Physiological Effects of Dehydration: Cure Pain and Prevent Cancer

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  August, 2001  by Jule Klotter

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Cure Pain & Prevent Cancer (videotaped lecture)

by F. Batmanghelidj, MD

Global Health Solutions, Inc., P.O. Box 3189, Falls Church, Virginia 22043 USA; 703-848-2333; Fax 703-848-2334 VHS (ISBN 0-9629942-9-4), 2 hours, 1997, $40

For over twenty years, F. Batmanghelidj, MD, author of Your Body's Many Cries for Water, has researched the role of water in human physiology and health. Water is the body's primary component. It makes up 75% of the body and 85% of the brain. In 1997, Dr. Batmanghelidj outlined the many physiological effects of water, salt, and dehydration at the Yoga Society Research Conference held at Thomas Jefferson University Medical School. The 2-hour videotape of his lecture and slide presentation, called Cure Pain & Prevent Cancer, explains water's basic roles in the body and the ways in which a lack of water can eventually lead to pain and disease.

Water is a basic need for cellular health. Cells both contain and are surrounded by water. In dehydration, cell membranes become less permeable, hampering the flow of hormones and nutrients into the cell and preventing waste products such as oxidants that cause cellular damage from flowing out. As Dr. Batmanghelidj says, dehydrated cells shrivel, resembling prunes instead of plums.

Water does more than act as a solvent for nutrients and oxidants. It generates energy as it flows through the cation pump in a cell's membrane. Water is also necessary for the metabolic breakdown of ATP, another source of cellular energy. In addition, water acts as a bonding adhesive in the cell structure. On a larger scale, water is needed in order for the digestive system to break down and digest food: and water increases the efficiency of red blood cells in collecting oxygen in the lungs.

When a body becomes dehydrated, the neurotransmitter histamine is activated. Histamine, in turn, activates prostaglandins, kinins, and vasopressin, in an effort to redistribute available water according to priority. In addition to managing water during dehydration, these compounds cause other diverse effects. Prostaglandin E, for example, manages water regulation during drought and also inhibits the manufacture of insulin, thereby contributing to high blood sugar. The body's response to dehydration, when left unchecked, contributes to many other problems, including DNA damage, reduced efficiency of DNA repair system, immune suppression, and irregular protein production in cells, which encourages cancer cell formation.

When growth hormone production decreases as we enter our twenties, thirst perception also decreases. Growth hormones regulate water in conjunction with histamine. As we age and become less aware of being thirsty and drink less water, the water content within cells decreases so that cellular water can be redistributed to the brain and other vital functions. Gradually, we become dehydrated. The negative effects of dehydration are permitted to compound partly because people in modern societies have been taught to use painkillers to mask the pain caused by histamine, prostaglandins, and kinins. Masking the pain, explains Dr. Batmanghelidj, does not address the underlying problem of dehydration. Dehydration is especially prevalent among people who drink caffeinated coffee, tea, and sodas. Caffeine dehydrates the body.

In addition to drinking plenty of water, adequate salt intake is needed for proper hydration. Salt, a natural anti-histamine, keeps water from being excreted and balances the intracellular and extracellular 'oceans' within us. Salt is also necessary for extracting excess acidity (in the form of hydrogen ions, oxidants from ATP production) from cells. In addition, salt is used by the body to balance blood sugar levels, to clear mucus and phlegm from the lungs, to aid absorption from the intestinal tract, to support nerve cell activity, and to strengthen bones.

Signs of dehydration include thirst, dark-colored urine, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, agoraphobia, depression, food cravings, and allergies. Dr. Batmanghelidj says that emergency thirst signals include morning sickness, dyspeptic pain and heartburn, migraine headaches, angina, rheumatoid joint pain, back pain, colitis pain, fibromyalgic pain, constipation, late-onset diabetes, and hypertension. He also explains how the stress of long-term dehydration can lead to high cholesterol levels, heart failure, chronic fatigue, cancers, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, stroke, and Alzheimer's.

Doctors are taught to focus on the solid particles in the body -- the vitamins, the minerals, the hormones, etc. Water is usually taken for granted. Dr. Batmanghelidj's lecture Cure Pain & Prevent Cancer outlines the numerous physiological effects of dehydration and explains why doctors "need to fathom the ocean in us." For persons who are unfamiliar with physiology, Global Health Solutions, which distributes this lecture, has a variety of books, videotapes, and audiotapes for the general public as well as other resources for practitioners, that explain the benefits and necessity of drinking water and the correlation between dehydration, pain, and illness.

COPYRIGHT 2001 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning