For this Health Update Newsletter.......I am revisiting the
importance of
water.
There is a lot of newcomers to this newsletter so I thought I would
print
this article again.
The Fountain of Youth was wrote by a friend of mine and tells of the
importance of drink
enough water every day of your life.

This newsletter is brought to you by Trish and Ed Koch at
http://www.herbals-unlimited.com
Please stop by our web site often as we will be having specials and
new
products coming very soon.

And don't forget...if you need to reorder your supplements.....we now
offer
online ordering.

Please share this newsletter with all your friends because every one
should
know the importance of water in our daily diet.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

It is my desire to share some information and observations
with
you
that
I have collected over a number of years. I hope it is as much help to
you as it has been to me. Some of what I say has been clinically
proven
and the rest stems from my own experiences. I have battled various
health problems for many years including weighing well over 600
pounds,
kidney stones, high blood pressure, gout, water retention (edema),
arthritis and the "yo-yo syndrome".

Drinking water has probably been the most important thing I
have
"learned" to do as far as my general health and losing weight is
concerned. THE BODY IS 70% WATER, and virtually everything it does
requires water. It is much like the oil in your car's engine. You
wouldn't dream of running your car without oil, would you? Few people
realize that their body is such a magnificent machine. Your body is
so
efficient that if it were an automobile, you could run it a million
miles
without a tune-up. That's the reason it takes us about 40 or 50 years
to
break it down.

Only one nutrient is more urgent than water and that's oxygen.
You
can
go a long time without food but only a short time without water. Do
you
remember little Jessica that fell into a well in Midland, Texas? One
of
the major concerns was that she would die of dehydration after only
three
days.

Since I have been focused on this subject, I am amazed at how
many
people drink little or no water. Just ask them. They're almost
"proud"
of it. Then others say, "Oh, I drink LOTS of water". They're usually
wrong, too. Please consider some pertinent issues with me about water
and how it relates to your body.

WHY DRINK WATER?

Your kidneys are like the "trash truck" or "exhaust system" of
your
body. They haul out metabolic wastes produced by this process we call
life. Without water this system will not operate! To give you an
idea
of how important it is to drink water, if your kidneys were to shut
down
completely and quit eliminating this waste, there are enough toxins in
your body that you'd only have 13 hours to live. Renal failure killed
my
brother.

Your KIDNEYS have "priority-one" rights to the water in your
body.
They
steal it from your colon, causing constipation, and they take it from
between your cells, causing cellulite and wrinkles. (Did you know you
can moisturize your skin best from WITHIN by drinking water?) Also,
did
you know that it takes up to eight ounces of water to process ONE
pill,
or that foods such as bread, crackers and meat take a lot more water
to
process? If you are overweight, perspire, or if the weather is hot,
you
need even more water than usual.

Another reason you should learn to drink water is the needs of
your
LIVER. It has to break down and assign every chemical that enters
your
body. It does the work of a very large chemical lab daily, more
efficiently and in 1/3 the time. If the KIDNEYS don't have the water
to
do their job, then the LIVER must handle the overload JUST to keep you
alive. If you've ever had to do your own job and someone else's too,
you
can sympathize with your liver.

One of the liver's major functions is to metabolize fat. If
it's busy
handling the overload from the kidneys, then fat has to GET stored or
STAY stored instead of being used. You see the problem?

Many times this feeling we call "hunger" is THIRST instead.
Your
body
has to extract much of the water it gets from the food you eat. It
can't
get you to drink water, so it makes you hungry just to get water. You
can get by for a lot less calories just by drinking water! Your body
is
a series of pipes, filters, and a pump all run by a computer -- you
MUST
keep it clean, cool and lubricated. Water does this job.

Every ounce of fat you lose must pass through your kidneys.
When fat
starts to break down, the protein shell around it is similar to the
protein shell around calcium in milk. This by-product of milk
production
is used to make Elmer's glue. They don't even change the color! You
MUST wash this glue out of your kidneys or it will kill you!

The body is extremely resilient and, that's why most of us
are
still
alive. It has many defense mechanisms to protect us. It stores water
at
every opportunity because of its great need thus causing edema or
water
retention. At 600+ pounds I had to sleep virtually sitting upright
and
could hardly breath because of excess water in my body. I would have
drowned in my own fluids if I had tried to lie flat. I was also in
danger of congestive heart failure and had extreme sleep apnea. I
would
fall asleep while sitting at a stop sign. This was due to a lack of
oxygen getting to my brain because my lungs couldn't expand far
enough.

My wife says that at times while sleeping, I would go for more than a
minute without taking a breath. I've resolved these issues by
drinking
water.

For years, doctors tried to control my edema by giving me
diuretics.
All that did was increase my overall capacity to RETAIN water.
Diuretics
are extremely hard on your body and especially your kidneys. They
dilate
and hinder them from doing their job properly. One side effect is
that
they deplete the body of potassium. In case you didn't know,
potassium
is the thing that makes your heart beat. After 10 years, thousands of
dollars, and literally pounds of diuretics, my problem was far worse
than
when I started.

Once when I changed insurance plans, a mail-order
pharmaceutical
company
sent me an urgent note telling me NOT to take the two diuretics
together
that my doctor had prescribed, because they would give me DIABETES!
They
were also trying to reach him to make him aware of the conflict. I
had
been taking these two diuretics together for over a year and had just
been told to start a prescription for DIABETES! In three years, I had
gone from taking 3 pills a day to taking 30 prescription drugs a day
and
had gained over 200 pounds. About this time I changed doctors and had
just learned about drinking water. One month later my new doctor told
me
that I didn't need ANY of the pills I had been taking. Many blood
pressure medications are simply diuretics in disguise. My blood
pressure
was normal for the first time in years, even though I still weighed
well
over 500 pounds.

More than four years later my edema is under control, my blood
pressure
and blood sugar are normal. Although I have changed my eating habits
drastically, I attribute much of the success in my 300 pound weight
loss
to drinking water. I still need to lose 150 pounds, but you can be
sure
that water will continue to play an important part. You can't lose
450
pounds overnight, but you will lose what you need to in a much more
healthy fashion if you drink enough water. Whatever your weight, your
machinery will operate much better if you give it what it needs.

WHAT KIND OF WATER?

I'm frequently asked if it's o.k. to count tea, cokes, coffee,
juice,
etc. as water. People will say, "I just don't like water". My answer
is
always the same ... if you take a bath in it and it cleans the
outside,
then it will clean the inside. Other drinks deplete your body of
water.
Coffee or tea uses up about 12 ounces of water per cup - cokes about
32
cups each. They DON'T count as water! I'll make a deal with you:
just
drink all the water you should and after that, drink whatever you like
... except anything with ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS! They are deadly, will
also make you GAIN weight, and definitely contribute to diabetes!

CAUTION: We create major problems in our bodies by drinking
chlorinated, fluorinated tap water. It's like drinking diluted bleach
and most water supplies have it in there. Here's the problem:
chlorine
is placed in water to kill bacteria, but it keeps on killing after it
enters your body. Your body is dependent on good bacteria
or
enzymes for all of its necessary functions and processes. Chlorine
indiscriminately kills all of the enzymes in your digestive tract
causing
your food to sit there and rot instead of digesting. It is also
linked
to many allergies and causes 10,000 cases of bladder cancer per year.
Legionnaires disease was spread by a chlorine-resistant bacteria. It
destroys iodine, too.

Enzymes are the caretakers of life in our bodies. They are a
lump of
protein with a "life force" attached. EVERY metabolic process or
thought
or movement, even our conception, was carried out by enzymes. All
physical life on this planet resides in enzymes. They are biochemical
catalysts and "worker bees" that carry out all processes of life.
Cooking (104°F to 120°F) and chemicals kill enzymes. We eat about 10
pounds of chemicals a year in processed foods. Things like propylene
glycol (anti-freeze) in ice cream and soft drinks - chlorine (bleach)
in
water - fluoride (first cousin to chlorine) in toothpaste - nutrasweet
(10% wood alcohol) in 7,000 sugarfree products, not to mention
antibiotics (anti-life) in meat, dairy and DOCTOR's offices -- ALL
destroy life in your body. You can replace this life force in your
body
ONLY with fresh, live, uncooked, unprocessed foods, RAW vegetable and
fruit juices and plant enzyme supplements. We MUST learn to operate
our
earthsuits the way they were designed and that includes LOTS of PURE
water!!

What can you do? Bottled water is cheap (drinking varieties).
Charcoal
filters take chlorine out. Stores have vending machines (about 25¢
per
gallon). If none of these things are available to you, draw water and
let it stand for 24 hours in an open container and the chlorine will
dissipate. If you don't like the taste, squeeze some lemon in it.
Your
body requires that you DRINK it -- not LIKE it!

HOW MUCH WATER TO DRINK?

Invariably, if people drink water, they say "Oh, I drink a LOT
of
water". Almost no one drinks as much as they think. The only way I
know
how much water I drink is to fill up a gallon jug and when it's empty,
I
know I have drunk a gallon. You MUST measure it or you won't know and
you'll cheat subconsciously. I suggest that you put it in a 1/2
gallon
or a gallon jug and pour it over ice or drink it at whatever
temperature
you like. I keep gallon jugs sitting around everywhere and drink it
at
room temperature. Do what you have to -- disease and death are the
options!

Ask anybody how much they should drink and they will
automatically
say,
"Eight 8-ounce glasses". That's fine --- IF you are a small healthy
child, but NEVER enough for an adult. Don't worry, you are not in
much
danger of overdoing it. There are different formulas such as: drink
eight 8-ounce glasses a day, plus another 8 ounces for every 25 pounds
overweight a person is -or- half the number of pounds of your body
weight
in ounces of water, i.e. 100 pounds = 50 ounces of water. These are
ONLY
places to start and NOT nearly enough.

My own personal formula is this: Drink more than you ever
thought
possible! If your mouth gets dry, you have an emergency and your body
is
1% depleted -- at 5% you'll collapse -- 10% is fatal. You should
NEVER
allow yourself to get thirsty. Drink enough water so that your urine
is
very pale yellow or clear all the time. For me, that translates to 2
or
3 gallons a day. By the way, put your scale in storage somewhere
because
that's 24 pounds of water and your scale weight can vary greatly. It
is
NOT an accurate measurement.

I understand how hard it is to drink water. I am usually up
several
times a night, because in order to drink that much water, I must drink
most of a gallon during the night. I can also tell you where each
bathroom is from here to Dallas and especially where there aren't any.
Because of schedules, you should end up drinking as much water as you
can
every chance you get. Don't make excuses!

You'll notice I haven't said that you would like it or that it
would
be
easy. Just do it! Make your excuses to your kidneys, your liver and
your heirs.

-- David & Linda Jonas, Corpus Christi, TX
(512) 991-6290

First printed in 1993, Revised 1997

NOTE: I strongly recommend you read a book entitled,
Your Body's Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj, MD
--------------------------------------------
For all of you who have not read this book.......Ed and I are reading
it now
and it tells
of all the complications to your body if you do not drink enough
water....daily.

Till next time :>)
May God Bless you all
Trish And Ed
http://www.herbals-unlimited.com