There are many ways of practicing the healing art. In India, Ayurvedic and Naturopathic medicine are highly respected along with conventional western medicine. And right here in Nagaland, every tribe has some knowledge of traditional healing medicines from the natural world.
But not everyone realizes that some of the most important principles of health and healing are to be found in the Christian Bible. There is even reason to believe that these Biblical health principles had an influence in the history of developing nations.
Today we think of western Europe as a group of highly developed and civilized industrial nations. But back in the Middle Ages, Europeans knew little or nothing about hygiene or sanitation. At that time, the Bible was not available and its health principles were completely unknown. As a result, personal hygiene was rarely practiced. In fact, bathing was seen as unhealthy. Personal cleanliness was regarded as vanity and an offense to God. This was true even among the upper classes.
Public sanitation was also unknown in Europe during these Dark Ages. Human waste flowed in the streets. There were no sewers or proper disposal of waste. If people had been able to read the Bible, they would have learned that God had given Israel principles of personal hygiene and public sanitation. He told them to bathe regularly and to bury their human waste to prevent many of the diseases that plagued other nations (Deuteronomy 23:11-13 and Exodus 15:26).
The Dark Ages are known for some the worst plagues of disease that the world has ever seen. One of these plagues was called the Black Death. It was both caused and spread by a lack of personal hygiene, inadequate public sanitation and improper waste disposal. This devastating disease reduced Europe's population from 30 to 50% in the fifteenth century. Between 75 and 100 million people died of just this one disease that could have been prevented by better sanitation and hygiene.
This killer plague returned at various times for the next several hundred years until it left Europe in the 19th century. By this time, the Bible was widely available to everyone in the common languages of the people. They were able to read for themselves and discover that God does not look down on bathing and personal hygiene. To the contrary, God commanded it in both the Old and New Testaments.
One New testament example can be found in 2 Corinthians 7:1 where we are encouraged to “cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit...” Today, modern science has confirmed the Bible rules on sanitation and hygiene. Disease-causing germs can be spread through food, water, the air, or even by physical contact. The spread of many diseases like cholera and typhoid fever can be controlled through proper sanitation—by keeping our food, water, and environment clean. Still other diseases can be controlled and even cured through better understandings of personal hygiene and food hygiene that are pointed out in the Bible and confirmed by modern scientific discovery.
The filthiness of the flesh mentioned in 2 Corinthians 7:1 includes the dirt and dust and grime that build up on our faces and bodies every day. But it also includes the waste products that build up inside our bodies each day. Just as water is needed to wash and cleanse the outside of the body, so in the same way, it is critically important to drink enough clean, pure water to flush out the toxic wastes that result from the normal functioning of the body.
Few of us drink enough water and some barely drink water at all. It is thought by many people that any drinkable fluid is good enough to satisfy thirst. But the truth is that other beverages are unable to purify the body as water can. Tea, coffee, Coke and other popular carbonated beverages do about as good a job of cleaning the inside of your body as they would do cleaning the outside of your body. Nothing cleans like pure water. Pure water has the ability to dissolve and flush away far more dirt and waste than any other kind of fluid.
Sugary beverages actually use up more water than they provide because they require more water to metabolize the sugar in the drink than the water that the drink itself provides. Caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics which cause the body to lose water. This means that you would need an extra glass of water for every high-sugar, caffeinated, or alcoholic beverage you drink if you were to avoid further dehydration.
Learning to drink enough pure water is one of the most important secrets to health and healing because all the chemical processes that take place in the body require an adequate supply of water. Without enough water, symptoms like inflammation, aches, pains, and swelling can occur. And when the dehydration lasts for many years, more chronic diseases will begin to appear.
A lack of water dehydrates all the tissues and cells of the body. It causes the blood to thicken, which increases the risks of stroke and heart disease. Dehydration can also cause headaches, tiredness, and fainting spells. Many a headache can be quickly cured by drinking a couple of glasses of water a few minutes apart.
As a wellness consultant, I have helped people completely cure themselves of crippling arthritis simply by teaching them to drink a sufficient quantity of pure, clean water every day. Water will cure where drug medicines can not cure simply because by drinking enough water, you are addressing the cause of your disease, which is dehydration, rather then merely seeking relief from the arthritic pain.
The type of water you drink matters. Hard water that contains inorganic minerals like iron and calcium will cause mineral deposits on the insides of your water pipes that eventually block the flow of water. These hard minerals are not used very well by the body as nutrients and the excess minerals deposit themselves in various places in the body including the joints where they cause pain and inflammation. Only purified water can reverse this type of arthritis.
Nature naturally purifies water by evaporating it, cooling it in the clouds and sending it back to earth as rain. Pure rainwater is soft, distilled water that has been super-oxygenated as it falls through the atmosphere. If the air is clean, rain water is one of the best types of drinking water for health and healing. Reverse osmosis purified water is also pure soft water capable of cleansing and healing the body far more powerfully than hard tap water can ever do.
As much as we need to drink water, one time that we should not drink water is with meals. Drinking with meals dilutes the gastric juice and slows the digestive process and can cause incomplete digestion. Incomplete digestion of the food leads to fermentation and putrefaction of food that creates highly toxic chemicals that mix in with the food nutrients. These contribute to disease processes, so complete digestion is an important tool for disease prevention. The best time to drink water is between meals—20 minutes before a meal, and not until 2 hours after a meal—in order to obtain maximum digestion and maximum nutritional benefit from your meal.
So how much water does your body need to prevent dehydration and to keep the body cleansed of toxic waste? The classic answer has been 8-10 glasses per day. But a for a 20 kg child this is too much, while for a 75 kg man on a hot day it is not enough. Your minimum water need is based upon your body weight and the following chart gives you an idea of what your actual water need may be. Heavy exercise, heat, and chronic dehydration will all increase the minimum water need even more. Even if you break every other principle of good health, but learn to drink enough pure water every day, you will experience a higher level of health and wellness than you will when you don't understand this important secret to good health.
But not everyone realizes that some of the most important principles of health and healing are to be found in the Christian Bible. There is even reason to believe that these Biblical health principles had an influence in the history of developing nations.
Today we think of western Europe as a group of highly developed and civilized industrial nations. But back in the Middle Ages, Europeans knew little or nothing about hygiene or sanitation. At that time, the Bible was not available and its health principles were completely unknown. As a result, personal hygiene was rarely practiced. In fact, bathing was seen as unhealthy. Personal cleanliness was regarded as vanity and an offense to God. This was true even among the upper classes.
Public sanitation was also unknown in Europe during these Dark Ages. Human waste flowed in the streets. There were no sewers or proper disposal of waste. If people had been able to read the Bible, they would have learned that God had given Israel principles of personal hygiene and public sanitation. He told them to bathe regularly and to bury their human waste to prevent many of the diseases that plagued other nations (Deuteronomy 23:11-13 and Exodus 15:26).
The Dark Ages are known for some the worst plagues of disease that the world has ever seen. One of these plagues was called the Black Death. It was both caused and spread by a lack of personal hygiene, inadequate public sanitation and improper waste disposal. This devastating disease reduced Europe's population from 30 to 50% in the fifteenth century. Between 75 and 100 million people died of just this one disease that could have been prevented by better sanitation and hygiene.
This killer plague returned at various times for the next several hundred years until it left Europe in the 19th century. By this time, the Bible was widely available to everyone in the common languages of the people. They were able to read for themselves and discover that God does not look down on bathing and personal hygiene. To the contrary, God commanded it in both the Old and New Testaments.
One New testament example can be found in 2 Corinthians 7:1 where we are encouraged to “cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit...” Today, modern science has confirmed the Bible rules on sanitation and hygiene. Disease-causing germs can be spread through food, water, the air, or even by physical contact. The spread of many diseases like cholera and typhoid fever can be controlled through proper sanitation—by keeping our food, water, and environment clean. Still other diseases can be controlled and even cured through better understandings of personal hygiene and food hygiene that are pointed out in the Bible and confirmed by modern scientific discovery.
The filthiness of the flesh mentioned in 2 Corinthians 7:1 includes the dirt and dust and grime that build up on our faces and bodies every day. But it also includes the waste products that build up inside our bodies each day. Just as water is needed to wash and cleanse the outside of the body, so in the same way, it is critically important to drink enough clean, pure water to flush out the toxic wastes that result from the normal functioning of the body.
Few of us drink enough water and some barely drink water at all. It is thought by many people that any drinkable fluid is good enough to satisfy thirst. But the truth is that other beverages are unable to purify the body as water can. Tea, coffee, Coke and other popular carbonated beverages do about as good a job of cleaning the inside of your body as they would do cleaning the outside of your body. Nothing cleans like pure water. Pure water has the ability to dissolve and flush away far more dirt and waste than any other kind of fluid.
Sugary beverages actually use up more water than they provide because they require more water to metabolize the sugar in the drink than the water that the drink itself provides. Caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics which cause the body to lose water. This means that you would need an extra glass of water for every high-sugar, caffeinated, or alcoholic beverage you drink if you were to avoid further dehydration.
Learning to drink enough pure water is one of the most important secrets to health and healing because all the chemical processes that take place in the body require an adequate supply of water. Without enough water, symptoms like inflammation, aches, pains, and swelling can occur. And when the dehydration lasts for many years, more chronic diseases will begin to appear.
A lack of water dehydrates all the tissues and cells of the body. It causes the blood to thicken, which increases the risks of stroke and heart disease. Dehydration can also cause headaches, tiredness, and fainting spells. Many a headache can be quickly cured by drinking a couple of glasses of water a few minutes apart.
As a wellness consultant, I have helped people completely cure themselves of crippling arthritis simply by teaching them to drink a sufficient quantity of pure, clean water every day. Water will cure where drug medicines can not cure simply because by drinking enough water, you are addressing the cause of your disease, which is dehydration, rather then merely seeking relief from the arthritic pain.
The type of water you drink matters. Hard water that contains inorganic minerals like iron and calcium will cause mineral deposits on the insides of your water pipes that eventually block the flow of water. These hard minerals are not used very well by the body as nutrients and the excess minerals deposit themselves in various places in the body including the joints where they cause pain and inflammation. Only purified water can reverse this type of arthritis.
Nature naturally purifies water by evaporating it, cooling it in the clouds and sending it back to earth as rain. Pure rainwater is soft, distilled water that has been super-oxygenated as it falls through the atmosphere. If the air is clean, rain water is one of the best types of drinking water for health and healing. Reverse osmosis purified water is also pure soft water capable of cleansing and healing the body far more powerfully than hard tap water can ever do.
As much as we need to drink water, one time that we should not drink water is with meals. Drinking with meals dilutes the gastric juice and slows the digestive process and can cause incomplete digestion. Incomplete digestion of the food leads to fermentation and putrefaction of food that creates highly toxic chemicals that mix in with the food nutrients. These contribute to disease processes, so complete digestion is an important tool for disease prevention. The best time to drink water is between meals—20 minutes before a meal, and not until 2 hours after a meal—in order to obtain maximum digestion and maximum nutritional benefit from your meal.
So how much water does your body need to prevent dehydration and to keep the body cleansed of toxic waste? The classic answer has been 8-10 glasses per day. But a for a 20 kg child this is too much, while for a 75 kg man on a hot day it is not enough. Your minimum water need is based upon your body weight and the following chart gives you an idea of what your actual water need may be. Heavy exercise, heat, and chronic dehydration will all increase the minimum water need even more. Even if you break every other principle of good health, but learn to drink enough pure water every day, you will experience a higher level of health and wellness than you will when you don't understand this important secret to good health.
Your Drinking Water Need
The minimum amount of pure water ne eded per day to flush out toxic waste according to body weight.
Body Weight Water Needed
30 kg 975 ml
35 kg 1.1 L
40 kg 1.3 L
45 kg 1.5 L
50 kg 1.7 L
55 kg 1.9 L
60 kg 2.1 L
65 kg 2.3 L
70 kg 2.5 L
75 kg 2.7 L
The minimum amount of pure water ne eded per day to flush out toxic waste according to body weight.
Body Weight Water Needed
30 kg 975 ml
35 kg 1.1 L
40 kg 1.3 L
45 kg 1.5 L
50 kg 1.7 L
55 kg 1.9 L
60 kg 2.1 L
65 kg 2.3 L
70 kg 2.5 L
75 kg 2.7 L
(Ian Anthony Jones is a health educator and missionary from the US now married to a Naga and residing in Dimapur. He will be contributing every Friday to the Morung Express under the column: Health & Healing. You may contact the Health and Healing columnist and give him feedback at: edenbarak.ngo@gmail.com)
