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

to other drivers at truck stops or through their system of radio communication. He gets them to drink water when they are tired and feel sleepy at the wheel. He gets them to give up their caffeine-containing coffee and sodas and drink water instead. He tells them about the importance of adequate salt intake in proportion to the amount of water they need. Every month, he buys several hundred dollars' worth of books and tapes and gives them to the people who need the information to improve their health. He stops at churches and parishes on his way. He talks to priests on his delivery routes and gives them books and videotapes to share with their parishioners. He has helped thousands of people learn about the importance of water in their lives.
TO: Dr. Batman
FROM: Jim Bolen
I discovered the importance of water and salt to the human body in June of 1997 when I failed a medical for renewing my commercial flying license My pressure at rest was 230/110. I was grounded and told to see my personal physician. He told me I needed blood pressure medication, but I decided I was not going on any medication yet.
I left upset, in denial. My blood pressure had always been 120/80. I got a second opinion weeks later after trying garlic, herbs, vitamins, exercise, meditation, and found it still a solid 180/100. He told me if I didn't go on medication, my heart would enlarge and I would have a heart attack or stroke down the road.
I went home, depressed. I didn't want to accept old age at 54. I was telling a friend about my situation when a retired chiropractor told me about your book (Your Body's Many Cries for Water). He loaned me his book and told me to stop all caffeine for a week, drink ten glasses of water, and add 1?2 tsp of salt to my diet.
I looked at him like he was crazy. I had been on a salt-free diet for years. Thank God for your book, Dr. Batmanghelidj, and Dr. Lee Hobson for his time and generosity.
My blood pressure is now 117/75. I'm taking no medication at all and I have unlimited energy at 58 years old. No more headache or lower back pain; sinuses are clear and no constipation.
Thankfully,
     
Jim Bolen Indio, CA
     
    I could write much more about blood pressure. Suffice it to say, “essential hypertension” is an indicator of an establishing chronic dehydration. Correct the established dehydration in your body with an adjustment to daily water intake and adequate intake of minerals to replace those lost through increased urination, and the adaptive need to raise the blood pressure from its normal levels will not arise. It is as simple as that. Dehydration is by far the most frequent constant stressor in the human body that raises blood pressure—in at least sixty million Americans. However, there may arise occasions when other silent stressors may bring about the same chemical driving forces that ultimately raise blood pressure. These occasions are few and far between and need exhaustive investigation to pinpoint the problem. We need to exclude dehydration as the primary cause of the rise in blood pressure first, before embarking on other approaches.
    Salt and Hypertension
     
    Recent articles in scientific journals are also questioning the view that salt is bad for those with hypertension. Dr. H. Alderman of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and associates, in their 1995 article in the
Journal of Hypertension,
have shown that people on restrictively low-salt diets are more likely to die from heart attacks or strokes than those who use salt liberally. In a 1997 article in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,
Dr. David McCurron of the Department of Nephrology at Oregon Health Science University, Portland, found that with adequate daily intake of potassium, calcium, and magnesium, not only will salt not raise blood pressure, it might actually lower it. This article confirms my view that the water volume inside and outside the cells of the body needs to be in balance. Remember that salt regulates the water levels