Water: For Health, For Healing, For Life by F. Batmanghelidj

in the arterial system so that water can be filtered and injected into some vitally important cells in the body, such as the brain cells. The tightening of the blood vessel walls provides the force necessary to operate a reverse osmosis system in the human body—a crisis-management program to keep important cells alive. Water is pushed into selected cells of the body through tiny “shower-heads”—cluster perforations in the cell membrane. The difference between the two readings of blood pressure is the range of force needed to deliver water under normal circumstances into some vital cells of the body. As the body becomes more and more dehydrated, the amount of pressure needed to filter and inject water into vital cells increases. The less water there is in the body, the more pressure is needed to hydrate vital cells.
    The mechanism is simple. When confronting stressful circumstances, and in dehydration that is becoming gradually established, histamine is released. Histamine activates the production of vasopressin (an antidiuretic hormone). Certain cells of the body have receiving points that are sensitive to vasopressin. As soon as the hormone sits on the sensitive point, a hollow showerhead type of opening with minute holes in its base is created in the cell membrane. Serum fills the space, and its water content filters through the holes, which are large enough for the passage of only one water molecule at a time. Vasopressin, as its name implies, also produces the tightening of the vessels around it. This tightening of vessels translates into a squeeze that pushes the serum and its water through the holes in the blood vessel—a necessary act if some of this water is to be pushed back into the cells.
    Renin-Angiotensin System
     
    Another water-regulatory system that is associated with dehydration and histamine production is the brain's renin-angiotensin (RA) system. RA production is a component of the thirst sensation and increased water intake. It also produces some tightening of the blood vessels and has been recognized as a dominant factor in the production of hypertension. The RA system eventually becomes prominent in the kidneys, which have to concentrate urine and save water while producing urine. The kidneys recognize water shortage and activate their resident RA system so that more water is called in for urine production. The RA system eventually stimulates a drive for salt intake and its retention until the body is fully hydrated. The brain has an independent RA system of its own. When there is a water shortage, the centers that sense this shortage become active and produce the neurotransmitter histamine, which will then activate the brain's RA system.

     
    Figure 7.2: The schematic model of a nerve cell, its membrane wall, and the vasopressin receptor that becomes transformed into a type of “showerhead” that lets only water through its very small perforations. This is part of the mechanism of reverse osmosis that the body employs to deliver filtered water into vital cells.
     
    There is a simultaneous rise in blood pressure when the body is dehydrated inside its cells. The tendency is to begin to retain salt, which is essential for the operation of the reverse osmosis process. The body collects water in the form of edema fluid, from which free water is filtered and then injected into vital cells. We in medicine have not recognized the relationship of dehydration inside the cells of the body to the physiological role of RA system. We have only recognized the expansion of water volume in the environment outside the cells. We automatically assume that the retention of fluid in the body, and the rise in blood pressure, are pathological processes caused by the RA system. We have not realized that the process is an adaptive measure to correct dehydration inside the vital cells of the body, such as the brain cells, the liver cells, the kidney cells, the lungs, and other important organs and glands.
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