As he explains in great detail in his writing, most common diseases (which are given a variety of names, such as asthma, arthritis, hypertension and so on) are really just names given to patterns of symptoms created by the body's drought-management system. When the human body begins to get dehydrated, it initiates a drought-management system that seeks to conserve water. The symptoms characterized by this drought-management effort are given disease names by conventional medicine and then treated with toxic prescription drugs.
Here's a straightforward example: The brain must be kept hydrated at all times, so the body, when it's short of water, will do everything possible to continue supplying adequate amounts of water to the brain. This involves limiting the loss of water in other areas of the body. As Dr. Batmanghelidj points out, simply breathing causes the loss of a significant quantity of water each and every day, depending on the climate in which you live and your level of physical exercise.
If you're experiencing chronic dehydration from not drinking enough water, or from consuming water-depleting drinks such as coffee, beer, or beverages containing sugar, your body tries to prevent respiratory water loss by producing histamines which close off the capillaries in your lungs. Through the constriction of these capillaries, water loss is reduced, but of course breathing is made far more difficult. It's important to understand that the body is doing this on purpose. The body is producing histamines as a strategy, not as a disease or something gone awry. The body wants to constrict the capillaries in your lungs because it's trying to save your brain.
What is conventional medicine's answer to this production of histamines by the body? Well, of course, it's the prescription of antihistamines, drugs that are designed to counteract the histamines produced deliberately by the body in order to conserve water. These antihistamines then open up the capillaries in the lungs, making breathing seem easier. This conventional medical approach treats nothing but the symptoms, and in doing so it combats the body's own intentions and strategies in trying to conserve water. What patients with asthma really need is lots of water on a regular basis, not antihistamine prescription drugs.As Dr. Batmanghelidj explains, the same sort of destructive cycle of medical treatment occurs with other diseases as well – most notably hypertension and arthritis. Many of the prescription drugs profitably marketed to doctors and patients today are, in effect, various forms of antihistamines, which all counteract the body's efforts to conserve water.
This is an important point: There's no money in the treatment of disease with water, so there's no motivation for any profit-centered organization to reveal the truth about the role of water in preventing chronic disease in human beings. Why would a pharmaceutical company, doctor, or hospital tell you that you can prevent arthritis, asthma, hypertension, and other diseases by simply drinking water? They wouldn't, and they don't. Medical schools don't even teach it.
What we need to be doing as a population, of course, is simply drinking more water. But there's more to it than just that – we also need to stop consuming drinks that deplete our water supplies. Most beverages drunk by American consumers today actually don't offer hydration at all; soft drinks bring about a loss of water in your body, not a gain in water, because of the sugar content – even if it's in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Once you drink one can of a soft drink beverage, you feel like you still need more, and thus the body is trapped in a never-ending cycle of craving for hydration that simply cannot be met by consuming soft drinks. Why would soft drink manufacturers sell you a product that causes you to want no more afterwards? The same is true of fruit juices at full strength, especially for small children. What your body truly craves is simple water.
Caffeine is also another water-depleting drug. Consuming caffeine in any form, whether soft drinks, tea, coffee, or over-the-counter stimulant pills, creates a diuretic effect in your body. Sadly, most westerners continue to drink alarming quantities of soft drinks, coffee, and other beverages that actually deplete water from their systems.It's helpful, when drinking water, for most people to add a very small amount of salt or apple cider vinegar to it. Adding either of these will help keep the water in your body and not simply rush to flush it through without benefit. Most people are deficient in electrolytes – the minerals and cell salts that move electrical energy through your body – without knowing it.
As for vinegar, its use in water as a hydrant goes back to ancient times. The Roman army issued its soldiers with a ration of vinegar to take daily for general health, and Roman citizens drank vinegar and water as a thirst quencher. The amount needed in either case is small: 1/8 teaspoon of salt per liter of water or a teaspoon of vinegar per liter.
However, years of chronic dehydration can not be reversed overnight by simply drinking a couple of glasses of water, and you shouldn't flood your body with sudden massive amounts of water either. Rather, water intake should be gradually increased. How do you know if you're drinking enough water? Your urine should be clear or lightly colored. Darker colored, orange urine is an indication that your kidneys are working hard to concentrate the urine and that you are actually dehydrated at that time.
Here's a valuable note of advice: Many people used to drinking sparkling (carbonated) water find plain water comparatively unpalatable. Sparkling water is better than none, but it leaches the valuable trace mineral phosphorus from the body, and the consumption of the quantities of carbon dioxide in sparkling water is not that good for you; it can cause bloating and flatulence. Think of it like this: Carbon dioxide is a poison that the body exhales in each breath. Why should we want to consume it in our drinks? Try plain mineral water for a while. You'll get used to it after a surprisingly short time and thereafter won't want anything else to alleviate your thirst.