By Dr. Chinwendum Uzodike
DEAR readers, when I was approached
by a good friend to write a health column for Pleasures magazine, I felt deeply honoured and I hope to prove myself worthy of this honour.
After deep reflection on my over 12 years of experience in the naturopathic field, I have decided to make the aim of my column the self-empowerment of my readers with regards health matters. This means that I will strive to give you all the necessary and unbiased facts you need to make the right decisions in the care of your physical body because each individual is unique and generalisations are usually very unhealthy.
I will start with basic health requirements like water, food and exercises before delving into common health disorders and natural remedies to alleviate them. I invite you to join me on this journey to discovering your physical body. My topic for today is water.
What is water and what is its distribution in the body organs?
Water generally referred to as H2O (dihydrogen monoxide) contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms in its molecule - a description that hardly gives an insight into the dynamic, fascinating and magnificent nature of this substance essential for life. The human body is made up of 75 per cent water and the human blood, 90 per cent water. 20 per cent of our total fluid intake is transported to the brain through the blood, 17.6 per cent to the kidneys thereafter lesser fractions to the liver, muscles, skin and other organs of the body.
Viewing water from the perspective of the Japanese scientist, Masaru Emoto, the water molecule suddenly comes to live as the information carrying crystal with memory capacities beyond that of the human brain, this suddenly demonstrates how imperative the consumption of pure, clean and unpolluted water is for the nourishment of our physical body as the ‘king’ nutrient for good health.
How should water be taken?
The most important channel for the consumption of water is through the mouth and the assimilation is through the small intestines by means of osmosis (movement of water molecules across a semi-permeable membrane from an area of high water concentration to an area of low water concentration).
Though our daily water content is built up by the food we eat, the beverages and the pure water we drink, the preferred source of fluid is simply water - aqua vitae! If for example lots of fruits and vegetables form part of our diet, and our digestive system functions properly this will increase the hydration of our body, however, hardly any one of us can properly estimate the percentage of fluid assimilated by our bodies through digestion.
Secondly, when we consume beverages our digestive tract treats them like food since they contain other elements that may make the concentration of water in the intestines lower than that of water in the blood thus making it almost impossible for the water in these beverages to permeate into the bloodstream through osmosis.
On the contrary, if we drink pure natural water without food, when it arrives the small intestines, it will have a higher concentration of water than the blood that contains numerous solid substances thus the osmotic pressure will be ‘stronger from the blood side producing a quick transfer of water from the intestines into the bloodstream,’ so that in this case a proper assimilation of water then takes.
This is also why it is important not to drink water when eating, if you must drink when eating then drink other beverages including sweetened herbal teas that won’t dilute the digestive enzymes and which are treated as food by the body.
Another important point to note when drinking is the manner of drinking, it is best to sip and not gulp water if not Mr. Gents and Ladies will be your abode for the day since the body can only assimilate a particular quantity at each given time. However if you sip you will notice the difference so start drinking properly from today to eliminate that poor memory, aches and pains, allergies, asthma, degenerative diseases, hypertension etc caused by chronic dehydration.
When should water be taken?
Water is best taken when the levels of digestive enzymes are low in the digestive tract. This prevents a dilution of the digestive enzymes and enhances the assimilation of water through osmosis. Based on the Chinese organ clock the best times for drinking water are: 16am - 7am, 9am – 1pm, 3pm – 5pm, 7pm - 8pm.
What quantity? .
There are very different opinions as to the quantity of water needed by each individual they vary based on body weight, fibrous or non-fibrous diet, life-style whether sedentary, standing or active life-styles, sports and weather conditions etc.
For example if you feed on fibre with lots of roots and grains you will need more water, if you live on a vegetarian diet, you will need less water, if you lead a sedentary life you will also need more water to lubricate the waist joint that is constantly under pressure, the higher your weight the more water you require to flush out all your cells.
Now it is left to you, yes you out there to put together your own unique individual water timetable. For example I weigh 93kg, am 1.79m tall, lead a partly sedentary and partly active life, feed on a mixture of fibre, white meat, fruits and vegetable diet, my water timetable in Summer is as follows (during raining season I reduce by up to 750ml):
6am - 7am: Drink 500ml of Water (1½ glasses)
9am – 1pm: Drink 1l of Water (3 glasses)
3pm – 5pm: Drink 1l of Water (3 glasses)
7pm - 8pm: Drink 500ml of Water (1½ glasses).
Now draw up yours, you are the only one that can determine what you need forget all what you have been told in the past and take charge of your water needs. Start with realistic and reasonable quantities, if up till today you have only taken 500ml of water daily, don’t jump to 2litres, start with 750ml daily and gradually increase to your desired and healthy quantity after all Rome was not built in a day and don’t forget: don’t drink and eat also sip not gulp! See you next Thursday.
Ps: The quality of water will be dealt with in a future article
