There are twelve "good health" practices and topics that need discussion and / or clarification to give you a crystal clear understanding of why you should incorporate them in your overall lifestyle. There is considerable confusion and false information that has been given out by various individuals and self interest groups concerning these subjects. Most of the confusion and incorrect fallacies have been spewed out to the general public in order for their perpetrators to make a profit on some "health product" they are selling to an unsuspecting public. My desire and goal here is to bring you the truth, the facts, the "Proven Knowledge" to help you have the opportunity to use this truth to achieve better health — and I'm not trying to sell you any product or service. I just want you and your family to be healthy and Avoid Sickness. You may not be able to apply all of these principles to your lifestyles, but you will have the truth at your fingertips to use if you so desire. Again, IT'S UP TO YOU! I sincerely hope you put this information to good use.

These companies know that in today's society, in order for the average family to maintain the same standards of living that we are used to and the same standards our parents maintained as we grew up, it has become necessary for most husbands and wives to both work or be employed. The average wife (or husband) simply does not have the time or energy to prepare the wholesome and nutritious meals they feel they should feed their family. They must take short cuts and look for ways to save time, energy and money to give the family the necessary meals required.

The easiest way to do this is to purchase processed, refined and prepackaged foods. Knowing this and trying to get your dollar, all food processing companies know that to be successful, they must make their packaged foods look good, taste good, and maintain a long shelf life. In order to accomplish this, they must remove many vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, much fiber and other vital nutrients from the foods and they have to add color and taste enhancers, emulsifying agents, preservatives and many other additives to keep the foods looking good and preserving them. All these added chemicals are cations and dangerous to your health. With some foods (like white breads) the US Government requires that they add back 7 of the 23 nutrients removed.

( Actually, today we know that many, many more are removed !   — Tommy — )

Most of the companies try to capitalize even on this by advertising that their product is "enriched" with the 7 nutrients they added back, but they never mention the other 16 vital nutrients removed from the flour. This is fraud and deception in my opinion as they are trying to make us believe they are "enriching" the product by adding back the previously removed nutrients.

Processed or refined foods are all packaged in boxes, bottles, cans or cellophane packages and include all sweets, pastries and desserts of all types, all white flour products including breads, crackers, biscuits, macaroni, spaghetti, pizza, most all soups, canned meats and vegetables and fruits and cereals. I jokingly tell my patients they can eat the box or cans, bottles or cellophane packages, but don't eat the processed foods in them. Truly, these cationic foods are very detrimental to your health and ideally should be avoided. The best safeguard to avoid these bad foods is to read all labels of any foods purchased and totally stay away from those items when food labels list the chemicals and additives that are put in the foods. Remember, fresh foods are the best to purchase, frozen or home canned are second best and bottled or packaged foods are the worst.

And don't forget that most artificial sweeteners are also cationic and are not the best for you. The best sweeteners would be unprocessed honey (with some honeycomb in the bottle) and blackstrap molasses. White sugar or any ingredients ending in "ose" (glucose, fructose, maltose, etc.) as well as all white flour products tend to create an acid medium in the colon, which is destructive to the good germs found in the colon. The good germs play a vital part in preventing yeast overgrowth, parasites and other harmful germs that try to grow in the colon.

Also, remember refined foods and sugars are usually depleted in fiber and this simply slows the progress of the foods passing through the intestine, which makes one more susceptible to constipation, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, colon and rectal cancers. Also, with a slower transit time through the colon, more time is allowed for putrefaction (rotting) of the refined foods to occur in the colon, which allows more toxic substances to be absorbed into your system.

And finally, please remember that all commercial wheat flour is prepared so that it can be stored for long periods of time without spoiling. To do this, "the life" ( The germ of the seed ) is removed from the wheat in the processing. Fresh whole-wheat flour spoils rapidly. Unfortunately, except for those fortunate enough to possess a household flour mill, truly fresh flour is unavailable and this also applies to whole wheat breads found in most supermarkets. Probably your best choice under these circumstances is to purchase whole wheat bread from your health food store and make sure that the bread purchased from your grocery store has written on the package 100% Whole Wheat or 100% Whole Grain. Eat no food products prepared from commercially processed wheat flour.

Many people go for weeks with no more raw food in their diet than perhaps a small amount of lettuce or an occasional glass of fruit or vegetable juice. Ideally, at least 75 % of our fruits and vegetables should be eaten raw and uncooked. This principle of nutrition is one that is most often overlooked and neglected in our "American" society.

You should understand that raw fruits and vegetables are "live" foods, and cooking them makes them "dead" foods. Life diminishes in all fruits and vegetables in direct proportion to the time lapsed since picking. Life involves receiving live nutrients like vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids and fatty acids and cooking makes many of these elements dead. We originally ate living food – that is right after picking or harvesting and even as recent as 3040 years ago most people obtained much of their food from their own gardens and livestock. Dead foods are devitalized of most nutrients. Even though they will fill your stomach, they do not nourish your body and give good health. Therefore, dead foods like cooked fruits and vegetables produces death, and live foods like raw fruits and vegetables promote life.

Our Creator with His omniscient wisdom made our foods whole and placed within each type of whole food the proper and adequate nutrients that are necessary for our body to digest, absorb and use these particular foods. This is why different foods contain different essential nutrients. Then humankind comes along trying to make a profit, refines the food, and removes many of the nutrients and adds chemicals to enhance taste and appearance and to preserve shelf life, This refining then destroys the God intended value of the food. It's common sense to ask yourself, "How can any given food be assimilated and used by our body when the refining process robs that food of its vital nutrients?"

Let me explain why the above is so critically important. In researching and studying why the chronic degenerative diseases were increasing and what treatment methods could be applied to halt this onslaught on the health of America, I came to several conclusions. Of these conclusions, there were three that were certain primary sources that greatly contribute to the epidemic of cardiovascular and renal disease we are seeing today. My conclusions were influenced greatly by T.C. McDaniel, D. O. of Cincinnati, Ohio, and published work completed by the late physical chemist, Thomas M. Riddick of New York.

These three vital contributing factors causing the cardiovascular–renal disease epidemic are:

1. Excessive mineral salts (strongly cationic) intake that is happening to most all Americans today.
2. The reversal of the natural sodium-to-potassium ratio that is directly caused by food processing today.
3. The ingesting of these excessive mineral salts are overworking, overwhelming and critically harming our kidneys which results in colloid particle imbalances in the blood, and then intravascular coagulation begins. Degenerative diseases result.

In measuring the specific electrical conductance (mineral salts) in 8 fresh vegetables (asparagus, beets, carrots, corn, lima beans, peas, string beans and tomatoes), it was found that measurement of these foods in a fresh state resulted in an average of 7500 micromhos. These same foods measured from canned and processed sources gave an average reading of 17,500 micromhos. These readings show over 2 1/2 times the mineral salts found in these canned vegetables as compared to fresh forms.

Another example was taken from the Handbook of the US Department Agriculture (No. 8), which shows the amounts of sodium and potassium and their ratios of these minerals in the natural God-given, fresh state, and also after being processed. Eighteen fresh natural foods were listed (including those mentioned in the specific conductance test). In the fresh, raw state, these foods averaged (after measuring total sodium and potassium content) 14% sodium and 86% potassium, giving a ratio of 1:6, or one part sodium to 6 parts of potassium. These same foods were listed after processing, and they showed 75% sodium and 25% potassium with a ratio of 3:1, three times as much sodium (added) to one part of potassium. These figures prove that the potassium was intended to be the major mineral with sodium the minor one. After processing, these ratios are totally reversed, which should give you the very best conclusions as to why you should eat as many of your fresh fruits and vegetables as you can, in the raw, uncooked, unprocessed form.

The largest concern regarding proteins surrounds the controversy of animal versus vegetable sources. One of the chief problems with animal protein intake is the excess fat content. Fats supply nine calories per gram compared to protein at 4.5 calories per gram; therefore, since each variety of meat varies in fat content, some proteins have more calories than others. For example, two ounces of baked chicken without the skin yields 284 calories and two ounces of broiled sirloin steak will yield 392 calories. It becomes very important in our diet that we try to choose meats that have the least amount of fat content in them. The highest fat content consists of pork and fatty red meats while the lowest calorie content includes chicken, fowl, and most types of fish and seafood products, as well as eggs and dairy products.

It should also be mentioned that dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs and animal meats supply all eight essential amino acids. Most vegetable sources do not supply all eight amino acids and thus must be combined to provide all essential amino acids together at the same meal. It has been shown in one study that excess proteins may contribute to calcium loss through the use of calcium as a binding agent or the excretion of nitrogenous waste products. Prolonged consumption of protein poor diets can retard brain development, modify the chemical composition of the brain, and produce long term learning and behavioral deficits.

In the United States and Canada, it has been shown that about 40 percent of people over the age of 60, show evidence of protein malnutrition, or deficiencies of selective nutrients such as zinc and iron that are found in meats. This has a very detrimental effect on our immune system which makes us much more susceptible to infections of all types. Another study showed that 80 percent of women taking birth control pills have demonstrated abnormal tryptophan metabolism.

To my patients, I recommend that pork (bacon, sausage, ham) be avoided at all costs. Pork not only contains extremely high amounts of saturated or bad fat but in Germany it has been shown that pork contains excessive amounts of certain bad germs that are often not destroyed in the cooking process. Pigs and hogs are scavengers and God even warned the Israelites not to eat pork. I have my patients avoid fatty red meats and use only the lean cuts of beef. I advise patients to limit lean beef to once a week and instead try to get their proteins from Nuts, lean chicken, fowl, fish, low fat cheese, and low fat milk or yogurt and eggs.

Excessive intake of proteins provides no more protein for the bodily needs than what is "enough", as the excess protein is used either as carbohydrate or fat. The more important factor to be considered is the digestion of a normal quantity of protein, so that a reasonable amount is supplied each day, and so I recommend to my patients that, if they are depending on meats for protein, they should limit their protein intake to one meal a day and preferably have an average serving of meat at the evening meal.

Contrary to some opinions, the grinding of meat into small particles (like hamburger) does not increase its digestibility. Nor does the thorough chewing of meat. No protein digestion occurs in the mouth. Meat needs only to be chewed to the extent that it may be easily swallowed. On the other hand, grinding of meat can have deleterious effects. Ground meat spoils rapidly at room temperature and whole meat does not; in fact, a sort of "predigestion" can occur.

Nucleic acids are released in the grinding process and apparently this changes preservability. Similar action may occur when ground meat is introduced into the intestinal tract. Here the temperature situation for spoilage is ideal. If there is insufficient hydrochloric acid in the stomach or a lack of proteolytic (protein digesting) enzymes, the possibility of putrefaction (rotting) of proteins is greatly enhanced with ground meat as compared with whole meat.

Preserved meats such as wieners, sausages, bologna, potted meat, luncheon meats, salami, and Vienna sausages do not have as much of a putrefaction tendency, however, they are absolutely loaded with chemicals and preservatives, which play a very detrimental part in causing poor health. They simply should be totally avoided, especialy if you have a health challange.

Fruit with protein usually causes the same problem. The fruit needs to pass right through the stomach and the protein food needs to digest in the stomach for a much longer period of time, and when eaten together, this blocks the fruits' passage.

Also sugar inhibits or retards the action of protein digesting enzymes. Therefore, sweet foods such as sugar and dessert foods should not be eaten at the same time as animal foods like meats. As an example, beans (pinto or navy beans) are an excellent vegetable source of proteins. In Mexico, the pinto bean is a major constituent of the diet and is eaten unsweetened. In this country, "baked beans" are served which combine proteins and sugar. Baked beans are noted for the digestive flatulence (gas) that they cause. Most Americans are accustomed to finishing off a good protein meal (steak or other meat) with sweet desserts (like apple pie). Desserts should be eaten several hours after or before mealtime on an empty stomach for best nutrition. There are many sugar–protein combinations, which may be avoided easily. The fact that most foods contain some protein must be taken into consideration of course. Also, a small amount of sugar does little harm if it is not eaten regularly. Even natural sugars such as honey and blackstrap molasses (which I usually recommend) are less harmful than any processed sugars, but they are best eaten at different times than with high protein meals. For example, orange juice that is high in natural sugars would not be an ideal combination with eggs (high proteins). A better choice would be tomato juice.

We usually do not go into depth in the education of my patients concerning combinations of foods because I have found that the person who is in average good health can usually tolerate poor–food combinations without any serious or critical ill effects. However, in some patients who have a severely compromised immune system, I do encourage that they observe the following recommendations, which have been shown through the ages to be the very best information concerning food combinations.

1. Proteins generally do not combine with starches. This is probably the worst of the disease-producing habits. Of course, this really hits home with "meat and potato" eaters, as well as those who excessively use sandwiches in their diet. In the digestive process, they tend to neutralize themselves and good digestion is impossible. The increased putrefaction and rotting takes place under these circumstances. Exceptions to this rule are avocados, which combine fairly well with grains.
2. Fruits do not combine with starches. Fruits digest immediately in the mouth and small intestine, while starches require more of their digestive time in these areas. The fruit sugars are quickly absorbed into the intestine, while the starch requires digestion in the mouth, stomach, and small intestine. Ideally, one should eat a fruit meal by itself. Most people prefer to make breakfast their main fruit meal and this is a good idea.
3. Fruits do not combine with proteins. Here again, the fruits go directly into the intestine, while protein requires much more time digesting in the stomach. If sugars are held back in the stomach while trying to digest protein, you can count on the fruit putrefying.
4. Fruits do not combine with vegetables. A good way to remember this is that fruits are cleaners and vegetables are builders. It's very difficult to clean and build a house at the same time. One exception to this is tomatoes, a fruit. You can have tomatoes with most salad vegetables.
5. Acid fruits do not combine with sweet fruits. These two food groups repel each other. Acid fruits include the citrus fruits like lemons, limes, oranges, pineapple, tangerines, and grapefruit, along with most available berries and tomatoes. The sweet fruits include bananas, dates, dried fruits, including apples, apricots, figs, peaches, pears, prunes, and raisins.

It is common knowledge that fasting has thousands of years of reputation as the ultimate form of detoxification. Let me briefly explain what fasting does and how it can help your health. When I speak of fasting, I am talking about the total abstinence from food, but Not Water, for a certain period of time. When one fasts, no food is being converted into energy and the body must live off of itself, a process called autolysis. There's nothing harmful about his since the body must go for several weeks without food as it bums up dead cells and fatty tissues where most toxic chemicals are stored in the body. Fasting is really sort of an internal operation without using surgery. When the digestive and elimination systems shut down in fasting, more energy is available for detoxification and repair. Therefore, when one fasts, one usually sees a greater increase in one's energy on the third day of a fast, than what your energy level is when eating normally.

I believe personally that short-term fasts, such as one day per week, can be an excellent benefit to your health. I have also teamed from research done in Germany that one should never fast more than ten days, however, as this could be very detrimental to your health. By abstaining from two or three meals one day each week, this gives you a sort of weekly "house cleaning" inside your body. If you decide to fast, please remember that it ran be very beneficial to your health, but you should certainly exercise some care by following the guidelines listed below.

1. When you begin to fast, the detoxification may often cause headaches, tiredness, fatigue, and even nausea. This is normal and it simply means that you are eliminating harmful toxins and substances from your body. When these side effects are seen, it merely shows that your body needs the fasting experience and these symptoms usually disappear after the second or third day.
2. If you decide to fast, you should begin your fasting experience gradually. You should start with a one day a week fast and probably skip only two meals. Later on, you can skip three meals on your weekly fast, and after several months of this kind of fasting, you can then handle a two or three day fast if you desire. Never begin a long fast unless your body is accustomed to fasting.
3. Once you begin your fasting program on a one-day-a-week basis, you will soon notice that there is very little to no discomfort because of the successful elimination of most of your accumulated toxins.
4. You should keep in mind that you should not fast if you are pregnant, have an advanced chronic degenerative disease or even diabetes.

We must not forget that fasting is recommended by God in the Bible in many places and fasting is one of God's greatest gifts for man's health. It is probably the very best method to eliminate the toxins that have accumulated in your fatty tissues over a period of years.

There have been many new studies completed the last ten years which have fairly well proven that lack of exercise or habitual inactivity very often contributes to high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, premature aging, poor muscle tone and lack of flexibility, which in turn aggravates low back pain, mental stress, coronary artery disease and especially obesity. Prolonged inactivity also slows bowel function, decreases male hormone production in men, as well as decreases sperm counts. Without proper physical activity, there is very inefficient transfer of oxygen in the lungs, and it also has been shown to aggravate and make us more susceptible to developing softening of the bones or osteoporosis.

We have seen that lack of exercise causes rapid deterioration of muscle tissue, as well as connective tissue in our ligaments and tendons. If you want to age faster, then do not exercise because, when you don't use your muscles, it is true that "if you don't use it, you lose it". Exercise also increases the good cholesterol in the body and lowers the bad cholesterol and total cholesterol levels.

A person doesn't have to be a marathon runner or chop wood three hours a day in order to become more active. There are many forms of exercise that a person can perform and these range from walking to jogging, bicycling, swimming, rebounding, or getting involved in some sport activity such as tennis, volleyball, or possibly even playing golf. The most important decision for you, however, is to make a definite decision that you are going to exercise at least five days each week and begin some program. I'm going to briefly discuss two types of exercise programs that I will recommend for the great majority of my patients, and they involve brisk walking and rebounding.

For those patients who are entering their "golden years", a simple routine involving a brisk, daily walking is quite sufficient for the initial part of the exercise regime and may be all that a lot of patients ever need. The usual response to my walking prescription is that walking makes a person hungry. This is not true. When the body is walking briskly, the body's fat deposits are tapped freely for energy in order to supply fuel for the muscles so the blood becomes loaded with these fuel materials. The net effect is that, not only does the muscle tissue have readily available fat to burn, but the hunger mechanism is short circuited, and there is actually less hunger than if there had been no activity. A prolonged walk at a steady pace with constant stress on the circulatory system and the heart is beneficial in many ways. The primary concern in exercise is to increase your pulse rate and get your heart beating faster. This increase should be from fifty to seventy percent higher than your normal resting pulse, but do not overdo it. You would be wise to get in the habit of exercising twenty minutes every day with your heart beating faster. Morning exercise is better for you because it will give you more energy all day long.

In the beginning, the walk should be short and slow but gradually build up one's speed and distance. When asked how fast one should walk, I often use the following example: "Imagine that you are wearing thin clothing and that the temperature outside is below freezing, the wind is blowing hard, and it is raining and you have to go to the bathroom very badly and you are a mile from home. How fast would you walk to get there?" Now, that's brisk walking!

Of all the types of exercise available, in the past year I have concluded that the very best form of exercise is rebounding or using a small mini-trampoline, called a rebounder. This form of exercise is different from other physical activities because it puts gravity to work in your favor. It has many advantages over "regular" exercise because it, in addition is a regular exercise. By subjecting each of the sixty trillion cells in your body to greater gravitation pull, waste products are squeezed out and nutritional elements and oxygen are drawn into the cells. The cells function more efficiently, the metabolism increases to its maximum. With this form of exercise, the membranes around each cell become stronger as they demand more protein from the body. These thicker membranes are better able to fight off foreign invaders like germs, toxins, poisons, and other pollutants more effectively. Here, everything improves: the blood, the brain, the lungs, the muscles, all the internal organs, those of the senses, and even more.

Rebounding exercise will increase the vital capacity (can handle more oxygen) of your lungs and more oxygen will be delivered to the body tissues and better absorption of oxygen will result — There appears to be a faster gaseous exchange within the lungs. The red blood cell count, as well as more blood, is pushed through these vessels. The heart muscles work more efficiently and collateral circulation improves. The result is that more oxygen is carried to the heart muscle. Elevated blood cholesterol and trigylceride levels tend to come down, and the good cholesterol levels increase. Rebounding also strengthens the adrenal glands so that more severe stresses may be handled by the body. Your metabolism is enhanced and there is better absorption or nutrients from food intake. Digestion, appetite and elimination all get better. This type of exercise also tends to decrease any tendency for blood clotting or coagulation in the blood vessels. Many scientists believe that a prime cause or contributing factor of cancer is lack of oxygenation of the cells, and exercise is the main way to bring oxygen into the blood with which to bathe the cells.

I feel the most important benefit of rebounding, however, is its effect on the lymph system. Most people are not familiar with what the lymph system really is. It is another circulatory system within the body and it is the system that drains and removes toxins, poisons, and waste products from between each individual cell and delivers these waste products to the lymph nodes and that part of the immune system that destroys and eliminates toxins, bacteria, poisons, and other products that get in your body. In one sense, the lymph system is the metabolic garbage can of the body. It gets rid of toxins, dead cells, cancer cells, waste products, trapped proteins, pathogenic bacteria, and viruses, heavy metals, and assorted junk products that the cells need to get rid of.

Your circulatory system (heart, blood vessels, and blood) delivers food and oxygen to your cells, and the products of cell metabolic breakdown must be drained away with its load of waste through the lymph vessels. Now, unlike the artery system, the lymphatics do not have their own pump. There are only three ways to activate the speed up of the flow of lymph away from the tissues it serves and back into the main circulation. Lymphatic flow requires

1. muscular contractions from exercise and movement
2. gravitational pressure and
3. internal messages to the one-way valves that are present in these lymph vessels.

Arthur C. Guyton, M.D., Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, is an internationally known expert on lymphology and the lymphatic system. He states, "The lymphatic group becomes very active during exercise but sluggish under resting conditions."

During exercise, the rate of lymph flow can increase to as high as three to fourteen times normal because of increased activity. An increase in tissue fluid protein increases the rate of lymph flow and this washes the proteins out of the tissue spaces, automatically returning the protein concentration to its normal low level. If it were not for this continual removal of proteins, the dynamics of the capillaries would become so abnormal within only a few hours, that life could no longer continue. There is certainly no other function of the lymphatics that can even approach this in importance.

As the lymphatic vessels have one-way valves in them, and the lymph flow only one way (towards the heart) when one jumps up on the rebounder, the lymph is thrown up also and cannot go back down the vessels because of the one way valves. This acts as a suction pump to pull out and suck out the lymph with accumulated toxins between the cells and return it back to the circulation where it is supposed to be.

All body cells have a membrane or sac, which completely surrounds the cells. The body water constantly bathing the cells is vital to maintain a delicate acid-alkali (base) chemical and physical balance between the cells and all body organs. This delicate balance that must be maintained is referred to as homeostasis, and must be maintained or we will die. If we don't have enough water intake, our body metabolism is depressed and when our metabolism slows down, our food has a tendency to turn into fat and we become much more fatigued.

Water is essential to moisten the delicate membranes in our nose, throat, bronchial and breathing tubes, so that oxygen is brought to our blood and carbon dioxide (a waste product) excreted. Water must be available to lubricate our joints, as well as allowing absorption of our food nutrients in our digestive tract. Without adequate water, one will see constipation. Waste products and toxins are increased in the blood and are carried to the liver, which puts additional stress on the liver. These accumulated waste products and toxins depress the function of most of our glands. Water is vital in regulating our body temperature. Water is needed for our muscles to function properly and to maintain the right tone in our muscles. Adequate water prevents wrinkling and sagging of our skin (and is needed to inflate that thing between a boy's legs).

It is extremely important that our body maintains a proper equilibrium between the intake and output of body water. This is called water balance. Our water intake comes from the fluids we drink (48%), from the solids we eat (40%), and from the metabolic processes taking place in the body (12%). The output water losses are from the kidneys (56%), skin (20%), lungs (20%), bowels or intestines (4%), and a small amount from tears. Proper water balance must be maintained by having the water intake equal the water output.

The water in the body is distributed in two main compartments. Water outside the cells is called extracellular water, and the water inside the cells is called intracellular. Intracellular water (about 9 gallons) makes up 50% of our total body weight and extracellular water (about 4 gallons) makes up 20%. The extracellular water is further divided into the water around the cells (interstitial, 10-11 quarts) and the blood plasma (intravascular, 34 quarts).

When we think about fluid retention, we are primarily concerned with the extracellular water, the water stored in the tissue spaces between the cells and water in the blood plasma. The chemical sodium chloride (plain table salt) plays a very important part in determining whether fluid is retained or not. The concentration or sodium in the blood is carefully regulated by various hormones and chemical reactions in the body. When we take in too much salt, the kidneys begin to excrete more sodium in the urine in an effort to bring the delicately balanced sodium concentration back to normal. Sodium holds onto water and with excess sodium in our bodies, we become thirsty. When we then drink water, the sodium concentration is diluted and a delicate balance returns. When a person has swelling in the tissues, it generally means they have too much sodium in their body and in order to get rid of this sodium, we must make more water in our kidneys. To do this, we must make more urine; the best way to make more urine is to drink more water. This is the main way to get rid of any fluid retention without the use of drugs. This sounds paradoxical, but it is true: You must drink more water to get rid of water. If you have fluid retention, drinking less water will not help, but may aggravate it. If you have fluid retention, drinking more water will not worsen it, but help cure it.

You may be asking at this point, why not take a diuretic? Diuretics only cause water to leave the body in an abnormal and often dangerous manner. Besides, the water loss is only temporary. The body learns to depend on diuretics like many people are habituated to laxatives, when over a period of time they have had to increase the strength of the laxative for it to be effective. They must then depend on laxatives. I don't want this to happen to you.