Clean Water, Hydration & Your Health

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– Part I

 

Bottle of Water

NOTHING can replace the necessity of nature’s most abundant resource – WATER

We live in a world where it is easier and cheaper to drink sugar loaded, caffeine-laden beverages than it is to get a good drink of pure water. Water can also be a confusing health topic these days. With all of the bottled water companies and purification systems available in the marketplace, we’ll set out to clarify, based upon our research – ‘What is truly the best water to drink?’ While there are many aspects of health dealing with water, we will cover some components you may not be familiar with. In this first part, we’d like to list. . .

Some eye-opening facts about water & your health:

    • It is estimated that at least 75% of Americans are dehydrated to such a degree that it affects their health in a negative way. For many people the body’s need from more water is misunderstood as hunger pains.

 

    • The catch is that virtually everyone in the U.S. has one or more toxic chemicals lodged in fatty tissue from drinking treated tap water.

 

    • the U.S., 53 million Americans drink water from municipal water supplies containing potentially dangerous levels of chloro- and fluoro-chemicals, lead, fecal bacteria, as well as pesticides and other impurities associated with cancer and metabolic dysfunction.

 

    • Your body consists mainly of water (on average about 70%). Your liver, for example, is about 90% water, brain 85%, blood 83% and even the bones 35%.

 

    • In a University of Washington study, drinking one glass of water when feeling hungry stopped the hunger pangs in 98% of the dieters surveyed.

 

    • The main cause of daytime fatigue is simply a lack of water.

 

    • Research shows that about 8-10 glasses of water a day may significantly ease back pain and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

 

    • If the average person drank at least 5 glasses of water a day (plain water not mixed) the risk of getting many degerative diseases is decreased dramatically.

 

    • A person’s minimal water requirements is half their body weight in ounces. For instance, a 200 pound person should drink at least 100 ounces of water.

 

    • Only a 2% drop in the amount of water in your water can bring on mental confusion such as short-term memory loss, being unable to focus and forgetting how to do simple math calculations.

 

 

Ok, so based upon the above stats, answer this important question . . .

Are you drinking enough water?

Now that you know how important water is for your health, stay tuned. In our next blog article, we’ll discuss what CLEAN water actually is.

 

Germs, Illness & Healthy Kids

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Sick Kid

Let’s face it, being a parent is a challenging task, but taking care of sick children makes it even more challenging at times. Waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds of your child’s cough, feeling your child’s feverish body, and cleaning up vomit is something you may be familiar with. This is part of the parent program that we signed up for and is part of being a child, right? I hear the stories: my child has this, my child has that, my doctor said it is this, and my doctor said it is that. . . I know what your thinking – well, all kids get sick, it’s just a normal part of childhood, but why so often?

The general parental consensus is that kids “catch” a cold or flu by viruses and bacteria that are circulating in the air or passed from others. The reality is that out of all the children exposed to any virus, only a portion will get sick to some degree and others will not succumb to the disease at all. The fact is that it is not just the virus or the bacteria that causes the illness, but many other factors. The internal environment of the body determines whether a child will be susceptible to colds, flu or any other illness.

Germs, such as a virus or bacteria, are much more likely to cause illness when the body is out of balance and immunity is weakened.  In order to survive and become active enough to cause symptoms, these germs first need to have an environment that nourishes them. They survive and proliferate from feeding off the wastes and toxins that accumulate in the body. The immune system responds, triggering an inflammatory response that may include rash, fever, congestion, runny nose, and coughing. These are signs that the body has begun its process of healing – dispelling the wastes, virus, and accumulated toxins from the body.

In order for your child’s body to generate a sufficient and complete healing response, the immune system needs to be strong and functioning at its best. The best way to a strong healthy immune system is a sound nutritional approach. The best approach is to provide a healthy environment right from the start. It is critical that these good habits begin at the onset of life so that this becomes the norm for our children. We must understand that a child’s immune system is supported by vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. We must give our children lots of fresh organic whole foods: fruits, vegetables, beans/legumes, whole grains, raw cheeses, eggs, fish, fermented dairy and poultry. Processed foods (McDonald’s, fast food, candy, sugary drinks, etc.) place a burden on the immune system and create more of a toxic environment within the body. In short, keep the consumption of processed foods to a minimum or not at all. This will give children the best chance to develop a good strong immune system for optimum health.

Top 10 Ways to Transformation – #1 Live a Balanced Life

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Over the past couple of years, I’ve counseled numerous people regarding weight loss, proper nutrition, fitness and general well-being. It’s interesting, because as I delve deeper into the lives of people, I find a general undercurrent of worry, fear and frustration manifesting itself in many physical, emotional and even spiritual ways. At the core of many health problems is a lack of balance in life. And, in the midst of trying to help others, I found that the very same issue was plaguing me as well.

This leads me to #1 in our health tip series that we call the “Transformation Top 10”. Basically, following these 10 guidelines will help you TRANSFORM your health AND your life in ways that you never imagined. The Transformation Team will be elaborating on these “Transformation Top 10” over the next several weeks, sharing one a week through our blog series. We all know that you’ll find these 10 tips extremely useful in rennovating your health and life – moving into a state of wellness.

#1 – Live a Balanced Life

Managing Stress

Stress kills. But before it does so, it will knock your life out of whack. In my case, in the midst of striving to learn to be a fit and healthy person – I severely neglected the mental, emotional and spiritual side of the equation. I was eating right for health, but was not nurturing my soul. I soon found myself overstressed, anxious and quite literally, out of balance. I constantly felt physically ill and soon found myself worrying and stressed about everything – namely work, relationships with others AND my health. It seemed that my life was spinning out of control. The interesting thing is that the more I tried to control it – the worse it got and the worse I felt. I adjusted my diet a hundred different ways; I increased and changed the dietary supplements I was taking; I did research, perusing the internet looking for solutions for everything, including work and my health; I went to the doctor repeatedly to find out what was wrong with me; and I’m even ashamed to say, I began drinking a glass or two of wine in the evenings just to relax (which I rarely did before). Ultimately, I developed a very severe case of gastritis that was misdiagnosed, resulting in a lot of pain and unnecessary intestinal surgery.

I tell you all of this to demonstrate how lack of balance in my life completely threw things out of whack and caused me a lot of sickness, pain, worry and frustration. In case you didn’t get it,

A life without proper balance isn’t living and it’s NOT good for you!

Balancing the Mind, Body and Soul

Life is a juggling act. And quite frankly, most of us are NOT very good jugglers. I know I wasn’t. In the midst of my attempts, I was dropping things left and right. No matter how hard I tried to fix things, they continued to get worse and I just got sicker and more frustrated. I was missing the big picture. For those of you who are visual, look at this diagram that I created below, which I believe to represent proper balance in life:

Life's Balance Circle

Ideally, this is where we should be – having proper balance in life between these three main areas (Body, Mind, Soul). Think of it like a wheel that rolls and bounces easily, because all areas are full and in balance.

Many of us, due to neglect to our “circle of balance”, have a mushy ball or circle, like what you see below – deflated, unfulfilled (lacking air or inspiration) and won’t roll or bounce.

A life out of balance

This was my deal last year. To put it simply, when you have a life out of balance, chances are some or many of the following issues may describe what you will experience:

  • Poor health, malaise or sickness (headaches, nausea, acid stomach, ulcers, or even worse)
  • Anxiety or Stress
  • Obesity, weight gain or even weight loss
  • Insomnia or perhaps too much sleep
  • Relationship problems (have trouble relating to others)
  • Depression
  • Self-doubt

These are just a few symptoms of a life out of balance. And, if your personal life balance is representative of the deflated, uninspired diagram above, just imagine how it must affect everything in your life.

Changing Your Perspective

If your life is like mine was, like the above wheel or ball that won’t roll or bounce well, here are three fundamental things to remember that may help inspire you. They are not so much about action as they are about your perspective. You may not be able to change your situation right away, but these may actually add some air (inspiration) to your life (tire, ball, wheel) so that it at least keeps rolling forward:

  1. Stop focusing on your problems and worrying yourself sick about them. Worrying will not change one thing about your situation, in fact, it will only make it worse. Here’s what the Bible says about it in Matthew 6:27 – “And who of you by worrying and being anxious can add one inch to his stature or to the span of his life?”
  2. Change what you can. Ok, so you can’t control everything, but there are things about your life that you can control. Many times in life we obsess and worry about things over which we have no control. Stop doing that and refocus on what you CAN control and change. Consider your diet, among other things. That’s easy to change.
  3. Focus on the good, the positive, the right things about your life. Ok, so I know I’m sounding a bit preachy here, but I am a minister. And again, the Bible does give some great advice. Here’s what it says: ” Whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, focus and set your mind on these things. This practice will give you God’s peace.”

If you practice the above three suggestions, your ball will be rolling in no time. Meanwhile, keep working on solving the problems in your life, and

Don’t forget to get plenty of rest and relaxation!

Before you know it, balance will return and joy will abound.

Next week, we’ll discuss why drinking lots of pure, alkaline water is number 2 on our Transformation Top 10 List.