From the July 2001 Idaho Observer:

The Water Cure

by Ingri Harkins

The importance of drinking plenty of water is now common knowledge but how many of us actually drink the recommended 8 - 8 oz. glasses of water daily? It is really quite amazing to me all the people I have worked with over the years who appeared to have found it difficult to resolve health problems until they took their water intake seriously. One personal friend had chronic fatigue, numerous food allergies and a lifetime of constipation. She had literally tried nearly every natural health regimen under the sun with some degree of success. When she actually did the “water cure,” all the above symptoms disappeared and she lost over 25 pounds to boot. It really is that simple!

Since convincing people to actually try the water cure is the most difficult hurdle to overcome, a few testimonies may inspire others to try this most basic of remedies. (The Idaho Observer, May, 2000).

So what exactly is the “Water Cure?” Simply drink half your body weight of water in ounces daily. For example, a 180 pound person would consume 90 ounces of water daily. Divide this amount by the size glass you use to drink your water in, and you have the number of glasses of water you will need to consume. For every quart of water you use, you will need to add a 1/4 teaspoon of unrefined sea salt to your diet. As long as you are consuming plenty of water, your body needs and will utilize the sodium and trace minerals in unrefined pure sea salt. Avoid both caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. These will dehydrate you, requiring an additional 10 to 12 oz. of water for every 6 oz. of an alcohol or caffeine containing beverage.

And why is water and salt intake so important? The top essentials of life are:

1. Oxygen
2. Water
3. Salt
4. Potassium
5. Exercise

No one can live without these and nothing kills life quicker than a lack of water. In fact, the people with the worst health drink the least amount of water, and instead drink the most dehydrating drugs - caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. Did you know that the salinity of the water outside the cells in our body and the salinity of the water sac a human fetus grows in is the same as the ocean?

Medical doctors are basically illiterate in basic nutrition due in large part to a drug-based medical education. This is why mainstream medicine too often ignores the importance of water and salt intake in favor of selling drugs and procedures to treat the symptoms of dehydration. This ignorance is so prevalent that doctors are not even taught that the first thing they should check in any patient is their hydration and salt levels since nothing, other than lack of oxygen, can kill us quicker. How can we expect drug companies to do research on the value of increasing our water intake when they can't make money on it? After all, who does research to put themselves out of business? The value of water and salt is not totally discounted by the medical profession. Currently, a quart of water with salt in it (Saline 4) sells for up to $350 installed as a saline solution drip in hospitals.

The following testimonies are taken straight from the website www.watercure2.com:

The references are to Dr. Batmanghelidj (Dr. B), author of the bestselling book Your Body's Many Cries for Water.

“I read Dr. B's book about 10 months ago. I found his claims astonishing but intriguing. When I read his explanation of the hydraulics of the spinal column and how dehydration compresses the disks, causing back pain, I decided to try his remedy because I suffer from ankylosis spondylitis (a form of rheumatoid arthritis) and from mild hypertension.

..it was not easy to drink the required water each day simply because I had not been a big water drinker. I forced myself to do it and was rewarded for my effort. I have had no severe flare-ups on my spinal column since I began the water regime. You had to have been in my shoes to appreciate what this means to me. Being laid up with spinal vertebrae inflammation many times each year, and as a result resembling “a walking coma” is very debilitating and painful. My elevated blood pressure has also returned to normal. ..Dr. B recommends you drink at least a half-hour before meals and about 2 1/2 hours after meals for best results. This time schedule of water intake will help digestion rather than dilute it. Also, don't think for a moment that drinking coffee, soda pop, diet colas, tea, or fruit drinks is a substitute for water. When Dr. B prescribes eight, 8 oz. glasses of water, he means just that. Most coffee, pop and tea are dehydrating drinks. In other words, they're diuretic; their liquid isn't available to irrigate your system because of the caffeine and/or phosphates they contain...I consider Dr. B's information as God-sent. It is my prayer that you too will benefit from his pain-relieving and life-extension revelations.”

~L. Palmer, York, Penn.

“Please accept the following statement as a testimonial to the water cure. I started the water cure to relieve nagging lower back pain. Not only did it cure that, it cured bursitis I had in my shoulder, eliminated my need to take antacids for my stomach, and antihistamines I was taking for chronic allergies and if that was not enough I no longer have dandruff. I could add that it lowered my cholesterol and blood pressure but someone might think I am stretching the truth. I'm not! Thank you.” ~Tom Johnson, Plainville, Connecticutt.

“One year ago we read the book, 'Your Body's many Cries for Water.' We had been hoping for this very miracle that would allow our family, and especially our 11-year old asthmatic child to have a normal life, so we decided to try it. What did we have to lose, we decided. Even if a tenth of what was claimed was effective in our case, it would still be great, and it wouldn't cost a lot to try. Within days several of the results listed below were obvious, especially the asthma and all its related problems.

1. All wounds heal much faster.

2. Strength has returned to ankles and wrists (50-year old woman).

3. Allergies, both milk and pollen, have disappeared.

4. Asthma has disappeared - no more medication, decongestants, antihistamines, or inhalers.

5. Sore ribs from hard bed gone - previously needed special pad.

6. Shinier hair with much more body.

7. Impetigo gone.

8. Smoother skin, with less wrinkles on face and elbows, rarely requiring lotion.

9. Dark, healthy skin on black children.

10. 11-year-old lost ten extra pounds.

11. No more ear infections.

12. Sleeping great after 20 years of insomnia.

13. School grades went from D- to A's and B's.

14. No more motion sickness.

15. No more antibiotics for bronchial problems due to asthma.

16. Much more pep and energy.

17. Arthritis in fingers gone.

It has taken awhile for my children to get used to the new program and getting them to continue to drink water daily is a challenge. Several of us have added significant salt to our diet to prevent headaches, control eye tearing, and promote sleep...We would be delighted to talk with anyone who might be interested in our experiences. We fully support any effort to encourage or force the medical, pharmaceutical, and beverage industries to recognize the essential nature of water drinking to the human body, and to discontinue their commercialized, profit-driven assault on our health.”

~Christine S. Hailes, San Jose, California

We encourage anyone who is serious about embarking on the water cure to purchase Dr. Batmanghelidj's book, Your Body's many Cries for Water, for $14.95 from your local health food store. The importance of purified water and unrefined sea salt can not be stressed enough. The following is from the website of Robert Butts, www.watercure2.com:

“This website and that of Dr. Batmanghelidj www.watercure.com is a gift of love and is nothing more than God's recipe for a healthy life. All that we ask is that when you are totally convinced that his discovery is true, then share it with everyone you can. There is only a handful of us who've taken on the most powerful system in our country, the $1.7 trillion healthcare system. In no way are we blaming those of us who work in the system because this deadly system has created the problem and it must be reformed. According to Dr. B., the ignorance of healthcare is directly killing more than one million Americans a year by treating drought in the human body with drugs and money generating procedures. In reality, we are all contributing to this holocaust so long as we put profit before responsibility. This means that so long as we believe that our worth as human beings is measured in terms of money and power, we are contributing to everything that is taking away from the quality of our lives. No one is to blame for what is happening, but we are all responsible. May God protect us from ourselves?”

Next month we will cover the importance of unrefined sea salt in our diets.

Dr. F. Batmanghelidl can be contacted at:

Global Health Solutions
P.O. Box 3189
Falls Church, Virginia 22043

www.watercure.com

info@watercure.com