to your health

I tell all my massage clients to drink water after a massage.  I hope they don't get tired of hearing it and I hope they heed the advice.  I had someone recently come back to me and tell me that they were terribly sore after our last session.  Gina (my wife) was in the room and immediately asked, "Did you drink water afterward."  "No", was the reply, "I forgot."  Drinking water after massage is just as important as drinking water after exercise.  Massage simulates exercising the muscles.  You need to drink water to lubricate the muscles as well as to help flush out toxins in the body.  Clients who want to experience the full benefit of massage therapy must drink water.

Gina is an Occupational Therapist as well as a Lymphedema Therapist.  She preaches water drinking too.  When working with lymphedema patients, it's imperative that her patients drink water if they want to really manage their lymphedema.  Only water is going to flush out toxins within lymph fluid.

I wrote the other day about water intake and high blood pressure.  Not drinking enough water can cause your blood to thicken.  Can you say STROKE?

I'm diabetic, and several years ago realized that I needed to lose a lot of weight.  I can't do the diet thing, but  I did commit to drinking water.  I fasted from sodas and beloved sweet tea for eight months.  I don't drink a lot of coffee, a cup a day if any at all.  So water became my #1 fluid intake.  I soon discovered that water not only hydrated my body, but the water caused me to drop weight.  It even helped me to control my appetite.  I have been all about water ever since.

Did you know that our bodies can only live for about three days without water. If you are like most people, you get enough water just to survive.   We need to be drinking enough of it to reach optimum health. You may be in a state of chronic dehydration without even realizing it!  Not getting enough water puts a lot of unnecessary stress on your body.  It also plays a role in the development of many serious health problems.

Drinking water is the best thing you can do for your skin.  Do you want to age quicker? Don't drink the water.  Chronic dehydration speeds up the aging process.  

I've had clients say that they don't like drinking water.  We are used to having flavors, caffeine, carbonation and alcohol.   Water is the substance God himself filled the earth for us to drink.   All those carbonated, sugary, caffeinated drinks fake our bodies out.  Most of what we drink in fact dehydrates our bodies.  Only water hydrates! Just as our bodies need air to breath, every system of our bodies need water to survive, to stay healthy.  The only drink to drink to our health is water.

I know where they are coming from.  I used to avoid drinking water too.  I now believe that pretty much all of my health problems today stem from walking around for decades in a dehydrated state.  A short time after I committed to drinking cool clear water, I not only developed a taste for it, but a real thirst for it.  My body now craves water.  In fact, nothing else quenches my thirst.