(After I left government in 2010, I resumed writing my column at the Mindanao Times entitled “Publisher’s Notes”. I am henceforth re-printing some of those articles beginning today .)AT DON BOSCO –One Sunday in September 2011, I joined my wife Beth to sit in and attend a lecture of now- famous Fr. Carmona at the Don Bosco premises at Mandaluyong in Metro Manila. The old Don Bosco church was fillled with people, mostly looking sick and ailing and old. ( I felt out of place. I don’t belong here, I told myself! Hahaha!)
I was curious seeing all of them bringing empty bottles. He has regular Sunday sessions starting at 2 p.m. And people from all walks of life line up to listen to him.
I first thought I was attending a “healing mass”. The first words of Fr. Carmona, reputedly a scientist were: “I’ll make it immediately clear. This is not a healing mass. This is all about your health and your body. And faith”. And for about two hours thereafter, I was totally transfixed listening to things that I took for granted or what I thought was known by all but which never occurred to many of us as important: WATER.
Water does a 24/7 job on the body whose three principal functions are: intake, absorb and excrete. That covers what our biological body does 24 hours daily, every minute and every second of our existence.
Yes, it’s all about WATER needed by our body. We are 80% water. Hence it needs continuous supply of water. Lack of it will give your body lots of problems. But supplying it with enough quantity will do it!
Just drink water plenty and it will cure all your ills. I used to hear friends say: “try water therapy”. When we were kids and I was sick, I remember my mother telling me: “just drink and drink water”.
Well, those words did not really stick. Until I spent last Sunday afternoon listening to the Don Bosco scientist-priest explaining in the simplest layman’s terms the importance of drinking water.
SOME HELPFUL TIPS –Here are some of his tips:
** Drink at least 10 glasses of water per day.
**Don’t wait until you get thirsty. You’re already dehydrated by then.
**Critical times to remember to take a drink is at 10 and 11 a.m. , then 4 to 7 p.m. These are the times when we do not consciously ask for water thinking that the coming meal will take care of it.
**Take water after you wake up in the morning. Then about 2 hours after meals because by that time, the digestive acid will be plenty in your stomach and water will neutralize the bad acid.
**Take water before sleeping.
HYDRATE BODY– it takes 20 days to hydrate your body if you’re just starting this water therapy.
The older you become, the less you get thirsty. Older people don’t get thirsty often. But that’s the time when they need water more.
DURING STROKES –When someone suffers a stroke, give 2 glasses of water if he is able to drink, then more water every 10 minutes because it takes about 12 minutes for a full circulation to make a complete cycle in the body.
Fr. Carmona had a simple and interesting story about high blood pressure called hypertension. The brain is the center of things in the body. It has magical and supreme powers. It commands and everything moves in accordance with the Creator’s masterpiece. The brain is 85% water. It has several BILLIONS of cells that need water. Due to lack of water and dehydration in the body and acidity and other reasons, the blood is thick (“malapot”) so the brain commands the heart to pump and push hard the blood to circulate. The blood vessels are supposed to be elastic and can expand or constrict. In time, these vessels due to the food we eat, our way of living, lose their elasticity. So they burst. Fatigue and thirst combined are deadly and fatal.
DIABETES — The brain again is the main engine on the story behind diabetes. It commands the pancreas to produce insulin to help digestion and complete the metabolism process which simply is the ability of our cells to absorb all the nutrients and minerals we need and to excrete waste out of the body. If we lack water in the body, this process is not properly done. The brain, as the command center, then tells the pancreas not to produce insulin. So there will be no absorption of needed minerals. That’s why diabetics have high sugar or glucose levels in the blood stream because they are not absorbed. And they lose weight.
So why does diabetes have other bad effects in the other organs? Fr Carmona has a layman’s answer. The ever all-knowing brain automatically constricts the blood vessels because they do not have enough to go by. Hypertension is the result. And since there is no use for the insulin anymore, the intelligent brain acts by damaging the pancreas to prevent insulin production. Other collateral damage can take place, too.
EDEMA — When your body lacks water and it is badly needed, the brain commands water to be dispatched and they usually go to the legs and extremities. The usual reaction is to introduce medicines like diuretics to remove “excess” water. When the real reason for it is LACK of water.
OTHER EFFECTS — Dehydration or lack of water is the cause of asthma. That’s why nebulizers used for patients are hydration gadgets to pump salt or sodium and vapor or water to ease up congested passages. The problem here and just like other forms of treatment, you only “kill the messenger” or address the symptoms but do not target the “cause” of the ailment. Cough and phlegms are messengers of lack of water. You remove them by cough syrups or antibiotics yes, but you do not remove the cause, which is LACK of water! Most medicines today just take care of the symptoms and deal only with the “messengers”.
SALT —There are 3 things very important to human life: oxygen, water and salt.
Salt is very important for the body. It has 80 minerals. Take rock or sea salt, preferably not iodized. Remember the biblical passage : “You are the salt of the earth!” Also that parable where a wise man told the King that he treasures him like the salt.
If you can’t sleep at night, try taking 3 grains of salt at bedtime. There’s a story behind to the word “salary”. Roman soldiers of old were not paid with money. They got SALT as payment. Thus the word “SALary”.
ACID AND ALKALINE — The main culprit in the body is ACID. It is the cause of all illnesses. It is the villain that must be removed. Acidity comes when the “pH” (potential hydrogen) level is low. Ironically, the body also badly needs acid for digestion. But acid only in tolerable levels. Water, to be able to more effectively address acidity should have a higher pH level. And this is achieved by higher ALKALINE level in water we drink. It cleanses your body of the main source of our health problems. (Bottled distilled water, by the way, although cleansed of harmful substances, is also VERY acidic.)
Fr. Carmona, at the end of his 2-hour session distributed free samples of alkaline concentrate to use in drinking water. That was the reason why those who came had empty bottles with them to be filled to “take home” . Alkaline can be used in many other beneficial use for agriculture, etc. (I use alkaline-based foliar organic fertilizer in my small farm in Davao del Sur and you should see the results!)
By the way, my wife Beth, due to her kidney ailment, has been using alkaline for sometime now for her well-being using a commercially available alkaline concentrate with a few drops on your drinking water. She was the one who dragged me to listen to Fr. Carmona that Sunday afternoon after she learned from the grapevine about the Don Bosco priest. Beth has been sharing her good experience to those interested through her modest outlet at Matina in Davao City.
MISCELLANY — Other nuggets from Fr. Carmona:
**Rely not totally on medicines but on faith.
**Do not court death by errors, by your ways nor invite destruction by your hands.
**Energy is harmony of nature.
**Your legs are your spare heart due to the big valves there that help push the blood.
**Cancer is not a death sentence. Don’t spread and feed but starve and isolate the cancer cells.
**Biopsy is invasive. If there’s nothing sick in that organ, you don’t need it. If it’s sick, the more you don’t do it!
So, WATER anyone?
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