Medical science is a great gift to the human. since it was invented it developed rapidly. New era started after the invention of microscope, the scientists started to research for the diseases, causes, bacteria and their treatment. This science based research has given many medicines to the society, which can help at certain level for that particular diseases, only negative drawback of this medicines is they may have many side effects.
A person will never understand what an emotionally draining impacts a doctor’s visit and diagnosis of that person’s serious illness till he or she begin to suffer from a serious health problem. only after then, a person will start to search for the alternative options for that health issues with the hope that he or she will find some options which will not have any side effects. or some wise people when they see the people suffering from health issues and they will start to find the solutions for the healthy life.
In olden days when there was not modern medical science, people were using traditional medicines which may have slow result and no side effect but that was the only option they had to find the solutions for the healthy life. As The principle aim of Ayurveda is to maintain the health of healthy person and to discharge the disease from the ill person. Ayurveda is the complete knowledge of long healthy life. during the study of Ayurveda more hours are allocated for the instructions of diet and life style teachings and not for the study of using pharmaceutical products. Ayurvedic sages have suggested various methods of treatment for healthy life. Jal chikitsa or water therapy is one of the various types of treatment which is described in Prakrutik Chikitsa or Natural therapies. . Today we are going to discuss about Jala Chikitsa or water therapy or Hydro therapy.
Human body is composed of five elements. space, Air, fire, water and earth. Among these five elements, human body contains 75% of water and rest is all solid materials. The brain also contains more then 80% of water. as per chemistry water is composed form two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. The level of water in our body explains the importance of water and we should be more conscious for the water. in my clinical practice, I have seen many clients saying that they drink lots of liquid during the day, which is in form of tea, coffee or alcoholic beverages. we should always keep in mind that other liquid contains some substances which can induce dehydration. so actually when we take these type of liquid it may dehydrate the body.
Our body is made from trillions of cells and our heath is completely depends upon the health of our cells. These cells are completely dependent on the level of water in our body. if we loose 4% of water that leads to dehydration and when the dehydration starts, the shape and size of the cells will start to shrink and if dehydrations continues till the lose of 15% of water, the cells can collapse. Health of any organ is completely dependent upon the health of the cells of that organ. The health of cells rely upon the amount of Oxygen and hydration with other nutrients.. as we discussed earlier water contains two atoms of Hydrogen and a atom of Oxygen, so water fulfills both the requirement for cells health. person can live without food for few days but can not live without water for more then four days. That is the reason why water is so important for our heath.
Now we know that to keep our cells healthy we should drink good amount of water, but we should also have a proper knowledge of a technique of drinking water. usually when we are thirsty we drink a glass or two glasses of water right away and that is understandable but that is not a good practice. when you drink too much water at once, that will flush out in an hour. but if you continuously sip the water, it will reach to the roots of the cells and will have more benefits then drinking water. currently in agriculture field, drip irrigation is widely used as it saves the waste of water and keeps hydrating the plants continuously. same principle applies to our body. Ayurveda says water should be chewed and food should be swallowed. The logic behind this statement is that we should sip the water to keep hydrating the cells and we should chew the food that much, that we can swallow it to ease the digestion process. It does not mean that when you are thirsty you should keep sipping, you can drink a glass of water and then start sipping. drinking more then two glasses of water at once is not a good practice.
Once I read a book (do not remember the name of the book) and I was very much impressed with the sentence that ” a person is not sick but he is thirsty”. This sentence explains all about the importance of water for our health, so basically having less water then require makes you sick. now a days in metro cities where the pollution is at high level, people go for oxygen therapy, where they will sit there for some time, obviously they pay much higher for that therapy and to have a good amount of air. as we discussed the water contains one atom of oxygen, if we keep hydrating our body, ultimately we are providing good amount of oxygen to our body cells.
Water is considered as the life of living organism. It provides strength and relieves tiredness. As per Ayurveda there are two types of water.
1- Divaya Jala or divine water- water which comes from sky or rain.
2- Bhaum Jala- Ground water- water from the rivers, lake or sea.
each of these types of water have various sub types. Ayurvedic scholars have also described about the type of water according to seasons.
The sages have described that the water should not have any fragrance, color, taste, and it should be transparent. if the water has any of these it should not be taken. generally we drink juice(with preservatives and fragrances), tea, coffee and other forms of liquids, which is not ideal as per the Ayurvedic principles
How to drink water. Ayurveda has suggested that the room temperature water should be drunk slowly, when thirsty should drink water right away but not more then a glass. if more water is taken at once, can imbalance digestions. water right before and after meal should not be taken. It should be taken half an our before and after meal.
Room temperature water can help in pitta aggravated issues, heat, blood related disorders if it is taken after digestions of meal. hot water after it cooled down can help in pleurisy, cold, piles, diabetes, constipation, bloating. it can also be used as a mild laxative.
One of my student used to say that water is the nectar of the earth and indeed it is. We can avoid many issues if we take proper amount of water. we have nectar but we do not understand the value of this nectar because we do not have to pay for it. Use this nectar for the better of the health and live healthy life.
Thank you for taking time to read this blog and hope that you liked it and start to use this sanjivani (Devine Nectar) for your better health and there is no side effect of this wonderful element. see you next month with the new interesting subject. This is for the information purpose only and any therapeutic implementations can be started with the expert’s advise. Thanks.
