Water, water every where, but not a drop to drink.

The steps necessary to reduce the effects of stress on your health, happiness, productivity, success, and quality of life are simple. However, getting yourself to take those simple actions could be quite difficult as it’s never easy to change a life-time of habits. But it can be done. The techniques described in previous blogs will help eliminate stress’s debilitating effects each time you remember to use them. The more often you use them the easier it becomes to remember to use them. Eventually using them will become such a habit that you will use them automatically, almost without realizing you’re using them.

There are other actions you can take that can assist your efforts to rid your body of stress. They are as simple as drinking a glass of water. In fact, one of the actions you can take is to drink more water.

The human body is composed of approximately seventy-five percent water and only twenty-five percent solid matter. Our bodies need sufficient water to provide nourishment, eliminate waste products, and regulate all bodily functions. The brain alone uses twenty-five percent of the body’s available water and the eyes use another twenty percent. That’s a whopping forty-percent of our body’s available water used by the brain and eyes.

At one time, drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water was recommended to remain healthy. For some time, modern society stopped stressing the importance of water consumption. That trend appears to be changing once again. Unfortunately, many people think that drinking any fluid satisfies the body’s need for water. As a result, many people choose to drink other beverages. Not true!

While it is true tea, coffee, beer, wine, alcohol, soft drinks, and juices contain water, they also contain caffeine, sugar, artificial sweeteners, and other chemicals that act as strong dehydrators. The more you drink of these beverages, the more dehydrated you become. This also adds more stress to an already stressed system.

In addition, these beverages contaminate the body in other ways. For instance, caffeine triggers stress responses that have powerful diuretic effects. Beverages with added sugar raise blood sugar levels which use up large quantities of cellular water. The most common artificial sweetener additive is Aspartame. You must avoid it like the plague. I’ll get into why later. It’s extremely dangerous and doesn’t even do what people drink it for in the first place, which is to help them lose weight.

Most patients today suffer from what, Andrea Moritz, a practitioner with extensive training in Ayurveda, Iridology, Shiatsu, and Vibrational Medicine, refers to as “thirst disease”, a progressive state of dehydration in certain areas of the body. Unable to remove toxins from these parts due to insufficient water, the body is faced with the consequences of their destructive effects.

Those individuals who have lived for many years without proper water consumption are the most likely victims of built-up toxins in the body. Chronic disease is always accompanied by dehydration and, in many cases, caused by the dehydration. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stomach ulcers, hypertension, MS, Alzheimer’s, and many other chronic forms of disease are precipitated by years of “thirst disease.” Infectious agents, such as bacteria and viruses cannot thrive in a well-hydrated body.

People who do not drink enough water and/or are exposed to long-term, unresolved stress deplete their body’s water reserves. In dehydrated conditions, the cells lose in excess of 25% of their water volume. This undermines cellular activities. Whenever there is cellular dehydration, waste products are retained, causing symptoms that resemble disease.

People with “thirst disease” may not recognize that they’re thirsty as more and more water begins to accumulate outside the cells, which in fact, causes water retention in the legs, arms, feet, and face. Your kidneys may begin to hold onto water, markedly reducing urination. This causes an accumulation of harmful waste products to store up in the kidneys.

Drinking sufficient water not only helps hydrate the body but helps us fight off the harmful effects of stressful encounters. Much more could be said about what water does for the body, however, I think you get the picture. I’ll just leave you with a few interesting facts concerning water consumption.

· One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of dieters.
· Lack of water is the #1 trigger of day time fatigue.
· Preliminary research indicates that 8 – 10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease
back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
· A mere 2% drop in water triggers fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and
difficulty focusing on the computer screen.
· Drinking 5 glasses of water a day decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, slashes the risk
of breast cancer by 79% and reduces the likelihood of bladder cancer by 50%.

The old adage drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily may be adequate for some people. However, depending on the level of stress you live under, how much exercise you get, or your climate, this may not be sufficient for your circumstances. Today, the prescription is to drink one-half of your body weight in ounces daily. So if you weigh 200 pounds you need to, at a minimum, drink 100 ounces of water a day. If you live under very stressful conditions, exercise a lot, or live in a tropical conditions you need to drink more water. Thirst is a sign that the body is already dehydrated. So if you get thirsty often, continue drinking more water until you rarely, if ever, feel thirsty.

Another old adage, “too much of a good thing is just as bad as not enough” also applies here. So, don’t overdo it. Don’t drink all or most of your daily supply of water at one time. Don’t drink it too quickly and don’t drink too much water in a single day. While rare, people have become ill drinking too much water. If you feel feint or woozy after drinking water, you either drank too much water or too much water too fast. In fact, it is best to take a sip of water every ten minutes or so. That way, you won’t find yourself having to go to the bathroom all the time. Your body will absorb all the water it needs and there won’t be any left to have to eliminate.

It is also suggested to drink water that is near one’s body temperature. Very cold water shocks the nervous system and interferes with digestion. It is also suggested that you drink water from glass containers as plastic disintegrates and can pollute your body. Let’s hear it for good old water. Yea!!!