Why we in medicine were not able to permanently cure any of the painful degenerative diseases -- until now. And why we have frequently made deadly mistakes that add more pain, suffering, and irreversible complications in the process!

Heinz Valtin, M.D. -- an emeritus professor at Dartmouth Medical School, has ventured the opinion that there is no scientific merit in drinking 8 x 8-ounce glasses of water a day and not waiting to get thirsty before correcting dehydration. His views are based on the erroneous assumption that dry mouth is an accurate sign of dehydration.

Dr. Valtin's view, as published in the American Journal of Physiology, August 2002, is the very foundation of all that is wrong with modern medicine, which is costing this nation $1.7 trillion a year, rising at the rate of 12 percent every year.

water is a nutrient 
and does indeed possess a dominant metabolic role 
in all physiological functions of the body.

Philippa M, Wiggin has shown that the mechanism that controls or brings about the effective function of the cation pumps utilizes the energy transforming property of water, the solvent; “The source of energy for cation transport or ATP synthesis lies in increases in chemical potentials with increasing hydration of small cations and polyphosphate anions in the highly structured interfacial aqueous phase of the two phosphorylated intermediates.” 

By waiting to get thirsty, when the body fluids become concentrated before the sensation of thirst is induced, one loses the energy-generating properties of water in the dehydrated cells of the body.  The outcome of constantly circulating concentrated blood in the vascular system is truly an invitation to catastrophe. 

This is a major reason why we should prevent dehydration, rather than wait to correct it. 

This new understanding of the role of water in cation exchange is enough justification to let the body engage in prudent surplus water management rather than forcing it into drought and deficit water management, which is what Dr. Valtin is recommending people to do.

In his research on the “conformational change in biological macromolecules,” Ephraim Katchalski-Katzir of the Weizmann Institute of Science has shown that the “proteins and enzymes of the body function more efficiently in solutions of lower viscosity.” 

This shows water loss from the interior of the cells would adversely affect their efficiency of function. This finding alone negates Dr. Valtin’s view that we should let dehydration get established before drinking water. 

Since it is desirable that all cells of the body should function efficiently within their physiological roles, it would be more prudent to optimally hydrate the body rather than wait for the drought management programs of the body to induce thirst. Furthermore, it is much easier for the body to deal with a slight surplus of water than to suffer from its shortfall and have to ration and allocate water to vital organs at the expense of less vital functions of the body. 

The outcome of constantly circulating concentrated blood in the vascular system is truly an invitation to catastrophe. 

You can lead an old man to water, 

The tragedy of waiting to get thirsty hits home hardest when it is realized that the sharpness of thirst perception is gradually lost, as we get older. 

In fact, it has been shown by Phillips and associates that after 24 hours of water deprivation, the elderly still do not recognize they are thirsty: “The important finding is that despite their obvious physiologic need, the elderly subjects were not markedly thirsty.” 

Bruce and associates have shown that, between the ages of 20 to 70, the ratio of water inside the cells to the amount of water outside the cells drastically changes from 1.1 to 0.84. Undoubtedly this marked change in the intracellular water balance would not take place if the osmotic push and pull of life could favor water diffusion through the cell membranes everywhere in the body—at the rate of 10-3 centimeters per second. 

Only by relying on the reverse osmotic process of expanding the extracellular water content of the body, so as to filter and inject “load-free” water into vital cells by the actions of vasopressin and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone systems—when the body physiology is constantly forced to rely on its drought- management programs—could such a drastic change in the water balance of the body result. 

Two other scientific discoveries are disregarded when Dr. Valtin recommends people should wait until they get thirsty before they drink water. 

One, the initiation of the thirst mechanisms is not triggered by vasopressin and the renin-angiotensin systems—these systems are only involved in water conservation and forced hydration of the cells. Thirst is initiated when the Na+-K+-ATPase pump is inadequately hydrated. 

It is water that generates voltage gradient by adequately hydrating the pump proteins in the neurotransmission systems of the body.  Since the brain tissue is 85 percent water it cannot endure the level of “thirst-inducing” dehydration that is considered safe in the article published by Dr. Valtin. 

Two, the missing piece of the scientific puzzle in the water- regulatory mechanisms of the body, which has been exposed since 1987, and Dr. Valtin and his colleagues need to know about it, is the coupled activity of the neurotransmitter histamine to the efficiency of the cation exchange; its role in the initiation of the drought- management programs; and its role in the catabolic processes when the body is becoming more and more dehydrated.

 Based on the primary water-regulatory functions of histamine, and the active role of water in all physiologic and metabolic functions of the body—as the hydrolytic initiator of all solute functions—the symptoms of thirst are those produced by excess histamine activity and its subordinate mechanisms which get engaged in the drought- management programs of the body. 

And, since vasopressin and the rennin-angiotensin-aldosterone activity in the body are subordinates to the activation of histamine, their role in raising the blood pressure is a part of the drought-management programs of the body. Their purpose of forced delivery of water into vital cells demands a greater injection pressure to counteract the direction of osmotic pull of water from inside the cells of the body, when it is dehydrated.

From the perspective of my 22 years of clinical and scientific research into molecular physiology of dehydration, and the peer-reviewed introduction of a paradigm shift in medical science, recognizing histamine as a neurotransmitter in charge of the water regulation of the body, I can safely say the 60 million Americans with hypertension, the 110 million with chronic pains, the 15 million with diabetes, the 17 million with asthma, the 50 millions with allergies, and more, all did exactly as Dr. Valtin recommends. 

They all waited to get thirsty. 

Had they realized water is a natural antihistamine
and a more effective diuretic, 
these people would have been saved
the agony of their health problems.

the end

F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.

For more information on the role of histamine, see the articles on this topic in the science section, www.watercure.com/Topics10.htm, or read my book ABC of Asthma, Allergies and Lupus.