Why Water?

Where is the Water?

Why water? Quite simply, water is the body’s most important nutrient. Dr. Batmanghelidj, in his book Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, states that water is the medium in which life in our body is expressed. At conception, we are surrounded by water; every one of a baby’s cells is bathed in water and for its 9 months of pre-birth growth and development, it is carried in a water-filled amniotic sac. From birth to death, virtually all of our body is filled with, surrounded by or affected by this life-giving fluid. Where’s the water? Though we see very little of it, our body fluids really are everywhere. Between 57-70% of our body weight is made up of water. The different ratios come about because of age—a larger percentage of infants’ and children’s weight is water—and gender. About 65% of men’s body weight is water, while women, who generally have a higher proportion of fatty tissue which doesn’t as readily hold water, would have a lower percentage of water. It follows then that irrespective of gender, the leaner you are, the more water content in your body as well. Unless you are crying over a sad movie, perspiring on a tennis court or changing a little one’s diaper, it is sometimes difficult to recognize where all this water is contained. It starts by filling and bathing each of our body’s 100 trillion cells. Then it makes up the fluid that travels the 100,000 K of veins and arteries in our body. Ninety-eight percent of intestinal, gastric, saliva and pancreatic juices are water, as are 92% of our blood and our tears. Any extra bits fill all the little hollows, dents and dimples in our bodies. Water goes virtually everywhere and surrounds virtually every bit of tissue in our system.

What are the Water's Functions?

Water is a vital factor in all body fluids, tissue, cells, lymph, blood and all glandular secretions. It holds nutritive factors in solution and acts as a transportation medium to the various parts of the body that have need of those nutrients. Another transportation function, and one of water’s most important jobs, is holding body wastes and toxins in solution and carrying them to where they can be removed from the body. Water also acts as a lubricant for our joints and soft tissues. It is, for example, the liquid that mucous membranes need to keep their surfaces soft and free of friction. Water provides the liquid necessary for the proper digestion of food, helps maintain normal body temperature by allowing heat to escape as water evaporates from our skin and provides the medium for red blood cells to transport oxygen to the tissues. It helps your white blood cells—major components of your immune system---move about the body and fight infection.

Water as Immune System Support

Pure water is one of the best natural protections against a variety of infectious diseases including influenza, pneumonia, whooping cough and measles. The performance of your tissues and their resistance to injury is absolutely dependent on the quality and quantity of water you drink. When the cells are supplied with sufficient pure water, they can fight off viral attack. If body cells are water-starved, they become parched, dry and shriveled, making them easy prey for viruses. Most importantly--although with water, importance is rather a relative term—water provides an environment in which enzymes can digest food and convert it to energy. Without that energy, we couldn’t survive. You can go several months with no food but 5-10 days without water will prove fatal.

Maintaining Correct Water Levels

Clearly our body has a high need for water. It also needs that water in a very specific balance. As we take in our daily 8-10 glasses of water (or one liter per 50 pounds/23 kilograms of body weight) and it proceeds through our body fulfilling its many duties, some of it must eventually be discharged. An overabundance of water is as bad for our health as inadequate supply. In days of yore, forcing water on a prisoner was a form of torture and its progressive effects on the body included nausea, weakness, mental confusion, tremors, convulsions, coma and eventually death. There is therefore a need to balance the liquids coming out of the body with what goes in. Each day our lungs exhale 1/3 of a liter of water and we perspire about ½ a liter through the 2 million sweat glands in our skin. All told, we excrete between 1½ to 3½ liters daily in perspiration, respiration, urine and defecation; that liquid must be replaced in order for our body’s fluid balances to be maintained. When the balance is out by 1-2% we feel thirst or pain. If the balance drops by 5% hallucinations can appear. A negative imbalance of 15% is fatal. Our bodies give ample indication of water deprivation including dry, parched and withered skin (particularly on the hands and forehead and around the eyes), chronic constipation and burning, irritating urination. Should signs of dehydration appear, increased water intake is definitely in order.

© Brenda Wollenberg 2003