With such great access to health interventions these days, many people are quick to latch onto the next trendy natural medicine in their pursuit of health improvement. The Do It Yourself era is great when it comes to self empowerment and self motivation, but, at times, vast amounts of new information can cause us to miss the obvious. Dehydration is a classic example of this.
In the land of plenty, it is easy to forget to consume adequate amounts of water. We may think we achieve our daily water requirements via cup of coffee, juice, herbal tea and fruit but we might not realize that these consumables do not equate with minimum water requirements. A lot of ailments may be aggravated and perpetuated by inadequate water balance in the body. Even if people wait until they feel thirsty before drinking water, thirst and dry mouth are some of the last signs of dehydration.
Water has some important properties that support life. Water-dependent chemical reactions, called hydrolysis, aid in much of the body’s metabolisms. Even at the cell membrane, the osmotic flows of water generated hydroelectric energy. This energy is used to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and guanosine triphosphate (GTP), two vital energy molecules. Another valuable quality of water is that it acts as a medium for cellular communication.
Both, electrical and molecular transmission, utilize waterways to literally carry messages or materials from one place to another water also acts as a solvent. It dissolves salts and other substances to allow for transportation of these ions, enzymes (proteins) and other solutes.
Proteins and enzymes can be less efficient in a dehydrated body. In his book, Your body’s many cries for water, Dr Batinanghelidj puts forth that “water, the solvent of the body, regulates all functions, including the activity of the solutes it dissolves and circulates.”
What he is trying to say is that without adequate water, we would be a congested and confused case of metabolic processes, that has difficulty working on a large (systemic) and small (molecular) scale.
Many health problems can be linked back to pour water status, subclinical chronic dehydration can aggravate many bodily systems leading to gastric esophageal reflux, headaches, fatigue, chronic pain, palpitations, depression, hypertension, excess body weight, etc.
Bearing this in mind, sometimes the best prescription is to drink more water; even better, drink excellent water.
My research has lead me to believe that alkaline ionized water created through a process of electrolysis is the best water we can get next to clean ancient glacial run off (drinkable of course).
This type of structured water supports life by improving physiological function and hydrating extracellularly and intracellularly better than other kinds.
So, the first step to better health is easy ... turn on the tap.
— Dr. Tara Macart owns Opti Balance Naturopathic Medicine in Qualicum Beach with her husband Jonathan.