Articles

by Joyce d’Souza

One can never really underestimate the importance of water in our lives.  Water is responsible for life on earth. In fact, it is life itself. Plants, animals and every living being depend on water for their survival.

If there is no water, I guess, there’d be no life on earth. Just as two-thirds or 75% of the earth is covered with water; so is, two-thirds or 75% of our bodies contain water. A human body has the capacity of storing about 42 litres of water, at any given point in time. Our bodies cannot operate without water, as water forms the basis of the entire gamut of functioning. It serves as a lubricant, specially protecting the joints in the body; it insulates, protects and gives flexibility to the muscles and ligaments; it is required to form the saliva and the digestive juices that help in softening the food particles in the body and allowing free movement through the intestinal tract thereby helping in the elimination of waste and undigested food from the body; and most importantly, it helps in regulating the body temperature.  All the crucial functions of the body - respiration, digestion, circulation, secretion, elimination, maintaining body temperature - require water to function.

Through the removal of undigested food, and toxins from the body, a small quantity of around 2 to 3 liters of water is thrown out each day through waste, elimination, perspiration, urination and respiration and this needs to be put back into the system or else it may lead to dehydration, body weakness, muscle fatigue and may be the cause of various other illnesses.

Drinking water works wonders for our system.  Water is responsible for adding volatility thus allowing a more thorough circulation of blood in each and every part of the body. As it travels within the body, it washes the internal organs carrying away the toxic waste, cleaning the tissue cells, replenishing nutrients wherever needed and adding solubility to lymph and gland secretions. It cleanses, removes toxins from our bodies, and purifies our system. Since body cells largely depend on water, even a small quantity of water that may be expelled may affect the functioning of our bodies.

To replenish the water that gets out of the system, just drinking water is not good enough.  To allow the water that we drink to act and have the best effect, there is a systematic approach to drinking water that can have the maximum beneficial results.  The best method would be to drink two glasses of water as soon as you get out of bed, even before brushing your teeth.  Mid-morning would be about two glasses and two more in the mid-afternoon; or you can take the required quantity of water needed for the day (about six to eight glasses) and keep sipping it all through the day.  The kidneys, which are responsible to cleanse the blood gets loaded if not enough water is drunk. Drinking enough water helps the kidneys and makes their task easier, or they might just collapse under stress.

Water Therapy:

The Japanese Medical Society have studied how water plays an important role within our bodies and have come up with a Water Therapy course which, they say is a foolproof method of remaining healthy and fit, free of all illnesses.  It is a common practice in Japan to drink about four glasses of water as soon as you wake up and on an empty stomach. Through intensive research, they have discovered that drinking water has ‘cured’ many an ailment including heart ailments, arthritis, headaches and migraine, obesity, diarrhea, constipation, tuberculosis, kidney and urinary diseases and cancer as well.

Besides, they also give the method of treatment, in order to have the best effect for preventing, curing and eliminating illnesses even of grave intensity:

As soon as you wake up in the morning even before brushing your teeth, drink four glasses of water. You may, soon after, brush and clean your mouth but do not eat anything at least for 45 minutes thus allowing the water to penetrate into your body and act on the system.

The Medical Association of Japan says, it is proven that this method can cure even grave and life-threatening diseases, and within a given period of time:

High Blood Pressure - 30 days
Gastroentitis - 10 days
Diabetes - 30 days
Constipation - 10 days
Cancer - 180 days
Tuberculosis - 90 days
Arthritis (patients should follow the above treatment only for 3 days in the 1st week, and from 2nd week onwards daily).

There may be a tendency to empty your bladder a few times, with that much water getting into your system all at one time; but, this is healthy and will have no side effects at all.

And why should water be had before brushing your teeth and washing your mouth, and not after?

The saliva that gets collected in the mouth during sleep has a lot of curative properties. Throwing that out of your system is throwing away your immunity.  Thus it is important to drink water before washing your mouth.

Also, do not drink water along with your meals.  It’s best to have it 15 or 20 minutes before or/and after your meals.  Drinking water immediately before or after or during meals slows down digestion as the water tends to dilute the gastric and digestive juices. At no point in time should chilled water or cold drinks be had immediately after meals, as this tends to solidify the oil content in the food that you’ve just consumed, and may slow down digestion; and this undigested food may transform itself into sludge and react with the juices within the body, which may turn toxic and cancerous.  It’s best to have some warm water after a meal. That is why in Chinese restaurants, you find them serving hot herbal teas with the food

It is also advisable to drink water either at room temperature or slightly warmish.  This is because the water that rushes into the system has to be at body temperature.  Drinking extremely hot water or water that is too cold may shock the system and send wrong signals or may also tend to kill thirst, which in turn would enable one not to drink enough.

Water is sure a miracle drink. It’s the best detox agent, it helps regulate metabolism and plays an important role in the prevention and cure of diseases. It’s available in plenty and most of all it’s free . . . a gift of nature!!


Joyce d’Souza is a regular contributor of Yogic Arcles to Six Senses Yoga Society.  She is a trained instructor of Yoga, and a Yoga Therapist having studied Yoga at the Gurukul and at University level.  Joyce lives in India.

© 2007 Six Senses Yoga Society

Chiropractic adjustments address the interfearence in beings. Back in the early 1900’s when Chiropractic was first brot to this world, D.D. Palmer - the father of Chiropractic, stated, The purpose of the chiropractic adjustment is to reunite man the spiritual with man the physical, so that the finite may know itself as the Infinite.” Fear has kept many people from living their dreams, from connecting to their wisdom and reaching their potential. Part of the adjustment is becoming connected with your inner wisdom (your infinite) so you can see or feel the limitless potential of life and creativity. Far too often, people talk about “REALITY” or they feel compelled to keep themselves and you in a box or idea they are comfortable with.

They may heap judgements on you and tell you what you are doing or trying to do is not you and is not looking at things “realisticly”. These thots are fear based and are limited consciousness. It’s time to expand and create your own reality! Who you are now is not who you will be tomorrow. Change! You have the power - step out of fear and into LIGHT! Get adjusted so your nerve system can shift out of those limited patterns of consciousness.

BE FREE!

If we really sit back and watch nature unfold itself, we’d be flabbergasted. Let’s take a look at our bodies . . . we are created out of nothing; our bodies are made out of a natural material like dust, containing living cells. These cells have a life span. They continuously wear out and are replaced by newer ones which help rejuvenate and rebuild the body. The dead cells that are accumulated need to be expelled periodically. Besides being harmful by themselves, they also turn toxic and poisonous if these dead cells remain in the body for too long, as there is a tendency for them to mix with the metabolic reactions that are continuously taking place within our bodies. If we do not help in this natural process of expelling the toxic wastes from our bodies, in as reasonably a fast rate as they are produced, we are prone to a whole lot of diseases. The principle of Naturopathy is very straight and constant. It believes that any disease is a result of accumulated wastes in the body; the healing powers are all within our bodies and it is this power that is keeping our immune system in perfect condition. We fall ill, only because we go against nature.

When humans were created, we were also provided with the means to keep ourselves and our body fit and in order. Our bodies need natural fibre to thrive and survive; and therefore what is actually best for our bodies, is what grows from the earth and what comes out from the ground . . . the earth itself provides us with nourishment in form of fruits, vegetables and herbs that grow from it, and pure natural water which springs from the ground below.

Have you ever had the time to stand and stare at the miraculous working of nature?  How it protects us and our bodies against each season?  In summer it produces fruits - mangoes, watermelon, cucumber etc. - that are juicy, rich in water content, has a natural cooling effect on our bodies and prevents dehydration; in winter it produces foods like dates, oranges etc. that are rich in vitamin C giving us the much needed protection against common cold and keeping the body warm.  To go to an extreme extent, even non-seasonal fruits and vegetables have a low nutritional value when eaten out of season.

When we fall sick, we all blame it on the germs and unhealthy surroundings around us. Not every place on the surface of this earth is hospital-clean as we’d like it to be, or germ-free. We live in a very complex world. Living in close proximity with germs is part and parcel of our lives. But, as the science of Naturopathy says - germs are not the cause but just a result of the disease. We cannot eliminate the presence of germs from our surroundings; but what is within our power and what we can do is to build a strong immune system that would fight these germs, strengthen our bodies causing oxygenated blood to circulate within us, purifying the tissues and fighting germ activity. This is done through nutrition, exercise and living a stress-free life. Nutrition is got by eating pure and natural foods. Exercise is provided through asanas and pranayams; and a stress-free life is got through meditation. Pranayams induces a greater intake of fresh oxygen; asanas help in gently massaging the organs improving blood circulation and expelling toxic waste; and prayer and meditation helps in relieving one of stress. Stress is one of the major killers in today’s society; and no amount of good food or exercises can compensate for the stress that may exist within us.

Our wrong food habits, invariably, coupled with stress is the reason why diseases set in. Any form of food, that is not natural or not produced from the soil has a tendency to negatively affect the body. It is also a proven fact that food cooked artificially on fires is also not healthy.  Our bodies aren’t made to digest cooked foods either; cooked food that is eaten is first broken into natural substances in our bodies and then digested. The undigested food is then flushed out a natural filtration process of the body. We can save our body a lot of unnecessary work and energy if we consume natural foods in the first instance.

My grandmother died a few months before she touched 100. My great-grandmother died at 102. What’s the magic food that these old-time village folks lived on that stretched their lives to live beyond a 100 years? When talking about her childhood days, my mother fondly reminisces about her mother’s best friend, who, whenever she felt tired or unwell would walk up to her garden, tear off an aloevera, yank it open, scrape out the jelly and eat it . . . yes raw, and this lady is still living and in her 90s. Our systems are made to munch into raw foods that are less strenuous on the organs.

Perhaps, the next time, when you bite into yet another slice of delicious pizza washed down with gallons of pop. . . think again; go for a sushi instead fish in raw form!! Much healthier, easier on the system . . . Or perhaps, when you pick up a pre-cooked or canned food tin, picture the generous helpings of preservatives that go into it . . . feeding our bodies with toxins in its crudest form, think of the damage this would do to our bodies.

We may not be able to change ourselves overnight - to be like the herbivorous animals, chewing on grass; but what we could do, is to try and inculcate a finer balance between raw and cooked food . . . and say an absolute NO to junk! Because, at the end of the day, we must remember that our bodies are made to work like modern computers.

To put it into more technological terms - it’s GIGO: Garbage in, Garbage out.


Joyce d’Souza is a regular contributor of Yogic Arcles to Six Senses Yoga Society.  She is a trained instructor of Yoga, and a Yoga Therapist having studied Yoga at the Gurukul and at University level.  Joyce lives in India.