Learn More About How Water Affects The Body

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How Much Water?

In February, 2004, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) issued a report on the Dietary Reference Intakes for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride, and Sulfate that estimates an adequate daily intake level of water for women of 91 ounces and 125 ounces for men. The report further stated that about 80% of the estimated total water intake is met by consuming water and beverages, while the other 20% is derived from foods.
(drinking 80% of this recommendation is 100oz for men and 73oz for women)

The staff at Mayo Clinic provides the following guidelines:
Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements. For your body to function properly, you must replenish its water supply by consuming beverages and foods that contain water. Several approaches attempt to approximate water needs for the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate.

* Replacement approach. The average urine output for adults is about 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) a day. You lose close to an additional liter of water a day through breathing, sweating and bowel movements. Food usually accounts for 20 percent of your total fluid intake, so if you consume 2 liters of water or other beverages a day (a little more than 8 cups) along with your normal diet, you will typically replace the lost fluids.

* Eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Another approach to water intake is the "8 x 8 rule" — drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (about 1.9 liters). The rule could also be stated, "drink eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," as all fluids count toward the daily total. Though the approach isn't supported by scientific evidence, many people use this basic rule as a guideline for how much water and other fluids to drink.

* Dietary recommendations. The Institute of Medicine advises that men consume roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day and women consume 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day.

Even apart from the above approaches, if you drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day, your fluid intake is probably adequate.

 

Beverages Total 22% of US Calories - But Who's Counting

(Tufts University, Health & Nutrition Letter, March, 2007

The What America Drinks report, commissioned by the Milk Processor Education Program, used data from more than 10,000 Americans, ages four and up, collected by the government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999-2000 and 2001-2002. The report found that calories from beverages make up 22% of the total energy intake in the average US diet. Half of the added sugar that Americans consume comes from beverages, according to the analysis.

10 Surprising Health Benefits of Love

Lower Blood Pressure, Fewer Colds, Better Stress Management Are Just the Beginning
By Sherry Rauh WebMD Feature

full Article at WebMD.com
Based on research by Dr. Harry Reis, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, New York University

Better Heart Health through Intimacy

Love and Survival, the Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy (HarperCollins, 1998) by Dean Ornish, M.D
One study he describes, researchers talked with nearly 10 thousand married men who had no previous history of angina (chest pains). Despite high risk factors like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, men who felt loved by their wives experienced half the angina as men who felt their wives did show them love.

 

Messages from Water

Dr. Masaru Emoto photographs water crystals that were exposed to different words, music, or images. He found that those exposed to positive items formed more beautiful crystals than those exposed to negative items. A line from “What the Bleep do we know” when the lead was observing Emoto’s images, “Makes you wonder, doesn't it? If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what our thoughts can do to us.” This follows the premise that since the body is mostly water, our thoughts should affect the water within us. This was part of the inspiration of the Gratitude and Love Bottle. Keeping a visual reminder nearby that our thoughts may matter.

Why Gratitude and Love? Some excerpts from the book:

“I have mentioned that water shown the word love and gratitude forms the most beautiful crystals. Of course the work love alone has the ability to create wonderful crystals, but love and gratitude combine to give the crystals a unique depth and refinement, a diamond-like brilliance.
I also discovered that the love and gratitude crystals actually look more like the gratitude crystals that the love crystals. What this indicates is that the gratitude vibration is more powerful and has a greater influence. Love tends to be more active energy, the act of giving one-self unconditionally. By contrast, gratitude is a more passive energy, a feeling that results from having been given something –knowing that you have been given the gift of life and reaching our to receive it joyously with both hands.”

“Gratitude is the creator of a heart filled with love. Love leads the feelings of gratitude in the right direction.”

“The Human body is essentially water, and the consciousness is the soul. Methods that help water to flow smoothly are superior to all other medical methods available to us.”

Gratitude at Work

Full article: Graziadio Business Report Pepperdine University

Grateful behavior can facilitate positive interpersonal and community relationships that may in turn influence other key outcomes. Effectively applied in the workplace, for instance, gratitude may positively impact such factors as job satisfaction, loyalty, and citizenship behavior, while reducing employee turnover and increasing organizational profitability and productivity. In addition to the external benefits of gratitude accruing to recipients and their organizations, research surrounding gratitude identifies several positive impacts that await individuals who express gratitude to others. In turn, these personal benefits may also work to the advantage of organizations.

Grateful individuals report higher levels of life satisfaction and optimism and greater energy and connections with other people. Grateful people enjoying these types of positive outcomes from their acts of gratitude would seem to make for productive and happy people within an organization.

Growing evidence indicates that the expression of gratitude can also improve one's physical health and functioning. Researchers are finding that behaviors such as gratitude, for example, may be reliably connected to positive changes in an individual's cardiovascular and immune functioning. In one recent study, individuals who focused on being grateful rather than on not being angry were found to positively impact a variety of important physiological functions such as improved heart, pulse, and respiration rates. It would seem that the practice of gratitude may hold promise for reducing stress and consequent related healthcare costs, which in an organizational setting could bring great dividends.

Gratitude is the “forgotten factor” in happiness research.

Source: http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/emmons/

We are engaged in a long-term research project designed to create and disseminate a large body of novel scientific data on the nature of gratitude, its causes, and its potential consequences for human health and well-being. Scientists are latecomers to the concept of gratitude.  Religions and philosophies have long embraced gratitude as an indispensable manifestation of virtue, and an integral component of health, wholeness, and well-being.  Through conducting highly focused, cutting-edge studies on the nature of gratitude, its causes, and its consequences, we hope to shed important scientific light on this important concept.  This document is intended to provide a brief, introductory overview of the major findings to date of the research project.  For further information, please contact Robert Emmons. This project is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

We are engaged in two main lines of inquiry at the present time: (1) developing methods to cultivate gratitude in daily life and assess gratitude’s effect on well-being, and (2) developing a measure to reliably assess individual differences in dispositional gratefulness.

Gratitude Interventions and Psychological and Physical Well-Being

• In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).
• A related benefit was observed in the realm of personal goal attainment:  Participants who kept gratitude lists were more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period compared to subjects in the other experimental conditions.
• A daily gratitude intervention (self-guided exercises) with young adults resulted in higher reported levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to a focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants thought they were better off than others).  There was no difference in levels of unpleasant emotions reported in the three groups.
• Participants in the daily gratitude condition were more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to another, relative to the hassles or social comparison condition.
• In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high energy positive moods, a greater sense of feeling connected to others, more optimistic ratings of one’s life, and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.
• Children who practice grateful thinking have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008).

Measuring the Grateful Disposition

• Most people report being grateful (an average rating of nearly 6 on a 7 point scale).
• Well-Being:  Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress.  The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions.  Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.
• Prosociality: People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathic and to take the perspective of others.  They are rated as more generous and more helpful by people in their social networks (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002).
• Spirituality:  Those who regularly attend religious services and engage in religious activities such as prayer reading religious material score are more likely to be grateful.  Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life and a commitment to and responsibility to others (McCullough et. al., 2002). Gratitude does not require religious faith, but faith enhances the ability to be grateful.
• Materialism:  Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of others; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons.

 

Thoughts of Gratitude and Love

Many authors, speakers, and recently, movies have focused on this concept of focusing on what you want.

Top motivational speaker Anthony Robbins has had great success in teaching to focus on what you want NOT on what you don't want. Tony teaches to have and "Attitude of Gratitude" for “When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears”.

Mother Teresa had the same approach, "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there." She was well aware that focusing on peace was better that focusing on anti-war.

Recently The Secret has great marketing success with "The Law of Attraction". This was certainly not a new concept. Norman Vincent Peale in "The Power of Positive Thinking" had the same idea 50 years earlier.

But this was not a new concept for Peale either. He was predated by a few thousand years.

Buddha "What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind." 4th Century BC.

Jesus "And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11:9-10)

Mohammad " Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue."

More recently, author/speaker Shad Helmstter's book What to Say When you Talk to Yourself reveals the success one can have with the right self-talk.

From "Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life" by Dr. Wayne Dyer
The journey of your life will change when you emphasize gratitude for all that you are, all that you accomplish, and all that you receive. Practice silently repeating I thank you throughout your waking hours, and as you fall asleep and awaken.

It really doesn't matter whether you're thanking God, Spirit, Allah, the Tao, Krishna, Buddha, the Source, or self, because all those names represent the great wisdom traditions. Give thanks for the sunshine, the rain, and your body, including all of its components.

Keep your Gratitude and Love Bottle in visual sight when at your office or home for a visual reminder.

What others have to say on Gratitude and Love

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” - David Steindl-Rast

“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears” -Anthony Robbins

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

“Love dissolves anger love releases resentment, love dissipates fear, and love creates safety.  When you can come from a space of totally loving yourself, then everything in your life must flow with ease, harmony, health, prosperity and joy.” – Louise L. Hay Healing your body

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”   -Melody Beattie

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”    -Lao Tzu

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.”  -Arthur Rubinstein

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”  -Jalal ad-Din Rumi

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” -Sophocles

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” -Mother Teresa of Calcutta

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”  -Buddha

“All that we are is a result of what we have thought”– Buddha

“Gratitude for the abundance you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue." -Mohammad 

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  -Maya Angelou

 

Harvard study backs bottle concern

Says plastic used leaches bisphenol A

"A Harvard study released yesterday supports what many public health specialists have long assumed: Hard plastic drinking bottles containing bisphenol A are leaching notable amounts of the controversial chemical into people's bodies.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who drank for a week from the clear plastic polycarbonate bottles increased concentrations of bisphenol A - or BPA - in their urine by 69 percent."
More on the article at: Boston Globe

Health Effects of Plastics

Source: Ecology Center

Chemical Migration from Plastic Packaging into Contents
People are exposed to these chemicals not only during manufacturing, but also by using plastic packages, because some chemicals migrate from the plasticpackaging to the foods they contain. Examples of plastics contaminating food have been reported with most plastic types, including Styrene from polystyrene, plasticizers from PVC, antioxidants from polyethylene, and Acetaldehyde from PET.

Among the factors controlling migration are the chemical structure of the migrants and the nature of the packaged food. In studies cited in Food Additives and Contaminants, LDPE, HDPE, and polypropylene bottles released measurable levels of BHT, Chimassorb 81, Irganox PS 800, Irganix 1076, and Irganox 1010 into their contents of vegetable oil and ethanol. Evidence was also found that acetaldehyde migrated out of PET and into water.

Recommendations
Find alternatives to plastic products whenever possible. Some specific suggestions:
* Buy food in glass or metal containers; avoid polycarbonate drinking bottles with Bisphenol A
* Avoid heating food in plastic containers, or storing fatty foods in plastic containers or plastic wrap.
* Do not give young children plastic teethers or toys
* Use natural fiber clothing, bedding and furniture
* Avoid all PVC and Styrene products

Polyethylene Terephthalate May Yield Endocrine Disruptors

An article published in Environmental Health Perspectives (abstract) in November 2009 presented evidence that PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) may yield endocrine disruptors under conditions of common use. Possible mechanisms include leaching of phthalates as well as leaching of antimony. The risk of leaching appears to increase as a function of storage temperature and storage duration. Abstract with link to full article (.pdf)

Benefits of Water

A study reported by Ohio State University reported that providing school children with a water bottle, access to drinking fountains and education on the health benefits of water raised consumption by 1.1 glasses a day and reduced the child's risk of becoming overweight by 31%. (full article .pdf)

Dr. F. Batmanghelidj has published a series of books "You're not sick, you're thirsty"
Dr. B's pioneering work shows that Unintentional Chronic Dehydration (UCD) contributes to and even produces pain and many degenerative diseases that can be prevented and treated by increasing water intake on a regular basis.
He reports that water can help or cure angina, arthritis, asthma, autoimmune diseases, back pain, colitis, diabetes, heartburn, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, migraines and pain.
For a summary of his work, check out Health Benefit of Water.

Bottom Line - Drink enough water from your Gratitude and Love Bottle

Dehydration

Even though the amount of water you need has been a heated topic of debate and many research studies, there is no question what happens if you don't get enough.

Complications associated with dehydration:

• Heat injury
• Swelling of the brain
• Seizures
• Hypovolemic shock
• Kidney failure
• Coma and death

Of course there are degrees of dehydration.

Bottom Line - Drink enough water from your Gratitude and Love Bottle