WATER In his book “Your Body’s Many Cries for WATER”, Dr. F. Batmanghelidj writes “hypertension should primarily be treated with an increase in daily water intake. The present way of treating hypertension is wrong to the point of scientific absurdity. The body is trying to retain its water volume, and we say to the design of nature in us: ‘No you don’t understand—you must take a diuretic and get rid of water.” With your hard-core hypertensive patients, consider asking them how much water they drink each day. I have found quizzing them about “fluid” intake will give inaccurate findings because “fluids” are not defined as WATER in the mind of most patients. So ask them “how much water do you drink each day—I don’t mean coffee, tea, soft drinks or juice but water” and then you should get an accurate answer. And…if the patient’s answer is they are drinking no water each day now, it is unrealistic to expect they will be drinking 8 glasses of water each day tomorrow. However, with encouragement, over a short period of time, they should be able to hit the goal of 8 glasses or their body weight divided by 2 in ounces of water each day. When I was in practice I had a written schedule of daily water drinking that I would give patients to post on their refrigerator and at their work station to remind them to drink water all during the day. Having the schedule in front of them all day kept them thinking about drinking water and it also showed them how easy it is to do if you think about it. The problem most people have with not drinking enough water is not that they don’t have time to do it—they just don’t think about doing it. The schedule helps them begin to think about drinking water and convinces them they can do it because it is so easy.
–Information provided by Biotics and Shelly Slocum-www.nutritionaltherapy.neomassage.com
