Daily water intake. Should the importance of hydration dawn on an individual to such an extent that he actually decides to attempt it – the 2 litres per day recommended in the 60 Day Program – here are some likely expectations:
It stands to reason that the chronically dehydrated human body cannot recover in one day, no matter how much water is imbibed. The cells will simply resist it, bereft of hydration for so long, unaccustomed to normal absorption. Think of a parched desert arroyo, suddenly flooded over from a deluge of stormy weather. What happens? Flash flood. The water simply can’t penetrate the long-dessicated surface right away, and rolls off like water off a duck’s back.
For someone beginning hydration as part of the 60 Day Program, the 2-litre goal may be difficult to achieve during the first week. The cells are simply not used to all this water. But whatever it takes, just keep drinking as much as you can, every day. After several days, intake will become gradually easier – less resistance, less that feeling of bloating.
Once it becomes comfortable to actually drink 2 litres each day, the challenge then becomes maintaining it day after day. Mainly a question of convenience: some planning will obviously be required, to accommodate travel schedules, etc.
After the second week, an odd thing happens: one experiences occasional dry mouth and thirst even though he’s taking in an unprecedented amount of water. What’s going on? This is still more evidence of the distinctness between thirst and hydration: two different things entirely.
Such a phenomenon can only be seen as the body’s confirmation of its true state of profound dehydration – years without meeting the body’s demands for intra and extracellular water content. Sensing a continued availability now for the first time, the water conservation systems can finally begin to relax as all the cells begin to receive the normal amount of water they have been denied for so long. Now the dramatic health changes can really begin to be come on line.
In his master work Water and Salt, Dr Batmanghelidj explains this phenomenon:
“If the body is once again conditioned to regular and adequate intake, the thirst sensation becomes sharp and the urge to drink water becomes strong… The re-hydration of cells takes place slowly.”
The extent of the chronic dehydration at this point truly becomes known to the individual, as this is the only way re-hydration can occur.
By the third or fourth week, it’s smooth sailing. This is when the potential for healing really becomes evident. Chronic problems with digestion, circulation, adrenal imbalance, nervousness, – on and on – what isn’t influenced by adequate hydration? The body is 75% water.
The most significant danger of dropping out of the program seems to occur during the first 2 weeks. Often it’s an unwillingness to schedule the water intake outside of commute times. An astonishing proportion of people either believe themselves or have been told by some physician that it is imprudent to “stress” the kidneys and bladder in this way, making so many trips to the bathroom, etc., or something equally ludicrous. Or the greatest delusion of all – the standard HCT myth of modern cardiology, correlating high blood pressure with “too much water in the blood.”
Most disconcerting the way that flagrant contradiction is commonly accepted without objection by generation after generation of heart meds patients. The old water content/viscosity index: standard hydraulics. Which is harder to pump, blood with more water content or less water content? Thicker or thinner blood?
Since its inception, the 60 Day Program has always made the general recommendation of adequate daily hydration, without going into much detail about it. But with the additional knowledge now of the alkalized, low molecular size water, coupled with specific directions on how to really discipline oneself to a 2 litre daily intake – these modifications have boosted the healing value of the 60 Day Program to new heights. Health changes that may have been good with the 60 Day Program alone may now manifest as truly dramatic quantum improvements. Life changing.
It’s a question of degree – common sense tells us that adherence to these simple principles of overall cell nutrition even slightly — of course it’s going to have a salubrious effect, usually a vast improvement over the previous life. But rigid and disciplined adherence to the hydrated 60 Day Program – well, who will put limits on what something like that can accomplish, no matter how immune suppressed, how diseased, how run down the individual is?
SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS OF THE 2 LITRE HYDRATION
Spinal Discs
Daily water intake.
Which appear thin and worn on X-ray are sometimes described as dessicated – dried out. For anyone undergoing flexion/distraction or spinal decompression therapy for disc problems, this simple type of hydration as described above can enhance the therapeutic efficacy exponentially. Particularly if collagen supplementation is also included. [See Collagen chapter]
Chronic Skin Disease
Eczema, acne, psoriasis, cracked, dry, loose skin – most patients have tried a variety of ointments, lotions, steroid creams, etc., usually with mediocre or no long term success. The reason is simple: true hydration is an inside-out job. Superficial topical applications cannot effectively hydrate the intra and extracellular spaces of skin cells. Period. Worse, the majority of skin care products contain waxes and sterols which give the illusion of smoothness but do so by actually sealing off the pores of the skin, thereby exacerbating the long term inflammatory problems by blocking the 2 most important requirements for healthy skin: air and water.
A few of the better skin products actually benefit the skin, but a much more effective approach is hydrating the skin cells from within by drinking 2 litres of water a day. After a few weeks of this daily flooding with the highest quality water, the skin cells become replete with their maximum water content. Couple with hydrolyzed Collagen, the skin will generally become noticeably thicker in a few weeks. Not rocket science here. Just not drug science.
Kidney and Bladder
Proper hydration may have a dramatic therapeutic effect on chronic kidney and bladder problems, especially if the patient has been on protracted medications for these conditions.
Kidney function diminishes after years of a diet loaded with refined sugars and hydrogenated snacks. In their constant struggle to maintain blood pH against a flood of acidifying food and drink, the kidneys cells – nephrons – experience rapid aging. As they weaken, their ability to clean the blood slows down. If imprudent diet choices persist, the work backs up. This happens slowly and subclinically: jaundice only comes much later.
Once they fall behind, the kidneys may never really catch up with the ongoing toxic load coming in every day. And a slow, downward spiral ensues. Couple this with the additional handicap of dehydration of the kidney cells themselves and the result is chronic kidney disease, leading to eventual failure. The ninth leading cause of death in the US, according to the CDC, 2009.
Another compounding factor will present if the patient is also on diuretics for high blood pressure. More and more demands are put on the already overworked kidneys, which are handicapped further by the increased blood viscosity – thicker blood.
In advanced cases, water intake must be increased very gradually because the kidney cells are so weak and overstressed. But if the trend is constant – daily increased hydration – and decreased intake of processed trash – kidney disease can begin to resolve, slowly and gradually.
The biggest obstacle of all actually seems to be finding out something like this is possible, especially if long term medications are involved. Pop quiz: do nephrologists ever say the drugs are going to cure you and you can stop taking them? Not likely. Remember, medical personnel are not trained to cure these types of problems. Their training is consistent across the board, with one common focus: sell as many drugs as possible. Most common sense solutions lie outside their ken.
Bladder Problems are much easier. Usually it’s an issue of muscle atrophy – disuse of the detrusor muscles of the bladder. Frequent tips to the bathroom at night are self-perpetuating. The slightest urge and up you get. With no opportunity to fill and thereby tone the bladder muscles, they become weak and thin. Coupled with a dehydration of the muscle cells, we see another downward spiral.
The introduction of high end water into this patient’s life is the most logical solution, for several reasons. Obviously more water will be available to hydrate the detrusor muscle cells, setting them up to strengthen. Waiting longer and longer to void the bladder, will slowly build muscle tone. Now we have an upward spiral – the stronger the detrusor muscles become, the more the bladder can hold and the less the feeling of urgency. Don’t worry, it’s not going to burst. Sleep improves – upward spiral – all things move toward equilibrium.
If the 2 litre goal can actually be attained in these chronic degenerative kidney and bladder cases, together with the clean diet, the patients may reclaim a normal drug-free life, for the first time in years. Easy-peasy. Again, the hard part is learning all this is possible, and then actually doing it. Chance of success will be significantly enhanced if one includes the 60 Day Program, and uses the best possible alkalized, low molecule size water. [The Three Attributes of Water]
Colon Disease
Daily water intake.
As the #3 type of cancer in the US, colon disease has reached epidemic proportions in this country. The primary excuse for these numbers is lack of knowledge about how this important organ works. The physiology of the colon is thoroughly covered in the Colon chapter, with simple instructions on clearing out years of layered sludge, and re-establishing normal probiotic vitality and immune function. Of course, a prerequisite is to stop loading up on the same unmetabolizable junk that brought on the problem in the first place.
Including the 2 litre hydration to the program will facilitate the elimination of the dislodged pieces of sludge, obviously. But an even more useful effect of new hydration may be the cleansing and re-vitalizing effect on the mucosal cells of the gut lining, as well as the muscles cells of the colon. The result will be a strengthening of overall peristalsis and providing a hospitable environment for the proliferation of normal flora throughout the tract.
Again, far and away the best results are seen with the use of the best water possible, which today is alkaline, low molecule sized water, as explained under The Three Attributes of Water under Chapters.
