Thank God. I was getting tired of drinking 8 8-ounce glasses of water in addition to my 12 8-ounce cups of coffee.
He should have mentioned accidental drowning if you fall into the cup. Sheesh...
One of the hardest things to cope with when on a diet is the feeling of emptiness. Water, being non-caloric, can assuage that discomfort at no cost. There is a limit, of course, and each of us has to find it for himself.
The other thing about water and dieting is that drinking water helps to prevent salt bloat. Since most of us have to reduce our consumption of sugars when dieting, we tend, sometimes unconsciously, to increase our consumption of salt and other flavor-enhancers. Extra salt will cause a lot of people's skin to become puffy, and many women's extremities to swell. The 8x8 practice can moderate this effect.
No practice is right for everyone, and this is nowhere more true than in dieting. But the use of water to help maintain a diet and ease its discomforts is something to keep in mind when you decide that you've toted that spare tire around long enough.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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Is Water the Ultimate Weapon Against Disease?
Pennsylvanian says 'yes' and is willing to pay people to drink up.
Everyone has heard about the benefits of drinking water. But one individual in particular swears by the stuff and is willing to put his money where his mouth is. Bob Butts believes that if people would simply drink enough water each day they could rid themselves of most ailments, including asthma, allergies, depression, cancer, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy.
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I knew it! Drink Beer, Stay Hydrated!
Researchers at Loma Linda University in California found that people who drank at least five glasses of water each day were less likely to die from a heart attack than those who drank two or fewer glasses per day.
In contrast, people who drank a lot of other fluids were more likely to die from heart attack than those who drank less, with high levels of non-water drinking in women associated with a more than twofold increased risk of death.
The results are based on lifestyle surveys sent out in 1976 to people living in California Seventh-day Adventist households. This analysis is based on responses from 8,280 men and 12,017 women, who were all aged 38 years or older in 1976.
The authors, led by Dr. Jacqueline Chan, followed the participants for 6 years and noted their rates of coronary heart disease. A total of 246 respondents died from heart disease during the follow-up period.
Chan and her team found that women who drank more than five 8-ounce glasses of water each day were 41% less likely to die from heart attack during the study period than those who drank two or fewer glasses daily. In high-water consuming men, that risk decreased by 54%.
But when they looked at consumption of other fluids, including coffee, tea, juice, milk and alcohol, the risk was reversed, with heavy drinking women exhibiting a more than twofold higher risk of dying of heart attack. Heavy non-water drinking in men was associated with a 46% increase in the risk of heart attack death.
In an interview with Reuters Health, Chan explained that researchers believe that when people drink water, it becomes absorbed in the blood, which decreases blood "thickness." This lowers the risk of developing a heart attack-triggering blood clot.
Other fluids can thicken the blood because in order to be digested, they need to contain the same concentration of particles as the blood. If upon digestion, the fluids need to be diluted, water gets pulled into the gut from the blood.
Chan added that these results should be confirmed by subsequent studies, and that there are certain differences between the study participants and the population as a whole. All participants were white, and most reported healthy diets and levels of exercise, with very few respondents saying they drink alcohol or smoke. However, Chan said she didn't expect there to be any substantial racial differences, and that her team used statistical tools to eliminate the effect of other factors on heart attack. They found that water itself still seemed to protect people.
Unlike aspirin and alcohol, which reduce heart attack risk but can potentially cause other health problems, Chan said that water is a cheap, easy, and harmless way to help your heart. Water "can only do you good," she said.
Commenting on the link between raised risk of heart attack and drinking juice, which is a healthy drink, Chan said that she doesn't want people to stop drinking juice, but they should monitor their intake. "It is very healthy, it's just that you need moderation," she said.
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 2002;155:827-833.
Water and exercise cut men's cancer risk
NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters Health) -- Drinking a good amount of water and having an active lifestyle appear to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in men, results of a study suggest.
``These findings add to the evidence that leisure-time activity may reduce colon-cancer risk, not only in high-risk but also in low-risk populations, and support the potential beneficial effect of increased water intake in reducing colorectal cancer risk,'' report researchers from Chang Gung University in Tao-Yuan, Taiwan. The report is published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Those men who consumed the most water had a 92% lower risk of rectal cancer than those who drank the least water, according to the study of 163 Taiwanese cancer patients aged 33 to 80 who were compared with 163 healthy people in the same age group.
What's more, those men with the most active lifestyles had 83% lower risk of colon cancer compared to men with sedentary lifestyles.
The investigators found no link between water intake or exercise and colorectal cancer in women.
However, past studies have found that people who exercise -- regardless of gender -- have a lower risk of colorectal cancer. The researchers note that it is possible that the number of women in the study, 71, was too small to detect an association. Or that the women who were sedentary in their leisure time actually engaged in heavy physical activity, such as washing clothes by hand, house-cleaning, or farming -- which would mask the association.
The study could not determine why water intake or physical activity decreased the cancer risk. However, one hypothesis is that exercise stimulates the colon and decreases the period of time that potential carcinogens in partially digested food are in contact with the intestinal lining.
Similarly, ``increased water intake may be an important factor in reducing colon cancer risk by decreasing bowel transit time or by decreasing the concentration of carcinogenic compounds in the water phase,'' the authors write.
SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer 1999;82:484-489.
Hard water good for hearts
NEW YORK, Dec 23 (Reuters Health) -- Two minerals that determine water hardness -- magnesium and calcium -- seem to protect women from heart disease, according to a Swedish study that also raised some intriguing questions.
In the study published in the January issue of the journal Epidemiology, a team of researchers led by Eva Rubenowitz, writes ``magnesium and calcium in drinking water are important protective factors for death from acute myocardial infarction among women.''
Previous studies had shown similar beneficial effects for men, but studies in women have been lacking.
Rubenowitz and fellow researchers examined the levels of magnesium and calcium in water from 16 different municipalities in Sweden. They obtained information on all women in the study areas who had died between the ages of 50 and 69 years between 1982 and 1993. A total of 378 women who died of a heart attack were chosen for one group, while another group of 1,368 women who had died of cancer were placed in a control group. The researchers then examined the different water supplies where the women in both groups had lived.
They concluded that higher levels of both magnesium and calcium appeared to protect women's hearts. For men, water calcium had no effect on the risk of heart attack, but for women a low level of calcium appeared to be a risk factor.
In an accompanying editorial, however, Dr. Raymond Neutra, an epidemiologist with the California Department of Health Services, writes that although he does not doubt Rubenowitz's results, they are extremely puzzling because the amount of magnesium people absorb from their drinking water is significantly less than the amount that they absorb from the food they eat.
One explanation he considered was that the fruit and vegetables the women were eating also absorbed higher or lower amounts of magnesium depending on their local water supply. But in an interview with Reuters Health, he said that idea was probably faulty because people in the US and Sweden often eat fruit and vegetables grown in other parts of the country or the world.
He urges more studies be undertaken to better understand the role of magnesium in heart health.
``I haven't gone out and purchased mineral water with high levels of magnesium, although studies have shown it to be effective with regard to heart disease,'' said Neutra. ``But I do eat a well-balanced diet that offers plenty of magnesium. We still have a lot to learn about magnesium.''
SOURCE: Epidemiology 1999;10:4-6, 31-36.