Oxygen:

There are a few graphic ways to describe the functioning of our cells, which give an easily understood picture:

In one sense your body is like a fire. A fire needs a fuel source such as wood, but it must have oxygen to keep burning. It must have an "aerobic" environment. Your body is similar. Here, an "aerobic" environment means lots of oxygen around the cells, so they can perform the metabolic functions they were designed to make cells burn glucose, and they need oxygen to keep the fire burning. This burning process, also called metabolism, produces wastes.

When your cells become surrounded with wastes, the oxygen cannot get to them to do its job, so they do not function properly. Once oxygen is no longer able to reach the cells, the environment in the body becomes an "anaerobic" one, and changes start happening. Disease cells prefer to live and multiply in an oxygen-poor or "anaerobic" environment, and therefore they are more prone to be there and to increase in quantity in an environment filled with wastes.

Trees:

Another way to look at this is to think of your cells as candles. Candles use fire to burn the wax that is their fuel. Fire needs oxygen. If you put a glass over the candle, what happens? Eventually the flame will go out, because the oxygen is cut off. Healthy, normal cells need oxygen to assist in the burning of the glucose, the fuel used by the cells. If there is no oxygen, the burning process becomes a fermentation process, changing the environment of the cells, and making it more likely they will become diseased.

Anything you can do to increase the amount of oxygen in your body can only benefit your body. Things like exercising in the fresh air even just walking, increasing your intake of green, yellow and red vegetables, and deeply colored fruits. Even utilizing alternative therapies such as ozone therapy and hydrogen peroxide therapy can be beneficial. At the very least you need to investigate these alternatives for yourself.

The other incredibly important way to keep the wastes down and give the oxygen access to the cells is to drink a LOT of water. Most people need about 2 quarts (liters) of water per day.

Water:

Imagine your body as a beautiful pond in a forest. It is alive with plants and fish, insects and birds. It is clear and clean and full of oxygen. This pond has a stream of fresh water coming into it, and a stream of water leaving that takes away all the wastes.

Lake:

Now picture what will happen to the pond, if you cut off the stream entering the pond. No more oxygen, no more fresh, clean water, no more way of removing all the waste products. The pond will become a stagnant, smelly swamp.

This is what can happen to your body if you do not drink enough water. Our bodies are 75% water. Every cell in your body is constantly bathed in water. The water inside your cells has the correct balance of minerals in to ensure that each cell functions exactly as it should.

Every cell also is continually producing waste products from the metabolic process that goes on all the time. The waste products are discharged from the cell into the water surrounding each cell.

This water acts, in part, as a waste removal system. If this fluid is not continually replenished with fresh water, and the old dirty water removed, your cells will not be able to function properly.

It is recommended to drink at least 6-8 eight ounce glasses of water every day. By saying water, that is what I mean, not juices, coffee, tea or soft drinks. A good source of well water, spring water, artesian well water, glacier water, or any other source of pure, clean water is needed.

Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase in water intake can actually reduce these. How? The kidneys cannot function properly without enough water. When they don't work to capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver.

One of the liver's primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. If the liver has to do some of the work of the kidneys, it can't operate at full throttle itself, and as a result, it metabolizes less fat. Therefore more fat remains stored in the body and weight loss stops.

The overweight person needs more water than a thin one. Larger people have a higher metabolic load. Since we know that water is one of the keys to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water. Water helps rid the body of wastes. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of - all that metabolized fat must be shed. Again, adequate water helps the situation. The overweight person needs one additional 8 oz glass for each 25 lbs of excess weight.

Drinking enough water is also the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to survival, and begins to hold on to every drop. Water that is stored can show up as swollen feet, legs and hands.

Diuretics offer a temporary solution at best. They force out stored water, along with some essential nutrients. Again, the body perceives a threat and will replace the lost water at the first opportunity. Thus the condition quickly returns.

Swollen feet, legs, and hands can also be the result of toxic wastewater not being removed from the body, as detailed above. Water retention can also be the result of excess salt intake. Your body will tolerate sodium only in a certain concentration. The more salt you eat, the more water your system retains to dilute it.

In any of these cases, one of the best ways to overcome the problem of water retention is to give your body what it needs

PLENTY OF WATER

Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what is needed from internal sources. The colon is one primary source from whence it draws. The Result: Constipation. But, when a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function usually returns.

References:

More information on water and its importance to the human body can be found in a book called:

“Your Body's Many Cries for Water"; by F Batmanghelidj.

More information on the oxygen therapies mentioned above is available in the following books:

"Oxygen Healing Therapy", by N Altman (Ozone Therapy)

"Oxygen, Oxygen, Oxygen”, by K Donsbach (Hydrogen Peroxide)