THE CRISIS CALLS OF THE BODY FOR WATER
The third category of conditions that denote local dehydration are the major pains of the body. Before dehydration hurts you irreversibly, when your plumlike cells become prunelike, your body will show its urgent need for water through
different types of pain. These pains are the newly understood, drastic ways of showing dehydration.
After much clinical and scientific research, my understanding is that the early indicators of acid burns in the interior of the cells and potential genetic damage that can take place are different forms and intensities of pain. Depending on the degree of dehydration, as well as the extent and the location of acid buildup inside the cells—when greater flow of water should have cleared the acid from that area— the classic pains of the body are produced. They are:
1. Heartburn
2. Dyspeptic pain
3. Anginal pain
4. Lower back pain
5. Rheumatoid joint pain, including ankylosing spondylitis
6. Migraine headaches
7. Colitis pain
8. Fibromyalgic pains
9. Morning sickness during pregnancy
10. Bulimia
Today, there are 110 million Americans who, at certain times, need pain medications to make life bearable. How pain that is not caused by injury or infection can be produced by dehydration is simple to understand. This very simple mechanism of pain production has eluded us in medicine ever since humankind looked for a way to deal with some of the devastating pains of the human body. The drug industry spends billions of dollars researching painkillers, and even more money advertising their particular brand of pain medication. I don't believe the answer is in these medications, however. Dehydration can be cured by water, for free.
PAIN
To understand the mechanism of pain production in the body, we first need to learn about the way the acid-alkaline balance in the body works. An acidic environment causes irritation of certain nerve endings in the body. When this irritation occurs, the brain is alerted about the chemical environmental change, which is
translated and manifested as pain to the conscious mind. In other words, it is the acidity in the interior of the body that causes pain.
THE pH EQUATION & HEALTH
ACCORDING TO MANY HEALTH RESEARCHERS, TOTAL HEALING OF CHRONIC ILLNESS TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN AND IF THE BLOOD IS RESTORED TO A NORMAL, SLIGHTLY ALKALINE pH 7.35. IN CASE YOU MISED IT, LET ME SAY IT AGAIN ...
TOTAL HEALING OF CHRONIC ILLNESS TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN AND IF THE BLOOD IS RESTORED TO A NORMAL, SLIGHTLY ALKALINE pH .
THE MAGNITUDE OF MEANING BEHIND THIS RESEARCH IS OF INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE TO SOMEONE WHO IS FIGHTING A DISEASE, OVERCOMING AN ILLNESS, OR JUST DESIRING TO FEEL BETTER. WHAT IT MEANS IS THIS ... YOUR BODY pH AFFECT EVERYTHING.
HUMAN BODY STAYS IN A VERY NARROW pH RANGE RIGHT AROUND 7.3. BELOW OR ABOVE THIS RANGE MEANS SYMPTOMS AND DISEASE.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, MICROBIAL LOOKING FROMS, IN THE BLOOD CAN CHANGE SHAPE, MUTATE, MIRROR PATHOGENICITY, AND GROW. THAT IS HOW CANCERS STARTED OFF IN BLOOD CELLS, IN ACIDIC pH.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, ENZYMES THAT ARE CONSTRUCTIVE BECOME DESTRUCTIVE.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, OXYGEN DELIVERY TO CELLS SUFFERS.
A pH of 7 is neutral. The lower the pH, the more acidic the blood. A variety of factors affect blood pH including what is ingested, vomiting, diarrhea, lung function, endocrine function, kidney function, and urinary tract infection. The normal blood pH is tightly regulated between 7.35 and 7.45.
Is the blood alkaline or acidic?
A pH of 0 is totally acidic, while a pH of 14 is completely alkaline. A pH of 7 is neutral. Those levels vary throughout your body. Your blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45. OUTSIDE OF THIS RANGE , THE ENZYMES CANNOT DO THEIR WORK.
Figure 8.1: Nerve endings register the chemical environmental change with the brain. The brain translates the information for the conscious mind in the form of pain.
Normally, when blood that contains an ample amount of water circulates around the cells of the body, some of the water goes into the cells and brings out hydrogen molecules. Water washes the acidity out of the cell and makes the cell interior alkaline—an absolutely essential and normal state. For optimum health, the body should maintain an alkaline state— pH 7.4 is the desired level.
Why 7.4, and what is pH?
The relationship between acid and alkaline is scientifically measured on a scale of 1 to 14. This scale is known as pH. From 1 to 7 on this scale is the acid range, 1 being more acid than 7. From 7 to 14 on the scale is the alkaline range; 7 is less alkaline than 14. On the pH scale, 7 is neutral, meaning optimum. Thus, pH 7.4 of the interior of the cell denotes its natural, slightly alkaline state. This state promotes health because it is the state that best suits the enzymes that function inside the cell: They achieve optimum efficiency at this pH. Adequate flow of water in and out of the cell keeps the cell interior in its health-maintaining, alkaline state.
You have probably seen historic monuments and buildings with artistic statues and carved masonry that have been damaged by pigeons perching on them and smearing them with their droppings. Bird excrement is highly acidic and eats into the stone. In time, the statues and carvings lose their features and definition. The DNA in the nucleus inside the cells of the body is alkaline and, like stone buildings, is also sensitive to the corrosive effects of acidity.
In our bodies, the kidneys mop up excess hydrogen ions—which cause acidity—from the blood and excrete them through the urine that is formed. The more urine that is produced, the more easily the body keeps its interior alkaline. This is why clear urine is an indicator of an efficient acid-clearing mechanism, and dark yellow or orange urine is an ominous sign of impending acid burns in the interior of the body. People who consider having to pass urine more than two or three times a day inconvenient, and do not drink water so that they do not have to urinate more than they can help, are ignorant of how they are hurting their bodies.
The brain is better protected against acid buildup by the fact that it gets priority for delivery of water for all its needs. The rest of the body may not be so fortunate when dehydration establishes in the body and settles in one or another part for a long period of time. With persistent dehydration, however, the brain, too, becomes damaged from acidity in the cells—hence conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease.
Some Specific Pains of Dehydration
As has been explained in the preceding chapters, a large number of medical conditions are caused by the fact that we become unknowingly dehydrated until the body begins to manifest its water shortage in some bizarre but unmistakable ways. Naturally, it is not possible to address all of the ramifications of the many “diseases” of the human body that are produced by dehydration in one book. However, I will try to explain some of the more prevalent ones—beginning with the gastrointestinal pains—in sufficient detail as to leave no doubt in your mind that dehydration is their cause.
HEARTBURN OR DYSPEPTIC PAINS
Heartburn or dyspeptic pains are among the most important thirst pains of the human body. Heartburn is the early stage of a gradually intensifying pain that is called dyspeptic pain and eventually peptic ulcer pain. It is felt in the upper part of the abdomen. It can reach an intensity that can incapacitate the person and mimic an acute crisis that requires surgery. Dyspeptic pains, labeled “gastritis,” “duodenitis,” “esophagitis,” “heartburn,” and “indigestion after eating,” should be treated by only an increase in water intake. When there is associated tissue damage or ulceration, changes to the daily diet that enhance the rate of repair of the ulcer site
become necessary. In the above advanced stages of local damage, dyspeptic pain is still a direct signal of dehydration. The ulceration is the product of a protein metabolism disturbance caused by the same stressful and long-lasting dehydration.
In the same way we recognize our hunger pain, the human body also has a thirst pain. We almost always confuse our thirst pain for a signal of food shortage—hence overeating. When this same signal follows a meal, we call it dyspepsia or heartburn, and sufferers are often urged by their doctors and
the media to take some form of medication to relieve the pain. After a number of years from the onset of this upper abdominal pain, depending on many other factors, an ulcer may develop. In the interim, the health state is classified as gastritis or duodenitis, until the ulcer develops.
In recent years, because a bacterium called helicobacter is sometimes found in the site of ulcerations, the ulcerations are assumed to be infectious in origin and are treated with antibiotics. However, helicobacter has been recognized to be part of the natural flora—a healthy bacterium—and it lives in the intestines of almost all animals. It seems not to cause an infection in host animals. Labeling peptic ulcer disease as an “infectious condition,” in my opinion, provides another opportunity for commercialism in medicine to thrive.
Because we do not recognize heartburn as a signal of body thirst, its significance is not understood until an ulcer develops. However, the consequences of this chronic dehydration do not confine themselves to the stomach and intestine. There are many associated health problems that will gradually reveal themselves.
Everyone should be alert to heartburn as a major thirst pain of the body, which can occur at all ages.
In some, the sensation of thirst may not at first be signaled by severe pain; it may initially be felt as a discomfort in the upper part of the abdomen. In others, the pain may be so severe that an inexperienced clinician might think of it as indicative of a surgical condition and may even perform exploratory surgery and not find any physical sign of a disease. Sometimes the pain is felt around the appendix area and mimics appendicitis. Physicians should consider this type of thirst pain signal when making a diagnosis associated with lower abdominal pains. In some people, the severe pain might be felt on the left side, over the large intestine, and is often identified as colitis. This pain, too, should initially be considered as a thirst signal. If it is not relieved after one or two glasses of water, and not completely gone in a few days of increased water intake, then other local pathology may have to be investigated. It must be remembered that it takes a few days of increased daily water intake before chronic cellular dehydration can be partially reduced.
The conscious mind has a problem with recognizing the body's water needs. Full and adequate hydration of the body depends on the sharpness of its thirst perception. Unfortunately, as it ages, the body gradually loses its ability to recognize its dehydration. Elderly people can become chronically dehydrated, even if there is plenty of drinking water available, because they fail to recognize their extreme thirst. The more the body becomes dehydrated, the more the brain's water-regulating chemicals—histamine and its subordinate local officers—become engaged in their water-shunting and -rationing responsibilities.
A Typical Case History
J. B., a company administrative secretary, developed peptic ulcer disease when she was thirty-three years old. The usual medications—antacids that neutralize the acid in the stomach—could not give relief. Stronger prescription medications (which are actually very strong histamine-blocking agents that temporarily stop acid production in the stomach) would at best partially relieve her symptoms of severe dyspeptic pain. On and off, the disease recurred several times a year for a number of years. On a number of occasions, she had to seek her doctor's advice for her stress and ulcer pains on a weekly basis.
A few years ago, during one of these periods of persistent stomach pains that seemed reluctant to yield to the effect of very strong medications, her doctor— with much caution—told her that severe peptic ulcer pain seemed to have been
satisfactorily relieved with ordinary tap water. J. B. was encouraged to increase her water intake anytime she developed stomach pain to see is this could be effective. The treatment worked. For a number of years now, J. B. has followed this advice.
With the slightest indication of her pain coming back, an increase in her daily intake of water makes it disappear. As a result of a program of drinking eight glasses of water a day, J. B. no longer suffers from ulcer pains. She has no more need for any medication other than the water she now drinks regularly to pre-vent the pains from recurring.
The explanation for the occurrence of heartburn as a signal of water deficiency is very simple. When we drink water, it is immediately passed into the intestine and absorbed. It seems that, within a half hour, it is once again secreted into the stomach from the base of the dents in the mucosa. One of the major events that take place is a backwash of the mucus layer that expands and stores naturally secreted bicarbonate that neutralizes the acid on its surface.
For the cells under it, the mucus layer lining the stomach is a protective insulation against the acid, which is poured on food for the process of digestion. This backwash of the mucus by the water we drink is an essential part of the maintenance of the protective system of the stomach wall. Water flowing through the
mucus layer brings about the expansion and thickening of this protective layer in the stomach. Mucus is 98 percent water and 2 percent scaffolding that holds the water in place. The water in turn dissolves the bicarbonate that acts as the buffer for the acid that will try to pass through the mucus. This is a constantly active process. Dehydration alters the consistency of the mucus barrier, rendering it ineffective as a buffer against the acid in the stomach. It allows the acid to go through and reach the cells below, thus causing pain—“heartburn.”
Figure 8.2: Schematic drawing of the shape of the stomach and its mucus layer. A hydrated mucus barrier is uniform in consistency and prevents acid penetration. Dehydrated mucus becomes stringy and allows acid penetration.
HIATAL HERNIA AND HEARTBURN
A dome-shaped muscle called the diaphragm separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. It is attached to the rib cage and to some of the lower vertebrae of the spine. At the back of the diaphragm, where it is attached to the spine, is an opening through which the esophagus and the main blood vessels pass. This opening is called the hiatus and it acts as a “purse-string” gate. It is composed of a band of overlapping muscle that keeps the gate closed. It relaxes only when food is passing through the esophagus in the chest cavity to enter the stomach, which is normally positioned below the diaphragm in the abdomen. The automatic opening and closing of the gate is synchronized with the flow of food through the esophagus. When food is not passing through, the gate is closed and the chest cavity is well separated from the abdomen and its contents. In some people, the gate becomes lax and its opening less firm. In these people, the upper part of the stomach may bulge or become herniated through the hiatus and shift into the chest cavity—hence hiatal hernia. The reason why the hiatal gate becomes lax is chronic dehydration.
From its opening in the mouth to the orifice of the rectum, the intestinal tract is a long tube that has developed special characteristics in different segments along its length. The intestinal tract works like a conveyor belt that pushes its contents downstream. The intestinal tract can also reverse the direction of its waves and push its contents upward. This process is involved when the contents of the stomach must not go downstream and must be forced out of the body— heralded by nausea and then vomiting.
The esophagus is a long tube that carries food and fluids into the stomach, which is situated in the abdomen. The stomach is a pouch that produces acid and protein-breaking enzymes that liquefy the solid foods we eat. The duodenum is the segment of the small intestine that connects to the stomach and is separated from it by a special gate called the pyloric valve. In the duodenum, the pancreatic enzymes are secreted along with a watery bicarbonate solution to further digest the liquefied food from the stomach and neutralize the acid that gets into the intestine. The stomach has a protective mucus coating on its mucosa that prevents the acidfrom damaging it (figure 8.2). The duodenum does not have the same protective mucus coating to defend it against the acid from the stomach. It depends on the watery bicarbonate secretion from the pancreas to do the job. In dehydration, the quantity of the watery bicarbonate solution made by the pancreas is insufficient to
deal with all the acid that is going to reach the duodenum. There comes a point where, if the entire acidic contents of the stomach were to enter the small intestine (the duo-denum), its mucosa would be irreparably damaged.
Figure 8.3: Pancreas where watery bicarbonate solution is manufactured and secreted into duodenum.
Inside the pyloric valve are sensors—like spokes of a wheel that stick out when the stomach contents are passed into the duodenum—that register the consistency and the acidity of the stomach contents. Only if the acidity of the stomach
contents can be neutralized completely by the amount of the alkaline secretion from the pancreas will the pyloric valve open and allow the stomach contents to enter the intestine. What goes through is proportionate to the amount that can be neutralized. At a crisis stage of dehydration, when heartburn or dyspeptic pain is also produced, the high acidity in the stomach cannot go into the intestine. It cannot stay in the stomach for long, either.
In this situation, some of the acidic contents of the stomach can bubble upward, particularly when you are lying down. This is when you feel the discomfort of heartburn. At the same time, the upper part of the stomach can also slide through the hiatal valve into the chest cavity. You might have to vomit to get rid of the stomach contents, or get sufficient antacid treatment to suppress the symptoms. Nonetheless, the diagnosis of hiatal hernia will stick. Given sufficient water every day, the situation can reverse itself and the pain and hernia can disappear.
Bulimia
I am sure you are very sympathetic to people who have been given the label of “bulimic.” These people eat and then throw up whatever they have eaten. The most famous bulimic was probably the late Princess Diana. Bulimia sufferers are constantly hungry, and are also depressed and
antisocial, as seems to have been the case
with Princess Diana throughout her private and married life.
There is a belief among pundits who profess to understand bulimia, that the whole problem is caused by an undercurrent of psychological issues within the thought processes of bulimics. Since more women suffer from the problem than men, it is assumed that the act of eating and then
throwing up whatever has been eaten is
a measure to remain thin. I disagree.
Uncontrollable and repeated vomiting of the stomach contents, which has been given the medical labels of “heartburn” or “bulimia,” could be one of the ways the body prevents irreparable damage when it is severely dehydrated. When it is said that bulimics feel hungry all the time, there is confusion. As far as I am concerned, they are confusing their sensation of thirst with the sensation of hunger. When they should be drinking water, they eat. Naturally, the body rejects the food because it does not possess enough water to digest and assimilate the food. This is the reason why bulimics grow so thin. The same dehydration can also be responsible for some of the emotional and psycho-logical changes in these people.
I met Amir in the prison where I started to research the impact of water on the treatment of peptic ulcer disease. For more than ten years, on and off, he had been suffering from heartburn. During the flare-up phase of the problem, he would routinely vomit in his sleep—so forcefully that part of his stomach contents would jet out of his nose. Often he could not clear out of his bed in time to avoid making a mess. You can imagine he had difficulty sleeping during these times. Because none of the regular medications could stop such vomiting, he had taken it for granted that his problem was incurable.
I asked him to drink a full glass of water a half hour before his food and increase his daily water intake. As simply as you read these lines, his heartburn disappeared and never came back while he was in the prison with me.
Let me share with you the human side of Amir's story. It is interesting that in his immediate family, his daughter, his wife, and his brother had similar problems— heartburn that culminated in vomiting when the disease flared up. At this time in the life of the family, when there was a lot of fear that Amir might not get out of prison anytime soon, none of them was in a good state of health. They were stressed beyond words. They would travel for miles every week to see Amir. They would wait outside the prison walls for hours, in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter, to have a ten- to fifteen-minute visitation.
On one of these occasions, he shared with them the fact that increased water intake had cured him of his “disease.” He was jubilant that now his family could do the same. One by one they got rid of their devastating heartburn and the social complications of the problem they had experienced for many years. Luck was with
Amir. He was released unexpectedly. Before he left, he came to me and thanked me for what I had done for him. He told me, “It was worth coming to prison to get cured of my disease.”
The Danger of Antacids
Antacids that contain aluminum can be dangerous. They should not be freely used for dyspepsia that responds simply to an increase in water intake. Excess aluminum in the circulation has been strongly implicated as a precipitating factor in Alzheimer's-type diseases. It is imperative to understand the relationship between taking antacids for a long period and their possible toxic
side effects, the local brain damage and plaques seen in Alzheimer's disease a number of years later. Plaques are tangled masses of tissue that contain high aluminum deposits. Fortunately, the drug industry in America is now producing some antacids that do not contain aluminum.
Zinc is a very important metal for genetic transcription and manufacture of important hormones and brain chemicals. Metals have a special transport system across cell membranes. If aluminum is carried across into brain cells in place of zinc, much damage will occur. Although the body can repair and replace cells in most tissues or organs, brain cells are not regenerated or replaced. They die and leave a cyst, or are replaced by fibrous tissue—the sort of pathology seen in Alzheimer's disease.
The older antacids on the market contained between 60 and 150 milligrams of aluminum per spoonful of the liquid. It had been assumed the body cannot absorb this metal; it acts locally in the stomach. However, the fact that aluminum is found in high concentration in the brain tissue of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease should make us aware that a high intake of aluminum over a long period can lead to some absorption of the metal—enough to cause damage at some point.
When the body becomes gradually dehydrated as a result of the loss of its thirst sensation, to the extent that it develops dyspeptic pain as a thirst signal, many of the functions of the body are already affected. The most affected is the brain itself. Although the brain cells themselves are fully developed, the nerve system—the
“wire works”—can become damaged in dehydration. The most affected part will be the connection points in the wire system. There is much regeneration going on at these interconnections, which are constantly used. In Alzheimer's disease, these interconnections are tangled, and a great deal of aluminium seems to be
deposited at these points.
Another problem in most neurological disorders— such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)—seen on MRI brain scans is widespread plaques over the brain tissue. This phenomenon will be explained later.
In Guam, where many aluminum deposits are to be found in the soil, the drinking water at one time had high levels of aluminum contamination. During this time, an Alzheimer's-type disease was prevalent on the island, with even the younger population being affected. When the aluminum contamination was removed from the source of drinking water, the rate of Alzheimer's-type
disease among the population decreased. Thus, there seems to be a correlation between Alzheimer's-type disease and aluminum poisoning.
The Disadvantages of Antihistamine Medications
It has been learned that histamine production is involved in allergies and pain. The opportunity to immediately commercialize this significant finding has resulted in the production of a number of different antihistamine medications. Histamine, however, is an agent that has many useful functions. It operates the main brain
sensory system for water intake, distribution, and rationing. It is also a strong regulator of energy expenditure in the body. When the body is well supplied with water, the activity of histamine is confined to its local actions of shunting the circulation to bring water to the more active parts of the body, especially the central nervous system.
If the brain has to be very active and needs more circulation, histamine kicks into action. This can have the effect of producing acid in the stomach, causing heartburn, a primary thirst signal. Antihistamines, which temporarily suppress the pain-producing action of histamine in the intestinal tract, will over time cause damage because they do not correct for the basic problem of dehydration. At the same time, antihistamines can suppress brain activity. They also reduce libido and can cause some male hormonal imbalance and enlargement of the breasts in men.
In the elderly, they may cause confusion and disorientation.
Pain, at first, is a peripheral marker of thirst. Ultimately, and if allowed to continue, pain becomes the main brain marker for the same thirst. At the early phase of pain, some substances may blunt the peripheral marker and silence the thirst signal, such as antacids, food, or even
histamine-blocking agents. But at a certain
threshold of dehydration, the brain-initiated pain is not fooled by the action of locally acting medication, food, or indeed anything other than water that must be delivered into the stomach.Let me tell you the story of a young man. This case stands out as an example of the brain marker for dehydration of the body. I reported this case in my editorial article in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in June 1983. I have seen a number of similar cases.
I had the occasion to visit late one evening a young man in his twenties. He had a long history of peptic ulcer disease. Ten hours earlier, he had developed classic upper abdominal pain. His symptoms became more severe as time passed. He had taken almost a full bottle of antacid and three Tagamet tablets with no effect. The pain persisted. When I saw him, he was in such severe pain that he lay on the floor of the room curled up, groaning, eyes shut, and not alert to his environment. He seemed to be semiconscious. When I spoke to him, he did not seem to hear. I
had to shake him to get a response. When I asked him what was the matter, he told me: “My ulcer is killing me.” I examined him for a perforated ulcer, which fortunately he did not have. I made him drink two large glasses of water. It took him about ten minutes to feel some relief. A third glass of water was given to him fifteen minutes after the first two drinks. By now he was obviously in much less pain. Twenty minutes after the initial intake of water he had recovered completely, to the point that he sat up and began talking to the people around him.
This patient and his friends had observed the pain-relieving miracles hidden in a glassful of water. The clinical evaluation of this case indicates that the human body has a central nervous system pain signal for water deficiency. In the past, many such cases must have ended up on the operating tables of overzealous surgeons (I am sure some still do). It was also my experience and observation that some of these centrally produced pains for thirst occur in the area of the appendix, on the lower right side of the abdomen. I have had occasion to demonstrate the diagnostic value of a glass of water in doubtful and atypical cases of pain in the lower parts of the abdomen, such as in the case of Joy on page 119.
Eventually a dehydration-induced dyspeptic pain signal may graduate to a more advanced stage of complication, involving tryptophan. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid of the body (discussed under essential amino acids in chapter 14). In prolonged dehydration, it seems to become depleted from the body reserves. This amino acid is a prominent player in the repair systems of the body, as well as being the primary material for formation of a number of neurotransmitters that also suppress pain. If water by itself does not alleviate dyspeptic pain, an alteration in diet to increase the intake of natural foods that contain sufficient tryptophan for the needs of the body becomes essential. For more detail, read the section on tryptophan.
COLITIS PAIN
The origin of this pain was discussed in the section on constipation in chapter 7. There is no harm in saying a few words here, now that we are discussing the major pains of the body. Pain in the left lower region of the abdomen, often identified as colitis pain, seems to respond to an increase in daily water intake. Water plays an integral role in the digestion process. For the final products of food digestion to pass through the intestine, the lubricating property of water is essential. At the same time, the lower region of the large intestine in particular is responsible for final absorption of water from the excrement. This process becomes more operative at the time of dehydration. There is a central control for the peristaltic contractions of the intestine at the time of food digestion and its passage through the intestine. When there is dehydration, the normal peristalsis is reduced and a tighter
contraction to squeeze the water from the solid matter seems to become necessary. This process causes pain. If two or three glasses of water are taken, particularly first thing in the morning, the pain should disappear, if the original cause of pain is dehydration and not other, more serious, conditions. At the same time, the associated constipation should subside and movement of the bowels will become regular and normal.
HEADACHES AND MIGRAINE
As mentioned, the brain is very sensitive to the dehydration and heat regulation of the body. The brain cannot endure overheating. Its enzyme systems are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations. When there is water shortage in the body and there is potential for getting dehydrated or getting overheated because of too many
bedcovers at night, the brain establishes a priority for itself, at the expense of the other tissues of the body. It allows more blood to flow through its vascular system. The blood vessels to the brain—the carotid arteries—take root from the main
artery of the heart, the aorta. The carotid arteries supply blood to the scalp, face, and tongue before they pass into the skull to supply the brain. When the command for increased supply of blood to the brain forces these arteries to dilate, the circulation to the face and the scalp also increases. This is the reason why some headaches begin with strongly pulsating arteries around the temples.
The brain capillary system is under the direct influence of histamine on its receptors. Histamine, apart from its direct water-regulatory responsibilities to the brain, is also involved in temperature regulation of the body. It has two cooling functions. It lowers the core temperature of the body and is also involved in facilitating perspiration and sweating to help cool the body.
Histamine that is released because of the brain's concern for its dehydration or overheating activates certain systems to promote more circulation to correct the problem. When there is dehydration in the brain area—whether it is caused by insufficient intake of water, stress, alcohol, or overheating of the body—the action of histamine causes the pain we know as a headache or migraine. To alleviate this type of pain, two, three, even four glasses of water may have to be taken. The water should be cool in order to allow a better circulation of the diluted blood to the brain area. It is interesting to note that all normal painkillers cut the connection between histamine and one of its major subordinate systems. It is my understanding that migraine is a centrally produced signal for dehydration and overheating of the brain. This is the reason most painkillers do not work for migraine headaches.
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PAIN
The separation of lower back pain from rheumatoid joint pains elsewhere in the body is inaccurate. The mechanism of pain production in these joint conditions seems to be the same. They denote the same physiological phenomenon in the body. The separation of these two problems in the medical industry seems to be a matter of convenience for the involvement of different subspecialties. For the one, you go to a rheumatologist; for the other, to an orthopedic surgeon or chiropractor. The outcome is the same—pain management rather than a cure. Basically, both conditions have the same pathology, except they are in different locations.
About fifty million Americans—two hundred thousand of them children—are said to suffer some sort of arthritis pain, and some thirty million suffer back pain. Each year a few million are said to be functionally disabled from back pain. In the United States, it is estimated that sixteen billion dollars is spent annually on back pain treatment, and a further eighty billion dollars is lost in productivity and wages as a result of back pain. These commonly quoted statistics, even if partially accurate, indicate a devastating problem for the American people.
New Insight into the Phenomenon of Joint Pains
In chronically painful joint conditions of the lower spine or joints of the hands and legs, the actual recurring pain is a signal of water deficiency in the area where pain is felt. The pain occurs because there is not enough water circulation to wash out local acidity and toxic substances. These regional joint pains are part of a series of newly understood crisis thirst signals of the body. Where the pain is felt depends on where the localized drought has settled in.
Lower back pain has two components: one, muscle spasm (this is the cause of 80 percent of back pains); two, disc degeneration that puts added strain on the tendons and ligaments in the spinal column. Both of these back-pain-causing
conditions are initiated by the same chronic dehydration. With the new information about the emergency calls of the body for water, there is no reason why back and joint pains should continue to devastate our bodies. We now have the insight and knowledge about why these pains occur, and how to prevent them. More detailed information on these two topics is available in my book How to Deal with Back Pain and Rheumatoid Joint Pain and my videotape How to Deal with Back Pain.
All joint surfaces possess cartilage padding, which covers and separates the bone structures in the joint. This firm layer of cartilage contains a vast quantity of water, which provides it with the ability to glide over the opposing cartilage surface and aids the necessary lubrication for the joint movements. Thus, prolonged dehydration that leaves the cartilage short of water will produce a greater friction and shearing stress at the cartilage contact points in the joint.
Intelligence Behind the Design of the Body
When cartilage is dehydrated, its gliding ability is decreased. The cartilage cells sense their dehydration and give out alarm signals of pain, because they would soon die and peel off from their contact surfaces of the bones if used in their dehydrated state. The normal environment of cartilage is alkaline. In dehydration, it becomes acidic. This acidity sensitizes the nerve endings that register pain. This type of pain has to be treated with a regular increase in water intake until the cartilage is fully hydrated and washed of its acidity and toxins. Often the pain travels from joint to joint; sometimes it appears in the corresponding joints in the other limb at the same time. Chronic pains have two components: peripheral and brain-generated pains. Locally initiated pain is relieved by analgesics, such as aspirin or Tylenol, but brain-level pain is not. Both pains are relieved by the intake of adequate water.
Cartilage is a gelatinous living tissue; its cells like to live in an alkaline environment. The alkalinity of the medium depends on the amount of water that flows through the cartilage to wash the acid away. Salt helps extract the acidity from inside the cartilage cells and pass it into the water, which carries the acid away. This is a constant process. For this process to be effective, two elements are vital: water and salt. Adequate salt supply is essential for the prevention of arthritis pain, be it in the joints of the limbs or the spine. It is the salt level in the serum that increases the fluid volume for its more abundant flow through the cartilage.
What Happens to a Dehydrated Joint?
Cartilage cells die at a fast pace because of the constant abrasive friction in the dehydrated joint. These cells need to be replaced. When there is damage to the cartilage because of its overuse and under-repair, the sensors in the area begin to indicate a desperate need for urgent repair. An attempt is made to supply water to the cartilage cells from the blood supply. This action supplies some lubrication inside the joint, but is not effective in maintaining the rate of cartilage growth to replace the dead tissue. In the lining of the joint capsule are cells that can secrete local hormones to stimulate repair activity at the same time that they begin to produce pain. Several things happen when these hormones are secreted:
1. The dying tissue is broken up from inside the cells and the broken fragments are extruded. They are ingested by white cells—the “garbage collectors”— and are recycled.
2. More blood circulation is brought to the affected area, and this results in swelling and stretching in the joint capsule, which causes stiffness and, eventually, added pain.
3. There is an associated protein breakdown, and more amino acids are mobilized for the pool that may be needed for the repair of the damage.
4. In the inflammatory environment inside the joint, some white cells begin to manufacture hydrogen per-oxide and ozone for two purposes: one, to keep the joint space sterilized and to prevent bacteria from infecting the joint cavity; two, to supply with adequate oxygen the cells that are engaged in the repair process and have less access to the blood oxygen.
5. There is a local remodeling growth factor that promotes the growth of tissue, causing the typical gnarled joints of arthritis.
6. Knowledge gained by the brain from its ongoing experience is put to use for the rest of the body. The remodeling and fortification—gnarling, deformity—of other similarly structured joints will also be carried out. This seems to be the reason rheumatoid joints of the hands show a mirror-image inflammation and eventual gnarling of the joints on both sides.
LOWER BACK PAIN
As mentioned earlier, lower back pain has two components—muscle spasm that causes pain, and disc degeneration that puts strain on the tendons and ligaments in the spinal column. Lower back pain indicates exactly the same problem that was explained regarding rheumatoid joint pains of the hands, except the circulation system to the spinal disc space is difficult, and the disc core depends on the creation of an intermittent vacuum in the disc space. This natural process is a component of the walking movement. Of course, the body must be well-hydrated for water to
leave the circulation and enter the disc spaces.
In the spinal column, the weight of the body is supported by twenty-three discs and twenty-four vertebrae. The discs are housed between plates of cartilage that cover opposing flat surfaces of the vertebrae. The end-plate cartilage attached to its flat weight-bearing surfaces is part of the structure of each vertebra. During the movement of each vertebra, the disc is meant to glide minimally between the end-plate cartilage located on its upper and lower surfaces. Seventy-five percent of the weight of the upper body mass is supported by the hydraulic properties of the discs that absorb and hold water in their central cores. In a dehydrated state, when the body mass constantly squeezes out the water content of the discs during movement and bending, not enough of the lost water can be replaced. The dehydrated discs with their shrunken cores gradually become less supportive of the weight of the body. The discs lose their wedge quality, and the spinal joints become less firm. In a well-hydrated and taut state, on the other hand, the discs themselves do not physically move, but get continuously squeezed of water and then, through force of vacuum, absorb water again and expand to function as the natural shock absorbers they are designed to be.
In a dehydrated state, the discs can shift backward to press on the local nerves. When this happens in the lower spinal region, the pain becomes projected into one or the other leg. This is called sciatic pain and is far more serious than local pain in the back. It means the spinal joint structure has become so disorganized that one
of the discs that has to shock-absorb for the spine is out of its normal position and is pressing on the nerve. Dehydration and bad posture are involved in this condition. For more information, and to learn a new technique for the reduction of the disc displacement and relief from sciatic pain, I encourage you to refer to my book
How to Deal with Back Pain and Rheumatoid Joint Pain.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
When the cartilage in the joint dies, bone-to-bone contact begins. Whereas cartilage cells have a water-given resilience and can survive the trauma of movement against one another, the hardened bone surfaces produce a friction force against one another. This friction force produces an inflammatory process that destroys
the bone surfaces. Thus osteoarthritis of the joint occurs—a second-stage process to dehydration that first destroys the cartilage surfaces.
Given that osteoarthritis sufferers are so often prescribed painkillers— acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin—I found this recent article particularly interesting. “Link Suggested in Hypertension and Painkillers” is the title given by the New York Times of October 28, 2002, to a report on an article published in the
Archive of Internal Medicine by a group from Harvard Medical School. The study involved more than eighty thousand women between the ages of thirty-one and fifty, who participated in a nurses' health study and were not known to have high
blood pressure at the outset. These people were using painkillers since 1995 and their blood pressures were obtained from a survey two years later. In the two years, 1,650 women had developed hypertension. Women who used acetaminophen (present in Tylenol) and ibuprofen (sold under many different names, including Motrin and Brufen) as their painkiller were 86 percent more susceptible to develop hypertension than the non-users of these brands of pain medication. The article seems to whitewash aspirin and did not involve it in causing hypertension.
I have no idea who funded the research and which company stands to gain from the results of this study. I am perturbed by the shameful limitation of knowledge that exists at one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world—Harvard University—about the variety of ways the human body manifests dehydration. The researchers who conducted the study are oblivious to the fact that pain is one of the crisis calls of the body for water, and that hypertension is the body's adaptive process to the same dehydration—one of its drought-management programs. They do not realize that hypertension and pain are different proclamations of the same problem: water shortage in the body. All that painkillers do is mask one of the localized signals of dehydration until hypertension, the next indicator of generalized drought, reveals itself.
I believe that this is scientifically a more accurate conclusion to the above study: Go and take water, and do not go and take aspirin in preference to acetaminophen. Reading this book, you will be able to see this logic. Who knows, in the future you might even be in a position to save many people from their very drastic health
problems with this simple information.
DEHYDRATION AND DISEASE (click here)
The third category of conditions that denote local dehydration are the major pains of the body. Before dehydration hurts you irreversibly, when your plumlike cells become prunelike, your body will show its urgent need for water through
different types of pain. These pains are the newly understood, drastic ways of showing dehydration.
After much clinical and scientific research, my understanding is that the early indicators of acid burns in the interior of the cells and potential genetic damage that can take place are different forms and intensities of pain. Depending on the degree of dehydration, as well as the extent and the location of acid buildup inside the cells—when greater flow of water should have cleared the acid from that area— the classic pains of the body are produced. They are:
1. Heartburn
2. Dyspeptic pain
3. Anginal pain
4. Lower back pain
5. Rheumatoid joint pain, including ankylosing spondylitis
6. Migraine headaches
7. Colitis pain
8. Fibromyalgic pains
9. Morning sickness during pregnancy
10. Bulimia
Today, there are 110 million Americans who, at certain times, need pain medications to make life bearable. How pain that is not caused by injury or infection can be produced by dehydration is simple to understand. This very simple mechanism of pain production has eluded us in medicine ever since humankind looked for a way to deal with some of the devastating pains of the human body. The drug industry spends billions of dollars researching painkillers, and even more money advertising their particular brand of pain medication. I don't believe the answer is in these medications, however. Dehydration can be cured by water, for free.
PAIN
To understand the mechanism of pain production in the body, we first need to learn about the way the acid-alkaline balance in the body works. An acidic environment causes irritation of certain nerve endings in the body. When this irritation occurs, the brain is alerted about the chemical environmental change, which is
translated and manifested as pain to the conscious mind. In other words, it is the acidity in the interior of the body that causes pain.
THE pH EQUATION & HEALTH
ACCORDING TO MANY HEALTH RESEARCHERS, TOTAL HEALING OF CHRONIC ILLNESS TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN AND IF THE BLOOD IS RESTORED TO A NORMAL, SLIGHTLY ALKALINE pH 7.35. IN CASE YOU MISED IT, LET ME SAY IT AGAIN ...
TOTAL HEALING OF CHRONIC ILLNESS TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN AND IF THE BLOOD IS RESTORED TO A NORMAL, SLIGHTLY ALKALINE pH .
THE MAGNITUDE OF MEANING BEHIND THIS RESEARCH IS OF INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE TO SOMEONE WHO IS FIGHTING A DISEASE, OVERCOMING AN ILLNESS, OR JUST DESIRING TO FEEL BETTER. WHAT IT MEANS IS THIS ... YOUR BODY pH AFFECT EVERYTHING.
HUMAN BODY STAYS IN A VERY NARROW pH RANGE RIGHT AROUND 7.3. BELOW OR ABOVE THIS RANGE MEANS SYMPTOMS AND DISEASE.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, MICROBIAL LOOKING FROMS, IN THE BLOOD CAN CHANGE SHAPE, MUTATE, MIRROR PATHOGENICITY, AND GROW. THAT IS HOW CANCERS STARTED OFF IN BLOOD CELLS, IN ACIDIC pH.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, ENZYMES THAT ARE CONSTRUCTIVE BECOME DESTRUCTIVE.
WHEN pH GOES OFF, OXYGEN DELIVERY TO CELLS SUFFERS.
A pH of 7 is neutral. The lower the pH, the more acidic the blood. A variety of factors affect blood pH including what is ingested, vomiting, diarrhea, lung function, endocrine function, kidney function, and urinary tract infection. The normal blood pH is tightly regulated between 7.35 and 7.45.
Is the blood alkaline or acidic?
A pH of 0 is totally acidic, while a pH of 14 is completely alkaline. A pH of 7 is neutral. Those levels vary throughout your body. Your blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45. OUTSIDE OF THIS RANGE , THE ENZYMES CANNOT DO THEIR WORK.
Figure 8.1: Nerve endings register the chemical environmental change with the brain. The brain translates the information for the conscious mind in the form of pain.
Normally, when blood that contains an ample amount of water circulates around the cells of the body, some of the water goes into the cells and brings out hydrogen molecules. Water washes the acidity out of the cell and makes the cell interior alkaline—an absolutely essential and normal state. For optimum health, the body should maintain an alkaline state— pH 7.4 is the desired level.
Why 7.4, and what is pH?
The relationship between acid and alkaline is scientifically measured on a scale of 1 to 14. This scale is known as pH. From 1 to 7 on this scale is the acid range, 1 being more acid than 7. From 7 to 14 on the scale is the alkaline range; 7 is less alkaline than 14. On the pH scale, 7 is neutral, meaning optimum. Thus, pH 7.4 of the interior of the cell denotes its natural, slightly alkaline state. This state promotes health because it is the state that best suits the enzymes that function inside the cell: They achieve optimum efficiency at this pH. Adequate flow of water in and out of the cell keeps the cell interior in its health-maintaining, alkaline state.
You have probably seen historic monuments and buildings with artistic statues and carved masonry that have been damaged by pigeons perching on them and smearing them with their droppings. Bird excrement is highly acidic and eats into the stone. In time, the statues and carvings lose their features and definition. The DNA in the nucleus inside the cells of the body is alkaline and, like stone buildings, is also sensitive to the corrosive effects of acidity.
In our bodies, the kidneys mop up excess hydrogen ions—which cause acidity—from the blood and excrete them through the urine that is formed. The more urine that is produced, the more easily the body keeps its interior alkaline. This is why clear urine is an indicator of an efficient acid-clearing mechanism, and dark yellow or orange urine is an ominous sign of impending acid burns in the interior of the body. People who consider having to pass urine more than two or three times a day inconvenient, and do not drink water so that they do not have to urinate more than they can help, are ignorant of how they are hurting their bodies.
The brain is better protected against acid buildup by the fact that it gets priority for delivery of water for all its needs. The rest of the body may not be so fortunate when dehydration establishes in the body and settles in one or another part for a long period of time. With persistent dehydration, however, the brain, too, becomes damaged from acidity in the cells—hence conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease.
Some Specific Pains of Dehydration
As has been explained in the preceding chapters, a large number of medical conditions are caused by the fact that we become unknowingly dehydrated until the body begins to manifest its water shortage in some bizarre but unmistakable ways. Naturally, it is not possible to address all of the ramifications of the many “diseases” of the human body that are produced by dehydration in one book. However, I will try to explain some of the more prevalent ones—beginning with the gastrointestinal pains—in sufficient detail as to leave no doubt in your mind that dehydration is their cause.
HEARTBURN OR DYSPEPTIC PAINS
Heartburn or dyspeptic pains are among the most important thirst pains of the human body. Heartburn is the early stage of a gradually intensifying pain that is called dyspeptic pain and eventually peptic ulcer pain. It is felt in the upper part of the abdomen. It can reach an intensity that can incapacitate the person and mimic an acute crisis that requires surgery. Dyspeptic pains, labeled “gastritis,” “duodenitis,” “esophagitis,” “heartburn,” and “indigestion after eating,” should be treated by only an increase in water intake. When there is associated tissue damage or ulceration, changes to the daily diet that enhance the rate of repair of the ulcer site
become necessary. In the above advanced stages of local damage, dyspeptic pain is still a direct signal of dehydration. The ulceration is the product of a protein metabolism disturbance caused by the same stressful and long-lasting dehydration.
In the same way we recognize our hunger pain, the human body also has a thirst pain. We almost always confuse our thirst pain for a signal of food shortage—hence overeating. When this same signal follows a meal, we call it dyspepsia or heartburn, and sufferers are often urged by their doctors and
the media to take some form of medication to relieve the pain. After a number of years from the onset of this upper abdominal pain, depending on many other factors, an ulcer may develop. In the interim, the health state is classified as gastritis or duodenitis, until the ulcer develops.
In recent years, because a bacterium called helicobacter is sometimes found in the site of ulcerations, the ulcerations are assumed to be infectious in origin and are treated with antibiotics. However, helicobacter has been recognized to be part of the natural flora—a healthy bacterium—and it lives in the intestines of almost all animals. It seems not to cause an infection in host animals. Labeling peptic ulcer disease as an “infectious condition,” in my opinion, provides another opportunity for commercialism in medicine to thrive.
Because we do not recognize heartburn as a signal of body thirst, its significance is not understood until an ulcer develops. However, the consequences of this chronic dehydration do not confine themselves to the stomach and intestine. There are many associated health problems that will gradually reveal themselves.
Everyone should be alert to heartburn as a major thirst pain of the body, which can occur at all ages.
In some, the sensation of thirst may not at first be signaled by severe pain; it may initially be felt as a discomfort in the upper part of the abdomen. In others, the pain may be so severe that an inexperienced clinician might think of it as indicative of a surgical condition and may even perform exploratory surgery and not find any physical sign of a disease. Sometimes the pain is felt around the appendix area and mimics appendicitis. Physicians should consider this type of thirst pain signal when making a diagnosis associated with lower abdominal pains. In some people, the severe pain might be felt on the left side, over the large intestine, and is often identified as colitis. This pain, too, should initially be considered as a thirst signal. If it is not relieved after one or two glasses of water, and not completely gone in a few days of increased water intake, then other local pathology may have to be investigated. It must be remembered that it takes a few days of increased daily water intake before chronic cellular dehydration can be partially reduced.
The conscious mind has a problem with recognizing the body's water needs. Full and adequate hydration of the body depends on the sharpness of its thirst perception. Unfortunately, as it ages, the body gradually loses its ability to recognize its dehydration. Elderly people can become chronically dehydrated, even if there is plenty of drinking water available, because they fail to recognize their extreme thirst. The more the body becomes dehydrated, the more the brain's water-regulating chemicals—histamine and its subordinate local officers—become engaged in their water-shunting and -rationing responsibilities.
A Typical Case History
J. B., a company administrative secretary, developed peptic ulcer disease when she was thirty-three years old. The usual medications—antacids that neutralize the acid in the stomach—could not give relief. Stronger prescription medications (which are actually very strong histamine-blocking agents that temporarily stop acid production in the stomach) would at best partially relieve her symptoms of severe dyspeptic pain. On and off, the disease recurred several times a year for a number of years. On a number of occasions, she had to seek her doctor's advice for her stress and ulcer pains on a weekly basis.
A few years ago, during one of these periods of persistent stomach pains that seemed reluctant to yield to the effect of very strong medications, her doctor— with much caution—told her that severe peptic ulcer pain seemed to have been
satisfactorily relieved with ordinary tap water. J. B. was encouraged to increase her water intake anytime she developed stomach pain to see is this could be effective. The treatment worked. For a number of years now, J. B. has followed this advice.
With the slightest indication of her pain coming back, an increase in her daily intake of water makes it disappear. As a result of a program of drinking eight glasses of water a day, J. B. no longer suffers from ulcer pains. She has no more need for any medication other than the water she now drinks regularly to pre-vent the pains from recurring.
The explanation for the occurrence of heartburn as a signal of water deficiency is very simple. When we drink water, it is immediately passed into the intestine and absorbed. It seems that, within a half hour, it is once again secreted into the stomach from the base of the dents in the mucosa. One of the major events that take place is a backwash of the mucus layer that expands and stores naturally secreted bicarbonate that neutralizes the acid on its surface.
For the cells under it, the mucus layer lining the stomach is a protective insulation against the acid, which is poured on food for the process of digestion. This backwash of the mucus by the water we drink is an essential part of the maintenance of the protective system of the stomach wall. Water flowing through the
mucus layer brings about the expansion and thickening of this protective layer in the stomach. Mucus is 98 percent water and 2 percent scaffolding that holds the water in place. The water in turn dissolves the bicarbonate that acts as the buffer for the acid that will try to pass through the mucus. This is a constantly active process. Dehydration alters the consistency of the mucus barrier, rendering it ineffective as a buffer against the acid in the stomach. It allows the acid to go through and reach the cells below, thus causing pain—“heartburn.”
Figure 8.2: Schematic drawing of the shape of the stomach and its mucus layer. A hydrated mucus barrier is uniform in consistency and prevents acid penetration. Dehydrated mucus becomes stringy and allows acid penetration.
HIATAL HERNIA AND HEARTBURN
A dome-shaped muscle called the diaphragm separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. It is attached to the rib cage and to some of the lower vertebrae of the spine. At the back of the diaphragm, where it is attached to the spine, is an opening through which the esophagus and the main blood vessels pass. This opening is called the hiatus and it acts as a “purse-string” gate. It is composed of a band of overlapping muscle that keeps the gate closed. It relaxes only when food is passing through the esophagus in the chest cavity to enter the stomach, which is normally positioned below the diaphragm in the abdomen. The automatic opening and closing of the gate is synchronized with the flow of food through the esophagus. When food is not passing through, the gate is closed and the chest cavity is well separated from the abdomen and its contents. In some people, the gate becomes lax and its opening less firm. In these people, the upper part of the stomach may bulge or become herniated through the hiatus and shift into the chest cavity—hence hiatal hernia. The reason why the hiatal gate becomes lax is chronic dehydration.
From its opening in the mouth to the orifice of the rectum, the intestinal tract is a long tube that has developed special characteristics in different segments along its length. The intestinal tract works like a conveyor belt that pushes its contents downstream. The intestinal tract can also reverse the direction of its waves and push its contents upward. This process is involved when the contents of the stomach must not go downstream and must be forced out of the body— heralded by nausea and then vomiting.
The esophagus is a long tube that carries food and fluids into the stomach, which is situated in the abdomen. The stomach is a pouch that produces acid and protein-breaking enzymes that liquefy the solid foods we eat. The duodenum is the segment of the small intestine that connects to the stomach and is separated from it by a special gate called the pyloric valve. In the duodenum, the pancreatic enzymes are secreted along with a watery bicarbonate solution to further digest the liquefied food from the stomach and neutralize the acid that gets into the intestine. The stomach has a protective mucus coating on its mucosa that prevents the acidfrom damaging it (figure 8.2). The duodenum does not have the same protective mucus coating to defend it against the acid from the stomach. It depends on the watery bicarbonate secretion from the pancreas to do the job. In dehydration, the quantity of the watery bicarbonate solution made by the pancreas is insufficient to
deal with all the acid that is going to reach the duodenum. There comes a point where, if the entire acidic contents of the stomach were to enter the small intestine (the duo-denum), its mucosa would be irreparably damaged.
Figure 8.3: Pancreas where watery bicarbonate solution is manufactured and secreted into duodenum.
Inside the pyloric valve are sensors—like spokes of a wheel that stick out when the stomach contents are passed into the duodenum—that register the consistency and the acidity of the stomach contents. Only if the acidity of the stomach
contents can be neutralized completely by the amount of the alkaline secretion from the pancreas will the pyloric valve open and allow the stomach contents to enter the intestine. What goes through is proportionate to the amount that can be neutralized. At a crisis stage of dehydration, when heartburn or dyspeptic pain is also produced, the high acidity in the stomach cannot go into the intestine. It cannot stay in the stomach for long, either.
In this situation, some of the acidic contents of the stomach can bubble upward, particularly when you are lying down. This is when you feel the discomfort of heartburn. At the same time, the upper part of the stomach can also slide through the hiatal valve into the chest cavity. You might have to vomit to get rid of the stomach contents, or get sufficient antacid treatment to suppress the symptoms. Nonetheless, the diagnosis of hiatal hernia will stick. Given sufficient water every day, the situation can reverse itself and the pain and hernia can disappear.
Bulimia
I am sure you are very sympathetic to people who have been given the label of “bulimic.” These people eat and then throw up whatever they have eaten. The most famous bulimic was probably the late Princess Diana. Bulimia sufferers are constantly hungry, and are also depressed and
antisocial, as seems to have been the case
with Princess Diana throughout her private and married life.
There is a belief among pundits who profess to understand bulimia, that the whole problem is caused by an undercurrent of psychological issues within the thought processes of bulimics. Since more women suffer from the problem than men, it is assumed that the act of eating and then
throwing up whatever has been eaten is
a measure to remain thin. I disagree.
Uncontrollable and repeated vomiting of the stomach contents, which has been given the medical labels of “heartburn” or “bulimia,” could be one of the ways the body prevents irreparable damage when it is severely dehydrated. When it is said that bulimics feel hungry all the time, there is confusion. As far as I am concerned, they are confusing their sensation of thirst with the sensation of hunger. When they should be drinking water, they eat. Naturally, the body rejects the food because it does not possess enough water to digest and assimilate the food. This is the reason why bulimics grow so thin. The same dehydration can also be responsible for some of the emotional and psycho-logical changes in these people.
I met Amir in the prison where I started to research the impact of water on the treatment of peptic ulcer disease. For more than ten years, on and off, he had been suffering from heartburn. During the flare-up phase of the problem, he would routinely vomit in his sleep—so forcefully that part of his stomach contents would jet out of his nose. Often he could not clear out of his bed in time to avoid making a mess. You can imagine he had difficulty sleeping during these times. Because none of the regular medications could stop such vomiting, he had taken it for granted that his problem was incurable.
I asked him to drink a full glass of water a half hour before his food and increase his daily water intake. As simply as you read these lines, his heartburn disappeared and never came back while he was in the prison with me.
Let me share with you the human side of Amir's story. It is interesting that in his immediate family, his daughter, his wife, and his brother had similar problems— heartburn that culminated in vomiting when the disease flared up. At this time in the life of the family, when there was a lot of fear that Amir might not get out of prison anytime soon, none of them was in a good state of health. They were stressed beyond words. They would travel for miles every week to see Amir. They would wait outside the prison walls for hours, in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter, to have a ten- to fifteen-minute visitation.
On one of these occasions, he shared with them the fact that increased water intake had cured him of his “disease.” He was jubilant that now his family could do the same. One by one they got rid of their devastating heartburn and the social complications of the problem they had experienced for many years. Luck was with
Amir. He was released unexpectedly. Before he left, he came to me and thanked me for what I had done for him. He told me, “It was worth coming to prison to get cured of my disease.”
The Danger of Antacids
Antacids that contain aluminum can be dangerous. They should not be freely used for dyspepsia that responds simply to an increase in water intake. Excess aluminum in the circulation has been strongly implicated as a precipitating factor in Alzheimer's-type diseases. It is imperative to understand the relationship between taking antacids for a long period and their possible toxic
side effects, the local brain damage and plaques seen in Alzheimer's disease a number of years later. Plaques are tangled masses of tissue that contain high aluminum deposits. Fortunately, the drug industry in America is now producing some antacids that do not contain aluminum.
Zinc is a very important metal for genetic transcription and manufacture of important hormones and brain chemicals. Metals have a special transport system across cell membranes. If aluminum is carried across into brain cells in place of zinc, much damage will occur. Although the body can repair and replace cells in most tissues or organs, brain cells are not regenerated or replaced. They die and leave a cyst, or are replaced by fibrous tissue—the sort of pathology seen in Alzheimer's disease.
The older antacids on the market contained between 60 and 150 milligrams of aluminum per spoonful of the liquid. It had been assumed the body cannot absorb this metal; it acts locally in the stomach. However, the fact that aluminum is found in high concentration in the brain tissue of those suffering from Alzheimer's disease should make us aware that a high intake of aluminum over a long period can lead to some absorption of the metal—enough to cause damage at some point.
When the body becomes gradually dehydrated as a result of the loss of its thirst sensation, to the extent that it develops dyspeptic pain as a thirst signal, many of the functions of the body are already affected. The most affected is the brain itself. Although the brain cells themselves are fully developed, the nerve system—the
“wire works”—can become damaged in dehydration. The most affected part will be the connection points in the wire system. There is much regeneration going on at these interconnections, which are constantly used. In Alzheimer's disease, these interconnections are tangled, and a great deal of aluminium seems to be
deposited at these points.
Another problem in most neurological disorders— such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)—seen on MRI brain scans is widespread plaques over the brain tissue. This phenomenon will be explained later.
In Guam, where many aluminum deposits are to be found in the soil, the drinking water at one time had high levels of aluminum contamination. During this time, an Alzheimer's-type disease was prevalent on the island, with even the younger population being affected. When the aluminum contamination was removed from the source of drinking water, the rate of Alzheimer's-type
disease among the population decreased. Thus, there seems to be a correlation between Alzheimer's-type disease and aluminum poisoning.
The Disadvantages of Antihistamine Medications
It has been learned that histamine production is involved in allergies and pain. The opportunity to immediately commercialize this significant finding has resulted in the production of a number of different antihistamine medications. Histamine, however, is an agent that has many useful functions. It operates the main brain
sensory system for water intake, distribution, and rationing. It is also a strong regulator of energy expenditure in the body. When the body is well supplied with water, the activity of histamine is confined to its local actions of shunting the circulation to bring water to the more active parts of the body, especially the central nervous system.
If the brain has to be very active and needs more circulation, histamine kicks into action. This can have the effect of producing acid in the stomach, causing heartburn, a primary thirst signal. Antihistamines, which temporarily suppress the pain-producing action of histamine in the intestinal tract, will over time cause damage because they do not correct for the basic problem of dehydration. At the same time, antihistamines can suppress brain activity. They also reduce libido and can cause some male hormonal imbalance and enlargement of the breasts in men.
In the elderly, they may cause confusion and disorientation.
Pain, at first, is a peripheral marker of thirst. Ultimately, and if allowed to continue, pain becomes the main brain marker for the same thirst. At the early phase of pain, some substances may blunt the peripheral marker and silence the thirst signal, such as antacids, food, or even
histamine-blocking agents. But at a certain
threshold of dehydration, the brain-initiated pain is not fooled by the action of locally acting medication, food, or indeed anything other than water that must be delivered into the stomach.Let me tell you the story of a young man. This case stands out as an example of the brain marker for dehydration of the body. I reported this case in my editorial article in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in June 1983. I have seen a number of similar cases.
I had the occasion to visit late one evening a young man in his twenties. He had a long history of peptic ulcer disease. Ten hours earlier, he had developed classic upper abdominal pain. His symptoms became more severe as time passed. He had taken almost a full bottle of antacid and three Tagamet tablets with no effect. The pain persisted. When I saw him, he was in such severe pain that he lay on the floor of the room curled up, groaning, eyes shut, and not alert to his environment. He seemed to be semiconscious. When I spoke to him, he did not seem to hear. I
had to shake him to get a response. When I asked him what was the matter, he told me: “My ulcer is killing me.” I examined him for a perforated ulcer, which fortunately he did not have. I made him drink two large glasses of water. It took him about ten minutes to feel some relief. A third glass of water was given to him fifteen minutes after the first two drinks. By now he was obviously in much less pain. Twenty minutes after the initial intake of water he had recovered completely, to the point that he sat up and began talking to the people around him.
This patient and his friends had observed the pain-relieving miracles hidden in a glassful of water. The clinical evaluation of this case indicates that the human body has a central nervous system pain signal for water deficiency. In the past, many such cases must have ended up on the operating tables of overzealous surgeons (I am sure some still do). It was also my experience and observation that some of these centrally produced pains for thirst occur in the area of the appendix, on the lower right side of the abdomen. I have had occasion to demonstrate the diagnostic value of a glass of water in doubtful and atypical cases of pain in the lower parts of the abdomen, such as in the case of Joy on page 119.
Eventually a dehydration-induced dyspeptic pain signal may graduate to a more advanced stage of complication, involving tryptophan. Tryptophan is an essential amino acid of the body (discussed under essential amino acids in chapter 14). In prolonged dehydration, it seems to become depleted from the body reserves. This amino acid is a prominent player in the repair systems of the body, as well as being the primary material for formation of a number of neurotransmitters that also suppress pain. If water by itself does not alleviate dyspeptic pain, an alteration in diet to increase the intake of natural foods that contain sufficient tryptophan for the needs of the body becomes essential. For more detail, read the section on tryptophan.
COLITIS PAIN
The origin of this pain was discussed in the section on constipation in chapter 7. There is no harm in saying a few words here, now that we are discussing the major pains of the body. Pain in the left lower region of the abdomen, often identified as colitis pain, seems to respond to an increase in daily water intake. Water plays an integral role in the digestion process. For the final products of food digestion to pass through the intestine, the lubricating property of water is essential. At the same time, the lower region of the large intestine in particular is responsible for final absorption of water from the excrement. This process becomes more operative at the time of dehydration. There is a central control for the peristaltic contractions of the intestine at the time of food digestion and its passage through the intestine. When there is dehydration, the normal peristalsis is reduced and a tighter
contraction to squeeze the water from the solid matter seems to become necessary. This process causes pain. If two or three glasses of water are taken, particularly first thing in the morning, the pain should disappear, if the original cause of pain is dehydration and not other, more serious, conditions. At the same time, the associated constipation should subside and movement of the bowels will become regular and normal.
HEADACHES AND MIGRAINE
As mentioned, the brain is very sensitive to the dehydration and heat regulation of the body. The brain cannot endure overheating. Its enzyme systems are very sensitive to temperature fluctuations. When there is water shortage in the body and there is potential for getting dehydrated or getting overheated because of too many
bedcovers at night, the brain establishes a priority for itself, at the expense of the other tissues of the body. It allows more blood to flow through its vascular system. The blood vessels to the brain—the carotid arteries—take root from the main
artery of the heart, the aorta. The carotid arteries supply blood to the scalp, face, and tongue before they pass into the skull to supply the brain. When the command for increased supply of blood to the brain forces these arteries to dilate, the circulation to the face and the scalp also increases. This is the reason why some headaches begin with strongly pulsating arteries around the temples.
The brain capillary system is under the direct influence of histamine on its receptors. Histamine, apart from its direct water-regulatory responsibilities to the brain, is also involved in temperature regulation of the body. It has two cooling functions. It lowers the core temperature of the body and is also involved in facilitating perspiration and sweating to help cool the body.
Histamine that is released because of the brain's concern for its dehydration or overheating activates certain systems to promote more circulation to correct the problem. When there is dehydration in the brain area—whether it is caused by insufficient intake of water, stress, alcohol, or overheating of the body—the action of histamine causes the pain we know as a headache or migraine. To alleviate this type of pain, two, three, even four glasses of water may have to be taken. The water should be cool in order to allow a better circulation of the diluted blood to the brain area. It is interesting to note that all normal painkillers cut the connection between histamine and one of its major subordinate systems. It is my understanding that migraine is a centrally produced signal for dehydration and overheating of the brain. This is the reason most painkillers do not work for migraine headaches.
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PAIN
The separation of lower back pain from rheumatoid joint pains elsewhere in the body is inaccurate. The mechanism of pain production in these joint conditions seems to be the same. They denote the same physiological phenomenon in the body. The separation of these two problems in the medical industry seems to be a matter of convenience for the involvement of different subspecialties. For the one, you go to a rheumatologist; for the other, to an orthopedic surgeon or chiropractor. The outcome is the same—pain management rather than a cure. Basically, both conditions have the same pathology, except they are in different locations.
About fifty million Americans—two hundred thousand of them children—are said to suffer some sort of arthritis pain, and some thirty million suffer back pain. Each year a few million are said to be functionally disabled from back pain. In the United States, it is estimated that sixteen billion dollars is spent annually on back pain treatment, and a further eighty billion dollars is lost in productivity and wages as a result of back pain. These commonly quoted statistics, even if partially accurate, indicate a devastating problem for the American people.
New Insight into the Phenomenon of Joint Pains
In chronically painful joint conditions of the lower spine or joints of the hands and legs, the actual recurring pain is a signal of water deficiency in the area where pain is felt. The pain occurs because there is not enough water circulation to wash out local acidity and toxic substances. These regional joint pains are part of a series of newly understood crisis thirst signals of the body. Where the pain is felt depends on where the localized drought has settled in.
Lower back pain has two components: one, muscle spasm (this is the cause of 80 percent of back pains); two, disc degeneration that puts added strain on the tendons and ligaments in the spinal column. Both of these back-pain-causing
conditions are initiated by the same chronic dehydration. With the new information about the emergency calls of the body for water, there is no reason why back and joint pains should continue to devastate our bodies. We now have the insight and knowledge about why these pains occur, and how to prevent them. More detailed information on these two topics is available in my book How to Deal with Back Pain and Rheumatoid Joint Pain and my videotape How to Deal with Back Pain.
All joint surfaces possess cartilage padding, which covers and separates the bone structures in the joint. This firm layer of cartilage contains a vast quantity of water, which provides it with the ability to glide over the opposing cartilage surface and aids the necessary lubrication for the joint movements. Thus, prolonged dehydration that leaves the cartilage short of water will produce a greater friction and shearing stress at the cartilage contact points in the joint.
Intelligence Behind the Design of the Body
When cartilage is dehydrated, its gliding ability is decreased. The cartilage cells sense their dehydration and give out alarm signals of pain, because they would soon die and peel off from their contact surfaces of the bones if used in their dehydrated state. The normal environment of cartilage is alkaline. In dehydration, it becomes acidic. This acidity sensitizes the nerve endings that register pain. This type of pain has to be treated with a regular increase in water intake until the cartilage is fully hydrated and washed of its acidity and toxins. Often the pain travels from joint to joint; sometimes it appears in the corresponding joints in the other limb at the same time. Chronic pains have two components: peripheral and brain-generated pains. Locally initiated pain is relieved by analgesics, such as aspirin or Tylenol, but brain-level pain is not. Both pains are relieved by the intake of adequate water.
Cartilage is a gelatinous living tissue; its cells like to live in an alkaline environment. The alkalinity of the medium depends on the amount of water that flows through the cartilage to wash the acid away. Salt helps extract the acidity from inside the cartilage cells and pass it into the water, which carries the acid away. This is a constant process. For this process to be effective, two elements are vital: water and salt. Adequate salt supply is essential for the prevention of arthritis pain, be it in the joints of the limbs or the spine. It is the salt level in the serum that increases the fluid volume for its more abundant flow through the cartilage.
What Happens to a Dehydrated Joint?
Cartilage cells die at a fast pace because of the constant abrasive friction in the dehydrated joint. These cells need to be replaced. When there is damage to the cartilage because of its overuse and under-repair, the sensors in the area begin to indicate a desperate need for urgent repair. An attempt is made to supply water to the cartilage cells from the blood supply. This action supplies some lubrication inside the joint, but is not effective in maintaining the rate of cartilage growth to replace the dead tissue. In the lining of the joint capsule are cells that can secrete local hormones to stimulate repair activity at the same time that they begin to produce pain. Several things happen when these hormones are secreted:
1. The dying tissue is broken up from inside the cells and the broken fragments are extruded. They are ingested by white cells—the “garbage collectors”— and are recycled.
2. More blood circulation is brought to the affected area, and this results in swelling and stretching in the joint capsule, which causes stiffness and, eventually, added pain.
3. There is an associated protein breakdown, and more amino acids are mobilized for the pool that may be needed for the repair of the damage.
4. In the inflammatory environment inside the joint, some white cells begin to manufacture hydrogen per-oxide and ozone for two purposes: one, to keep the joint space sterilized and to prevent bacteria from infecting the joint cavity; two, to supply with adequate oxygen the cells that are engaged in the repair process and have less access to the blood oxygen.
5. There is a local remodeling growth factor that promotes the growth of tissue, causing the typical gnarled joints of arthritis.
6. Knowledge gained by the brain from its ongoing experience is put to use for the rest of the body. The remodeling and fortification—gnarling, deformity—of other similarly structured joints will also be carried out. This seems to be the reason rheumatoid joints of the hands show a mirror-image inflammation and eventual gnarling of the joints on both sides.
LOWER BACK PAIN
As mentioned earlier, lower back pain has two components—muscle spasm that causes pain, and disc degeneration that puts strain on the tendons and ligaments in the spinal column. Lower back pain indicates exactly the same problem that was explained regarding rheumatoid joint pains of the hands, except the circulation system to the spinal disc space is difficult, and the disc core depends on the creation of an intermittent vacuum in the disc space. This natural process is a component of the walking movement. Of course, the body must be well-hydrated for water to
leave the circulation and enter the disc spaces.
In the spinal column, the weight of the body is supported by twenty-three discs and twenty-four vertebrae. The discs are housed between plates of cartilage that cover opposing flat surfaces of the vertebrae. The end-plate cartilage attached to its flat weight-bearing surfaces is part of the structure of each vertebra. During the movement of each vertebra, the disc is meant to glide minimally between the end-plate cartilage located on its upper and lower surfaces. Seventy-five percent of the weight of the upper body mass is supported by the hydraulic properties of the discs that absorb and hold water in their central cores. In a dehydrated state, when the body mass constantly squeezes out the water content of the discs during movement and bending, not enough of the lost water can be replaced. The dehydrated discs with their shrunken cores gradually become less supportive of the weight of the body. The discs lose their wedge quality, and the spinal joints become less firm. In a well-hydrated and taut state, on the other hand, the discs themselves do not physically move, but get continuously squeezed of water and then, through force of vacuum, absorb water again and expand to function as the natural shock absorbers they are designed to be.
In a dehydrated state, the discs can shift backward to press on the local nerves. When this happens in the lower spinal region, the pain becomes projected into one or the other leg. This is called sciatic pain and is far more serious than local pain in the back. It means the spinal joint structure has become so disorganized that one
of the discs that has to shock-absorb for the spine is out of its normal position and is pressing on the nerve. Dehydration and bad posture are involved in this condition. For more information, and to learn a new technique for the reduction of the disc displacement and relief from sciatic pain, I encourage you to refer to my book
How to Deal with Back Pain and Rheumatoid Joint Pain.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
When the cartilage in the joint dies, bone-to-bone contact begins. Whereas cartilage cells have a water-given resilience and can survive the trauma of movement against one another, the hardened bone surfaces produce a friction force against one another. This friction force produces an inflammatory process that destroys
the bone surfaces. Thus osteoarthritis of the joint occurs—a second-stage process to dehydration that first destroys the cartilage surfaces.
Given that osteoarthritis sufferers are so often prescribed painkillers— acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and aspirin—I found this recent article particularly interesting. “Link Suggested in Hypertension and Painkillers” is the title given by the New York Times of October 28, 2002, to a report on an article published in the
Archive of Internal Medicine by a group from Harvard Medical School. The study involved more than eighty thousand women between the ages of thirty-one and fifty, who participated in a nurses' health study and were not known to have high
blood pressure at the outset. These people were using painkillers since 1995 and their blood pressures were obtained from a survey two years later. In the two years, 1,650 women had developed hypertension. Women who used acetaminophen (present in Tylenol) and ibuprofen (sold under many different names, including Motrin and Brufen) as their painkiller were 86 percent more susceptible to develop hypertension than the non-users of these brands of pain medication. The article seems to whitewash aspirin and did not involve it in causing hypertension.
I have no idea who funded the research and which company stands to gain from the results of this study. I am perturbed by the shameful limitation of knowledge that exists at one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world—Harvard University—about the variety of ways the human body manifests dehydration. The researchers who conducted the study are oblivious to the fact that pain is one of the crisis calls of the body for water, and that hypertension is the body's adaptive process to the same dehydration—one of its drought-management programs. They do not realize that hypertension and pain are different proclamations of the same problem: water shortage in the body. All that painkillers do is mask one of the localized signals of dehydration until hypertension, the next indicator of generalized drought, reveals itself.
I believe that this is scientifically a more accurate conclusion to the above study: Go and take water, and do not go and take aspirin in preference to acetaminophen. Reading this book, you will be able to see this logic. Who knows, in the future you might even be in a position to save many people from their very drastic health
problems with this simple information.
DEHYDRATION AND DISEASE (click here)
No comments:
Post a Comment