This is perhaps one of the blogs that has the most chance of changing people’s’ lives for the better, since most people are suffering from chronic dehydration, so I will try to be as clear and concise as possible.
For years I had health issues. I either had tonsillitis or sinusitis up to 4 times a month, every time ending up taking huge amounts of antibiotics. At 33 I decided to put a stop to it, I just didn’t know how.
After visiting a number of the “best” physicians around the world, MRI scans, tests of all kind and several rounds of antibiotics per year, no one could figure out what my problem was.
Welcome to chronic dehydration
Around 8 years ago I went to a Thai doctor because of blisters inside my mouth, he told me I was dehydrated. At first I dismissed his comments as nonsense. How could water make any difference?
But after a few more episodes of tonsillitis and sinusitis, I decided I had nothing to lose. The problem was that I was already drinking so much water.
One Saturday morning I opened a web browser and started researching. After about an hour the words “chronic dehydration” appeared. When I read the symptoms I knew I had found what I was looking for!
It was clear that the “drink 8 glasses a day” recommendation was nothing but bullshit. The amount of water we need is equivalent to the conditions and activities we find ourselves through the day, each and everyday.
The information I found talked about a scientist that dedicated his life to the study of water intake to reverse different diseases, but as it often happens when people find simple, free solutions to complex problems, he was ridiculed and his work dismissed as snake oil.
Symptoms of chronic dehydration
Among others, these are some of the main red flags you are looking for:
- Headaches
- Cramps
- Fever and aches
- Urgent need to urinate after drinking water
- Thirst that seems impossible to quench by drinking plain water
- Frequent cravings, especially for sugars
- Infections of the throat, especially after a night of drinking
- Dry mouth, symptom that is harmful to your dental health too
- Bad breath, people who have cracked lips often also tend to have bad breath
- Urine that is completely transparent and odorless
- Cracked lips, balm is just covering the real problem
- Constipation, a problem for women, who drink little water to not go to public toilets
- Problems with mobility and flexibility, dehydrated fascia compromises range of motion
- Weak immune system, cells need water to keep the necessary voltage to repair themselves
Minerals, the unsuspected solution
Have you ever heard how animals in the jungle go to lick salt rocks as a top priority? I had, but never dawn on me why they did. Well, they do it because without minerals they would dehydrate and probably die.
Minerals enable cells to retain water inside their walls to function properly. Without them, a cell has no capacity to hold on water alone.
That explains why chronic dehydration, is a cornerstone to disease and pain.
It is then of utmost importance to re-mineralize your cells again. It is a delicate process that takes time, as every cell in the body needs to acquire the right minerals in the correct ratio, to restore proper function.
How to re-mineralize your cells?
- Make sure to have the right intake of minerals (sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc.)
- Stop drinking coffee, juices, alcohol and teas. In case you do, drink at least twice the volume of water)
- Drink water high in minerals (frizzy water doesn’t necessarily have minerals).
- Consume fresh coconut water*
- Increase water consumption when exercising, when in hot weather, if you speaking too much or you are in an air conditioned room
- Avoid MSG, its elimination requires plenty of water
- Drink good quality drinking water during the night if you happen to wake up
- Eat watermelon and drink chamomile tea (Chinese medicine regard both of them valuable for their cooling effect on the body)
Afterthoughts
Once you have got your minerals back to balance and all your cells have replenished themselves with them, you must keep a constant eye on your hydration levels. It is easy to slip back into dehydration, so stay watchful and constant.
A simple test I run on myself is to constantly feel my lower lip with the higher lip. If I feel even the slightest dryness on m!y lips, I know I am slacking on my water intake.
I hope this information helps you to regain your health for a life worth living.!
And remember, you didn’t develop chronic dehydration in a day. Give yourself at least 3 months to reverse it!
So why not get up from your computer and drink a glass of water? Enjoy!
- In Thailand you can get bottled coconut water under the brand Maprao. They use a sophisticated way of bottling the content without pasteurizing it, so the minerals in the water remain untouched. I am not advocate of plastic usage, so if you can, just go to the market and get a bag of 10 coconuts for a few hundred baht and learn how to open them with a big knife (a very empowering activity)!