Personally have not had the experience of traveling across deserts by camel with hosts that understand hydration. There is no issue that the ‘ships of the desert’ are special creatures, but until now have not focused on their masters…both male and female, and the techniques and tricks of proper hydration under this special environment, including the eating of gel type foods. Dr. Mercola is on top of this issue, and has had it mindful for some years. Proper hydration is not just infusing one’s body with water; the real objective is, and this is immaterial to deserts!,..getting the water inside our cells. Practically means: that the electrical charges across our cellular membranes must be up to snuff; that water inside our cells is vital for our cell metabolism…meaning among a host of things, the ability to remove toxins and the intra-cellular production and removal of oxidants from just living. Time to deliver some Water Shame!
But there is a huge plus if all this goes right. Good cellular hydration contributes to the fight against biological aging…in fact Dr. Mercola thinks that it could contribute to even a reversal or aging, and that makes sense. If not…Water Shame!
BUT a big note: This blog believes that ultimately for those of senior years, a kick start on a frequent basis, to one’s stem cells, is the true extra step to cement longevity, but given that as a granted discipline…optimal cellular functioning is still required in order to take advantage of the reawakened stem cell climate! Mercola makes interesting point that you can actually measure your hydration level by measuring the phase angle…10 being ideal and death occurring around 3.5…
Strategies for improvement: among several includes grounding!…ensuring a proper microbiome! It is amazing how our health seems to revolve around that recently discovered all important microbiome that has a direct pathway to our brain! Mercola gives much credit to the plain talking of Dr. Zach Bush whose record of no nonsense precedes him! He believes that among a myriad of gut benefits that proper hydration is an important beneficiary.
He says that our gut is a hydration cycle! The question being as to how one moves water from the intestinal lining into our bloodstream and then into our cells. He believes this is the crux of the aging process! Two thirds of our body is composed of water! and of that some 66 to 70 % is within our lymph and cellular system. Age tends to deteriorate the ability to get water from the vasculature, the extracellular environment, to the inside of our cells. He is the source of the Mercola belief that proper hydration can put a real break on the aging process, if not reverse it! The reasoning being that water is so important for the removal of toxins and naturally produced oxidants.
Key is to hydrate your cells, and simply drinking water is not typically the most effective strategy to achieve this. Oftentimes the water you drink will simply be urinated out before it has a chance to get into your cells. And, without proper intracellular hydration, your health suffers. Bush explains that our cells run on ATP Adenosine Triphosphate…ATP is produced by Mitochondria which look like bacteria and they live inside our cells. They are 100 times smaller than bacteria! It is these mitochondria that take the sugar and fat our of our food system and turn that into ATP. They do that through a series of enzymes. The respiratory chain is a series of enzymes in the wall of the mitochondria that is the one that will ultimately result in the production of ATP. Interestingly, the F1F0 [ATP synthase] pump, a tiny molecular structure at the end of this enzyme pathway, is what will convert one adenosine diphosphate to one molecule of ATP. That last step requires four hydrogens, two oxygens and two electrons … As you get dehydrated, as you fail to get oxygen and hydrogen in the form of water inside the cell, you lose the ability for those mitochondria to be cranking out all of that energy … used for cellular repair, replacement and the whole anti-aging effort.
Now quick stab at technical biochemistry involved: Bush contends that oxygen is also derived from hydrolysis of intercellular water into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O), and that to consistently get the proper ratio of oxygen to hydrogen, you need to liberate the oxygen from the water (H2O).”[T]he H2 molecule is now recognized to be one of the best selective antioxidants for the hydroxyl free radical. What that means is that the hydroxyl free radical, which is the most noxious to the cell membrane and our ability to do cell maintenance, can be scrubbed or picked up by the H2. In this way, the water you’re drinking is a delivery of both oxygen and hydrogen in a nice ratio where you can release the O’s with their electrons. They become O2. They release H’s in the form of H2. They become a scrubber of inflammation and substrate for the ATP pump.” Water Shame!
According to Bush, all of his patients are dehydrated. Indeed, he believes virtually everyone is dehydrated to some extent!! So bottom line? Seems to be optimization of actual water drinking early in day!…ensuring our gut microbiome is optimized…means vegetables and fiber!..and optimize as best you can other positive principles of this Blog that all contribute to the hydration equation. Water Shame!
