The Dangers of Dehydration (Part I)
by Andreas Moritz
June 16 2008

Source: Natural News

The human body is composed of 75 percent water and 25
percent solid matter. To provide nourishment,
eliminate waste and conduct all the trillions of
activities in the body, we need water. Most modern
societies, however, no longer stress the importance of
drinking water as the most important "nutrient" among
nutrients. Entire population groups are substituting
water with tea, coffee, alcohol and other manufactured
beverages. Many people don't realize that the natural
thirst signal of the body is a sign that it requires
pure, plain drinking water. Instead, they opt for
other beverages in the belief that this will satisfy
the body's water requirements. This is a false belief.

Common Beverage Substitutions Lead to Dehydration

It is true that beverages such as tea, coffee, wine,
beer, soft drinks, sports drinks and juices contain
water, but they also contain caffeine, alcohol, sugar,
artificial sweeteners or other chemicals that act as
strong dehydrators. The more of these beverages you
consume, the more dehydrated your body becomes because
the effects they create in the body are exactly
opposite the ones that are produced by water.
Beverages containing caffeine, for example, trigger
stress responses that at first have strong diuretic
effects, leading to increased urination. Beverages
with added sugar drastically raise blood sugar levels.
Any beverage that provokes such a response coerces the
body to give up large quantities of water. Regular
consumption of such beverages results in chronic
dehydration, which plays a part in every toxicity
crisis (the body's effort to rid itself of accumulated
toxins).

There is no practical or rational reason to treat an
illness (toxicity crisis) with synthetic drugs or even
with natural medications and methods unless the body's
need for hydration has been met first. Drugs and other
forms of medical intervention can be dangerous for the
human physiology largely because of their strongly
dehydrating effects. Most patients nowadays are
suffering from "thirst disease," a progressive
condition of dehydration. Some parts of the body may
be dehydrated more than others. Unable to remove
toxins from these parts due to insufficient water
reserves, the body is faced with the consequences of
their destructive effects (toxemia). The lack of
recognition of the most basic aspects of water
metabolism in the body more often than not becomes a
"diagnosed" illness, when it is really the body's
desperate cry for water. What doctors generally refer
to as disease, is largely an advanced condition of
dehydration and the resulting inability of the body to
rid itself of waste materials and toxins.

Recognizing Dehydration

Those who have lived for many years without proper
water intake are the most likely to succumb to the
buildup of toxins in the body. Chronic disease is
always accompanied by dehydration and, in many cases,
caused by it. The longer a person lives on a low water
ration and/or on a high ration of stimulating
beverages or foods, the more severe and long-lasting
will be the toxicity crisis. Heart disease, obesity,
diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stomach ulcers,
hypertension, cancer, MS, Alzheimer's, and many other
chronic forms of disease are preceded by years of
"body drought." Infectious agents such as bacteria and
viruses cannot thrive in a well-hydrated body.
Drinking enough water is, therefore, one of the most
important disease-prevention measures you can take.

Those who do not drink enough water, or who unduly
deplete their body's water reserves through
overstimulation for a period of time, gradually lower
the ratio of the volume of water that exists inside
the cells to the ratio of the volume of water that is
found outside the cells. Normally, the water ratio
inside cells is higher than the one found in the cell
environment. Under conditions of dehydration, the
cells may lose up to 28 percent or more of their water
volume. This certainly undermines all cellular
activities, whether the cells in question are those of
the skin, stomach, liver, kidney, heart or brain.
Whenever there is cellular dehydration, metabolic
waste products are not removed properly. This causes
symptoms that resemble disease, but they are really
just indicators of disturbed water metabolism.

Since more and more water begins to accumulate outside
the cells in order to dilute and help neutralize the
toxic waste products that have accumulated there, the
dehydration may not be apparent to the afflicted
person. He may, in fact, notice that he begins to hold
on to water in his legs, feet, arms and face. His
kidneys may also begin to hold on to water, markedly
reducing urinary secretion and causing the retention
of potentially harmful waste products. Normally,
cellular enzymes signal to the brain when cells run
low on water. Enzymes in dehydrated cells, however,
become so inefficient that they are no longer able to
register the drought-like condition. Subsequently,
they fail to convey the emergency situation to the
brain, which would normally push the "thirst alarm
button."

Demetria, a 53-year-old Greek woman, consulted me to
find relief for the painful condition of gallbladder
disease. Her skin was dark gray, indicating a high
concentration of toxins in her liver and throughout
her body. Seeing how dehydrated (and swollen) her body
was, I offered her a glass of water. She said, "I
never drink water; it makes me sick!" I told her that
her natural thirst signals were no longer working due
to cellular dehydration, and that without drinking
enough water, her body could not return to balance. It
was obvious to me that her body would use any amount
of water she drank to instantly remove some of the
toxins lurking in her stomach, giving rise to nausea.
In her case, any therapy other than drinking water
would have been a waste of her time and money.
Demetria's difficult condition required that she begin
sipping small amounts of hot, ionized water every half
hour (see directions in "General Guidelines" of
Chapter 6, Timeless Secrets of Health and
Rejuvenation, www.ener-chi.com) to help remove these
toxins until she was able to drink larger portions of
regular water.

A dehydrated person may also be suffering from a lack
of energy. Because of a shortage of water inside the
cells, the normal osmotic flow of water through the
cell membrane becomes severely disturbed. Similar to a
stream running down a mountain, the movement of water
into the cells generates "hydroelectric" energy, which
is subsequently stored as ATP molecules (the main
source of cellular energy). As a rule, the water we
drink keeps the cell volume balanced, and the salt we
eat maintains the balanced volume of water that is
kept outside the cells and in circulation. This
generates the perfect osmotic pressure necessary for
cellular nourishment and energy production. In a
dehydrated state, the body fails to sustain this vital
mechanism, thereby leading to potentially serious cell
damage.

The Pain Connection

Another major indicator of dehydration in the body is
pain. In response to an increasing shortage of water,
the brain activates and stores the important
neurotransmitter histamine, which directs certain
subordinate water regulators to redistribute the
amount of water that is in circulation. This system
helps move water to areas where it is needed for
essential metabolic activity and survival when facing
such a shortage, as may occur during a drought. When
histamine and its subordinate regulators for water
intake and distribution move across pain-sensing
nerves in the body, they trigger strong and continual
pain. These pain signals may manifest, for example, in
rheumatoid arthritis, angina, dyspepsia, low back
problems, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, migraine, and
hangover headaches. They are necessary to alert the
person to attend to the problem of a widespread or
localized form of dehydration.

Taking analgesics or other pain-relieving medications
such as antihistamines and antacids can cause
irreversible damage in your body. They not only fail
to address the real problem (which may be
dehydration), but they also cut off the connection
between the neurotransmitter, histamine, and its
subordinate regulators, such as vasopressin,
Renin-Angiotensin (RA), prostaglandin (PG), and
kinins. Although the action of pain-killing drugs can
relieve localized pain for a while, it also precludes
your body from knowing the priority areas for water
distribution. This can greatly confuse your body's
internal communications systems and spread chaos
throughout the body. Antihistamines -- oftentimes
referred to as allergy drugs -- effectively prevent
the body's histamines from ensuring balanced water
distribution.

The problem worsens once the body has reached a
certain pain threshold. In addition to jeopardizing
the water-regulating mechanisms, these painkillers
become ineffective because the brain takes over as a
direct center for monitoring pain perpetuation
(unless, of course, the body is properly hydrated
again). If your body produces lasting pain for no
apparent reason (not caused by an injury), before
drawing any other conclusions, you should interpret
this as the body's cry for water and its attempt to
remedy an unbalanced condition. Prescription pain
medication suppresses the body's primary signal of
dehydration. Pain killers "short-circuit" the body's
emergency routes for water supply; they also sabotage
proper waste elimination and sow the seeds of chronic
illness.

There is enough documentation to show that pain
medications may have fatal side effects. They can
cause gastrointestinal bleeding, which kills thousands
each year. The morphine-type compounds these legal
drugs contain can also lead to serious, life-altering
addictions. When the famous radio host, Rush Limbaugh,
announced on his radio program that he was addicted to
pain medication, his life was in shambles. But he is
not alone in this. There are millions of people who
initially started off by taking an "innocent" Advil
for the occasional headache, but ended up being unable
to live without strong painkillers. Once you start
using dehydrating medications like these, you will
mostly likely develop the same kind or even worse pain
over and over again.

The most recently documented and widely popularized
side effects of pain killers, such as Vioxx, Celebrex
and the over-the-counter drug Aleve (Naproxen), should
tell you that there are no safe painkillers. These
drugs were found to increase the risk of heart attacks
and strokes by at least 50 percent. Aspirin and other
"harmless" drugs belong to the same class of
painkillers as the above. Today, there are millions of
heart disease sufferers, who out of ignorance and
misguided trust in the medical system, the FDA and the
pharmaceutical industry, believed that taking a little
innocent baby pill wouldn't do them any harm. The
revelation that this little pill could destroy their
heart or damage their brain if they took it for more
than 10 days may be no less than shocking. But how
many people listen to such warnings if all they want
is to "get rid of that annoying pain"?

Taking a "harmless" little pill that makes you feel
better within a matter of minutes and allows you to
get on with your life may feel like the right thing to
do. And, if the pain medicine tastes delicious, the
"miracle drug" couldn't possibly do you any harm, or
could it? Tylenol Extra Strength "cool caplets," the
latest craze among painkilling medications, makes
these dangerous drugs appear harmless. It's both a
breath mint and a pain reliever. But is it really a
sound idea to add the temptation of flavoring to a
pain-reliever that, by the FDA's own admission, plays
a role in at least 100 reported (a fraction of the
real figure) unintentional deaths each year? This may
change now that the scandals surrounding drug approval
and the revelations concerning shoddy research are
increasingly being exposed; or will it? If you were to
ask people on the street if they considered
acetaminophen to be a completely benign medication,
most would respond with a "yes." That totally
undeserved reputation may only be reinforced when mint
flavoring is added to the mix.

Once you decide to end a drug addiction, life is not
going to be easy. Those who are able to afford a
rehabilitation treatment, can choose a rapid
anesthesia detox for about $5,900. To become truly
rehabilitated, though, they will need to deal with the
underlying causes of the pain that originally led them
to take addictive drugs. The bottom line is this: The
body's natural pain signal is a perfectly normal
response to an abnormal situation -- simple
dehydration. In many cases, the body's blood vessel
walls, liver bile ducts, lymphatic ducts, kidneys,
intestinal tract, and other organs of elimination are
so congested that chronic dehydration becomes
inevitable. To restore health, the body needs to be
cleansed and nourished properly, which is the main
theme of my book.

Most people have no real understanding of what pain
is. They rarely perceive it to be an important part of
the body's healing efforts. Pain is always a sign of
resistance to what moves or flows naturally. The
resistance can occur either as a result of some
physical obstruction, such as constipation or lymph
congestion, or from an emotional resistance to a
particular person or situation. Once recognized, the
causes of resistance can usually be resolved. Fighting
pain tends to lead to more pain, whereas releasing the
resistance lessens the pain. Even if you experience
some pain while supporting the body through cleansing,
rest and good nutrition, the pain actually helps to
accelerate the healing. If you stay with the pain,
rather than suppressing it with drugs, you will find
that it will decrease naturally in a matter of hours
or a few days. Trying to combat every ache or pain
with painkillers, on the other hand, is an addiction
that causes much fear and more pain in your life.
Feeling one's pain with an attitude of acceptance
removes all kinds of fear from your life. In addition,
the pain experience itself will stimulate the
secretion of the body's own natural painkillers and
healing hormones -- the endorphins. Overall, once you
have identified and dealt with the causes of the pain,
it is just a matter of time before the pain disappears
altogether.

Of course, in the rare case that the pain becomes
simply unbearable, the use of painkillers may be
unavoidable. At the same time, the pain-afflicted
person should get on a hydration and cleansing
program, as well as end any dehydrating influences in
his life.

"Body Drought" - The Strongest Type of Stress

The human brain, working round the clock, requires
more water than any other part of the body. Typically,
the brain contains about 20 percent of all the blood
that circulates through the body. It is estimated that
brain cells consist of 85 percent water. Their energy
requirements are not only met by metabolizing glucose
(simple sugar), but also by generating "hydroelectric"
energy from the water drive through cell osmosis. The
brain depends greatly on this cell-generated source of
energy in order to maintain its hugely complex
processes and efficiency.

Water deficiency in the brain tissue cuts down the
brain's energy supply, and thereby subdues many of its
vital functions -- a situation most people call
depression. With a lower than normal level of brain
energy, you are unable to meet your physical, personal
and social challenges and subsequently succumb to
fear, anxiety, anger and other emotional tribulations.
You may feel drained, lethargic, stressed and
depressed. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), for
example, is mostly a symptom of progressive brain
dehydration that results from the inability to readily
remove all metabolic waste matter and cellular debris
from the brain and other vital parts of the body. What
CFS sufferers refer to as "brain fog" is actually an
accurate description of the congestion that occurs in
the brain. CFS is not a vicious disease that somehow
gets hold of a person for no apparent reason. It may
disappear quite spontaneously when the afflicted
person stops stimulating the brain with such things as
caffeine, tobacco, medication and animal products and
begins a consistent program of cleansing, hydrating,
and nourishing the body. [For more information on
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Syndrome
(FMS), please see the articles page on the author's
website, (www.ener-chi.com)]

The Stress Response

When dehydrated, the body has to put up the fight of a
lifetime -- similar to the one experienced during a
famine or a "fight or flight" situation. It responds
to such a crisis by mobilizing several powerful
hormones, including adrenalin, endorphins, cortisone,
prolactin, vasopressin, and Renin-Angiotensin (RA).
Endorphins, for example, help us to withstand pain and
stress and allow the body to continue most of its
activities. Cortisone orders the mobilization of
stored energies and essential raw materials to supply
the body with energy and basic nutrients during the
crisis. This hormone actually allows the body to feed
off itself, a situation that is warranted during a
famine. Of course, this is also very stressful and
potentially dangerous for the body, as can be seen by
such emotional expressions as, "I cannot cope
anymore," or "This is really eating at me."

Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis, multiple
sclerosis (MS) or other degenerative diseases take
cortisone drugs, which often give them a boost of
energy and morale for a relatively short period of
time. The "success" of the drug, however, only lasts
for as long as the body can tap into any energy and
nutrient reserves still left. Once the body has used
up its emergency provisions, it will barely function
anymore, and the symptoms of disease will worsen
considerably.

Constriction of blood vessels

When the cells in the body are under-supplied with
water, the brain's pituitary gland produces the
neurotransmitter vasopressin, a hormone that has the
ability to constrict blood vessels in areas where
there is cellular dehydration. During dehydration, the
quantity of water in the bloodstream is reduced.
Vasopressin, as its name suggests, squeezes the
vascular system, i.e., the capillaries and arteries,
to reduce their fluid volume. This maneuver is
necessary to continue having enough pressure in the
vascular system to allow for a steady filtration of
water into the cells. This gives vasopressin a
hypertensive property. High blood pressure is a common
experience among people who are dehydrated. A similar
situation occurs in the liver's bile ducts, which
begin to constrict in response to water shortage in
the body. Gallstone formation is a direct result of
dehydration.

Drinking alcoholic beverages suppresses the secretion
of vasopressin and thereby increases cellular
dehydration. If alcohol consumption is excessive,
cellular dehydration may reach dangerously high
levels. The typical "hangover" that occurs after
alcohol abuse is nothing but an extreme state of
dehydration of the brain cells. To survive the
alcohol-induced "drought," the body has to secrete
more stress hormones, among them the addictive
endorphins. With regular consumption of alcohol, that
is, having a drink every day for several months or
years, dehydration increases even further, and
endorphin production becomes an addictive occurrence.
This may lead to alcoholism, a disease that has
devastating consequences on a person's personal and
social life.

Water Retention and Kidney Damage

The Renin-Angiotensin (RA) system becomes activated
whenever there is a shortage of water in the body.
This brilliantly designed system is used to direct the
body to hold on to water wherever possible. It
instructs the kidneys to inhibit urination and
tightens the capillaries and the vascular system,
particularly in areas that are not as vitally
important as the brain and the heart muscles. At the
same time, it stimulates an increase in the absorption
of sodium (salt), which helps the body to retain
water. Unless the body returns to its normal level of
hydration, the RA system remains activated. But this
also means that the pressure of the blood against the
walls of the blood vessels remains abnormally high,
thereby causing the damage that is known as
cardiovascular disease.

Hypertension and the retention of urine in the kidneys
may lead to kidney damage. Conventional treatments for
this condition consist mostly of diuretic
(urine-forming) drugs and restricted salt consumption.
Both can have severe drawbacks. Diuretic drugs, which
are used to normalize blood pressure, as well as
reduced salt intake, strongly undermine the body's
emergency measures to save the little water it has
left for normal cellular activities. The resulting
stress response causes a further increase in
dehydration, and the vicious cycle is complete. Many
of the kidney transplants performed today are a result
of chronic dehydration, which is caused by something
as simple as not drinking enough water, consumption of
alcohol, eating foods high in animal protein, or
overstimulation of the nervous system.

The Caffeine and Alcohol Drama

The caffeine contained in such beverages as tea,
coffee, soft drinks and most power drinks, not only
stimulates and stresses both the central nervous and
immune systems, but also acts as a powerful diuretic.
For every cup of coffee or tea you drink, your body
has to relinquish up to three cups of water to remove
the toxic caffeine. It cannot afford to give up this
water without suffering some sort of damage. The
caffeine-containing soft drink beverages work in a
similar way. Caffeine, being a nerve toxin, stimulates
the adrenal glands to secrete stress hormones and to
trigger a strong immune response that may give you the
false impression that this newly found energy and
vitality was somehow provided by the consumed
beverage.

The secret behind these stimulants is that the immune
reaction mobilizes enough energy for you to feel
perked up and clear-headed, at least for as long as
your body remains stimulated. To remove the caffeine
from the blood, the body is forced to take water from
its cells. This results in cellular dehydration and
temporary thinning of the blood. Because the thinning
of the blood makes you feel good, you won't notice the
imminent danger of dehydration. The dehydrating effect
of the caffeine in soft drinks is ample reason to
avoid them. Unfortunately, caffeine is not the only
culprit in soft drinks.

Soft Drinks May Seriously Harm Your Health

New evidence confirms that soft drinks cause serious
cell damage. Research from a British university
suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as
Coca-Cola, Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to
switch off vital parts of DNA -- a problem more
usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse. This
can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and
degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. The
findings reveal serious consequences for the hundreds
of millions of people worldwide who consume carbonated
beverages. They also reopen the debate about food
additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in
children.

The biggest concern centers on the safety of E211,
known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for
decades by the $150 billion global carbonated drinks
industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid.
It is used in large quantities to prevent mold from
forming in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr
Pepper. This common preservative is also added to
pickles and sauces.

In the past, sodium benzoate had already been
identified as an indirect cause of cancer. When mixed
with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it
produces benzene, a carcinogenic substance. Now, Dr.
Peter Piper, professor of molecular biology and
biotechnology at Sheffield University, England, has
released the results of his research on the impact of
sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his
laboratory. Professor Piper discovered that benzoate
damaged an important area of DNA in the "power
station" of cells known as the mitochondria. He told
The Independent on Sunday, May 27, 2007: "These
chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to
DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally
inactivate it: they knock it out altogether. The
mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy
and if you damage it -- as happens in a number of
diseased states -- then the cell starts to malfunction
very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases
that are now being tied to damage to this DNA --
Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative
diseases, but above all, the whole process of aging."

While referring to outdated tests done by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration and the World Health
Organization, Professor Piper said, "The food industry
will say these compounds have been tested and they are
completely safe. By the criteria of modern safety
testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all
things, safety testing moves forward and you can
conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you
could 50 years ago."

It is obvious that the government is not going to take
a stand against the powerful food and beverage
industry. It is up to everyone to protect themselves
and their families against the careless policies and
practices of those in charge of public health. Not
allowing your children to drink soft drinks is one of
the most important things you can do for their safety
and good health. The same applies to sport drinks,
which according to a report issued by the University
of Californian in Berkeley can raise body weight a
stunning 13 pounds each year if only one 20-ounce
bottle is consumed each day.

A new study conducted at Boston University School of
Medicine (released August 2007) shows that drinking as
little as one can of soda -- regular or diet -- per
day is associated with a 46 percent increased risk of
metabolic syndrome which plays a major role in heart
disease and diabetes. According to the study, other
harmful side effects of soda, both diet and regular,
include:

* A 31% greater risk of becoming obese.

* A 30% higher risk of having a larger waist line.

* A 25% higher risk of developing high blood
triglycerides or high blood sugar.

* A 32% greater risk of having low levels of good
cholesterol.

* A trend toward an increased risk of high blood
pressure.

Over the long term, the effects of the acidity,
sugars, artificial flavors and sweeteners, and such
preservatives as E211 contained in soft drinks can be
devastating to the body. It would take 32 glasses of
water at an alkaline pH of 9 to neutralize the acid
from just one 12 oz. cola or other soda. In response
to ingesting a cola, apart from risking dehydration,
the body will have to use up reserves of its own
stored alkaline buffers, mainly calcium from the
bones, teeth and DNA. This raises the body's
alkalinity levels in order to maintain proper blood
alkaline pH levels. Once these reserves are exhausted,
your life is at risk. There are enough acids in one
soda to kill you, if your body didn't possess a
mechanism to neutralize them. How long it takes before
your body succumbs to the acid attack and suffers an
acidosis depends upon how soon your mineral buffers
are depleted. Acidic blood levels are a leading cause
of death!

Caffeine, which is a major component in most soft
drinks, removes water from the body faster than the
body can absorb it again, thereby generating constant
thirst. People who frequently drink soft drinks are
never really able to quench their thirst because their
bodies continually and increasingly run out of
cellular water. Some college students drink as many as
10-14 cans of cola a day. Eventually, they confuse
their bodies' never-ending thirst signal with hunger
and begin to overeat, causing swelling and excessive
weight gain. Apart from its diuretic action and its
addictive effects on the brain, regular caffeine
intake overstimulates the heart muscles, causing
exhaustion and heart disease.

Alcohol's diuretic effect on the body is similar to
that of caffeine-containing beverages. For example,
drinking one glass of beer results in the body
forfeiting up to three glasses of water. As mentioned
before, a hangover is the result of alcohol abuse,
which causes the brain to suffer severe dehydration.
If this occurs repeatedly, a large number of brain
cells become damaged and die. As a result, many
important brain functions slow down or become
depressed. Recovery is possible to a certain extent if
alcohol consumption is discontinued. To properly
rehydrate the body, please carefully follow the
directions in Drinking Water -- The Greatest Therapy,
Chapter 6 (of Timeless Secrets of Health and
Rejuvenation).

Check out Dangers of Dehydration Part II for
information on how to recognize and remove kidney
stones, kidney grease, and kidney congestion
naturally, and what this can do to help heal nearly
every ailment. The above article was excerpted from
the author's bestselling book, Timeless Secrets of
Health and Rejuvenation (www.ener-chi.com,
www.amazon.com) .

About the author
Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner
of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational
medicine; a writer; and an artist. He is the author of
The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, Timeless
Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil
of Duality, Cancer Is Not a Disease, It's Time to Come
Alive, Heart Disease No More, Diabetes No More, Simple
Steps to Total Health, Diabetes -- No More, Ending the
AIDS Myth and Heal Yourself with Sunlight. For more
information, visit the author's website http://www.ener-chi.com