Doctor water arrives for house call
By ALLAN TINKER
Another of the doctors that make house calls arrived via Deb Brummel this past week at city hall’s community room. The doctor’s name was water and it is the elixir of life.
Brummel added a "fake" tuna dip and chips along with mango juice for a beverage and, after a quick snack, those who gathered learned a lot about the water most take for granted. Until we run out.
We are about 57 percent water. The more fat we have, the less we have as a percentage of water. Newborn babies are about 75 percent water and the percentage decreases with age, women are about three or four percent lower in water than men.
Water regulates our body temp-erature, helps nutrients assimilate, expels toxins and salts and keeps our blood pressure down and regulated.
If we are very dry, we are wrinkly. We will tire quickly, have a dry mouth, lose our concentration more easily, and may have a headache. The brain is 85 percent water, so that makes a lot of sense.
If we continue to deprive our bodies of the water we need, we may develop hypertension, and heart and kidney problems. We might also be, and stay, constipated.
We may also have clogged sal-ivary ducts, allergies, be hypoglycemic and dizzy. We have a higher risk of kidney and gall stones, along with high cholesterol. We may have frequent bladder infections or develop cancer of the bladder. Digestion will be slower and we may have a dry cough and pain in our backs and joints.
In children who are low on water, they may be emotionally labile, going from up to down in energy. They may also have lack of focus and pay little attention.
Lack of water can affect our focus, our short term memory, our long term recall, make us do poorly at arithmetic, give us mental fatigue and depression and/or anxiety.
Long term water deprivation can affect planning and visual spatial processing. The frontal lobe of the brain is where judgment and emotions are handled and one can affect learning and being able to foresee problems by becoming dehydrated.
