There is obviously no remedy or drink so easily obtainable and of such
general use as pure water. It is about the oldest beverage that man
ever had and it still is by far the best. What is nicer, for example,
than a glassful of cold spring water on a hot summer’s day, or more
inspiring than a tumblerful of hot distilled water taken on waking in
the morning to clean the digestive organs before they start on their
daily round of inner toil.
Water is an essential constituent of all the tissues, and of all the
secretions and excretions of the human body. Three-fourths of the
surface of the globe is occupied by water and two-thirds of the human
body is made up of the same commodity. This fact alone shews the
supreme necessity of water to our organism.
The body expels through the lungs, the skin, the kidneys, etc. (_i.e._,
through the various excreting organs) several pints daily. A very large
amount of water is also used in the preparation of the saliva, gastric
juice and other internal secretions of the system. It is obvious,
therefore, that an intake equal to that lost must be supplied to make
up the deficiency and to restore the balance.
Daily Requirements of the Body.
To maintain health, from 4 to 5 pints of water or the equivalent in
fruit or suitable beverages, is needed to supply the daily wants of the
system. It should be remembered, however, that practically all foods
contain water to greater or less extent, and the quantity named above
is not meant to indicate the amount of _water as such_ to be taken per
diem. The water content of the entire diet is to be reckoned in.
This water is called for:
(1) To manufacture the various secretions, such as the saliva,
gastric juice, etc.
(2) To dilute the blood and enable it to fulfil its regular
functions of a common carrier of nutriment.
(3) To regulate the combustion constantly going on in the tissues,
as a result of the normal assimilation of our food.
(4) To clear and wash out the waste of the tissues.
(5) To moisten the food residue in the bowels and thus prevent
constipation.
From the above data it is clear that water plays an important part
in the building up, purification and breaking down of the tissues of
the body. It is essential then that water should be taken in proper
quantity, for internal cleanliness is every whit as important as
external cleanliness.
Water as a Curative Agent.
Water taken internally washes out (by the kidneys) the urea and the
wastes and inorganic minerals for which the body has no need. It also
clears out uric, oxalic, lactic and acetic acids or other injurious
substances of an acid nature which have formed, as a result of
fermentative and putrefactive changes occurring during the process of
digestion and assimilation.
When disease has developed in the body, water serves the useful
purpose of cleansing and increasing the fluidity of the blood and the
tissues. By removing accumulated waste, which is the usual cause of
most diseases, it places the tissues affected in a better state to
take up and assimilate new food. Water is a universal solvent and thus
unclogs the tissues of their waste, increases combustion and oxidation.
In other words it favours the elimination of carbonic acid and the
absorption of oxygen. This cleansing process, so frequently noticed in
the case of fasting patients, who are freely drinking distilled water,
and washing out the bowels by the douche treatment, promotes appetite,
and often encourages an increase of weight among those who are too thin
and reduces the weight of those who are too fat.
The So-called Medicinal Waters.
To carry out the cleansing of the body which is an essential part of
the treatment at Health Resorts and Hydropathic Establishments, water
is the agent chiefly relied upon. The chief value of Spa and mineral
waters in the nascent or free state, lies in the quantity of _water_
imbibed, together with the hygienic environment and pleasant occupation
of the mind, which are the usual adjuncts of such health resorts. It
is extremely doubtful if the various minerals present in these special
“waters” are in any sense usable by the human body, though they may
possibly act in some cases and under certain conditions as purgative
agents.
The Action of Water in the Body.
When water is taken on an empty stomach, it first washes the stomach
and the bowels, it is then absorbed by the veins of the stomach and
passes _via_ the liver to the right side of the heart. The heart now
pumps it through the lungs to reach the left side of the heart, from
which, finally, the water is carried along the blood to every nook and
cranny of the body. It is finally eliminated by the kidneys, or by the
lungs as watery vapour, or by the skin as perspiration.
The absorption of water by the veins of the stomach is increased by a
low pressure of the blood, which in turn, is produced by any sudden or
rapid loss of the fluids of the body as in severe bleeding, diarrhœa,
profuse perspiration, or as happens as a result of fasting and
starvation.
Absorption is retarded, on the contrary, by a hard and unyielding state
of the blood-vessels, mainly caused by a plethoric or over-nourished
and over-watered condition of the body.
The Temperature of Water.
The temperature at which water should be taken is important. Very hot
water is thought to constipate, tepid water to relax and cold water to
be aperient. This is not always the case, since hot water, by relaxing
the tissues and supplying heat to them, very often promotes the action
of the bowels and other organs. This, to some extent, is brought about
by the stimulating effect of the hot water upon the nervous system.
Water In Heart Disease and Dilatation of the Stomach.
The quantity of water taken should be much restricted in cases of
heart disease and dilated stomach, since the water makes the task of a
maimed heart more onerous, owing to the larger bulk of the blood that
it has to pump along the blood-vessels. The quantity should especially
be restricted when heart disease is complicated with kidney trouble
and dropsy. Abstinence from water and other fluid beverages is also an
essential factor in the successful treatment of the common disorder
known as “Dilated Stomach.”
Water and Dropsy.
Excessive water drinking, combined with over-eating and the free use
of salt and alcoholic drinks, also has a tendency to lead to the
overworking, and consequent clogging up, of the kidneys and thus
promotes dropsy, or when this is not the case, to a water-logged
condition of the tissues (bloatedness or obesity).
When to Drink Water.
Water should not be taken with meals, unless in small amounts as
beverages, for this practice retards digestion by unduly diluting the
digestive juices at a time when they ought to be in a concentrated
condition, and thereby encourages flatulence and acid dyspepsia.
It is also inadvisable to drink cold water when overheated, although in
the Turkish and vapour bath the free consumption of water, hot or cold,
is often strongly recommended.
Water in the Cure of Catarrh.
Water drinking, combined with a natural salt-free diet, is an
invaluable remedy in cases of catarrh of the stomach. It increases
digestive power and appetite by removing the mucus and poisonous
fermenting material contained in this long-suffering organ. It thus
arrests flatulence, heartburn and acidity, and enables the stomach to
regain its healthy activity.
Water drinking has been found to be curative in almost every disease
known to man, with, perhaps, the sole exception of heart disease or
dilated stomach, and even these disorders might be prevented if water
drinking had been resorted to in the early stages, before the disease
had established itself.
Water in General “Nature Cure” Treatment.
As stated, combined with proper diet and hygiene, water is the remedy,
_par excellence_, for practically all diseased states of the stomach
and bowels. It is good for rheumatism, gout, defective eyesight, and
all disorders directly or indirectly due to some perverted state of
digestion or assimilation.
The best results are certainly obtained from the use of hot water, cold
water being only used by those in a good state of health to quench
thirst, or to relieve constipation, by means of the early tumblerful of
cold water.
To follow out the hot water treatment by the methods usually advised,
it is necessary to take about 2 to 4 pints daily in divided doses. The
temperature of the water should be from 100°F. to 130°F., or that of an
ordinary cup of tea properly made. 1 pint should be taken on rising,
or before getting out of bed. Another should be imbibed at, or 1 hour
before, bedtime. The remaining 2 pints should be consumed during the
daytime and well between the meals, _i.e._, about 3 to 4 hours after a
meal.
To get the best effect, the water must not be drunk quickly, but sipped
very slowly and deliberately.
If nauseating, a little fresh lemon juice, or a little fresh fruit or
tomato juice of some kind, can be used to make it more palatable.
Hot water, sipped and taken as thus directed, acts first of all as a
diluent. By diluting the acids and poisons contained in a dilated and
unhealthy stomach, it relieves headache, neuralgia and other symptoms
and causes a dispersal of the irritants. As a stimulant it supplies to
the tissues, and especially to the nerves, much needed energy. As a
food it supplies heat which, otherwise, would have to be obtained from
the heat-giving foods eaten.
The hot water treatment is also invaluable for sleeplessness, provided
it does not produce an irritable state of the bladder.
The Salisbury Treatment.
This hot water method, combined with the use of minced lean beef, is
an essential part of the well-known Salisbury Treatment. The immediate
effects of this are highly salutary; the remote effects, however, are
not good. Very few people can continue it strictly for more than a
few days. It is very unnatural, artificial and revolting, and equally
good results, which are permanent, accrue from simply drinking the
water and greatly restricting the carbonaceous or starchy portion of
the patient’s diet. This is practically what the Salisbury diet does
in an extreme form, the meat being designed to supply proteid alone;
to the exclusion of all starchy and sugary foods. As, however, much
purer forms of proteid are obtainable in a pleasant form from “cottage
cheese,” nuts, dried casein, etc., the meat is really quite unessential
to the treatment.
Drink Water only Between Meals.
When water is ordered as part of a treatment, it should always be taken
_alone_, and preferably _distilled_, for when mixed with any foods,
such as milk, its virtue as a dissolvent--the very quality for which it
was demanded--is practically lost.
Impurities in Water.
Water is liable, in one way or another, to become contaminated with
various injurious elements. It may contain organic matter which may be
a source of disease, and it always contains inorganic or crude mineral
constituents, which it takes up from its contact with the earth.
If water contains organic animal or vegetable impurities, as might
be the case when rain, spring or well water are the only sources
available, it is imperative to treat this water in such a way that
any living organic elements are destroyed. Impure water can only
be rendered safe for human use by first thoroughly boiling. Then
filtration will clear off its solid particles.
Rain Water.
Rain water possesses the great advantage of being soft and
comparatively free from mineral constituents. It contains organic
matter which it collects as it passes through the air. To a large
extent this can be removed by boiling and filtration.
Tap Water.
Ordinary tap water as found in the regular supply of most towns is
generally very hard, owing to the presence of lime and magnesia salts.
Such water can be partially softened by boiling, which drives off
the carbonic acid gas and so causes the carbonate salts to deposit.
The remaining or permanent hardness due to other earthy salts, is
not influenced by heat and can only be got rid of by distillation.
Quicklime does the same thing as boiling, since it absorbs the carbonic
acid gas, and allows the precipitated mineral salts to sink to the
bottom of the vessel or vat used in treating the water.
The Virtues of Distilled Water.
Undoubtedly, the best means of purifying water consists in
distillation, which completely removes any and every trace of mineral
matter, besides all organic impurities. There are now quite a number of
simple easily worked and inexpensive “stills” on the market, which can
be used on an ordinary gas or oil stove, or on the kitchen range. Or
distilled water can be bought as required in gallon jars from chemists.
Distilled water is probably the best possible form of water for all
drinking and culinary purposes. It is, moreover, a magnificent solvent
of bodily waste and if properly made and aerated is delicious to drink,
either hot or cold.
Distilled Water not Unnatural.
The use of distilled water is not contrary to Nature, as some assert,
for the purest water is rain water collected in a pure and lofty
atmosphere. Moreover, rain water is distilled from the sea _via_ the
clouds.
Do Children Need Hard Water?
It is asserted that distilled water is not always advisable in the case
of young children, owing to its absence of lime and magnesia salts,
which on a theoretical basis are the salts which contribute to the
formation of bone, etc. This assumes, of course, that inorganic mineral
matter can be assimilated by the human body, which is very much open to
doubt. All lime and other mineral salts to be assimilated by the animal
organism require to be made organic--that is built up into the living
plant tissues of fruits, vegetables, cereals, etc.--before they can be
utilised by living animal tissues.
Distilled Water as a Preventive of Old Age.
In adult and advanced life distilled water is unquestionably always
most beneficial, for the reason that inorganic lime and magnesia salts
deposited in the tissues and walls of the arteries, are the chief cause
of old age. It is an old and true saying that a man is as old as his
blood-vessels (arteries).