How Dehydration Can Affect Allergies – 6 Simple Ways to Avoid It

If what summer means to you is stocking up on giant boxes of tissues and avoiding going out of doors, then there is a hidden factor that you may not be aware of. It seems that many allergy sufferers are also dehydrated, so that no matter how much water they drink they suffer from dry skin and a parched mouth.

Generally we are dehydrated as a nation, despite all those water bottles so ostentatiously displayed on desks and in gym bags. Studies estimate that 75% of us are prone to the ill health effects associated with chronic dehydration,. But what has that to do with your allergies? Well, allergies are caused by a histamine reaction in the bodyand histamine is an important neurotransmitter that primarily regulates thirst mechanism for increased water intake. It also establishes a system of water rationing for the available water in the drought-stricken body.”

When the body is dehydrated, histamine production increases significantly as its primary job is to make sure that the available water in the body is preserved for the most vital functions. It is the ‘drought mechanism’ if you like, and it creates a chain of events that affects numerous functions in the body, including the suppression of antibody production. This means that the body will simply not be as well equipped to deal with unhealthy invaders, such as pollen and other antigens.

That’s why during summer, when pollen season is in full swing, our eyes are invaded with the pollen agents, and the dehydrated body lacks the antibodies to adequately neutralize the pollen. So in response, the tear-producing glands of the eyes work overtime to wash the pollen away from the delicate membranes.

The histamine reaction and suppression of antibodies are just two of the many ways the body adapts to dehydration and although dehydration is not the only cause of allergies, it can be the primary cause. And the good news is that you can easily remedy it.

It can take time to fully rehydrate your body, but keep going as in the beginning a parched body – like dry ground – does not absorb all the water but it just runs out and away. It may seem like you are forever running to the loo in the early stages, but be persistent with your water intake and this will regulate as your starts to absorb and utilize the water better at the cellular level.

Top Water Retention Tips
1. Drink water – obvious but true – and plain, not carbonated. Not soft drinks or teas and coffees, but plain water.

2. Check the amount you drink, and the recommendation to rehydrate a dehydrated body, which is at least 1.5-2litres a day and during exercise or hot weather, you should increase your water intake significantly.

3. Don’t guess, but measure and record your water intake and that may be easier by setting out a number of bottles a day, or using a litre measuring jug and keeping track of how often you fill it. .

4. Filter your drinking water at source, at the tap, or in a filter jug or use reputable bottled water from a guaranteed source.

5. Little and often is best so make sure you drink regularly throughout the day as your body can only absorb about 12 to 16 ounces of water a time. The most important time to drink water is first thing in the morning so drink a large glass then, and add some fresh lemon juice to a detox start to the day. After breakfast have another large glass and try not to drink with meals, but in between so that you do not to dilute your digestive juices.

6. Unless you have high blood pressure, it can also help to add sea salt to drinking water because your more frequent urination means you are losing sodium. Not processed salt, and about a quarter teaspoon per litre will be plenty.. Salt itself is a natural antihistamine and if you add in a multimineral supplement then you will ensure proper electrolyte balance.

Entirely Free – and Effective – Weight Loss Aid

One of the things I have found most aggravating about getting older is how often my mother has been proved right. It was never used as a weight loss aid in our house for as we were on a very low income indeed it was used to fill us up and make us less hungry. What is this magical weight loss ingredient that costs you nothing and has absolutely no side-effects?

Something that I hope you already have plenty of every day in your diet — plain, simple, water. It’s something that’s been around for a long time and suggested as a way of losing weight that you drink a large glass of water before each meal and now scientists have documented that it really is true. There has been a clinical trial of this amazing weight loss-promoting liquid and the results were reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Boston.

Previous studies had already shown that middle aged and older people who drank two cups of water immediately before eating a meal consumed between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal. In this recent 12 week study, dieters aged between 55 and 75 who drank water before every meal lost about 5 pounds more than those who did not increase their water intake.

You have to love scientists as they are incapable of taking anything at face value and so here we now have the scientific proof from a randomized, controlled clinical trial that drinking water before you eat will make you feel fuller, so you will eat less. Also research from Columbia University School of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health had previously found that when overweight teenagers substituted water for sweetened drinks such as squashes and colas they could eliminate an average of 235 excess calories per day.

The trick here of course is to actually get teenagers to switch from their favourite caffeine and sweetener laden soft drinks to plain water but the free report mentioned below might just help.

Free Reports

For a useful free factsheet on weight loss please cut and paste this link into your browser: http://www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk/content/cmsGoAssets/Documents/Stored/30/Water%20and%20Weight%20Management%20factsheet.pdf

And if you want to do more to help children and their water consumption there is also an excellent free downloadable factsheet ‘Hydration for Children – Back to School’ which explains the importance of adequate hydration for children both from a health perspective and from an educational perspective in terms of maximizing cognitive performance in the classroom.

It contains many helpful facts, tips, and information that will be very helpful for anyone wanting to improve the health and alertness of children. You can download it from this website www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk and then click on the link to Hydration for Children – Back to School.

The value of water

In December we have a natural tendency to eat and drink more, particularly alcohol as we attend more social functions than usual. One result is that we put more stress on our bodies and can neglect one of the most simple ingredients we need to stay fit and healthy. Water is absolutely a prime requirement for health, there is virtually no function in our bodies that doesn’t require it in one way or another, and it is the simplest, cheapest thing we can do to stay healthy. Your body starts out comprised of 80% water when you are born, but by the time we die we average only 50% water. In fact 48% of older people admitted to Emergency Rooms showed signs of dehydration in addition to their other symptoms. Chronic dehydration can lead to many serious health problems as well as exacerbating conditions such as allergies, asthma, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. The common tiredness and headaches many people very frequently experience is often just dehydration as we have drink more tea and coffee, which are diuretic in action and remove water from our systems rather than adding to it. The old 1.5 to 2 litres a day rule of drinking just plain water (don’t include tea, coffee or soft drinks in your daily total is not a dietary fad, it is good sound medical sense. Water is needed for fat metabolism, to remove waste from cells, and to keep your brain healthy.

We also use it for transporting nutrients and wastes, lubrication, temperature regulation, and tissue structure maintenance and recently uncovered research adds some fascinating water facts.

A French medical doctor, specialising in immunology, discovered something truly fascinating about water. Dr. Jacques Benveniste died in 2004, but he discovered certain scientific properties of water that no one else had found. He called this particular brand of science digital biology, and so far no one has duplicated his experiments, but I thought you would like to hear about them.

His first discovery was that when a substance is diluted in water, the water can carry the memory of that substance even after it has been so diluted that none of the molecules of the original substance remain. Secondly, he found that the molecules of any given substance have a spectrum of frequencies that can be digitally recorded with a computer, then played back into untreated water (using an electronic transducer), and when this is done, the new water will act as if the actual substance were physically present. It sounds like something a science fiction writer would come up with, but Dr. Benveniste’s findings about the ‘memory’ of water may go some way to showing why homoeopathic treatments work though no one can ‘[prove’ why the more the substance is diluted the more potent it’s effects are. A remedy that is marked 6x does not mean it is six times as effective but that it has been diluted 6 times. So a remedy marked 30x has been diluted 30 times and it that level where it is actually ‘stronger’ and more effective.

Whatever your thoughts about water, believe me you will benefit from drinking more of it. Try drinking a large glass of water every morning and top up throughout the day and see what a difference it will make.