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Avoid heart disease - page 3

Water and high blood pressure

High blood pressure, and high cholesterol are adaptations by the body to the problem of insufficient water.

A shortage of water in the body is first handled by closing off some capillaries. When this happens the areas served by those capillaries can then become unhealthy or diseased in some way. When these capillary networks are closed down, they provide an obstacle to the movement of blood and the blood pressure must go higher to push through the area.

When the water shortage is greater than can be accommodated by a shut-off of some of the capillaries, then the shortage of water is made up from the liquid in the arteries.

About 65% of the water shortage is taken from water inside the cells. These cells become dehydrated. Dehydrated cells become diseased much more easily than cells hydrated with the proper amount of water.

About 25% of the water shortage is taken from the water outside the cells. This reduction in water means that the blood becomes thicker. Thicker blood needs to be pushed harder to move it along - high blood pressure.

About 10% of the water shortage is taken from the volume of liquid moving through the arteries. When there is a smaller volume of blood in the arteries, the arteries MUST get smaller to avoid air pockets from being formed. Smaller tubes require a higher blood pressure to push the supply of blood needed by the body.

So, 2 of the areas where the body takes water during a shortage will cause an increase in blood pressure.

Water and high cholesterol

One of the sources for the water-related concepts in this section come from Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. I don’t know of any other person who has done this type of research. Again I highly recommend his book "Your Body's Many Cries For Water"

It is cholesterol which is the primary component of the walls of the cells. The walls of cells are manufactured out of cholesterol.

When a cell is under attack of any kind, its primary defense mechanism is to thicken its walls. In order to do that it needs more cholesterol.

When the water pressure outside the cells is reduced - because of a water shortage - there is an increased tendency for water to leak out of the cells into the outside area. The cell considers this a threat to its health and increases the thickness of the cell walls - with cholesterol - to keep the inside fluids from leaking out.

So, a very natural thing for the body to do when there is a water shortage is to manufacture more cholesterol in the cells. Some of this newly created cholesterol can certainly escape from the cell into the bloodstream. This is where it becomes "high cholesterol". The fact that there is increased cholesterol in the thickening of the cell walls is not part of high cholesterol, but the increased production of cholesterol by the cells certainly puts some excess cholesterol into the bloodstream, causing the eager cardiologist to claim that you need to take a drug to lower your cholesterol.

If the cardiologist fails with his drug, as he must eventually do, the surgeon is ready with the knife.

Do you think that either the heart surgeon or the cardiologist would endorse the concepts in this section? Do you think these medical doctors would admit that all, or almost all, of the problems they earn money for "curing" could be cured, in fact, with a higher water intake?

Is it possible to drink too much water? Well, if you drink more than your body needs right at that moment, you will have to urinate it out. But, just because you urinate a lot does not mean that you are drinking too much water. The water that is going through your system, causing you to urinate 10 times per day, is flushing out toxins which have been in there for a long time.

How much should you drink? The more difficult question is: "How can you arrange your work, your life, so that you can visit a toilet every 30 minutes?" That is the real question you should ask. Because, when you start drinking enough water you will be urinating very often. In many cases the simple act of going to the bathroom in a public place or in an office or where other people are likely to make comments - these circumstances will be strong negative factors. You may not drink enough water only because you don’t want the world to think you're crazy.

What type of water should you drink?

In my opinion, drinking tap water in quantity is more important than worrying about whether or not there is chlorine in the water. BUT, once you are committed to drinking lots of water, you can certainly further improve your health by avoiding water with chlorine or fluoride in it. You want to avoid distilled water as well if you can, in my opinion. The problem with distilled water is that it has the minerals removed. Drink bottled water, or any good filtered water.

More about using water for detoxification here.

I know that not 100% of the people who have read these pages will change any of their habits. But I encourage you to TRY it and see for yourself.

© 2002 by Marc Leduc