DISCLAIMER
The information and recommendations on water intake presented in this book are based on training, personal experience, very extensive research, and other publications of the author on the topic of water metabolism of the body. The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use or the discontinuance of any medication as a form of treatment without the advice of an attending physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author, based on the most recent knowledge of micro-anatomy and molecular physiology, is only to offer information on the importance of water to well-being, and to help inform the public of the damaging effects of
chronic dehydration to the body—from childhood to old age. This book is not intended as a replacement for sound medical advice from a physician. On the contrary, sharing of the information contained in this book with the attending physician is highly desirable. Application of the information and recommendations described herein are undertaken at the individual's own risk. The adoption of the information should be in strict compliance with the instructions given herein. Very sick persons with past history of major diseases and under professional supervision, particularly those with severe renal disease, should not make use of the information contained herein without the supervision of their attending physician.
All the recommendations and procedures herein contained are made without guarantee on the part of the author or the publisher, their agents, or employees. The author and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of the information presented herein. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D.
CONTENTS
Preface ..................................................................................... xi
Introduction: Don't Treat Thirst With Medication ................... 1
Chapter 1
Why "Medicine" Doesn't Cure Disease ..................................... 3
The Basics .........................…….................................................. 5
The Paradigm That Needs To Be Changed ..........................…... 8
The Source of Error in Medicine .........................……...................8
Chapter 2
The New Paradigm ......................................................................... 13
Water Regulation at Different Stages of Life ................................. 15
It Should Be Thoroughly Understood ............................................ 17
Water Has Other Important Properties ............................................ 18
Chapter 3
Dyspeptic Pain ................................................................................ 25
Colitis Pain ...................................................................................... 34
False Appendicitis Pain .................................................................. 35
Hiatus Hernia .................................................................................. 35
Chapter 4
Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain .............................................................. 41
Low Back Pain ............................................................................... 48
Neck Pain ......................................................................................... 50
Anginal Pain .................................................................................... 51
Headaches ......................................................................................... 51
Chapter 5
Stress and Depression ....................................................................... 55
The Initially Silent Compensation Mechanisms Associated with Dehydration ..............……......... 57
Endorphins, Cortisone, Prolactin, and Vasopressin .......................... 59
Alcohol .............................................................................................. 63
Renin-Angiotensin Activity .............................................................. 65
Chapter 6
High Blood ......................................................................................... 71
Water Shortage: Potentials for Hypertension ..................................... 72
Chapter 7
Higher Blood Cholesterol .................................................................. 83
Testimonials That Make You Ponder ................................................. 88
Chapter 8
Excess Body Weight .......................................................................... 99
Overeating Further Explained .......................................................... 100
Diet Sodas Can Cause Weight Gain ................................................. 104
Chapter 9
Asthma and Allergies ....................................................................... 115
Chapter 10
Insulin-Independent Diabetes ........................................................... 123
Tryptophan and Diabetes .................................................................. 125
Insulin-Dependent Diabetes .............................................................. 130
Chapter 11
New Ideas on AIDS ........................................................................... 133
The Unfolding of Events in AIDS Research ...................................... 143
Chapter 12
The Simplest of Treatments in Medicine ............................................ 151
Ease of Sleeping ..............................................................................… 157
Prevent Fainting ............................................................................….. 157
Prevent Heart Attacks .......................................................................... 157
Color of Urine .............................................................................……. 158
Hopes for Curing Already Established Disease ..................……......... 158
Salt Free Diet Is Utterly Stupid ........................................……......…. 160
The Health Care System and Our Responsibilities..............……......... 163
Cost Savings to the Nation ..................................................……......... 163
Finally ..............................................................................…….....…… 165
Chronic cellular dehydration painfully and prematurely kills. Its initial outward manifestations have until now been labeled as diseases of unknown origin.
PREFACE
One of the more obvious reasons why medicine has become so complicated and costly is the fact that the research and production of pharmaceutical products—and eventually their patient evaluation—has become monumentally expensive. To boost the sale of regularly and heavily advertised products, not only do highly paid medical representatives present their sales pitch, but doctors are also enticed into promoting the drugs by the "perks"
offered. Patients continue to use them because they are not cured. They are not supposed to be cured! They are only treated! This is the ideal way that commercialism in medicine can thrive. This is not the only shameful loose end in medicine.
Techniques-oriented advancements in medicine are made possible as a result of "gadgets" production. This, too, adds to the cost of medicine. Teaching hospitals and research institutions depend heavily on funding from the industrial side of the health care system. Thus, research in medicine has traditionally been directed according to the wishes of health care industrialists who release funds for their own profit-generating projects. Now comes a moment of great rejoicing. It has been discovered that the human body possesses a variety of sophisticated indicators when it runs short of water—emergency indicators of dehydration and thirst. The body has many more than the one "dry mouth" indicator of water shortage. Equally obvious, the greatest tragedy in medical
history is the fact that medical professionals have not understood the human body's variety of calls for water. They have traditionally resorted to using chemicals and "procedures" to deal with chronic dehydration of the body. A monumental mistake, but a blatant fact!
The unkindest cut of all is the way the mainstream medical community still prefers to adhere to business as usual and ignores the good news. Fundamentally, this basic ignorance of the manifestations of the water needs of the human body is the primary reason for the high cost of health care in our society, without a hope of Improvement in the way it is presently designed—a very bad design that only serves its operators and not the health-care-needing
public.
If you will look at the letters exchanged with the American Medical Association (AMA), printed at the end of the book, you will realize that well before the publication of this book, the AMA was invited to become the harbinger of the good news, "you are not sick, you are thirsty," to the public. Their ultimate silence clearly exposes their flagrant violation of public trust.
The National Institute of Health (NIH), the most advanced center of medical research in the world, has failed society even more miserably. Firstly, why has it not studied the medicinal effects of water? Why has it not separated the possible positive impact of water taken to swallow a pill from the "medication" itself? Why has it not studied what happens to a person who does not regularly drink water? These are their initial mistakes. Why do you think the NIH converted these mistakes into a sting operation?
In May of 1989,1 wrote to Dr. James Mason, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, explaining that a paradigm change that looked at water needs of the body would expose many solutions to the health problems of our society. I sent him much supportive material which he referred to Dr. John T. Kalberer, NIH Coordinator for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, to review and discuss with me; obviously the right Office for the evaluation of my physiology-based revolutionary views.
Not so! I was invited to visit with Dr. Kalberer. After one hour's discussion, Dr. Kalberer informed me that the NIH was not in a position to handle my "broad" medical views. He explained that the NIH could not fund research in other than university settings. I indicated that the reason for my contact with Dr. Mason and himself was to explain dehydration as the cause of so many degenerative diseases of the human body, so that the NIH could begin its study and take the result to the public. He then told me that the NIH was only interested in molecular aspects of biological and pharmaceutical research. He indicated my views were so broad based that they did not fit into the way the research institution functioned. When he realized I was unhappy with his pronouncement, he advised me to continue my work and publish my views. He told me this would be the only way they would get heard.
I did not give up. Every time a health article appeared in the newspapers based on pronouncements from someone at the NIH, I wrote a letter and explained the basic problem. I even wrote to the Office of Scientific Integrity at the NIH and complained about some pieces of misinformation that would have established only a particular product on the medical market. I did not hear from them, but the issue appears to have died and the photogenic spokesman
seems not to hold court as often as before.
For a while, I became excited when Dr. Bernadine Healy became the director of the NIH. She appeared to be the right type of person who would change the NIH. As an MD/scientist, she obviously understood what I was saying. She referred me to Stephen Groft, Ph.D., who had just become a temporary director of the newly established Office of Alternative Medicine until a permanent MD director could be found.
He seemed a very sincere person. After a long meeting and having provided him with some of my published materials, he invited me to make a short presentation at the first Alternative Medicine Conference to be convened by the NIH. His temporary position was too temporary to do any good. Dr. Joseph Jacobs took over. He is a doctor of medicine with Native Indian culture and influence. I am positive that Dr. Groft had passed my information and materials to him.
The next Alternative Medicine Conference was convened by Dr. Jacobs and his second in command, and I was at that time to be introduced to them by Dr. Groft. Naturally, at that moment, Dr. Jacobs did not have the time to conduct a serious discussion. It was agreed that he take a look at what I had sent the Office and for us to meet at a time soon. At our meeting in his office, I asked him if he had looked at what I had previously sent to their Office. He began to make the excuse that he was short of time, and at the same time, they were changing office location and he had not had the opportunity to see what I had sent. I told him if he were not aware of the content of the materials I had sent, this meeting was a waste of his time and mine and we should defer our discussion until he had read the information I had provided. I got up to leave. I had to cut through his "prima donna" stance.
He told me he would take a look at what I had sent, but since we were both intelligent professionals, there was not much that could not be clarified in one hour's discussion. He invited me to sit down and explain my views. I did. Before I left, he asked me for another set of supportive materials. I had them in my case and gave them to him. Among the materials supplied was a copy of the first edition of this book. I explained to him that this information is becoming public knowledge. I invited him for the sake of society and advancement of medical science to begin the study of its topic through his Office.
I did not hear from Dr. Jacobs or see him until the next Alternative Medicine Conference. Nothing about chronic dehydration was on the agenda. Even when Col. Robert Sanders, who is very well versed with the topic, made a five-minute philosophic presentation on dehydration, no steps were taken to put the issue before the Advisory Board. It became clear that the Office of Alternative Medicine had its own agenda, and serving the public was not on
its list of priorities.
According to Rita Mae Brown, "The definition of insanity is doing the same tiling over and over again and expecting the results to be different." One would assume that according to this definition, I am one of the insane ones. I often think myself to be a simpleton. I question myself: Why do I spend time and personal resources to bring about a science-based transformation of medicine in, of all places, America? In the next breath I console myself by thinking I am privy to vital health and wellness information that has to reach the innocent and trusting people who become sick and do not know they are only thirsty for water. With this thought I go the next stretch of my weary way. In the meantime, Dr. Bernadine Healy left the NIH. She is a medical doctor. The NTH is a "science" institution. Obviously there must have been a conflict of purpose; she had to leave. Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus took over. Once again, on the 23rd of November 1993,1 wrote to him. I started my letter, "Welcome to the position that you can now make a greater contribution to advancement of medical science and our society. Today's Washington Post article on you prompted me to write this letter and bring a breakthrough of significance in medical science to your attention. 'It is chronic dehydration that is the root cause of most major diseases.' I have in the past tried to get the NIH to take a serious look at this simple 'paradigm shift' and make the future practice of medicine patient-friendly!" I sent him one of my books and some supportive materials. To tins date, February 1995, I have not heard from this gentleman, not even a letter of thank you.
Obviously, the only way to take the message of "dehydration" to the public was to write. That I did. After sending letters to various journals and newspapers and not hearing from them, I decided, in 1989 to create our own journal at the Foundation for the Simple in Medicine. We called it Science in Medicine Simplified. A special issue and a regular issue of the journal were published in a period of one year and freely distributed to some research centers and medical libraries at some universities.
We also applied to the National Library of Medicine for the journals to be indexed in the Index Medicus computer system so that their content could be accessed by other researchers. We appealed to them to afford us an equal opportunity to present our "paradigm shift" researched views in medicine. They got back to us and said two volumes of a publication was not enough, but once another volume was put out and we were sure there was going to be continuity, they would consider indexing the journals.
The third volume of the journal was in the works at this stage and, when it was published in 1991, we sent our application and two volumes of each publication to the NLM. Journals are evaluated two to three times a year for their possible inclusion in the Index Medicus. The committee consists of mainly NIH scientists. When they met at the end of the year and reviewed our new information in medicine, we were refused. They did not want to give us an
equal opportunity for our views to be heard. The NIH "thinkers" did not wish our new thoughts to enter the scientific arena and eventually reach the public. We were deftly censored. This is when I decided to write the first edition of this book and go public.
About six months after the NLM refusal, my book was out and being reviewed. I now had a simple language explanation of where mainstream medicine had gone wrong. This was the book I sent, in addition to the scientific publications, to Drs. Healy, Groft and Jacobs at the NIH. I wanted them to know I did not need them for my views to reach the public. I had realized that the NIH was self-servingly satisfied with the insanity of conducting and repeating the same types of research without finding a cure for any of the degenerative diseases of the human body.
In April of 1993, there was an International Bio-Oxidative Medical Conference in Reston, Virginia. I was invited to speak following the President of the Association. This is one of the conferences convened by the practitioners of Alternative Medicine. I was introduced to one of the NIH Scientific Secretariats, Dr. Edmund Sargent Copeland, who was invited to review the conference. After my talk on the role of histamine as the main water regulator of the body, he very graciously discussed how I could succeed in getting my views evaluated. I sent him most of my published materials. We met at their Westbard Avenue office. He did his best to get me invited by the program manager of their lectures to speak before their members. The invitation never came.
It is obvious my thoughts are a threat to the continuation of some of the NIH approaches to medical research.
Naturally, my views will not be allowed to echo within the NIH walls. They want me automaton-like to present my findings in a way that is acceptable to them only. That is how they have it their own way.
I have tried to give you detailed information about my efforts to get the people who are entrusted with the responsibility of looking after the nation's health interests to work on your behalf. As you see, they chose their own advantageous way of business as usual. It is now dear that the institutions that use your tax dollars and a major portion of your hard-earned income do not care one iota for your health and well-being. It is now obvious that those who purport to be solution seekers are promoters of your problem. From here on, you, the readers of the information in this book, have to become a part of the force behind the transformation of the health care system in America.
Obviously, funding for the evaluation of water as a natural medicine seems not to be readily available. Furthermore, even if funds were to be made available, research of the topic seems not attractive enough to the universities and nationally recognized research centers. And yet, to show others, patient response to treatment with water as a natural medicine in diseases produced by chronic dehydration is necessary. It is necessary to convince the
clinicians within the health care system to change their present approach to treatment. Students in medical schools are not taught anything about the many roles of water in the human body.
The way I see it, we will need many "simple and direct" observations, like those whose letters are published in this book, to report their findings before the mainstream medical practitioners would abandon their method of treatment.
Their present method is only suited to promotion of chemical products. "Double-blind randomized trials" are only suited to the evaluation of one chemical product to another, less-known substance. This particular methodology is not suited to the clinical evaluation of "deficiency disorders," in this case the effects of water on the variety of dehydration-produced diseases.
Physiological states of each individual's body determines the initial symptoms and complications of dehydration.
That is why these symptom-producing dehydration states have traditionally been labeled as many different disease conditions. When you are into the book, you will understand what I am saying. You will also read some letters whose writers had more than one of the early signs of recently recognized water shortage in the body.
We are now at the dawn of a new era in medical science. 'It is chronic water shortage in the body that causes most of the diseases of the human body." The original design of the human body is more complete than you can Imagine.
If we have not known how to maintain it until now, it is our own fault. We have not stopped to think, if the body is mainly water, where will it get its top-up if we don't drink water on a regular basis? We now know when it is calling for its urgent intake. We need to dwell on this information. Pushing water is not a personal gimmick. There is no hidden agenda to its promotion. If you share this information with your loved ones, you are its beneficiaries.
At present this book is the only source of easy-to-read-and-understand information on chronic dehydration. You need to read it a few times and understand the profoundness of the indispensable role of water in the human body.
If you do this, you will become a healer too. In this book, you will also get to learn that "fluids" and "water" are not necessarily the same. You will learn about the detrimental effects of diet sodas.
If you find the information in this book useful, please raise your voice and cry out against the dark and ugly side of medicine as it is practiced at present. Doctors are supposed to be healers. They have taken an oath to serve mankind. It is true that the "business of America is business," but my business-minded colleagues have no right to obstruct the simple message of 'you are not sick, you are thirsty," from reaching a wider cross-section of the public.
They have no business converting the pain and suffering of their fellow man into accumulative commercial practices that we have noticed in the recent past.
I most humbly acknowledge that not all doctors put their own gain before the welfare of those who seek their honest advice. You only need to take a look at the number of doctors in the small list of reviews of the book to see this fact.
Only a very small minority, unfortunately in steering positions,have shed a bad light on our sacred profession.
However, "when light comes, darkness has to go." When people begin to understand that water by itself is the best natural medicine in many "disease" conditions of the body, the black sheep in the sacred profession of medicine will take their business elsewhere.
Traditionally, doctors have been thinkers and philosophers. It is only recently that they have been forced to memorize pre-digested information to get through the curriculum in teaching hospitals. In reality, books are created to store information, and the brain is designed to "think." Once we get rid of the burden of having to remember so much misinformation generated around the conditions that are complications of chronic dehydration, the new doctors will once again become scholars and thinkers. That is when their pronouncements will be truly respected and worth their weight in gold, and no less than surgeons' scale of fees.
In the hope of a new era of bright lights in medicine, I wish the readers of this book luck for their indispensable part in the transformation of the present structure of medicine. Each letter that is published in the book is but a sample of what "water as medicine" can do in millions who present similar outward manifestations of chronic dehydration. The arrogant and the ignorant in medical practice will label these letters as "anecdotal" and brush them aside. Infinitely greater in number, seeing eyes connected to thinking brains will recognize in each one of them the new truth, 'you are not sick, you are thirsty," that heralds an end to the present medical sting against the public.
This book is intended to be read as a "novel" about the love relationship of water and the human body. It is not designed to be read for "soundbites." This is the reason why it does not have an index.
I would like to thank my wife Xiaopo for her loving support and help.
I would like to thank Col. Robert T. Sanders for his tireless efforts in the past five years at getting my views on
chronic dehydration to be heard by the people he thinks might wish to help in its spread.
I would also like to thank all of those who have been exuberant supporters and have encouraged me to continue and not get tired. Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. Dorothy Heindel for her editorship of all of my manuscripts and books.
F. Batmanghelidj, M.D. February 1995
The information and recommendations on water intake presented in this book are based on training, personal experience, very extensive research, and other publications of the author on the topic of water metabolism of the body. The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use or the discontinuance of any medication as a form of treatment without the advice of an attending physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author, based on the most recent knowledge of micro-anatomy and molecular physiology, is only to offer information on the importance of water to well-being, and to help inform the public of the damaging effects of
chronic dehydration to the body—from childhood to old age. This book is not intended as a replacement for sound medical advice from a physician. On the contrary, sharing of the information contained in this book with the attending physician is highly desirable. Application of the information and recommendations described herein are undertaken at the individual's own risk. The adoption of the information should be in strict compliance with the instructions given herein. Very sick persons with past history of major diseases and under professional supervision, particularly those with severe renal disease, should not make use of the information contained herein without the supervision of their attending physician.
All the recommendations and procedures herein contained are made without guarantee on the part of the author or the publisher, their agents, or employees. The author and publisher disclaim all liability in connection with the use of the information presented herein. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D.
CONTENTS
Preface ..................................................................................... xi
Introduction: Don't Treat Thirst With Medication ................... 1
Chapter 1
Why "Medicine" Doesn't Cure Disease ..................................... 3
The Basics .........................…….................................................. 5
The Paradigm That Needs To Be Changed ..........................…... 8
The Source of Error in Medicine .........................……...................8
Chapter 2
The New Paradigm ......................................................................... 13
Water Regulation at Different Stages of Life ................................. 15
It Should Be Thoroughly Understood ............................................ 17
Water Has Other Important Properties ............................................ 18
Chapter 3
Dyspeptic Pain ................................................................................ 25
Colitis Pain ...................................................................................... 34
False Appendicitis Pain .................................................................. 35
Hiatus Hernia .................................................................................. 35
Chapter 4
Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain .............................................................. 41
Low Back Pain ............................................................................... 48
Neck Pain ......................................................................................... 50
Anginal Pain .................................................................................... 51
Headaches ......................................................................................... 51
Chapter 5
Stress and Depression ....................................................................... 55
The Initially Silent Compensation Mechanisms Associated with Dehydration ..............……......... 57
Endorphins, Cortisone, Prolactin, and Vasopressin .......................... 59
Alcohol .............................................................................................. 63
Renin-Angiotensin Activity .............................................................. 65
Chapter 6
High Blood ......................................................................................... 71
Water Shortage: Potentials for Hypertension ..................................... 72
Chapter 7
Higher Blood Cholesterol .................................................................. 83
Testimonials That Make You Ponder ................................................. 88
Chapter 8
Excess Body Weight .......................................................................... 99
Overeating Further Explained .......................................................... 100
Diet Sodas Can Cause Weight Gain ................................................. 104
Chapter 9
Asthma and Allergies ....................................................................... 115
Chapter 10
Insulin-Independent Diabetes ........................................................... 123
Tryptophan and Diabetes .................................................................. 125
Insulin-Dependent Diabetes .............................................................. 130
Chapter 11
New Ideas on AIDS ........................................................................... 133
The Unfolding of Events in AIDS Research ...................................... 143
Chapter 12
The Simplest of Treatments in Medicine ............................................ 151
Ease of Sleeping ..............................................................................… 157
Prevent Fainting ............................................................................….. 157
Prevent Heart Attacks .......................................................................... 157
Color of Urine .............................................................................……. 158
Hopes for Curing Already Established Disease ..................……......... 158
Salt Free Diet Is Utterly Stupid ........................................……......…. 160
The Health Care System and Our Responsibilities..............……......... 163
Cost Savings to the Nation ..................................................……......... 163
Finally ..............................................................................…….....…… 165
Chronic cellular dehydration painfully and prematurely kills. Its initial outward manifestations have until now been labeled as diseases of unknown origin.
PREFACE
One of the more obvious reasons why medicine has become so complicated and costly is the fact that the research and production of pharmaceutical products—and eventually their patient evaluation—has become monumentally expensive. To boost the sale of regularly and heavily advertised products, not only do highly paid medical representatives present their sales pitch, but doctors are also enticed into promoting the drugs by the "perks"
offered. Patients continue to use them because they are not cured. They are not supposed to be cured! They are only treated! This is the ideal way that commercialism in medicine can thrive. This is not the only shameful loose end in medicine.
Techniques-oriented advancements in medicine are made possible as a result of "gadgets" production. This, too, adds to the cost of medicine. Teaching hospitals and research institutions depend heavily on funding from the industrial side of the health care system. Thus, research in medicine has traditionally been directed according to the wishes of health care industrialists who release funds for their own profit-generating projects. Now comes a moment of great rejoicing. It has been discovered that the human body possesses a variety of sophisticated indicators when it runs short of water—emergency indicators of dehydration and thirst. The body has many more than the one "dry mouth" indicator of water shortage. Equally obvious, the greatest tragedy in medical
history is the fact that medical professionals have not understood the human body's variety of calls for water. They have traditionally resorted to using chemicals and "procedures" to deal with chronic dehydration of the body. A monumental mistake, but a blatant fact!
The unkindest cut of all is the way the mainstream medical community still prefers to adhere to business as usual and ignores the good news. Fundamentally, this basic ignorance of the manifestations of the water needs of the human body is the primary reason for the high cost of health care in our society, without a hope of Improvement in the way it is presently designed—a very bad design that only serves its operators and not the health-care-needing
public.
If you will look at the letters exchanged with the American Medical Association (AMA), printed at the end of the book, you will realize that well before the publication of this book, the AMA was invited to become the harbinger of the good news, "you are not sick, you are thirsty," to the public. Their ultimate silence clearly exposes their flagrant violation of public trust.
The National Institute of Health (NIH), the most advanced center of medical research in the world, has failed society even more miserably. Firstly, why has it not studied the medicinal effects of water? Why has it not separated the possible positive impact of water taken to swallow a pill from the "medication" itself? Why has it not studied what happens to a person who does not regularly drink water? These are their initial mistakes. Why do you think the NIH converted these mistakes into a sting operation?
In May of 1989,1 wrote to Dr. James Mason, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, explaining that a paradigm change that looked at water needs of the body would expose many solutions to the health problems of our society. I sent him much supportive material which he referred to Dr. John T. Kalberer, NIH Coordinator for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, to review and discuss with me; obviously the right Office for the evaluation of my physiology-based revolutionary views.
Not so! I was invited to visit with Dr. Kalberer. After one hour's discussion, Dr. Kalberer informed me that the NIH was not in a position to handle my "broad" medical views. He explained that the NIH could not fund research in other than university settings. I indicated that the reason for my contact with Dr. Mason and himself was to explain dehydration as the cause of so many degenerative diseases of the human body, so that the NIH could begin its study and take the result to the public. He then told me that the NIH was only interested in molecular aspects of biological and pharmaceutical research. He indicated my views were so broad based that they did not fit into the way the research institution functioned. When he realized I was unhappy with his pronouncement, he advised me to continue my work and publish my views. He told me this would be the only way they would get heard.
I did not give up. Every time a health article appeared in the newspapers based on pronouncements from someone at the NIH, I wrote a letter and explained the basic problem. I even wrote to the Office of Scientific Integrity at the NIH and complained about some pieces of misinformation that would have established only a particular product on the medical market. I did not hear from them, but the issue appears to have died and the photogenic spokesman
seems not to hold court as often as before.
For a while, I became excited when Dr. Bernadine Healy became the director of the NIH. She appeared to be the right type of person who would change the NIH. As an MD/scientist, she obviously understood what I was saying. She referred me to Stephen Groft, Ph.D., who had just become a temporary director of the newly established Office of Alternative Medicine until a permanent MD director could be found.
He seemed a very sincere person. After a long meeting and having provided him with some of my published materials, he invited me to make a short presentation at the first Alternative Medicine Conference to be convened by the NIH. His temporary position was too temporary to do any good. Dr. Joseph Jacobs took over. He is a doctor of medicine with Native Indian culture and influence. I am positive that Dr. Groft had passed my information and materials to him.
The next Alternative Medicine Conference was convened by Dr. Jacobs and his second in command, and I was at that time to be introduced to them by Dr. Groft. Naturally, at that moment, Dr. Jacobs did not have the time to conduct a serious discussion. It was agreed that he take a look at what I had sent the Office and for us to meet at a time soon. At our meeting in his office, I asked him if he had looked at what I had previously sent to their Office. He began to make the excuse that he was short of time, and at the same time, they were changing office location and he had not had the opportunity to see what I had sent. I told him if he were not aware of the content of the materials I had sent, this meeting was a waste of his time and mine and we should defer our discussion until he had read the information I had provided. I got up to leave. I had to cut through his "prima donna" stance.
He told me he would take a look at what I had sent, but since we were both intelligent professionals, there was not much that could not be clarified in one hour's discussion. He invited me to sit down and explain my views. I did. Before I left, he asked me for another set of supportive materials. I had them in my case and gave them to him. Among the materials supplied was a copy of the first edition of this book. I explained to him that this information is becoming public knowledge. I invited him for the sake of society and advancement of medical science to begin the study of its topic through his Office.
I did not hear from Dr. Jacobs or see him until the next Alternative Medicine Conference. Nothing about chronic dehydration was on the agenda. Even when Col. Robert Sanders, who is very well versed with the topic, made a five-minute philosophic presentation on dehydration, no steps were taken to put the issue before the Advisory Board. It became clear that the Office of Alternative Medicine had its own agenda, and serving the public was not on
its list of priorities.
According to Rita Mae Brown, "The definition of insanity is doing the same tiling over and over again and expecting the results to be different." One would assume that according to this definition, I am one of the insane ones. I often think myself to be a simpleton. I question myself: Why do I spend time and personal resources to bring about a science-based transformation of medicine in, of all places, America? In the next breath I console myself by thinking I am privy to vital health and wellness information that has to reach the innocent and trusting people who become sick and do not know they are only thirsty for water. With this thought I go the next stretch of my weary way. In the meantime, Dr. Bernadine Healy left the NIH. She is a medical doctor. The NTH is a "science" institution. Obviously there must have been a conflict of purpose; she had to leave. Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus took over. Once again, on the 23rd of November 1993,1 wrote to him. I started my letter, "Welcome to the position that you can now make a greater contribution to advancement of medical science and our society. Today's Washington Post article on you prompted me to write this letter and bring a breakthrough of significance in medical science to your attention. 'It is chronic dehydration that is the root cause of most major diseases.' I have in the past tried to get the NIH to take a serious look at this simple 'paradigm shift' and make the future practice of medicine patient-friendly!" I sent him one of my books and some supportive materials. To tins date, February 1995, I have not heard from this gentleman, not even a letter of thank you.
Obviously, the only way to take the message of "dehydration" to the public was to write. That I did. After sending letters to various journals and newspapers and not hearing from them, I decided, in 1989 to create our own journal at the Foundation for the Simple in Medicine. We called it Science in Medicine Simplified. A special issue and a regular issue of the journal were published in a period of one year and freely distributed to some research centers and medical libraries at some universities.
We also applied to the National Library of Medicine for the journals to be indexed in the Index Medicus computer system so that their content could be accessed by other researchers. We appealed to them to afford us an equal opportunity to present our "paradigm shift" researched views in medicine. They got back to us and said two volumes of a publication was not enough, but once another volume was put out and we were sure there was going to be continuity, they would consider indexing the journals.
The third volume of the journal was in the works at this stage and, when it was published in 1991, we sent our application and two volumes of each publication to the NLM. Journals are evaluated two to three times a year for their possible inclusion in the Index Medicus. The committee consists of mainly NIH scientists. When they met at the end of the year and reviewed our new information in medicine, we were refused. They did not want to give us an
equal opportunity for our views to be heard. The NIH "thinkers" did not wish our new thoughts to enter the scientific arena and eventually reach the public. We were deftly censored. This is when I decided to write the first edition of this book and go public.
About six months after the NLM refusal, my book was out and being reviewed. I now had a simple language explanation of where mainstream medicine had gone wrong. This was the book I sent, in addition to the scientific publications, to Drs. Healy, Groft and Jacobs at the NIH. I wanted them to know I did not need them for my views to reach the public. I had realized that the NIH was self-servingly satisfied with the insanity of conducting and repeating the same types of research without finding a cure for any of the degenerative diseases of the human body.
In April of 1993, there was an International Bio-Oxidative Medical Conference in Reston, Virginia. I was invited to speak following the President of the Association. This is one of the conferences convened by the practitioners of Alternative Medicine. I was introduced to one of the NIH Scientific Secretariats, Dr. Edmund Sargent Copeland, who was invited to review the conference. After my talk on the role of histamine as the main water regulator of the body, he very graciously discussed how I could succeed in getting my views evaluated. I sent him most of my published materials. We met at their Westbard Avenue office. He did his best to get me invited by the program manager of their lectures to speak before their members. The invitation never came.
It is obvious my thoughts are a threat to the continuation of some of the NIH approaches to medical research.
Naturally, my views will not be allowed to echo within the NIH walls. They want me automaton-like to present my findings in a way that is acceptable to them only. That is how they have it their own way.
I have tried to give you detailed information about my efforts to get the people who are entrusted with the responsibility of looking after the nation's health interests to work on your behalf. As you see, they chose their own advantageous way of business as usual. It is now dear that the institutions that use your tax dollars and a major portion of your hard-earned income do not care one iota for your health and well-being. It is now obvious that those who purport to be solution seekers are promoters of your problem. From here on, you, the readers of the information in this book, have to become a part of the force behind the transformation of the health care system in America.
Obviously, funding for the evaluation of water as a natural medicine seems not to be readily available. Furthermore, even if funds were to be made available, research of the topic seems not attractive enough to the universities and nationally recognized research centers. And yet, to show others, patient response to treatment with water as a natural medicine in diseases produced by chronic dehydration is necessary. It is necessary to convince the
clinicians within the health care system to change their present approach to treatment. Students in medical schools are not taught anything about the many roles of water in the human body.
The way I see it, we will need many "simple and direct" observations, like those whose letters are published in this book, to report their findings before the mainstream medical practitioners would abandon their method of treatment.
Their present method is only suited to promotion of chemical products. "Double-blind randomized trials" are only suited to the evaluation of one chemical product to another, less-known substance. This particular methodology is not suited to the clinical evaluation of "deficiency disorders," in this case the effects of water on the variety of dehydration-produced diseases.
Physiological states of each individual's body determines the initial symptoms and complications of dehydration.
That is why these symptom-producing dehydration states have traditionally been labeled as many different disease conditions. When you are into the book, you will understand what I am saying. You will also read some letters whose writers had more than one of the early signs of recently recognized water shortage in the body.
We are now at the dawn of a new era in medical science. 'It is chronic water shortage in the body that causes most of the diseases of the human body." The original design of the human body is more complete than you can Imagine.
If we have not known how to maintain it until now, it is our own fault. We have not stopped to think, if the body is mainly water, where will it get its top-up if we don't drink water on a regular basis? We now know when it is calling for its urgent intake. We need to dwell on this information. Pushing water is not a personal gimmick. There is no hidden agenda to its promotion. If you share this information with your loved ones, you are its beneficiaries.
At present this book is the only source of easy-to-read-and-understand information on chronic dehydration. You need to read it a few times and understand the profoundness of the indispensable role of water in the human body.
If you do this, you will become a healer too. In this book, you will also get to learn that "fluids" and "water" are not necessarily the same. You will learn about the detrimental effects of diet sodas.
If you find the information in this book useful, please raise your voice and cry out against the dark and ugly side of medicine as it is practiced at present. Doctors are supposed to be healers. They have taken an oath to serve mankind. It is true that the "business of America is business," but my business-minded colleagues have no right to obstruct the simple message of 'you are not sick, you are thirsty," from reaching a wider cross-section of the public.
They have no business converting the pain and suffering of their fellow man into accumulative commercial practices that we have noticed in the recent past.
I most humbly acknowledge that not all doctors put their own gain before the welfare of those who seek their honest advice. You only need to take a look at the number of doctors in the small list of reviews of the book to see this fact.
Only a very small minority, unfortunately in steering positions,have shed a bad light on our sacred profession.
However, "when light comes, darkness has to go." When people begin to understand that water by itself is the best natural medicine in many "disease" conditions of the body, the black sheep in the sacred profession of medicine will take their business elsewhere.
Traditionally, doctors have been thinkers and philosophers. It is only recently that they have been forced to memorize pre-digested information to get through the curriculum in teaching hospitals. In reality, books are created to store information, and the brain is designed to "think." Once we get rid of the burden of having to remember so much misinformation generated around the conditions that are complications of chronic dehydration, the new doctors will once again become scholars and thinkers. That is when their pronouncements will be truly respected and worth their weight in gold, and no less than surgeons' scale of fees.
In the hope of a new era of bright lights in medicine, I wish the readers of this book luck for their indispensable part in the transformation of the present structure of medicine. Each letter that is published in the book is but a sample of what "water as medicine" can do in millions who present similar outward manifestations of chronic dehydration. The arrogant and the ignorant in medical practice will label these letters as "anecdotal" and brush them aside. Infinitely greater in number, seeing eyes connected to thinking brains will recognize in each one of them the new truth, 'you are not sick, you are thirsty," that heralds an end to the present medical sting against the public.
This book is intended to be read as a "novel" about the love relationship of water and the human body. It is not designed to be read for "soundbites." This is the reason why it does not have an index.
I would like to thank my wife Xiaopo for her loving support and help.
I would like to thank Col. Robert T. Sanders for his tireless efforts in the past five years at getting my views on
chronic dehydration to be heard by the people he thinks might wish to help in its spread.
I would also like to thank all of those who have been exuberant supporters and have encouraged me to continue and not get tired. Finally, I would like to thank Mrs. Dorothy Heindel for her editorship of all of my manuscripts and books.
F. Batmanghelidj, M.D. February 1995
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