High Blood Pressure & Drinking Water

By this point in this Section you certainly expected this claim!

Well, think about it.

As I have acknowledged elsewhere, the primary source for the water-related concepts in this Section come from Dr. F. Batmanghelidj. I don’t know of any other person who has done this type of research.

As I’ve written earlier, your arteries are flexible when healthy, and can get larger or smaller, as the body needs dictate. One of the reasons the arteries might need to get smaller is if there is actually a reduction in the supply of volume of blood.

In other words, if the volume of the arteries stayed the same while the volume of blood reduced, you’d have to have pockets of gas or air inside the arteries -- where there wasn’t enough blood to fill the space. So, the arteries contract, get smaller, when there is a reduction in blood volume.

Arteries also change size to reduce the amount of blood going to some particular area, and increase in size when the body requires more blood in some area. For instance, when you eat you need more blood going to the stomach and intestines. Since the body can’t just manufacture new blood for this short-term need, the body shuts off the blood supply in one place in order to increase the blood supply in some other place.

This change in blood supply is not actually handled by changing the size of arteries, but rather by turning on, or turning off, entire sections of capillaries. Arteries are large tubes, containing blood which is moving at a rapid rate. Capillaries are extremely small tubes, carrying blood at very slow rates.

Blood moves through the arteries as fast as 13 miles per hour, but slows down tremendously, to about .02 mph in a capillary! The blood rushes through the arteries, but when it gets to the capillaries, it goes through them, often, one molecule at a time. Some of the capillaries are so thin that the blood molecules have to be bent in half to move through.

There are nerve and chemical messengers which can turn off a whole network of capillaries from receiving new supplies of blood. The blood that was in that "bed" of capillaries mostly stays there until the valve is opened again, and new blood pushes in.

But, the point here is that as these areas of capillaries are turned off, there is more blood available that can go to a different area.

Thus, the blood supply to the stomach and intestines increases during the time of eating and digestion, and decreases somewhere else. The usual place that blood is turned off is in the muscles. When a person has been doing a lot of exercise, the turn-off in the muscles will be less, and more somewhere else.

Thus, the body changes the total volume of the tubes through which the moving blood is moving.

This water/blood rationing system eliminates any need for the total supply of blood to be changing from time to time.

Whether you have just eaten or not, there are priorities for the supply of blood/water, and these are very rigid in the body.

The highest priority in the body is the brain. It gets more blood than any other part, and no matter where else there might be a need for blood, the brain gets its supply first.

The lungs, liver, kidneys and glands come next in priority. When they need blood, they get it, if there is any available.

A shortage of water in the body is first handled by closing off some capillaries. When that happens the areas served by those capillaries can then become diseased or unhealthy in some way. When these capillary networks are closed down, they provide an obstacle to blood movement and the blood pressure must go higher to push through the area.

When the shortage of water is greater than can be accommodated by a shut-off of some capillary area, then the water shortage is made up from the liquid in the arteries.

About 66% of the water shortage is taken from water inside the cells. These cells become dehydrated. Dehydrated cells become diseased much more easily than cells filled with the proper amount of water.

About 26% of the water shortage is taken from the water outside the cells. This reduction in water means that the blood becomes thicker. Thicker blood needs to be pushed harder to move it along -- high blood pressure.

About 8% of the water shortage is taken from the volume of liquid moving through the arteries. When there is less volume of blood in the arteries the arteries MUST get smaller to avoid those air pockets. Smaller tubes require a higher blood pressure to push the amount of blood needed by the body.

So, two of the areas where the body takes water during a shortage will cause an increase in blood pressure.

When you exercise your muscles the capillaries in that area will develop a larger network and they will stay open more often because the larger mass of muscles needs a larger supply of blood. This larger network of capillaries does not close down so easily when there is a water shortage, and therefore exercise is very healthy for you for this reason.

But, most basic, you can see now how a lack of water can cause a tremendous increase in blood pressure, and how just drinking more water can reduce your blood pressure.

Amazing! And, so simple!

Salt plays an important role in balancing the amount of water held outside the cells. There is a great deal more to be written on this subject, in other Books or in my regular newsletter. You’ll find that when you are drinking enough water you can use far more salt than you normally do, enjoy the taste, and have no adverse effects.

Drink water and enjoy salt!

You should realize that many of these variations in the amount of water in the blood cells, or outside the blood cells, or in the capillaries, or not -- all of these various measures of water get missed in most physical examinations.

High blood pressure should be treated by taking increased amounts of water! Blood pressure should NOT be treated by the very drugs which cause the body to need more water. Can you imagine the evil of a drug which decreases your body’s ability to use water, and that reduction in water handling causes high blood pressure -- exactly the symptom which the drug is supposedly handling.

Water quality and contaminants

Throughout most of the world, the most common contamination of raw water sources is from human sewage and in particular human faecal pathogens and parasites. In 2006, waterborne diseases were estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths each year while about 1.1 billion people lacked proper drinking water.[6]. It is clear that people in the developing world need to have access to good quality water in sufficient quantity, water purification technology and availability and distribution systems for water. In many parts of the world the only sources of water are from small streams often directly contaminated by sewage.

Most water requires some type of treatment before use, even water from deep wells or springs. The extent of treatment depends on the source of the water. Appropriate technology options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use (POU) designs.[7]

The most reliable way to kill microbial pathogenic agents is to heat water to a rolling boil[8] but this requires abundant sources of fuel and is very onerous on the households, especially where it is difficult to store boiled water in sterile conditions. Other techniques, such filtration, chemical disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of water-borne disease among users in low-income countries[9], but these suffer from the same problems as boiling methods.

Over the past decade, an increasing number of field-based studies have been undertaken to determine the success of POU measures in reducing waterborne disease. The ability of POU options to reduce disease is a function of both their ability to remove microbial pathogens if properly applied and such social factors as ease of use and cultural appropriateness. Technologies may generate more (or less) health benefit than their lab-based microbial removal performance would suggest.

The current priority of the proponents of POU treatment is to reach large numbers of low-income households on a sustainable basis. Few POU measures have reached significant scale thus far, but efforts to promote and commercially distribute these products to the world's poor have only been under way for a few years.

Parameters for drinking water quality typically fall under two categories: chemical/physical and microbiological. Chemical/physical parameters include heavy metals, trace organic compounds, total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity. Microbiological parameters include Coliform bacteria, E. coli, and specific pathogenic species of bacteria (such as cholera-causing Vibrio cholerae), viruses, and protozoan parasites.

Chemical parameters tend to pose more of a chronic health risk through buildup of heavy metals although some components like nitrates/nitrites and arsenic may have a more immediate impact. Physical parameters affect the aesthetics and taste of the drinking water and may complicate the removal of microbial pathogens.

Originally, fecal contamination was determined with the presence of coliform bacteria, a convenient marker for a class of harmful fecal pathogens. The presence of fecal coliforms (like E. Coli) serves as an indication of contamination by sewage. Additional contaminants include protozoan oocysts such as Cryptosporidium sp., Giardia lamblia, Legionella, and viruses (enteric).[10] Microbial pathogenic parameters are typically of greatest concern because of their immediate health risk.

Water politics and water crisis

Water politics is politics affected by water and water resources. For this reason, water is a strategic resource in the globe and an important element in many political conflicts. It causes health impacts and damage to biodiversity.

1.6 billion people have gained access to a safe water source since 1990 [1]. The proportion of people in developing countries with access to safe water is calculated to have improved from 30 percent in 1970[4] to 71 percent in 1990, 79 percent in 2000 and 84 percent in 2004. This trend is projected to continue.[5] To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water is one of the Millennium Development Goals. This goal is projected to be reached.

A 2006 United Nations report stated that "there is enough water for everyone", but that access to it is hampered by mismanagement and corruption.[41]

The UN World Water Development Report (WWDR, 2003) from the World Water Assessment Program indicates that, in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30 percent. 40 percent of the world's inhabitants currently have insufficient fresh water for minimal hygiene. More than 2.2 million people died in 2000 from waterborne diseases (related to the consumption of contaminated water) or drought. In 2004, the UK charity WaterAid reported that a child dies every 15 seconds from easily preventable water-related diseases; often this means lack of sewage disposal; see toilet.

Organizations concerned in water protection include International Water Association (IWA), WaterAid, Water 1st, American Water Resources Association. Water related conventions are United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Ramsar Convention. World Day for Water takes place on 22 March and World Ocean Day on 8 June.

Water used in the production of a good or service is virtual water.

Industrial applications

Water is used in power generation. Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower. Hydroelectric power comes from water driving a water turbine connected to a generator. Hydroelectricity is a low-cost, non-polluting, renewable energy source. The energy is supplied by the sun. Heat from the sun evaporates water, which condenses as rain in higher altitudes, from where it flows down.
Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station

Pressurized water is used in water blasting and water jet cutters. Also, very high pressure water guns are used for precise cutting. It works very well, is relatively safe, and is not harmful to the environment. It is also used in the cooling of machinery to prevent over-heating, or prevent saw blades from over-heating.

Water is also used in many industrial processes and machines, such as the steam turbine and heat exchanger, in addition to its use as a chemical solvent. Discharge of untreated water from industrial uses is pollution. Pollution includes discharged solutes (chemical pollution) and discharged coolant water (thermal pollution). Industry requires pure water for many applications and utilizes a variety of purification techniques both in water supply and discharge

Water industry

The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to households and industry. Water supply facilities includes for example water wells cisterns for rainwater harvesting, water supply network, water purification facilities, water tanks, water towers, water pipes including old aqueducts. Atmospheric water generators are in development.

Drinking water is often collected at springs, extracted from artificial borings (wells) in the ground, or pumped from lakes and rivers. Building more wells in adequate places is thus a possible way to produce more water, assuming the aquifers can supply an adequate flow. Other water sources include rainwater collection. Water may require purification for human consumption. This may involve removal of undissolved substances, dissolved substances and harmful microbes. Popular methods are filtering with sand which only removes undissolved material, while chlorination and boiling kill harmful microbes. Distillation does all three functions. More advanced techniques exist, such as reverse osmosis. Desalination of abundant seawater is a more expensive solution used in coastal arid climates.

The distribution of drinking water is done through municipal water systems, tanker delivery or as bottled water. Governments in many countries have programs to distribute water to the needy at no charge. Others argue that the market mechanism and free enterprise are best to manage this rare resource and to finance the boring of wells or the construction of dams and reservoirs.

Reducing usage by using drinking (potable) water only for human consumption is another option. In some cities such as Hong Kong, sea water is extensively used for flushing toilets citywide in order to conserve fresh water resources.

Polluting water may be the biggest single misuse of water; to the extent that a pollutant limits other uses of the water, it becomes a waste of the resource, regardless of benefits to the polluter. Like other types of pollution, this does not enter standard accounting of market costs, being conceived as externalities for which the market cannot account. Thus other people pay the price of water pollution, while the private firms' profits are not redistributed to the local population victim of this pollution. Pharmaceuticals consumed by humans often end up in the waterways and can have detrimental effects on aquatic life if they bioaccumulate and if they are not biodegradable.

Wastewater facilities are storm sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Another way to remove pollution from surface runoff water is bioswale.

Effects on human civilization

Water fit for human consumption is called drinking water or potable water. Water that is not potable can be made potable by filtration or distillation (heating it until it becomes water vapor, and then capturing the vapor without any of the impurities it leaves behind), or by other methods (chemical or heat treatment that kills bacteria). Sometimes the term safe water is applied to potable water of a lower quality threshold (i.e., it is used effectively for nutrition in humans that have weak access to water cleaning processes, and does more good than harm). Water that is not fit for drinking but is not harmful for humans when used for swimming or bathing is called by various names other than potable or drinking water, and is sometimes called safe water, or "safe for bathing". Chlorine is a skin and mucous membrane irritant that is used to make water safe for bathing or drinking. Its use is highly technical and is usually monitored by government regulations (typically 1 part per million (ppm) for drinking water, and 1–2 ppm of chlorine not yet reacted with impurities for bathing water).

This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. Currently, about a billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water and sanitation during the 2003 G8 Evian summit.[21] Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water and over a billion without access to adequate sanitation. Poor water quality and bad sanitation are deadly; some five million deaths a year are caused by polluted drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that safe water could prevent 1.4 million child deaths from diarrhea each year.[22] Water, however, is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1 percent of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth. Water-poor countries use importation of goods as the primary method of importing water (to leave enough for local human consumption), since the manufacturing process uses around 10 to 100 times products' masses in water.

In the developing world, 90% of all wastewater still goes untreated into local rivers and streams.[23] Some 50 countries, with roughly a third of the world’s population, also suffer from medium or high water stress, and 17 of these extract more water annually than is recharged through their natural water cycles.[24] The strain not only affects surface freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes, but it also degrades groundwater resources.

Effects on life

From a biological standpoint, water has many distinct properties that are critical for the proliferation of life that set it apart from other substances. It carries out this role by allowing organic compounds to react in ways that ultimately allow replication. All known forms of life depend on water. Water is vital both as a solvent in which many of the body's solutes dissolve and as an essential part of many metabolic processes within the body. Metabolism is the sum total of anabolism and catabolism. In anabolism, water is removed from molecules (through energy requiring enzymatic chemical reactions) in order to grow larger molecules (e.g. starches, triglycerides and proteins for storage of fuels and information). In catabolism, water is used to break bonds in order to generate smaller molecules (e.g. glucose, fatty acids and amino acids to be used for fuels for energy use or other purposes). Water is thus essential and central to these metabolic processes. Therefore, without water, these metabolic processes would cease to exist, leaving us to muse about what processes would be in its place, such as gas absorption, dust collection, etc.

Water is also central to photosynthesis and respiration. Photosynthetic cells use the sun's energy to split off water's hydrogen from oxygen. Hydrogen is combined with CO2 (absorbed from air or water) to form glucose and release oxygen. All living cells use such fuels and oxidize the hydrogen and carbon to capture the sun's energy and reform water and CO2 in the process (cellular respiration).

Water is also central to acid-base neutrality and enzyme function. An acid, a hydrogen ion (H+, that is, a proton) donor, can be neutralized by a base, a proton acceptor such as hydroxide ion (OH−) to form water. Water is considered to be neutral, with a pH (the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration) of 7. Acids have pH values less than 7 while bases have values greater than 7.
Some of the biodiversity of a coral reef

Stomach acid (HCl) is useful to digestion. However, its corrosive effect on the esophagus during reflux can temporarily be neutralized by ingestion of a base such as aluminum hydroxide to produce the neutral molecules water and the salt aluminum chloride. Human biochemistry that involves enzymes usually performs optimally around a biologically neutral pH of 7.4.

For example a cell of Escherichia coli contains 70% of water, a human body 60–70%, plant body up to 90% and the body of an adult jellyfish is made up of 94–98% water.