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WATER OF LIFE

The next most important thing for life and health is CLEAN WATER. Almost 70% of your body is fluid; nearly two thirds water. Water provides the liquid medium for all your essential biochemical processes. Of all nutrients you must have for good health, looks and athletic performance, water is perhaps the most critical, and least appreciated. Jesus likened His gift of life to a well of crystal water. (John 4:14; Rev. 21:6)

You must REPLACE FLUID LOST not only after but before and during a workout. Your body has to maintain water balance. Water regulates body temperature, maintains proper
circulation, salt and electrolyte balance, and removes wastes as urine. Muscle exercise generates heat your system must get rid of. WATER COOLS working muscles by evaporating through your skin as sweat. This also cools your skin and blood near skin surfaces. If you don't get enough cooling, you can suffer heat exhaustion, or more seriously, heat stroke. A whole body temperature increase of just 7-8 degrees can kill you. On a hot day you may shed up to two gallons of perspiration to help bring your temperature down.

You can badly dehydrate and yet not feel thirsty. It is possible to lose up to 2 quarts of water before you notice you are thirsty! Thirst is also quenched before body fluids are fully replaced. Most people stop feeling thirsty when they have drunk only about two thirds of the fluid they have lost. When you know you are going to lose lots of water in an endurance event you must compensate for fluid loss BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the workout. American Dietetic Association and College of Sports Medicine guidelines:

BEFORE
* drink at least eight 8 ounce glasses of fluids the day before
* drink 16 to 20 ounces of fluids about 2 hours before exercising
* drink 6 to 16 ounces of fluid 15 to 30 minutes before a workout

DURING
* drink 3 to 7 ounces of fluid every 15 to 20 minutes during a workout

AFTER
* drink 16 ounces of fluid for each pound lost (check weight before/after workout)

Special SPORTS DRINKS with calories and electrolytes (sodium and potassium) can help if you are involved in endurance sports but all you really need is simple fluid replacement. Carbohydrate/protein supplemented sports drinks work best immediately after a workout.

Take your drinks cold. You absorb cool drinks more quickly than warm room temperature drinks. Cold drinks in hot weather help drop your body temperature. If you work or play sport in hot weather, fill an insulated jug with ice and water and use it often. A loose handkerchief around your neck kept ice watered will help cool you quickest.

It is a bad idea to drink sugared beverages and juices the final hour BEFORE exercise. Sugar stimulates insulin release from your pancreas. Insulin's job is to speed glucose removal from the blood. Glucose is the form of energy your muscles need to work. If you exercise hard, your stimulated insulin removes that glucose too quickly and your blood sugar level drops sharply. Rob your muscles of this fuel and you get very tired.

Much of our water today especially in inner cities is anything but clean. City water is loaded with both chlorine and fluorine. It also may have poisons like asbestos, heavy metals (lead, copper) and toxins like trihalomethanes, the by-product of chlorination. If you have lead pipes, run the tap a little before you drink to reduce lead leach from the pipes. Never, never use water from the hot tap for drinks or cooking; the heating element leaches metal into the water. Metal pots and pans, especially aluminum are suspect; whenever you can, use enameled or glass pots for cooking.

If you can afford it, invest in a good charcoal-only water filter, (change it often) or a stand-alone purifier or distiller. The cleaner you get the water you drink, the less problems your body will have to put up with. If you are visiting another country where you know the water may carry infection, boil any water you drink to kill bacteria. Then filter it to remove other impurities. Don't eat salads there or unpeeled fruit; don't use ice.

GETTING & STAYING CLEAN

The second major value of water is to WASH AND CLEAN. Your skin is the outer layer of your body's incredible system of exchange. It is a window to your internal physical and emotional health; your skin shows up what is going on inside you. It absorbs into your body whatever is put on it, and is your largest elimination organ. Our nine pounds of skin is the finest way we sense and touch our world. Studded with half a million tiny sensors, it ceaselessly monitors wind, particles, parasites, changes in pressure, temperature, humidity light and radiation. Skin is the first thing people see about you, and the best way to express how you feel. When Jesus healed people He touched them. (Matt 8:3)

Life on the surface of your body is never easy. Skin both absorbs and excretes, defends and expels, protects and regulates. It is under constant assault from hard sunlight, dirt, bacteria and toxins you touch in things you handle and contact each day. It is programmed as your immune and disease-fighting first line of defense against myriads of airborne yeast, molds and bacteria that can infect and hurt. Each of us carries as many creatures on the surface of our skins as there are people on the planet. (Fearfully And Wonderfully Made - Dr. Paul Brand) There are millions of drugs, compounds and concoctions in our culture aimed at the health of your skin. You can spend a fortune, but here is a secret. The best way to help your skin is just to keep it clean.

SHOWER

First thing in the morning, after a work-out or when you get home, take a quick shower. You only need a few minutes and you don't need to waste water. If you are in a place where you can't, use a washcloth and basin and give yourself a quick all-over sponge. BENEFITS are enormous. A shower not only cleans off dirt and odor from bacteria but built-up oils, toxins and dead skin cells, of which we shed some ten thousand million a day. (Up to 90% of household dust is dead skin cells.) It helps recharge your skin for its protective electrical shield. Miss out and you invite acne, blackheads, clogged pores, rough or oily skin and smells deodorant won't cover. A FACIAL SPLASH in cold water (6-7x) wonderfully tightens and tones as well as refreshes you. Minimize soap use on your face. Don't rub your face with your hands. It stretches your skin and transmits dirt and germs.

Commercial soaps, deodorants, hair sprays and shampoos usually contain extra ingredients that can affect your skin and eventually even your system health. Absolutely minimize their use. Especially dangerous are those that contain forms of propyl alcohol, benzene and PCP; some research links these substances to cancer. If you know you have any kind of immune problem stop using all such products immediately.

SWEAT is odorless. Bacteria feeding on it creates body odors. You need to sweat. It not only cools your skin, but excretes toxins, especially from the upper body. A dab of lemon juice, quarter of a teaspoon of citric acid or vitamin C in a pint of water followed by a dab of cornstarch make good natural deodorants. Or after a shower, use a dab of baking soda.

If you want to use a MOISTURIZING OIL, use a natural one like olive or apricot kernel oil. Three of the best and safest cleaners you can use are also the simplest and cheapest; washing soda, borax and food grade hydrogen peroxide. Borax, a traditional pioneer soap is anti-bacterial and softens water. It does not lather but removes sweat and soil without stripping your hair color or skin from natural oils. As a hair shampoo it inhibits scalp bacteria and stops flaking or itching. A few squirts clean quickly without the sensation of soapiness. Rinse very well. Use a little lemon juice or citric acid (1/4 tsp./pint) in water to re-acidify your scalp and skin after the shower. (Natural skin acidity is stripped by most soaps.) You can make your own anti-bacterial borax SOAP SHAMPOO by adding a gallon of water to an inch of borax in a plastic container. Use washing soda and half-a-cup of borax for your LAUNDRY; clothes rub residual commercial additives left even after rinsing into your skin.

You can even make a years supply of YOUR OWN SOAP, guaranteed free from additives with lye and lard or olive oil! Put 3 lb. of the lard or oil in a 10"x12" flat plastic or glass pan. Use no metal. Carefully add a can of lye a little at a time to three quarts of very cold water in a plastic or glass pan. Be very careful with caustic soda. Use rubber gloves, stir with a plastic rod. Let it cool an hour. Slowly and carefully add the lye to the lard or oil. Mix as it melts until it is thick (15 mins). Let it set overnight. Cut into bars.

BRUSH your teeth with either a pinch of baking soda dissolved in a glass of water (metal fillings) or a half--and-half solution of hydrogen peroxide and water (plastic fillings only). A few drops of the peroxide/water mixture (17-35%) on your brush will not only help sterilize it; with a few months of use it will whiten your teeth.

FLOSS your teeth with 2 lb. monofilament fishing line, not floss. Brush and floss once a day. If you need new fillings, ask your dentist for plastic or ceramic, never metal. Use a new toothbrush; buy another when the first gets worn or raggedy. Brush up and down, letting the bristles clean the spaces between your teeth, and don't forget the back of your molars. Bad breath is usually a sign of decay of some sort in your teeth or gums.
PROBLEM HAIR

What is it about hair that makes you so mad or frustrated when it isn't right? Your biggest problem is trying to do too much with it. Less is more. Pass on trendy colors or styles that make you spend hours trying to coax it into place with gobs of gel or spray. When in doubt, don't. Find a cut that suits you and stick with it. If you see a style that fits the kind of hair you have or if you get a good cut you especially like, get a friend to take side, back and front pictures. Take them to show your hairdresser. Brighten dull hair with a little vegetable oil after you wash and dry it. Clean oily hair often, and rinse with a little vinegar (dark hair) or lemon juice (light hair). Brush it well for shine and scalp health.

SHAVING is best done right after a shower where water has a chance to open your skin pores, remove dirt and wet the hair. Rinse your razor under very hot water. Beard shaves begin with cheeks, under your lower lip and end with the heavier hair on your chin and upper lip. Rinse face at least twenty times in warm water to remove all traces of lather. A rinse in the shower can help cut razor discomfort and shave marks, soothing your skin. After-shaves may scent but they shock the skin and dry it out. You don't need them.

HYDROTHERAPY

Hydrotherapy is the use of water to treat body imbalances or for cosmetic purposes. BENEFITS of hydrotherapy are: it develops muscle tone; reduces inflammation or swelling; stimulates sluggish circulation; raises or lowers body temperature; can help stop bleeding; purifies the body by removing wastes; relieves congestion of blood, lymph, and other body fluids; unclogs the pores; and stimulates or sedates the nervous system. John Wesley was a great advocate of the cold bath as a health measure.

Hydrotherapy used with forms of massage is very effective in stress relief, toxin release and deep relaxation. Here are three other uses of water that you may try:

Steam inhalation - helps clear the sinuses, open blocked bronchial tubes, increase respiration, and clean toxins from the skin, while it helps with difficult breathing. Steam helps relieve feelings of stiffness. Herbs or natural oils in the steam give aromatherapy.
A sauna opens pores, cleans wastes from skin layer, provides relaxation. Spa baths relax and massage, but chemicals or contaminates from others can create problems. Bathtubs with spa jets are cleaner personal alternatives.

Swimming - the ultimate exercise! A good swim builds and strengthens muscles, increases respiration, improves circulation, and massages muscles for relief of aches and pains. Swim often if you can, but never right after eating and watch out for the sun if outside. Use a hat and limit your skin exposure especially between the hours of 11 am and 3:00 p.m. when exposure risk is greater. You will burn quicker in the sunlight of the Pacific region as you get closer to Antarctica; the ultra-violet levels are higher there. (See Appearance under Sunlight for further help in this area.)