SEVEN
WATER AND THE HUMAN BODY
Water is the bridge between the silent, unseen ocean of electric and magnetic vibrations in which we are now embedded, and the subtle, complex biochemical rhythms that form the basis of all organic life.
ALAN HALL, WATER, ELECTRICITY, AND HEALTH
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who discovered vitamin C, called water the mother and matrix of all life. He said that water is so much a part of life that we tend to ignore it and look elsewhere for the magic bullet, secret herb, or nutrient that will increase health and energy and extend life span.
BIOLOGICAL WATER
The human body is composed of 60 to 80 percent water, the actual amount varying with age and the amount of fat. For example, in a developing fetus water is about 90 percent of total weight. This drops to about 74 percent for an infant, and to 60 percent for a child. Muscles store fluid (75 percent of muscle tissue), so adult men tend to have greater water content than women, but the amount of water gradually drops with age, so that in the elderly it may drop to less than 50 percent. What is the function in the body of all this water?
Water’s journey through the body involves a complex web of interdependent relationships. A list of the bodily fluids, all high in water content, numbers some thirty, each with its specific purpose (see box). Most of us do not drink a sufficient amount of good-quality water to maintain the metabolic action and flushing of wastes and toxins at an optimum level.
CELLULAR WATER
The greatest amount of biological water is extracellular. It is not pure water but has a saline content, which allows it to carry an electric charge, for it has the essential role of facilitating instant communication across the whole organism. Extracellular water also supplies nutrients and removes toxins.
Biological water: The evolution of water structures through the geological ages is demonstrated by the complexity of water forms found in human biological water today. There are approximately thirty forms, all of which are purpose-specific drivers of metabolic and physical processes in the body, all working in harmony.
Digestive—bile, chyle, chyme, mucus, saliva, vomit, feces
Intracellular—drives cellular metabolic processes
Extracellular—provides cells with nutrients and waste removal, lymph
Superficial—sweat, sebum, tears
Blood—plasma, serum, pus, urine
Cerebrospinal fluid—surrounding brain and spinal cord
Sexual and Reproductive—menses, amniotic fluid, breast milk
Synovial fluid—surrounding bone joints
Miscellaneous—pleural fluid, cerumen (earwax), aqueous humor (eyes).1
One of the most important functions of intracellular water is to facilitate cellular functions in the body. Because of its unusual hydrogen bonding it has the unique ability through hydration to activate proteins and through its ionizing abilities to facilitate proton exchange and cell formation. Its particular ability to act as a solvent is essential in the action of salts and ionic compounds.
HUMAN BLOOD
The composition of human blood is comparable to that of sea water, except that the ocean’s principal salt is potassium, whereas the blood’s is sodium. Scientific intuitives Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rudolf Steiner, and Viktor Schauberger all believed that blood behaves like an organ.
It is common for those who use the ancient practice of observing the breath when they meditate to experience the strange sensation of “being breathed” as part of a “greater breathing.” In a similar vein, Schauberger would often insist that a bird “is flown” and a fish “is swum.” On many occasions he said that the heart is not a pump, but that it “is pumped.” He saw the heart not as a pump, but as a regulator of blood flow. The spurts of blood that the heart produces during contraction are more like an automatic reaction to having been full, similar to the out-breath from the lungs.
THE HUMORS—VARIATIONS OF BIOLOGICAL WATER
The notion that health was controlled by the four humors dominated European and Arab medicine for 1,800 years, from the time of Hippocrates (fifth century BCE) until the mid-nineteenth century, when medicine moved away from the study of the body as a whole. The humors were the bodily fluids associated with specific organs: phlegm with brain and lungs, yellow bile with the gallbladder, black bile with digestion and spleen, and blood with the heart.
The humors have correspondences: winter (wet and cold) is associated with phlegm and the element of water; spring with blood (wet and hot) and air; summer (dry and hot) with yellow bile and fire; autumn (dry and cold) with black bile and earth. They were also associated with different temperaments: phlegmatic (conservative, compassionate); sanguine (optimistic, impulsive); choleric (ambitious, passionate); and melancholic (creative, depressive).
It was essentially a holistic theory. Illness occurred when the humors were out of balance, and balance (health) was restored by eating the right foods or removing the excess of one humor. Bloodletting was common, as blood was thought to contain the other three humors. Vomiting was induced for someone suffering from a choleric complaint; diarrhea for melancholy.
The humors were a complex and sophisticated system, especially after being revived by Galen in the second century CE. It suggested correspondences with temperament, astrology, climate, latitude, and environment. There were variations—as few as five or as many as twelve humors—but the four primary ones remained the most referenced. This system of studying human behavior based on physiological origins continues today. A number of modern researchers have based their analysis of temperaments and psychological types on the humors.
THE BODY'S SKIN
The skin of any organism performs a number of important functions. As the outside layer, it defines the integrity and coherence of the organism and protects its vulnerability to physical assault and infection. It is the vital heat-balancing organ for most animals, excess heat being discharged by evaporation through sweat glands. Sweating can also be a sign of stress; lie detector tests measure any sudden increase in water content of the skin (see chapter 14).
The skin is porous. It can absorb fluids therapeutically, as with aromatherapy or herbal salves, as well as creams to make it more supple. While protecting against invasion by harmful substances, it is also sensitive to them and can provide a useful advance warning system.
It is full of tiny sensors; in some animals these represent their main “antennae” for picking up information from the surrounding environment. In humans, this function has become less important—although blind people depend on it—but we can still receive impressions with the whole of our body (for instance, in dowsing) or intuitively. Have you ever met someone and had the feeling that the person “made my skin crawl”? The body is also an antenna for receiving deeper cosmic, volcanic, or earth energies. The skin’s health is important for effectively performing these functions.
WATER IN THE BODY
Water is an excellent solvent and suspension medium. In the blood it combines with a small part of the oxygen you inhale to form a solution that will carry oxygen to body cells. It also dissolves some of the CO2 that is carried to the lungs to be exhaled. Water moistens the air sacs in the lungs to allow inhaled oxygen to be dissolved and then distributed to different parts of the body.
In recent years research has demonstrated the importance of adequate body hydration. Processed and adulterated foods, a dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables, too much sugar (or artificial sweeteners) and salt, commercial fizzy drinks with questionable ingredients, and too much tea and coffee (both diuretics or biological water reducers) can all lead to imbalances in the body, one of the results of which is dehydration.
Many of the body’s primary organs depend on plentiful, good-quality water for their efficient functioning, especially the brain, lungs, kidneys, and liver. The kidney and liver cycles are the two principal energy cycles in the body. If the kidneys suffer dehydration, for example as a result of chronic diarrhea, the lungs are affected and breathlessness can become a problem, which can then affect the heart. Liver function is later affected, and its function of feeding energy into the blood is further compromised by dehydration. Unless prompt action is taken, dehydration in these circumstances can result in kidney and liver damage. We can survive weeks without food but will soon die without water. (In dire situations, survivors can keep going a bit longer by recycling their urine.)
Oncologist Karol Sikora writes: “The commonest cause of death is not cancer, stroke, heart disease, or earthquakes, but dehydration caused by diarrhea disease in 15 million children a year. Investing £10 [$15] a life could solve the problem.”2
Avoiding Dehydration
It is clear that water plays a major part in balancing the health of the body, and both our kidneys and bladder are essential water organs. In any stress situation, fluid is ejected. When we have a cold, we sniffle; with a fever or excessive heat, we sweat; when distressed or our eyes are irritated, we weep. The lungs must be lubricated with water to function. Next time you have a head cold, observe how much imbalance there is in your head fluids. Or, after a busy bladder night, see how much rehydration you need.
We all know how dependent our mouths are on water. It is the same with all animals. If the mouth is not constantly well lubricated, the whole body is eventually affected. Anxiety or tension can dry the mouth, as can a lot of talking. Speakers often keep water handy during a presentation.
There has been a big change in public awareness of the need for hydration, and this perception is even changing social conventions. In Britain, while it is still a cup of tea or glass of beer for refreshment, more and more people take a small bottle of water everywhere. In France bottled water is replacing wine, and in the United States many people drink water in place of soft drinks. The greatly increased level of toxins in our environment has increased the body’s need for the flushing action of water.
We are urged to drink lots of water for our health, up to eight glasses a day. While it is true that we lose on average about 1.5 liters (about three pints) a day through perspiration, breath, and urine, we also absorb water as part of our food intake, particularly from fruits and vegetables. When we eat plant foods, their carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and glycogen. The glucose is available for immediate energy needs, while the glycogen, which holds a lot of water, is stored in the liver and muscles to be released when sugar is needed for exertion.
This water needs to be converted into cellular water, which is easy enough when you are young and healthy, but it becomes more difficult when you age or are unwell, a time when it is particularly important to drink more and better quality water. Kidney shrinkage makes dehydration a common problem among the elderly, as one of the problems older people often face is the shrinkage of their kidneys. The charity Action on Elder Abuse, arguing for stronger guidance on malnutrition, finds that the elderly are more vulnerable to infections, dizziness, confusion, and falls as a result of dehydration. In care homes in Suffolk, England, where residents are encouraged to drink eight to ten glasses of water a day, the number of falls has diminished sharply.3
PATRICK FLANAGAN’S WATER RESEARCH
Patrick Flanagan’s specialty was the liquid crystal structure of water. At the age of seventeen he was named in Life magazine as one of America’s top ten scientists. A protégé of Dr Henri Coanda, “the father of fluid dynamics,” he researched for clues to the longevity found in mountain communities like the Hunza and Caucasus previously mentioned, and Vilcabamba in Ecuador. People who live in these regions and drink local water are known to live long, healthy, active lives; many live to age one hundred or older.
For ages, Man has made pilgrimages to these remote regions in order to drink their healing waters, the chief constituent of which seems to be a rare form of colloidal silica. Flanagan discovered that this water came from glacial melt and had very distinct physical properties of viscosity, heat, and energy potential. Normal water depends for its cohesion on ionization. Hunza water does not; it is similar to intercellular water with a liquid crystal structure that is loose enough to easily transport both toxins and nutrients, saving the system from clogging.
Flanagan researched for decades how to replicate this water and in 1982 finally came up with “microcluster silica,” which has electromagnetic properties that encourage water molecules to separate, making the water “wetter,” or more easily absorbed by the body. (A similar effect can be obtained by placing a magnetic pad under a water container.) The surface tension is lower, facilitating hydration, nutrient uptake, and toxin removal. It is also claimed to adjust pH in whichever direction you need. He markets this special water as Crystal Energy.
The seeds of this crystalline structure are colloids—particles in suspension or solution that are too small to be seen with an ordinary microscope—charged with energy to attract disorganized water molecules. The water cannot retain its colloidal structure without an electric charge, which is easily dissipated.
Flanagan was particularly interested in biological water and found that it contained a much higher percentage of structured water because the colloids had their electrical charge protected by a coating of collagen, albumin, or gelatin.
From Theodor Schwenk’s research (see chapter 13), Flanagan knew that all flowing water, though appearing to be a uniform mass, is made up of layers. Turbulence in water produces a more complex laminar structure, generating an electrical charge difference between the layers. He wanted to see if he could reproduce the effect of fast-flowing glacial torrents by constructing an artificial vortex, realizing that it was the stream’s vortices that charged the particles, allowing them to become colloids.
To view the intricate structure of the vortex, it helps to add a little glycerin or a few drops of food coloring. This makes it apparent that it has a life of its own—the diameter of the structure shrinks as the point plunges to the bottom of the vessel, then expands as the point rises up and the structure diminishes. There is a rhythmic pulsation, like breathing, that is the mark of a living vortex; the formative inner layers spin more rapidly than the outer layers, which develop corkscrew forms that resemble the spirals inside conch shells.
In 1983 Flanagan decided to use an ellipsoid shape for his vortex generator and was able to produce a surface tension of 38 dynes/cm.*25 By adding an ounce of this mixture to a gallon of distilled water he created a product with a surface tension of between 55 and 65 that he felt was close to the quality of Hunza water.
Surface tension (ST) is the ability of water to stick to itself, to form a sphere. This is the form with the least surface area for its volume, requiring the least amount of energy to maintain itself. Ordinary tap water has an ST of about 75 dynes/cm, while Hunza water shows a much lower (less sticky) 68 dynes/cm. Washing machine detergents have an ST of about 45. Flanagan was able to produce with his “vortex tangential amplifier” an ST of 26 (as low as ethyl alcohol) but settled on one of 38, which has greater stability. He had notable success giving the treated water to several sick animals that quickly responded to the treatment. While strict double-blind tests may not yet have been attempted, these biological and structural tests have yielded impressive results.
Flanagan points out that mercury, cadmium, and lead are commonly found in drinking water. These heavy metals are a major source of cancer, and it is important to use a filter to remove them. He claims that his product is a good chelator of toxins, causing them to bind for easier elimination.
Dehydration is a much greater health problem in the United States than is generally acknowledged. Flanagan estimates 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated, due to high consumption of colas, caffeine, and alcohol; climate-controlled environments (both heated and air conditioned); and excessive exercise. He claims that a loss of only 2 percent of body water causes impaired physiological and mental performance, that mild dehydration slows the metabolism by as much as 3 percent, and that insufficient water is the main trigger of daytime fatigue. Other factors are confusion of thirst with hunger and a decrease in the body’s ability to make cell water as we age.
THE HEALING POWER OF WATER
F. Batmanghelidj, a London-trained doctor imprisoned in Persia (now Iran) during the 1979 revolution, was pardoned because he healed several hundreds of fellow prisoners suffering from acute, stress-induced, and life-threatening peptic ulcers by giving them glasses of tap water instead of the medication sometimes available.
Following on the success of this therapy he introduced new treatments to reduce dehydration that is often mistaken for ordinary illnesses and for which medication is usually prescribed. Instead, he found that many of these conditions could be cured by adequate hydration. He believes that conventional medical training does not address the complex functions of water in the body. His book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, is an international bestseller.
Batmanghelidj describes five mistaken assumptions of modern medicine: First, that dry mouth is the only reliable sign of dehydration; he claims it is one of the last signs. Second, medical practitioners see dehydration symptoms as diseases of toxicity requiring medication, rather than as internal, localized droughts. Third is the mistake of thinking that water’s function is only life-sustaining, thus dismissing its more important role of giving life. The fourth is that the body can regulate its water intake throughout the person’s life span; as we grow older, we lose our perception of thirst and fail to drink adequately. Finally, many doctors believe that any fluid can replace the water needs of the body. In fact, tea, coffee, alcohol, and many manufactured beverages can dehydrate and make the body more toxic.
BRAIN GYM
Inefficient hydration can seriously affect brain function and integrity. Dyslexia can be helped by drinking more water, and many forms of autism are being ameliorated in this way. The varied forms of brain dysfunction, or lack of integration, are being looked at though a system known as Brain Gym.
Educators Paul and Gail Dennison, seeking to help children with learning disabilities, formed Brain Gym in the 1970s, building on research by developmental specialists who had been experimenting with physical movement to enhance learning ability.
Today Brain Gym supports people of widely varying abilities in improving their mental functioning, through thousands of public and private schools and in corporate, performing arts, and athletic training programs. The system is comprised of twenty-six targeted exercises designed to integrate body and mind to bring about rapid and often dramatic improvements in concentration, memory, reading, writing, organizing, listening, physical coordination, and more.
In Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford’s authoritative manual for Brain Gym teachers, she states that our bodies are very much a part of learning, that learning is not an isolated brain function. Every nerve and cell is part of a network that contributes to our intelligence and learning capability.
A key element of the Brain Gym system is drinking water before and during any mental activity to “grease the wheels.” Drinking water is also very important before any stressful situation, because we tend to perspire under stress, and dehydration can negatively affect concentration. Many schools routinely advise students to drink plenty of water before exams.
WATER BIRTH
The amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus in the womb is similar in composition to that of sea water. Traditionally, many women living near the sea have given birth in the ocean, which offers a natural transition for the baby. Indigenous peoples have also used streams and lakes as birthing environments.
Water birthing has become relatively common, and for births that have low risk of complications it’s usually quite safe. It’s possible to lease a portable pool, but some hospitals in both the United States and United Kingdom offer water birth facilities. It’s estimated that more than two-thirds of American birth centers now have this option.
In a water birth, both baby and mother are immersed, which allows the baby a gentle transition from the mother’s womb to her arms. Water birth reduces gravitational distress, relaxes the mother, and eliminates stress for the baby. What could be more lovely?
URINE THERAPY
A recognized medical therapy in South Asia is to drink one’s own urine to combat infection. It is a form of homeopathy wherein a dilution of one’s illness is being used to counter its symptoms. If you avoid the first flush after a night’s sleep, this is not as unpleasant as you might imagine. External application of urine is often suggested to treat snakebite and skin ailments, and it is also not uncommon for Glaswegian construction workers to rinse their hands in their urine when they come off a building site.4 Apparently this keeps their hands from getting sore.
The amazing organizing properties of water are becoming more and more evident, which will go a long way toward explaining the detailed organization of molecules in cells and their biological functions.
MAE-WAN HO (SIS NEW AGE OF WATER SERIES)