By Valli Manley B.C.N.D, CNHP
Last year I decided to grow herbs in my home, one of them was peppermint. I skipped about 2 days of watering it, and by the time I returned home, it was dried up and withered. Because I had never grown plants before, I panicked! I thought that the plant was dead, so I decided to try to save it by giving it what I had not given it for 2 days, and that was water. To my surprise, once I watered it, it came back alive and stood at attention; just as it had been before it had been deprived of hydration.
This observation clearly indicated that although I can’t see what dehydration looks like inside the human body; I was surely able to see what it looked like when the plant, another life force was deprived of it. Plants need water as a medium to carry the nutrients from the roots in the soil, into the body of the plant, which is the stalks and leaves.
Just like plants need water in order to sustain life, so do human beings. As a kid I ate all of the junk foods that everyone else ate and drank, including the sodas and unhealthy drinks; but if I was thirsty, nothing quenched my thirst like water. The fact is that once you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated!
According to Raymond Francis, disease occurs as a result of a nutrient deficiency of toxicity. I have found as a practicing Naturopath, he is absolutely right, and many times it’s both.
The first step to health building and restoration is detoxification. If you are sick, I believe that you need to remove the thing that caused the health compromise first, and then replenish with vital macro and micronutrients.
Water is vitally important in the internal cleansing process. You need water to deliver nutrients and remove the waste on a cellular level. You can eat the most amazing food in the world, but if you don’t drink water to facilitate its delivery to every cell tissue and organ in your body; your healthy nutritional plan will never meet its health-building goals.
You need water to help with basic body functions like:
- Keeping blood viscosity at a healthy consistency to prevent kidney compromise.
- It’s a natural blood thinner.
- Supporting colon health by helping to move the undigested portion of your food through the large intestines, preventing constipation.
- Prevents the accumulation of systemic toxins.
- Helps to maintain healthy blood volume levels.
- Liquid medium needed to make digestive juices.
As you can see, water is vital to sustaining optimal health! It’s important to drink water, but it is equally as important to drink clean water.
In many of the big cities, especially in America, the pipes that carry the water into homes are old, they were laid as a part of the water infrastructure. They are old and are releasing heavy metals into the water supply. Ingesting heavy metals increases the risk of neurotoxicity. Over time, this may contribute to dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and many other health and neurological challenges.
One of the other issues with city water, in particular, is that they put chlorine in the water. Chlorine kills good bacteria in the water supply, but it also kills good bacteria in the gut, which lowers immunity.
One of the challenges in suburban and rural areas is environmental contamination from herbicides and pesticides that may be sprayed in areas where water is supplied. This is a major challenge, but one of the ways to combat it is by using a water filtration system.
A few years ago, I decided I wanted to be a part of the environmental solution and not the problem by decreasing my bottled water intake. I decided to get a Britta water filter, but before purchasing, I decided to do a little research on other filters, and do a comparative analysis.
To my surprise, Britta had a D rating so I chose the Aquasana Filter which had an A rating. They are reasonably priced and pretty easy to install. The one thing that I was very pleased with was this company’s customer service. They get an A+ for that alone. I initially purchased the pitcher but I switched to the filter that is attached to the water faucet. Both are great! I could actually taste the difference in the water.
One night I had some friends over and the husband tasted the water and asked me what brand of water was it that I had served him. He said it tasted crisp and clean, I told him that it was not bottled water, but it was filtered water! There are other water filtration systems out there that I am sure will remove contaminants, but I have been using this one for about 5 years now, and I am very satisfied.
I was at a restaurant recently and when I attempted to drink the water, I could smell and taste the chlorine in it. It was so strong that I could not drink it! It reminded me of the fact that when we drink water in developed nations, the water is supposed to be void of contaminants, and unfortunately, that’s not the case. We must be vigilant about water ensuring that the quality of our water is safe.
The main objective here is to increase your water intake, ensure that your drinking water is clean, and reduce your unhealthy beverage intake. If you do this, your health will surely reward you.