binds with volatile organic compounds to form thrialominithanes.

Thrihalominitanes are carcinogens which are cancer causing agents. Chlorine reports have linked chlorine and chlorine by-products to cancer of the bladder, liver, stomach, rectum and colon, as well as heart disease, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), anaemia, high blood pressure and allergic reaction.


For Information on Perfect Water as a hydrating and Water Plus product - report here

Sandra Prior runs her own bodybuilding website at http://bodybuild.rr.nu

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