Chances are good that if someone is holding a health- or wellness-related event in Northern Virginia, cellular hydration specialist Julianne O’Dwyer will be there or was involved in organizing it. Julianne, whose business is Vital Healthy Life, healed several chronic conditions with the help of proper hydration.
In today’s guest post, Julianne explains why hydration is crucial to health. In future posts, Julianne will delve into further detail about the health benefits of drinking water, particularly alkaline water.
“While a political prisoner in Iran in 1979, Dr. Freydoon Batmanghelidj was approached by a fellow prisoner who was struggling with crippling peptic ulcer pain. With no medications at his disposal, Dr. Batmanghelidj gave the ill man two glasses of water. Within minutes, the pain started to disappear. After drinking two glasses of water every three hours for several days, the prisoner became absolutely pain free for his four remaining months in prison. It was in this Iranian prison that Dr. Batmanghelidj discovered the healing power of water.
In his book, You’re Not Sick, You’re Thirsty , Dr . Batmanghelidj explains that dehydration can contribute to numerous health issues including angina, acid reflux, ADD/ADHD, allergies, Alzheimers, arthritis, asthma, Autism, colitis, constipation, dementia, depression, Diabetes, Dyslexia, fatigue, food cravings, fuzzy thinking, headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, joint stiffness, kidney stones, low energy, Lyme disease, menopause, migraines, obesity, pain, Parkinson’s, sleep issues, Sinusitis, and skin disorders.
He consistently finds that when his patients drink more water every day, many of their health issues improve.
Food is important, but we cannot survive without water
Much of the discussion about nutrition and health centers almost exclusively on food and supplements. There is far less attention paid to the impact of water on health. In fact, water is the single most important nutrient for our bodies. It is involved in every function of our bodies and is the main ingredient in all liquids in our bodies. Water carries oxygen and nutrients to our cells and carries waste and toxins away. Water makes up about 85% of our brain, about 90% of our blood and about 75% of lean muscle. So, if we don’t maintain a steady supply of water to our organs, tissues and cells, they cannot perform correctly, and this can lead to illness and disease.
Breathing, sweating and eliminating all contribute to a loss of water every day. Dehydration occurs when the amount of water leaving our bodies exceeds the amount of water being consumed. This is why it is necessary to drink up to six glasses of water or half your body weight in ounces every day to ensure sufficient hydration.
But what type of water is safe and healthy to drink? Tap water can contain harmful toxins, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chlorine and fluoride. Unfortunately, most bottled waters are acidic. The problem with acidic water is that it is composed of big, clustered molecules that do not easily penetrate cell walls, leaving them dehydrated. This is how we can drink lots of bottled or tap water and still be dehydrated. Alkaline water, on the other hand, is made of restructured molecules that are small and linear, and thus more readily absorbed in our cells. Alkaline water hydrates more effectively and enables cells to perform at peak efficiency.
Poor diet depletes our bodies of nutrients and results in acidosis
Our diets often consist of too much sugar, caffeine, refined flour, artificial sweeteners, soda and energy drinks. Even too much grain-fed meat and dairy can cause our bodies to become too acidic. This, in turn, creates oxidative stress, which is becoming recognized as an important factor in developing chronic illness. Furthermore, coffee and alcohol are diuretics, which drain water out of our bodies and leave us dehydrated. Drinking soda, fruit juice and energy drinks is causing many of our kids to be dehydrated and malnourished and can cause them to gain weight and lose their mental edge. All these factors create an acidic environment in our bodies, which can lead to illness and disease.
Health and longevity improve when you become more alkaline
To improve our health and longevity, we want to shift our internal environment to be more alkaline. In addition to eating a green, alkaline diet, drinking alkaline water is an easy and quick way to raise the body’s pH level to 7.3-7.4 range, which is optimal for good health, well-being, mental focus and athletic performance. The pH is a measurement of acidity and alkalinity in the body. Put another way, the pH scale is a measure of the number of hydrogen ions (H+) and hydroxide ions (OH-) in a solution. If there are a lot of hydrogen ions, the pH is very low or acidic. If there are a lot of hydroxide ions that means the number of hydrogen ions are very low, so the pH is high or alkaline.
In 1931, Dr. Otto Warburg, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (now Max Planck Institute) won the Nobel Prize for demonstrating that cancer is caused by two basic conditions: acidosis and lack of oxygen at the cellular level. According to Warburg, damaged cell respiration causes fermentation, resulting in low pH or high acidity at the cellular level. Cancer thrives in anaerobic (without oxygen), or acidic, conditions. In other words, the main cause for cancer is acidity of the human body. Disease cannot survive in an alkaline environment.
In summary, today’s tap, bottled and filtered water is not rich with the minerals and nutrients necessary for us to be sufficiently hydrated and healthy. . It often contains toxins, bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, chlorine and fluoride, which cause us to become acidic. Chronic dehydration occurs because the molecular structure of tap and bottled water prevents it from being easily absorbed by our cells. When our cells become dehydrated, they cannot function optimally, which can lead to illness and disease. In addition to a green, alkaline diet, drinking alkaline water is an extremely effective way to properly hydrate and create an oxygen-rich environment to improve energy, sleep, digestion, heart functioning, nervous system, mental acuity, pain reduction/inflammation, well-being and athletic performance not only for ourselves, but also for our children, spouses and parents.”
Subsequent articles by Julianne will focus on environmental factors that trigger dehydration and acidosis, along with a more detailed discussion of how the attributes of alkaline water can dramatically impact health, well-being, mental focus and athletic performance.
Julianne O’Dwyer is a cellular hydration specialist based in Reston, VA with Vital Healthy Life. Julianne will be joining National Integrated Health Associates (NIHA) as a cellular hydration and wellness coach in February 2015.
Julianne is an associate with Vollara. and ASEA/Renu 28. She is also a coordinator of the annual Grow Your Health Gardening & Wellness Festival in Fairfax,VA, taking place in 2015 on Saturday, March 28.
To learn about consultations, to attend the next Hydration & Optimal Health Workshop or to arrange for a workshop to be held at your clinic or business, contact Julianne at julianneodwyer@
Find Julianne on Facebook at /julianne.odwyer.
