CONNECTIONS THE MAY FLOWERS IISSUE MAY 2016

My Connections Magazine
CONNECTIONS May 2016
You may never have heard of Fereydoon
Batmanghelidj, M.D., who became a
celebrity in the health world during the
1980s and 1990s for his unusual story and
work with water. Batmanghelidj
(pronounced Batman-gey-lij) studied the
effects of water (or lack of it) in the human
body for more than twenty-five years before
his death in 2004.
Often referred to as “Dr. Batman” because
Americans couldn’t pronounce his name, he
championed the healing benefits of water in
lectures and books. He believed that chronic
dehydration contributes to many of today’s
serious illnesses, such as heart disease,
asthma, hypertension, lupus, and multiple
sclerosis. He often said that a chronic lack of
water caused the body to cry out in pain, and
pointed to arthritis and joint pain as an
example.
“If you have chronic pain in the spine,
hands, or legs, that means those joints are
thirsting for water,” he said. “You are not
drinking enough water. The pain is due to
dehydrated joints, plus wear and tear, and
the inability of the cartilage to repair the
damage.”
His interest in water went back to his native
Iran where the London-trained physician
was jailed as a political prisoner from 1979
to 1982. When fellow prisoners asked him to
help another man suffering from an acute
peptic ulcer attack, all he had to offer was
water. He gave the man two glasses of
water. To his surprise, the prisoner’s pain
vanished in minutes. During the next two
years as one of the prison’s doctors, he
researched and applied the use of water for
treating people under stress. A clinical
report describing his treatment of more than
three thousand peptic ulcer cases with water
appeared in a 1983 issue of theJournal of
Clinical Gastroenterology.
After his release from prison, he found his
way to the United States and devoted his
full-time attention to researching, writing,
and lecturing about dehydration-related
health problems. Part of his lasting legacy is
a wonderful book I highly recommend
reading: Your Body’s Many Cries for Water
(available throughwww.watercure.com).
Water Facts
According to University of North Carolina
experts (see Popkin), thirst plays little dayto-day
role in the control of water intake in
healthy people. Here are some other
facts about water and your health from their
review:
Total fluid intake increased from 79
fluid ounces daily in 1989 to 100 in
2001 among U.S. adults, all from
caloric beverages like sodas.
The elderly have low water reserves
compared to younger people. Because of
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