Drinking Water—The Greatest Therapy Of All
Dehydration is perhaps the most common, yet largely unrecognized problem prevalent in modern
societies today. Alcohol, coffee, tea and soft drinks have become the primary choice for satisfying thirst,
especially among the younger generations. The principal effect of these beverages, however, is to remove
water—the most important and precious resource in the body—from the blood, cells and organs. Drinking
enough fresh water is an essential prerequisite for avoiding disease and slowing the aging process.
Anyone who is healthy and wants to stay that way needs to drink about 6-8 eight-ounce glasses of fresh
water each day. This will ensure that the 60-100 trillion cells in the body receive their daily-needed ration
of water in order to maintain efficient digestion, metabolism and waste removal. Children may need to
drink 4-6 glasses of water per day, depending on how physically active they are.
Suggestions:
⇒ Start the day by drinking one glass of warm water to end the “drought” of the night and remove
accumulated wastes from the excretory organs. As previously mentioned, this can be followed by a
glass of warm water with lemon and honey.
⇒ About half an hour before each meal, drink one glass of water. Doing this will keep your blood thin
and thereby enable it to take up nutrients and distribute them to the cells. The water also helps
increase the secretion of digestive juices and prevents bile from becoming too viscous. Drinking a lot
of water or other beverages with your meal, however, dilutes the digestive juices. This should be
avoided because it undermines the digestive process.
⇒ Following a meal, the blood uses up a considerable amount of water to distribute nutrients to the cells
and can, therefore, become water deficient quite quickly. Drinking another glass of water
approximately 2 ½ hours after each meal restores the blood’s water requirements.
These simple guidelines can help prevent the most serious major diseases that are prevalent in
modern societies today. Drinking sufficient amounts of water at the right times can and should be part of
every other therapy used in the treatment of disease.
A note of caution: Any attempt to restore the proper state of hydration of the body should be made
gradually; otherwise this may cause serious harm. A dehydrated person, that is, someone who has not
taken the minimum required amount of water for several weeks, months or years, and/or has depleted the
cells of excessive amounts of water by consuming caffeine or sugar-containing foods or beverages for a
considerable length of time, is susceptible to becoming ill. During dehydration, the body’s cells are no
longer able to function efficiently. To protect themselves against further loss of water, they make their
membranes less penetrable to water diffusion by pulling in extra amounts of fats, including cholesterol.
This survival mechanism, however, also prevents metabolic waste from leaving the cells, causing them to
suffocate in their own waste. Some of the cells, in order to survive in this toxic environment, may
eventually need to undergo genetic mutation and become cancerous.
During the state of dehydration, the kidneys hold on to water and so does the rest of the body. At this
point many people start craving and overeating salt or salty foods because the body needs more salt to
hold on to the little water it has left. This, however, causes the kidneys to contract and filter even less
water than before. Urine becomes more and more concentrated and scarce. In this condition of extreme
dehydration, it would be unwise to suddenly start drinking even the recommended 6-8 glasses per day of
water. Since the cells have created a barrier in order to save water, they are in no position to absorb a
quantity of water to which they have become unaccustomed, all at once. The water would simply stagnate
outside the cells and lead to water retention and weight gain. Given these circumstances, the kidneys are