Letter from Andrew J Bauman to Dr F Batmanghelidj

 Water Cures

A letter from Andrew J Bauman to Dr F Batmanghelidj

My name is Andrew J Bauman IV, and I am 42 years young, yet at age 34 I felt and looked like I was at least 44! Most of my life has been spent battling illness and disease, whereas now I celebrate each moment of each day with a renewed vigour and vitality. I used to be chronically dehydrated and now I know better.

I was born on October 29, 1956, in Taylor, Pennsylvania. My parents lovingly cared for me – including having me vaccinated. I was reared on infant formula and later cereal, juices, and a small amount of water when I would cry from colic. After my first polio vaccine, I became mysteriously paralysed from the waist down. Specialists were puzzled yet diagnosed ‘aborted polio’. It left as suddenly as it appeared. When I received a booster dose of the vaccine at around age 5 in first grade, the paralysis returned. Months of hospitalisation and bed rest resulted in my gaining weight. I mostly ate my meals and had visitors, drank soda and some water now and then – and once again the paralysis disappeared.

Allergies and asthma
When I began third grade – around eight years old – my allergic afflictions and symptoms had begun. I had problems with frequent dry coughs. I began experiencing some difficulties with breathing, itchy and watery eyes, and fatigue when I was around fresh-cut lawns from springtime until autumn. When I was a junior in high school, I experienced blackouts from allergies. Sometime around 1979, I saw a specialist who did testing and diagnosed me with allergies and asthma. I was treated with allergy shots and inhalers. The treatments just seemed to make things worse. My lips were always dry and cracked. At that time of my life I was drinking about 2 to 4 cups of coffee per day along with a few glasses of soda and some tea and alcohol. I would have an occasional glass of water during the day. The allergies and asthma stayed with me until 1996 when my water intake was up to about two to three quarts a day. I no longer struggle with allergies or asthma.

Diabetes
My problems with diabetes began at age 14. I was diagnosed as an insulin-dependent or ‘juvenile diabetic'. It was then that I began drinking diet beverages, including those with caffeine. My water intake at that time was still only around 2 to 4 glasses a day and I was drinking tea and started drinking coffee. The diabetes resulted in many hospitalisations over the years. By the mid-1980s I had problems with diabetic neuropathy, which was causing my legs to swell. I was scheduled to have dye injected into my legs to perform a diagnostic scan after a Doppler radar study showed some apparent blockages in the veins in my legs. The dye injections caused my veins to burst, which made the swelling get worse. I was then diagnosed with ‘venous insufficiency'. In 1994, I was told that my legs would probably have to be removed within a year or so.

While attempting to get on a diabetic insulin supply trial, the initial examination revealed that the retinas in my eyes had grown blood vessels that were bleeding (diabetic retinopathy). I began receiving a series of laser surgeries over the next 15 years to attempt to seal the leaky vessels and to attempt to prevent any new vessel growth. This reduced my peripheral and night vision. In 1992, I developed an enlarged yet benign prostate gland and my kidneys began showing signs of deterioration. In 1993, I began experiencing some potency difficulties. In 1994, I began seeing a natural or homeopathic physician who, besides treating me with alternative medicine, advised me to increase my water intake. My intake of insulin was around 95 units of insulin daily.

Frequent infections
In 1976, many immune system problems began developing. I developed infectious mononucleosis [glandular fever]. In 1979, during one of my then frequent hospital stays, I was diagnosed with ‘mono' again! The doctors insisted that I shouldn't have ‘mono' again and began consulting with specialists. I received an influenza vaccine and was discharged – only to be readmitted a day later with a fever of 106 degrees F. I was undergoing many tests, however nothing much was showing up at that time. After many tests for severe abdominal pain, I was told that I grew a second spleen that was attached to my spleen and that the second one was also functioning. That year I was visiting someone and drank unpasteurised milk and ended up in the hospital again with a bacterial infection of the intestinal tract. ‘Brucellosis and Proteus OX-19’ was the diagnosis and I was on yet more antibiotics.

During 1980 or 1981, I developed another case of ‘mono’ and was admitted to the hospital again; diabetic control problems were a constant battle for me. An infectious disease specialist discovered that a number of special antibodies against foreign agents were also affected, which the doctors suggested were related to the problems with my allergies and asthma, as well as my frequent infections.

A plethora of problems
The 1980s were filled with many hospitalisations, illnesses, job losses, and stress-related problems. It was then that I was diagnosed with allergies to penicillin and tetracycline, began developing hypertension, was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, lymphoid hyperplasia (overstressed immune system), arthritis, bursitis, fibromyalgia, acid reflux problems, and bowel problems. I also developed a benign tumour on the left flank of my back. I developed a nodule on my thyroid area and was diagnosed with lead, cadmium and aluminium poisoning, which were also found in a landfill I lived near. I was overweight and developed sleep apnoea. Tests showed that I stopped breathing over 300 times in a six-hour period and had ‘narcolepsy'. I could fall asleep in a short period of time. I had surgery to attempt to correct the sleep apnoea, and I wore a tracheotomy tube in my neck to help me breathe at night, and slept with a breathing machine to keep my airway open. During the 80s I still only drank a few glasses of water daily, yet consumed large amounts of coffee, saccharine, and eventually NutraSweet. In 1987, I was declared ‘disabled’.

In 1992, at 36 years old, I looked and felt like I was in my late forties and felt worse than I looked. I began using natural supplements with vitamins, herbs, and other natural medical techniques. The natural doctor's advice was to increase my water consumption and decrease my caffeine intake as well. I had lost the feeling in my feet, was always tired and achy, depressed, and had little hope.

Cancer
I began to drink more water and reduced my caffeine intake somewhat, and by 1995 I began to feel and look much better. Yet I was still only consuming a quart to a quart and a half daily, and not flushing all the caffeine out of my system, nor was I using sea salt.

In September 1995, the lump on my left flank turned red, began itching and enlarging. My family physician removed it and sent it away for study. In October, I was diagnosed with cutaneous B cell lymphoma. Twenty-six new tumours had grown on my back where there was one, and I was sent to a major hospital where I was told that lymphatic cancer on the skin surface was rare and that not much research was done yet on it. I went for a gallium scan and it revealed that my entire body surface glowed positive for cancer cells. The flank of my back was brighter white or ‘hyperpositive’, as was the middle of my chest where two melanomas were previously removed. I was advised to receive localized radiation, and ‘as tumours appeared we would radiate them, too', or I could travel to Philadelphia and have my entire body surface radiated. They began to radiate my back, which began giving me third-degree burns. I refused total body radiation and, midway through my radiation, my homeopathic physician began using a natural cleansing therapy. The cancer specialist had advised me to try anything and to ‘pull out all the stops’ as well as ‘to get my affairs in order'. I increased my water consumption and took supplements and natural treatments.

Water and salt
In November of 1995, while travelling in search of an answer, I was introduced to a man who exposed me to your Water Cure program and advised me to stick to it very seriously to get cured. I now began to seriously increase my water intake, but was still leery of increasing salt intake due to the traditional medical contraindications for its perceived high blood pressure problems. Later I learned of the error of that thinking and began to increase my salt intake, too. In March of 1996, I went for another gallium scan, which revealed that there was not a single sign of cancer glowing positive on my entire body. Doctors thought there was an error in the gallium scan, but my homeopath and I knew that I was healing. Drinking more water, reducing caffeine, a change in dietary habits, natural medicine, and faith had brought me home.

Since then, I've been constantly improving my health. I no longer have two spleens, but one that is normal in size and function. Now I lick sea salt off my palm in the morning before my first glass of water and use salt liberally. I drink about 1.5 gallons [4.5 litres] of water a day and take some supplements as well as eating a lot of whole grains, and fresh fruits and vegetables. My waist used to be a size 43 and now is a size 36. I weighed 249 pounds; now I weigh 210 and have solid muscle mass. My complexion and appearance are those of a man in his early thirties and my potency of a man in his twenties. My ankles are no longer swollen and new pulses, yes, new pulses, have developed where once they were dead. I no longer take any medications for all those problems, whereas I used to be on at least 15 prescriptions at a time. My insulin needs are down from 95 units a day to 35-45 units a day. I no longer suffer with ‘chronic infections' or fatigue – I sleep 6-8 hours a day instead of 12-14. It is rare for me to take an antibiotic, whereas I seemed to be constantly taking them before. I don't have allergies or asthma or gastroporesis (acid reflux) any more. I no longer suffer from arthritis, bursitis, or bowel problems. At the time of my last stress test, my doctor, who is younger than I am, told me that I was in better shape than he was. The high blood pressure is constantly improving. No more thyroid nodule, I sleep better, and no more heavy metal toxicity. I have a new lease on life.

My prayers have been answered. God led me to a natural way to heal my body, my mind, and my spirit. I am living a new life now with a balance of water, salt, minerals, supplements, good nutrition, and continued improvements in my quality of life. I am truly blessed.

Sincerely,
Andrew J Bauman IV

This letter was written on November 13, 1998 and appears in Water and Salt, copyright 2003 by Dr Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, published in the UK by The Tagman Press.

 Andrew J. Bauman IV, 55, of Scranton and formerly of Old Forge, died Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at Hospice Community Care, Dunmore. Born in Old Forge, he was a son of Andrew J. Bauman III