Hydration
Why Drink Water?
Half of your body weight in ounces of water is lost throughout the day in breath, sweat, feces, and urine. Drinking this much to replace what is lost is the minimum that is required throughout the day. For people who are active, going through healing reactions and/or a detoxification process, or live in Arizona in the summer, drinking two-thirds of the body’s weight is what I recommend. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs, 150 x .67 = ~100 ounces of water per day. This is the equivalent of 80% of a gallon of water.
Problems associated with Dehydration:
- Allergies, sneezing
- Hiccups, changes in breathing, rib subluxation, and hiatal hernia/heartburn (all due to torque on the diaphragm)
- Pain, worsening of pain, especially headaches
- Digestive Issues
- Detoxification Issues
- All biochemical reactions in the body happen in water, therefore dehydration slows metabolism down.
Fixing Reverse Osmosis Water:
Although reverse osmosis water is pure, it doesn't contribute to hydration because the process of passing water through micropore filter ends up depleting the water of minerals and more importantly, disrupting the physical structure of the water. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to fix this:
- Making a Sole: Mix 1/2 cup of light grey Celtic sea salt (Selina Naturally) into one liter of RO/filtered water. Put the lid on, shake, and set on the counter overnight to allow the salt to dissolve into the water. Do not mix the salt solution again. Mix (shake or stir) 1 tsp of the salt solution into every glass or bottle of water that you drink. By doing this, you should notice that the water feels and tastes “Wetter”, that you will have to drink less of it, and you shouldn't need to urinate as often.
- Drink spring water or get a home filter instead.
A Note about Salt:
Salt is an essential part of the diet for many reasons. Your body uses the chloride group from sodium chloride to make hydrochloric acid aka stomach acid. This is important for fat, mineral, and protein digestion. Salt is also important for the transmission of nerve impulses, hydration and fluid balance in the body, and the contraction and relaxation of muscles. Animals will travel for miles to get to a source of salt because it is absolutely essential for life. Being “worth your salt” is a phrase because of the fact that soldiers in the past were paid in salt. The light grey Celtic sea salt is my favorite because it is not heated during processing so it retains many essential minerals that human beings need.
Note: Sea Salt does not contain Iodine, an essential nutrient for thyroid function. If you are going to use sea salt, make sure that you are getting iodine from other sources like seaweed, seafood, iodized salt, and/or supplementation. ~150 mcg of Iodine is the minimum daily required intake.
The minimum amount of salt that most people need per day is 500 mg. The CDC recommends that Americans limit their salt intake to less than 2,300 mg per day. People who have high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney conditions, or are over 51, the limit is 1,500 mg per day. The main source of salt in most people’s diets is processed and restaurant food. Taking into account the above dosing of salt in water, this is how much sodium you can expect to be taking in:
Selina Naturally’s Light Grey Celtic Sea Salt (Coarse Grind) = 480 mg of Sodium / tsp
1/2 cup = 24 tsp
1 liter = 202 tsp
480 mg of sodium / tsp X 24 tsp = 11, 520 mg of salt per liter (see sole recipe above)
11, 520 mg total in the sole / 202 tsp = 57 mg per tsp
So if you weigh 150 pounds and were to drink 10, 10-ounce glasses of water per day, you would get your recommended 100 ounces of water per day, and 570 mg of sodium, which meets the daily requirement of 500 mg per day.
Instructions: The way that I personally do this is to mix a sole at 1 cup of salt per liter (double the above amount), then mix 1-2 tablespoons (depending on how much processed or restaurant food I have been eating) into 64 ounces of water. I drink two of those bottles per day, getting 688 - 1376 mg of sodium per day in my water.
Recommended Water Filter:
My favorite style of water filter is a triple stack filter with a 1-micron sediment filter, a KDF/GAC filter, and a 10-micron carbon block filter. This can be found here.
Messages in Water:
Masaru Emoto studied the effect of intention on water and authored the book “Hidden Messages in Water”. He found that a person’s thoughts, when directed at water, can affect the molecular structure of the water. This is also thought to be how prayer, or saying grace over a meal works. By expressing gratitude (or joy, peace, love, etc.), the food and water that you take in works more efficiently in the body.
Nutrients and Water:
The most deficient nutrients that I find in relationship to hydration include the following. In-office, when dehydration is found, we test each of the following nutrients to see if they support overall hydration.
- Salt: see above
- Vitamin B3: The Body uses Niacin (Vit B3) to convert cholesterol into aldosterone, a hormone whose role is to balance electrolytes in the body by signaling the kidneys to hold onto salt, and water.
- Glutamine: This amino acid allows the cells to take up water
- Trace Minerals via pH Mins: Minerals can help to restructure water, but they also provide the body with nourishment that is hard to get elsewhere, even if your diet is stellar. A great source of magnesium and lithium, this product is fantastic for relaxing and strengthening the nervous system.
- The link to getting access to the professional brands of supplements that I use personally can be found here:
