In a recent blog Naturopath and author Lesley Una Pierce gave us an informative and entertaining introduction on the topic of water and hydration for human health. This article was popularly received and in today’s blog Lesley provides an excerpt from her new book ‘The Life-Saver’s Guide to Water – The Elixir of Life’ that may help many of us think more consciously about this essential health matter.
We all know that water and hydration are essential for human life. But how much do we really know about these topics, and applying some form of ‘best practice’ to maximise our healthy hydration levels?
Why Is Water Important?
To keep it all very simple, let’s just think about what we are made of. When we really get down to basics, we are predominantly made of, guess what? Yes, you guessed it…Water! So, if Mother Nature has made us to be largely water, then it stands to reason that it is rather important!
How Much of Us Is Water?
If we are talking about the ideal scenario then our blood is made of about 85-90% water. Our lymph is made up of a similar amount of water. (N.B. Our lymphatic system is part of our circulatory system, made up of lymphatic vessels that carry a clear fluid called lymph, which comes from the Latin word lympha meaning ‘Water goddess’ directionally towards the heart.) This helps us to understand that everything is moved around our body in water.
Our bones are at their optimum health when they are around 40% water. Even our tooth enamel is 1-2% water. A full term baby in the womb is approximately 97% water!
Every part of our body, including our blood, lymph and bones is made up exclusively of little cells. Depending on which book you read, between 50 to 100 trillion of them, so quite a few. Each one of these cells wants to be around 70% water. The cells in our brain and spinal cord, which is called our Central Nervous System, function best when they are more like 85% water. However, I doubt that any of us reading this book in this day and age is even approaching these percentages because there are so many things which de-hydrate us.
Our Cells
Let me tell you a little bit more about our cells – Because they are us! We have loads of different types of cells and they combine to make our tissues, which in turn make organs, which join to make systems, which form our whole body/mind. I use the term body/mind to show that our physical, emotional and mental states are completely intertwined rather than separate entities. Everything works together and nothing works in isolation, which is why it seems ludicrous to me to have a skin specialist or a heart specialist as our whole being is like a finely tuned orchestra.
It amazed me the first time I heard my teacher saying that every one of our cells is intelligent – or that every one of our 75 or so trillion cells knows exactly what to do. Just consider this – every second of every day each one of your cells is carrying out hundreds of processes in a beautifully organised way. On a conscious level, do you realise? No, of course not! Do we ever give it much thought? Probably not, but if I could take you down to the level of one of your cells at this very moment, you may start thinking about yourself very differently.
You might not carry on seeing yourself as one big Samantha or Sonny, Jessica or James, because you would see yourself as an amazing, bustling community of cells all sending messages, ‘talking’ to each other, communicating constantly through electricity, through light and yes, through water. Wow! What a vision that is.
Every one of our cells is a little miniature of us. It sounds a little unusual to say that ‘we are our cells,’ but we really are! We live in every one of them. We don’t just live in our heads and walk around cut off from the rest of our body. On the contrary, whatever is going on in our cells is reflected in the whole of us. By that I mean exactly what I have said. If we are scared or anxious, then we have scared, anxious cells. If we feel cut off and isolated, then our cells are cut off and isolated. This is simply because each cell is a reflection of the whole of us. To use the jargon, our cells are the microcosm, reflected the macrocosm.
This is a fascinating and exciting topic, because we are talking about you and me – and what is our favourite subject? So if we are our cells and each one of our cells is us, then it makes complete sense to learn how we can take care of each one of them as lovingly and diligently as possible, in order to take care of our big self. Are you beginning to see, hear, feel and understand why we need water? I hope so!
Lesley Una Pierce
‘The Life-Saver’s Guide to Water – The Elixir of Life’ is the first book of the forthcoming series by Lesley Una Pierce and available from www.lesleyunapierce.com with .50p from every book sale going to WaterAid. Lesley Una Pierce is an author, Naturopath and partner of The Nutritional Healing Foundation.
With many thanks to Lesley for this article on a health topic that is essential yet frequently overlooked. If you have any questions regarding this article, any of the health topics raised, or any other health matters please do contact me (Amanda) by phone or email at any time. If you want to be alerted by email when a new post is published simply add your email address in the ‘Get The Latest Post By Email’ in the right-hand column.
Amanda Williams, Cytoplan Ltd
amanda@cytoplan.co.uk, 01684 310099
RELEVANT LINKS:
Cytoplan Blog: Water – The Elixir of Life
Last updated on 6th November 2014 by
