The Water Prescription, Part 3

Autointoxication

Every day, cells produce wastes and metabolic residues. The essential support medium for evacuating wastes is water: sweat is composed of 99 percent water, urine 95 percent, and exhaled air and stools 80 percent.

When the body does not have the liquids it needs to perform its functions properly, elimination continues, but with a reduced quantity of water. Urination is less frequent and the urine is thicker; sweat is more concentrated; and stools are dry and hard. Under these conditions, toxins are eliminated at a reduced rate. Waste products accumulate in the excretory organs, are deposited on the walls of the vessels, and congest the organs. The content of toxins in the blood and cellular fluids increases. All these factors contribute to the autointoxication of the body, which is considered in holistic medicine as the starting point for every illness.

The situation can deteriorate even further. When the body has been deprived of liquids for a long time, eventually there is not enough liquid to eliminate the toxins the body continues to produce. The toxins then become concentrated inside the body. At this point, the body begins to suffocate in its own wastes; cellular activity comes to a halt, and death follows.

These two situations, enzymatic slowdown and autointoxication, engender all the disorders characteristic of dehydration.

Acute and Chronic Dehydration

Most people don't think they need to worry about dehydration. To them, dehydration is something that happens to travelers in the desert when they run out of water.

But there is a chronic form of dehydration that does not have the sudden and intense nature of the acute form. Chronic dehydration is widespread in the present day and affects everyone who is not drinking enough liquid.

The troubles that result from chronic dehydration are not as pronounced as those created by the acute form. The liquid loss is always less than the 10 percent of body weight cited earlier as the cause of serious physical problems that can threaten a person's survival.

Chronic dehydration is not severe enough to result in death or serious illness, but it is enough to cause numerous functional and lesional disorders that are more or less irritating or painful. These disorders are many and varied, because the lack of water brings about a general weakening of the body's internal cellular environment. Of course, the weakest organs give way first, and these are where the disorders appear.

Here are several examples of the health problems that can result from chronic dehydration of the tissues. These problems can have a variety of different causes, but dehydration is a possible cause of each one.

Photo - Chris Morton