Years ago I heard about Your Body’s Many Cries for Water. At the time I thought, “What’s to learn, other than it’s important to drink lots of water?” So I didn’t buy the book.
Years later my husband listened to a two-hour talk on YouTube by Dr. Batmanghelidj and told me more about the doctor’s background and medical research.
He was born in Iran and educated in Scotland and England. He was working in Iran when the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1979 and placed in the Evin Prison as a political prisoner for over two and a half years. While he was incarcerated, many people were ill and the only thing he had to treat them with was water and salt. So he used these to treat many painful ailments.
For example, he successfully used water to treat 3,000 people who had stress-induced peptic ulcer disease. The prison turned out to be an ideal “stress laboratory” to do research on water and salt to prevent and relieve many painful degenerative diseases.
After his release, he escaped Iran and came to the United States where he continued to research the effect of chronic dehydration on the human body. This led to an understanding of how the human body works, and to the realization that dehydration causes pain and many degenerative diseases, such as asthma, arthritis, adult-onset diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis. His message to the world was, “You are not sick, you are thirsty. Don’t treat thirst with medication.”
Water has many life-giving properties. “It is the solvent—the water content—that regulates all functions of the body.” (p. 11)
In the talk, Dr. Batmanghelidj also discussed the importance of adding sea salt to the water we drink. After hearing more about Dr. Batmanghelidj’s research, I purchased the book as a Christmas gift for my husband, wrapped it up and put it under the tree.
One difficulty I sometimes have is waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep. The two weeks before Christmas it was especially bad. I was waking up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m., feeling wide-awake and unable to get back to sleep. I tried various remedies to help me sleep longer and none seemed to work.
On Christmas, Jim opened his present, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water. Soon afterward I started reading the book. In it Dr. Batmanghelidj explained that modern medicine treats diseases with drugs rather than understanding the damaging effect of dehydration. Many drugs can cause more dehydration and harmful side effects. He also explained how important it was to add sea salt to the water we drink.
Since my problem was with sleep, I looked in the index to see if he addressed sleep problems. Batmanghelidj says, “Salt is vital for sleep regulation.” (p. 157)
He recommended half a teaspoon of sea salt for every ten glasses of water, or a quarter teaspoon per quart of water. The recommended amount of water to drink half your body weight in ounces.
For instance, a 200-pound person would drink 3.13 quarts of water or 10 to 12 glasses of water a day. A 100-pound person would need to drink 4 twelve-ounce glasses of water per day. As an indication of whether a person is getting enough water, he says, “A well-hydrated person produces colorless urine…” (p. 135)
So I started drinking two quarts of water a day with a quarter teaspoon of salt in each quart. I also drank plain water and herbal tea.
On the first two nights, I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep. On the third night, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to go the bathroom. But the difference this time was I was still tired and easily fell back to sleep afterward. I didn’t feel the rush of adrenaline that usually kept me awake. I was pleased and cautiously hopeful.
In the weeks since then, I’ve faithfully drank two quarts of water with sea salt and am getting a good night’s rest. Once in a while I wake up a little earlier than I’d like, but I’m not concerned about missing an hour of sleep once in a while. I attribute being able to get a better night’s sleep to having the right amount of water with unrefined sea salt in it.
Not putting salt in my water was the missing ingredient for me.
Why is salt so important? Here are a few things Batmanghelidj mentioned: it regulates the water content in the body; it’s a strong natural antihistamine; it’s an anti-stress element for the body; it’s vital for the kidneys to clear excess acidity and pass acidity into the urine; and it’s essential to treat emotional disorders, such as depression. (p. 154)
A word of caution: this blog post is not intended to replace medical advice from your doctor. I’m just sharing my understanding of Dr. Batmanghelidj’s research and my own personal experience.
In the book Dr. Batmanghelidj stated that the best choice of salt is unrefined sea salt, which has 80 mineral elements the body needs. Adding sea salt to your water isn’t the same as having more table salt on your food. It works best if the salt is in the water.
Also, don’t substitute soda pop (regular or sugar-free), coffee or tea for water. He has a whole section on the bad effects of caffeine and soda pop on the body. Soft drinks are especially bad for children as their bodies have a hard time with the chemicals in them.
The importance of water to the entire body was explained in detail in the book. I highly recommended reading the book and deciding for yourself if you need to drink more water with a dash of unrefined sea salt in it.
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