Water. Most of us take it for granted. But have you every taken a moment to stop and think just how important water is to you? For the human body, water is truly a vital resource. You can go weeks without food but only 5-7 days without water. When the water in your body is reduced by just 1 percent, you become thirsty. At 5 percent, muscle strength and endurance declines significantly and you become hot and tired. When the loss reaches 10 percent, delirium and blurred vision occur. The limit is 20% reduction, death is the inevitable result below that.
Water is all important to the mechanics of the human body. The body cannot work without it, just as a car cannot run without gas and oil. In fact, every single cell and organ function that constitutes our entire anatomy and physiology depends on it. No other substance is as widely involved in the processes and make up of the body.
Shall we take a closer look at the importance of water in our bodies? The ability of water to disassemble and rearrange other molecules is essential to the chemistry of life. It does this by forming weak bonds with the other molecules. This is often why we refer to water as the universal solvent.
Water helps our bodies remove toxins in many different ways. Water flushes toxins and waste from the body through urination and perspiration. Water helps reduce constipation and aids in bowel movements which ensures that wastes are removed quickly and regularly before they become poisonous in the body. This waste buildup can occur in the body if dehydration becomes a regular occurrence and this can cause headaches, toxicity and illness. Drinking enough water will also reduce the burden on the kidneys and liver by flushing out waste products in a timely manner.
Water serves as a lubricant in digestion and almost all other body processes. The water in our saliva helps facilitate chewing and swallowing, ensuring that food will slide easily down the esophagus. Water also lubricates our joints and cartilages and allows them to move more fluidly. When dehydrated, the body rations water away from the joints. Less lubrication equals greater friction and that can cause joint, knee and back pain potentially leading to injuries and arthritis. Even our eyeballs need plenty of lubrication to work well and remain healthy.
Water is the most abundant molecule in cells, according to Dr. Gerald Pollack, water accounts for 70% of total cell mass and 99% of the molecules in the cell. Dr. Pollack is one of the few expert researchers on the subject of water and what it means to your health. Cells are composed of water, inorganic ions, and carbon-containing (organic) molecules. Consequently, the interactions between water and the other constituents of cells are of central importance in biological chemistry. The critical property of water in this respect is that it is a polar molecule, in which the hydrogen atoms have a slight positive charge and the oxygen has a slight negative charge. Because of their polar nature, water molecules can form hydrogen bonds with each other or with other polar molecules, as well as interacting with positively or negatively charged ions. As a result of these interactions, ions and polar molecules are readily soluble in water. In contrast, nonpolar molecules, (which cannot interact with water), are poorly soluble in an aqueous environment.
Water is a perfect conductor of electricity and this becomes important in the second by second operation of our bodies. For example, the electrical potential is shared between the brain neurons through electrochemical transmitters. This electrical potential of brain chemistry must be present for clear thinking to take place.
If you think of the cell as a matrix of proteins, like a grid made up of proteins and nucleic acids, the spaces in between those grids are filled with water. This means there are a lot of surfaces that interact with water and impact its structure. Water that is close to a surface is not the same as “bulk” water, it is structured. Nor is the water in our cells the same as the water in the pitcher before you drink it. The water in our cells is highly structured. The water molecules are stacked in an orderly fashion. Some people call it liquid crystalline water.
In fact, Dr. Mae Won Ho did some very interesting experiments on the water in the cell. Under certain conditions it diffracted polarized light into all the colours of the rainbow proving that it was structured. We recommend that you read her book The Rainbow and The Worm for more information on this fascinating subject.
Your cells consist mainly of this interfacial, or structured/ordered water, making it essential to understand this water in order to understand the workings of the cell. The body uses this water in many special ways. Chemical reactions that could not happen otherwise happen in structured water. It can be used to transmit information from one part of the body to another, much faster than is possible with a nerve impulse.
Did you ever happen to touch the stove when it was hot. Your hand jerks away automatically. We call this a reflex. But what is a reflex? It has been proven that there is no way the nerve impulses could reach the brain, make the decision to jerk the hand away and send the signal back that fast. Some scientists believe the body uses structured water to send the signals.
The water inside your cells is absolutely critical for your health. If you have a pathology of an organ, it’s not only the proteins inside that organ that are not working, but also the water inside the cells of that organ. The water in the cell is not ordered the way it should be.
Every day, we lose 2-3 quarts of water through urination, sweating and breathing. Since many of the processes within the body rely greatly on water, it is important we replace our fluids regularly to compensate for this loss.
Consistent failure to drink enough water can lead to Chronic Cellular Dehydration. This condition where the body’s cell are never quite hydrated enough leave them in a weakened state, vulnerable to attack from disease. It weakens the body’s overall immune system and leads to chemical, nutritional and pH imbalances that can cause a host of diseases. An estimated seventy-five percent of Americans have chronic dehydration. Mild dehydration is also one of the most common causes of daytime fatigue.
Most of you are aware that if you put either of distilled or de-ionized waters into a bowl of gold fish they will die …. there is no longer any oxygen in the water. The water is dead. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the thought of drinking something that kills anything. I know the rebuttal of these manufacturers is that if you want to put it into the goldfish bowl all you have to do is hook up an oxygenation machine to the water. Have you ever seen people that are drinking these waters carrying an oxygen generator? Even if they are, they still are only doing one half of the job to make it as beneficial to our bodies. You must understand that our bodies need the minerals that are in water. Our bodies can only adsorb minerals which are water soluble. The quality of the water that we drink has a huge effect on our health.
There is a lot of information out there about water. “You should drink this water or that water. It could save your life!” A lot of this information is put out there by people who are selling a product, but really have no idea how water truly works. We need to be aware of this, and educate ourselves. We need to know why some water can heal, and other water can cause illness. Water is a very amazing substance. One that puts me in awe of our Creator and his marvelous works.
Percentages of Water in your body:
Blood 83.0
Heart 79.2
Muscle 75.6
Brain 74.8
Skin 72.0
Bone 22.0
Interesting facts about water and the human body:
75% of us are chronically dehydrated.
In 37% of us, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 3%.
One glass of water deters hunger pangs for 98% of the dieters observed in a University of Washington study.
The biggest trigger of daytime fatigue is lack of water.
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 body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic maths, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79%, and developed bladder cancer by 50%.
Water serves a number of essential functions to keep us all going:
A vital nutrient to the life of every cell, acts first as a building material.
It regulates our internal body temperature by sweating and respiration
The carbohydrates and proteins that our bodies use as food are metabolized and transported by water in the bloodstream; It assists in flushing waste, acts as a, shock absorber for brain, spinal cord, and fetus, forms saliva, lubricates joints.