"You are Not Sick, You Are Thirsty! Don't Treat Thirst with Medications!" says the sub-title of this book. It sums up the theme and content of the book quite well. The author shows in a number of ways how when we are in pain, or have other health problems, they are but symptoms of our body's cells crying out for water. We have thought that a dry, parched mouth was a sign of thirst, but there are many others.
I found this easy to understand, and once I grasped the concept, my reaction was, "but of course! It all makes sense!" The best part is that is is such an easy, no-cost cure for pretty well most things that ail us.
Personally, I like to think there are other factors involved in our health or sickness. Some causes can stem from wrong choices in our spiritual lives. When we are unhealthy in body, soul or spirit, parallel problems will appear in one or two of the other dimensions of our being as well.
I like his dedication too. "To our Creator, with awe, humility, dedication and love."
Dr. F. Batmanghelidj (Batman-ge-lij) was born in Tehran, Iran in 1931, and in 1946 when to Scotland to train as a medical doctor. When he graduated he returned home to be one of the house doctors in his family's own medical school. Just before the revolution of 1979 in Iran, he was completing a family charity medical center, the largest in Iran. But the revolutionary government put him in prison, where just in time before they executed him, the guards realized he would be of more use as a doctor among the prisoners.
Of course, he had nothing to work with in the way of drugs or tools, but his studies of the human body's cell structure had convinced him that water was very healing. In prescribing nothing but water for painful cases like uclers, etc., he was surprised to learn just how very effective this cure was. When his trial finally came, the doctor answered 32 fictitious charges with an article he handed the judge on water treatment of peptic ulcers. His life was spared to go do more research.
Excellent research, it has turned out to be!
This good doctor recomends we read this book like a novel, and not for sound bites. I will try to condense the basics into just a few paragraphs.
Every living creature and cell has required water and some salt since life began. Any movement away from water has caused stress, and if long enough, death. The body has a complex multi-level water rationing and distribution process. Some organs like the brain are allowed more, so the head can be used to get the body out of dead-end situations.
In our advanced, North American society however, we have substituted other liquids for water. Many think that tea, coffee, soft drinks and juices are the way to hydrate our bodies. Not so. It has to be water first and foremost! In fact, Dr. Batmanghelidj opened my eyes to see that soft drinks, especially diet drinks, which have aspertame in them, will head for the brain cells first, and there are turned into formaldehyde. (Even I know that is what is used to embalm corpses for the coffin)!
When certain organs get too dehydrated, they give pain as a signal for water. But we take painkiller to shush them up. If we but learned to drink plenty of water all day long, our bodies would relax, pain often clears up in half an hour, and many other benefits come besides.
The field of medicine has long known that the body is 25% solid matter, (the solute) and 75% water (the solvent), but they thought the water was only a carrier for the important stuff, so all the chemical research has focused on the solute portion. This doctor says that the truly important part is the solvent, not just as a carrier, but as the key ingredient in our body, and the one to study and promote.
There are a number of helpful diagrams. The one on page 23 shows what happens when there is water shortage and rationing in the body. The brain's regulator general produces "histamine" which leads to the subordinate regulators, "prostaglandins" and "kinins." However, almost all pain medications cut off that connection. The brain also produces pain as a water rationing signal in the form of dyspepsia (or heartburn), rheumatoid pain, back pain, angina pain, headaches, and leg pain on walking.
What really caught my Dad's eye was the diagram on how the knee joint is lubricated with water, and also that, when people take antiacids, which contain between 150-600 milligrams of aluminum in every spoonful or tablet, they are setting themselves up for Alzheimers'. Although the doctor says the primary cause of that disease is dyhydration of the brain, with the aluminum toxicity as secondary. One doctor who learned this, had a brother with Alzheimers' and began to give him lots of water to drink. His brother began to recover enough of his memory so that he didn't constantly repeat himself. The change was noticible in just a few weeks.
I tell you, my Dad (age 89), and I have both become quite enthusiastic about drinking much more water to avoid these serioius complications. Both of us have tried before, because we heard water was good for us, but found it hard to be motivated to drink 8 glasses full a day. By now I'm easily drinking 16 most days, and Dad is nearly up to 8 a day. It was learning these truths, and seeing the examples in this book that has convinced us and given us the will-power.
I'm happy to add that once it becomes a habit, it is a pleasure rather than a duty.
There is good stuff in the chapter on stress and depression and how they tie to dehydration as well. Blood pressure is covered too, as well as excess body weight. I've already lost a couple of pounds, so I'm ready to keep at this!
Dr. Batmanghelidj has some new ideas on Aids, and needs for the medical establishment to cooperate on more studies, but he may well have the simplest, cheapest cure for that disease too. I think he should be heartily encouraged from every direction.
Apparently though, the pharmacuticals and medical associations are not quick to jump on these discoveries. Think of how sales of prescriptions would drop. Many fear the loss of their incomes and lifestyles. No wonder he has had to find alternative ways to get this message out to to world.
This book is available at;
Dr. Batmanghelidj's own site, http://www.watercure.com
Ruth Marlene Friesen
The Responsible One
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Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada