“Everyone Knows Someone Who Needs This Information!” (TM)
Being more specific about the life-giving information from my recent article (see link below), about water therapy, including how it is used for some diabetics, here are guidelines and caveats. For this protocol, only water counts as liquid — not tea, coffee, soup etc. even though they have water in them.
CRITICAL: If your kidneys are not working well, then don’t follow this program, as it is written below, if at all. If you still want to try it on your own, just drink one eight-ounce glass of water and wait until you go to the bathroom. Then drink another glass. When your kidneys come up to speed (input matches output — you will have to urinate into a plastic hat* on the toilet and look at the number guide on the inner surface), make sure if you drink 8 ozs. that the same total, 8 ozs. comes out! Keep a log. Then, if you are meeting your target, and not “retaining fluid”, that shows your kidneys are functioning better. Then, start the sea-salt protocol slowly to make sure your kidneys are still working OK, only if your doctor approves.
IMPORTANT: For everyone on this protocol, when you drink your water, get it down in 5-6 minutes, “Don’t nurse it”. Make sure that you have water readily at hand and available to you, while at work. Some people have to start with just (1) 8 oz. glass of water, as described in the paragraph above. But, if you do not have kidney issues, then still never drink more than 1 quart every 2 hours. Whichever amount you drink, on this continuum, you are aiming to hold it in your body and not to urinate any more often than every 2 – 3 hours, as a sign of proper kidney health and your body’s ability to absorb the water to use it.
IMPORTANT:
If you do not drink the protocol’s basic amount of water (mentioned below) right now, you must start adding the extra water very slowly. This gives your body time to adjust to the added water intake. If you don’t, the water will act like a water pill (diuretic), pulling necessary minerals from your body, possibly causing more harm than good. Senior citizens and children MUST start adding the extra water slowly (see the process below).
THE WATER PROTOCOL FROM DR. BATMANGHELDJ, MD.
* The “rule of thumb” GOAL for using the purest spring water you can get, is to drink half your body weight in ounces, taken throughout the day. A little less or even a little more is OK. So, if you weigh 160 pounds, then your goal will be to drink a least 80 fluid ounces of water a day — working up to that level gradually, if you are not already ingesting that amount.
* The “rule of thumb” for sea-salt is 1/8 tsp( ¾ g ) of salt per 16 fluid oz. ( ½ liter ) of water. Some people require a little less, others a little more. Listen to your body.
* If you have any swelling of your feet, ankles, legs, arms, fingers or eyelids or you are suddenly having excessive diarrhea, then you must stop all salt for 2 – 3 days and just drink the water. The exception to this would be if the swelling is from an injury/accident. Then begin taking the salt again, but add it back slowly. You should use no more than 1/8 tsp ( ¾ g ) of salt per 16 oz ( ½ liter ) of water. He also suggested you take a multi-vitamin with all three main meals to replace what minerals might have been pulled out of your body by the diuretic action of the water.
When the swelling is gone, you can restart the program of drinking half your body weight in ounces of water. However, this time you will take the water in small amounts throughout the day, slowly increasing the amount until up to half your weight in ounces of water has been reached. Also start taking the salt with the water.
Here’s how to increase your water intake slowly. Start out with (3) – 8 oz glasses of water your first day, during waking hours. The next day add one or two glasses. Keep doing this until your required glasses per day is reached, as long as you are checking that you are not “retaining fluid”, that nothing is swelling-up, that you are sure that input = output and that you are not having excessive diarrhea, suddenly.
After a while, your body’s requirements for water and salt may change because of hot weather or cold weather or exercise. Each person must assess their body’s requirement at this time. To help do that, make sure your bowel movements are well hydrated – easy and a couple a day, that your joints move easily, that you do not feel thirsty (this is not an accurate signal for older people), that you are sweating, when appropriate.
Information FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN:
* Children ages 2 and up need 75% of their body weight in ounces of water per day. Their bodies are growing all the time and every cell in their growing body needs extra water for cell division and regular biochemistry, as well as water being needed by millions more cells made each day in order to “grow”.
* Children who are very active or play sports can require up to 100% of their body weight in ounces of water per day.
* The water cure program does not apply to newborns and children up to 2 years of age. In fact, water is NOT recommended for infants unless your pediatrician says so.
There are four ways to take the natural sea-salt:
1. One of the most popular ways is to mix the sea-salt into the spring water. This sea-salt will improve the taste of most water by making it a little sweet.
2. The second way is to just toss the sea-salt into your mouth and drink the water over the sea-salt, washing it down. Sea-salt is available in many forms – from finely-ground to whole crystals. Putting whole crystals, in your measured amount, is actually a simple way, just letting them dissolve.
3. If you are very salt-sensitive then you would get some empty vegetarian gelatin capsules at a health store and put the amount of sea-salt you require into the capsules and take it with food.
4. You could also just put the extra, measured amount of sea-salt on your food. The only problem with that is acquiring a taste for very salty food, so it’s the least recommended choice.
You must also make sure you are getting at least 150 mcg of iodine in your multi-vitamins each day, up to a maximum of 450 mcg of iodine each day.
If you are still urinating more frequently than every 2 – 3 hours:
Try drinking your water along with eating a bagel. This means:
· Drink and eat the bagel at the same time OR
· Eat the bagel first, chewing it well, and then drink your water
· Optional – increasing the sea-salt to 1/8 teaspoon per 8 ounces water, when you are eating the bagel, may help retain the water longer.
You can put cream cheese, real butter or jam on the bagel.
After using a whole bagel for a day or two, then you can cut down to using half a bagel, then a quarter and then just stop the bagel and use your food to take with the water. (See Em’s comment, below.)
Here is how you should slowly go from drinking water with a bagel to going back to drinking plain water again.
After a few days you should try drinking 2 ounces of plain water a half hour before eating food. Then you can increase the water to 4 ounces a half hour before eating food. Next it would be 6 ounces, then 8 ounces and so on until up to your required amount while now urinating only every 2 – 3 hours.
All information on this page was edited from Dr. Batmanghelidj’s books, for the internet, by Mr. Jim Bolen, who was a dear associate of Dr. Batmanghelidj, MD, while Dr. B. was alive.
IMPORTANT:
“Very sick people with a past history of major diseases who are under professional supervision, particularly those with severe renal disease, should not make use of the information contained herein without the supervision of their attending physician.” says Dr. B.
Em:
What I have found is that for all that great Evamor and spring water I have been drinking, when I read this information, I knew that I was not getting the benefit of all the water I drank. Somewhere along the line, I wasn’t absorbing the water. It was mostly just flowing through me, leaving me dehydrated, and probably under-mineralized!
I could never slake my thirst, as most diabetics can’t!
Dr. Batmanghelidj always included diabetes as a disease of dehydration — so it’s imperative to learn how to re-hydrate safely and effectively.
So, now, I am using the bagel method, and have been for about a week. I think I will have to be on it quite a while, as I am just beginning to feel my eyes are less dry and saliva is returning to my mouth in an appreciably increased amount (but still not near normal). Timing for the bathroom is better, too. So, I’ll keep working on this and hopefully will be much better off as the weeks go by. It’s frustrating, as I have spent “years” trying to drink the “proper” amount of water, and it evidently was just running through me, without a whole lot of benefit or exchange on a cellular level.
Even though I have had Dr. B’s book since the early 1990’s, he wrote many more and refined his protocol, so I really appreciate his family and colleagues keeping his expertise alive, and offering the newer free book, below.
Best to all — Em
REFERENCE:
Free Book by Dr. Batmanghelidj, MD.
Why the kind of water you drink matters!
More About The Water Cure and Its Protocol
* good pharmacies or a medical supply store will have an inexpensive plastic hat – which is an object thin enough to place under your toilet’s seat, just to catch the urine, and it measures it at the same time with a scale on the side. If you can’t find one, call a Urologist’s office; you may be able to get one from them.
You can read more about the Importance of Water, in many of my archived articles. See the upper navigation bar’s Title Archive tab.
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(c)2009 Em at http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
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