By Hakeem Alexander

(Exercising Your Mind) I just completed another self-experiment based on information in a book called “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water” ‘you are not sick; you are thirsty!’ by Fereydoon Batmanghelidj.

The plan was to test the theory that there is no juice, tea, fluid or liquid that may be used as substitutes for water. It is rationalized that since there are many other components and particles in these other substances, the water contained therein is sufficient only to constitute a liquid and is simply carried throughout the body along with these other components. Naturally, because water is utilized for most transportation and metabolic processes.

I was not surprised at what happened to me and it is somewhat irritating to know many people are suffering simply because of fluid substitution for water; chronically.

I fasted from water for 7 days and drank plenty of organic orange, apple, pomegranite and other 100 percent organic fruit juices. I made no other changes and even led an evening Yoga session on day five.

Day one I cleared my system in the water closet as usual. later on, I felt a little more tired than usual and felt very thirsty even after a full 32 ounces of pomegranite juice and a quarter gallon of orange juice.

Day two I began feeling nauseous after each meal. I felt slightly more fatigued and my digestion felt as if it went to sleep on the job and I felt extremely hungry-thirst all the time.

Day three I realized that it was the first morning I had sat in the bathroom since day one. I was nauseous again and though I was hungary I avoided eating. I felt like my hunger mechanism was confused. On-off, on-off, hi-lo, hi-lo and it was also just uncomfortable to eat. All I could do was drink gallons of fruit juice.

Day four was extremely lethargic and constipated again. No more nausea but even though I was extremely hungry, food was undesireable. I had some trouble sleeping and experienced mild cramps in my belly. My nose felt a little stuffy

Day five I was still constipated, fatigued, irritable, craving and cramping. Worse yet, my breathing became difficult in the chest and my sinuses swelled and clogged to blocking respiration such that I had to breath through my mouth. My ears were also ringing like I just experienced a full set of  REd COiN 613 Live without ear plugs.

On the sixth day, with all of the previously mentioned symptoms present, I began to experience a strong headache that felt like pressure in my temples and as if my brain were uncushioned and knocking against the sides of my skull. I went to sleep after a relaxation meditation with the expectation of no head-ache in the morning though I obviously suspected dehydration. I am also aware that this effect could be because of all the organic though sugary juices I consumed.

On day seven I woke up with a headache even more severe than the previous night. Interestingly, when I sat down it hurt my head more, made my breathing more labored and was even made worse by lying down again. I felt like I was dying, if I sat down my skull pounded, when standing I was dizzy.

I could see how someone not equipped with effective and personalized relaxation and meditation tools, would be extremely frustrated, disturbed and possibly behave unpleasantly.

I ate two organic, Amy’s vegetarian breakfast burritos, one large bran Zen-Bakery muffin with cranberries and blueberries and 16 ounces of R.W. Knudsen’s organic pomegranite juice. My headache continued to worsen.

I finally could not stand the extreme pressure building in my skull so I opened a bottle of Fiji water and took down about 20 ounces of a 1 liter container.

Within 1.5 to 2 minutes of the first sip, the headache began to diminish. After 5 minute the headache was eliminated. Within 30 minutes my breathing difficulties dissapeared. 20 minutes after that I was able to eliminate the previously backed up bowel movements and then eat a meal without cramping or nausea. One and a half hours later all of my symptoms completely vanished. SO, even if sugar was a factor and I was experiencing a sugar crash headache, the addition of extra hydration definitely eliminated the symptoms.

I experimented later to see if ther was still a sensitivity to the dehydration by abstaining again from water. Unsurprisingly the headache returned and again subsided upon drinking more water.

Several repetitions of the water depravation / fluid-substitution followed by headache, and remission upon reconstitution with water, substantiated and affirmed the hypothesis that water is definitely and distincly separate from juices or other liquids not-water as vital fluids in the body.

The apparent thirst quenching that occurs after ingesting non-water liquids is only a superficial effect of the property of the substance upon our receptors but not its vital quality which is present, but for other nutrient requirements not-water dependent for the utilization in additional metabolic processes, because the water available is sufficient to constitute the liquid state only.

Besides curing over 3000 inmates suffering from peptic ulcers utilizing water alone while a political prisoner in Iran; Dr. Batmanghelidj discovered that many ailments we experience from headaches to asthma, constipation to morning sickness during pregnancy and even some cancers and many allergies are directly triggered, induced or perpetuated because of chronic dehydration.

While there is no claim that dehydration is the sole disease cause of course, it is simply one of the factors requiring some attention for living a healthy and abundant life.

Drink more water.
Water is necessary throughout the entire digestive process starting with chewing. Saliva is made of water and enzymes; the gastric fluid in the stomach requires water.

It is required for almost all metabolic processes, and an insufficient amount of water may result in sluggish digestion and the resulting storage of unused energy units in the body.

About 60% of the human body is water, the brain is 70% water, the lungs are nearly 90% water; 83% of our blood is water, which transports waste, controls body temperature and even our bones are 50% water.

Every day we must replace 2.4 litres of water, some through drinking and the rest taken from foods we eat containing water.

Drinking enough water also ensures that you are not in conservation mode. When your body is thouroughly hydrated, storage is not necessary in the form of “water-weight” by your body. So naturally, the diuertic (urination inducing) quality of drinking sufficient water increases breakdown and absorbtion of vital nutrients, while flushing out wastes and excess water-weight.

H A

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