Why is water so important? Quite simply, it's essential for life. And the sad fact is: most people just don't get enough. The vast majority of people living in the industrial world are dehydrated. In advanced societies, thinking that tea, coffee, alcohol, soda pop, or other forms of manufactured beverages are desirable substitutes for the purely natural water needs of the daily "stressed" body is a common, but potentially deadly, error.

Water is the solvent in our bodies, and as such, it regulates all the functions of our bodies, including:

• the movement of blood
• the transport of nutrients into our cells
• the movement of waste out of our cells
• the flow of lymph fluid
• the movement of nerve impulses through our nerves
• the movement of hormones throughout our bodies
• the functioning of our brains

When we are dehydrated, all of these functions (and a thousand more) are impaired. Symptoms of chronic dehydration include: allergies, asthma, chronic pains, constipation, acidosis, dry skin, and the shrinking of internal organs and thinning of skin associated with aging — to name just a few.

Also: on average, drinking water in the United States currently contains over 2,100 toxic chemicals that are known to cause cancer, cell mutation, and nervous disorders. According to the EPA, 53 million Americans unknowingly drink tap water that is polluted by feces, radiation, or other contaminants. Also according to the EPA, some 45 million people drink water contaminated with the parasite cryptosporidium that killed more than 100 people in Milwaukee in 1993. Lastly, over half of all Americans drink water that has been used at least once before.

B. Program for Dealing with the Problem

A complete program must deal with all of the following:

• Chlorination: Chlorine is one of the most toxic substances known. It has been associated with: dry skin, hair destruction, wipin gout the beneficial bacteria in your colon, chemical byproducts that are proven carcinogens, atherosclerosis (and its resulting heart attacks and strokes), senility.
  
  
• Water flouridation: Fluoride is a potent toxin that accumulates in the body. Problems associated with fluoride include: destruction of the immune system, increase in various cancers, genetic changes in sperm and other cells, dramatic increase in heart-related deaths, brittle bones, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal disturbances, increase in infant mortality, skin rashes after bathing, miscarriages, dizziness, vision problems, mottled teeth.
  
  
• Bathing: You absorb more chlorine through your skin in a 15 minute hot shower than you do by drinking 8 glasses of that same water throughout the day.
  
  
• Bioavailability: Magnetizing your drinking water breaks its surface tension, making it wetter and more useable by your body, and raising its pH.
  

C. General Recommendations

• You need to treat the water that comes into your house to remove the chlorine, flouride, chemical residues, heavy metals, bacteria, parasites, etc. in your water. And you need to remove all of these toxins not only at the tap where you drink, but also where you bathe and shower.
  
  
• Drink 8-12 glasses of pure water every day.
  
  
• When possible, use glass to hold your water, not plastic. Absolutely avoid drinking water that has a strong plastic smell or taste.
  
  
• Apply a magnetic field to your water for at least 20 minutes (depending on how large your bottle is).
  
  
• If you're not using a central home purification system, remember to get a good shower filter to remove the chlorine from the water you shower in. Understand that the filter is is on the shower, not the bath. The bath water (unless you fill the tub from the shower) will still be toxic.
  

D. Recommended Products

• For Natural Health Yellow Page's recommendations, please read our article: How to "Make" Really Good Water