Water and Stress: Things You Should Know

By October 21, 2009Uncategorized

Water is called the “essential nutrient” because we cannot live without it very long (some say a matter of days). Dehydration is a stress to the body. So is contaminated water that we drink out of the kitchen sink. Rain, rivers, lakes, underground aquifers; one might think that water is a God-given right, but these days our water supply is in dire straights. One might even say, “stressed.” During the last administration, the federal government had ignored The Clean Water Act, hence ignoring thousands of companies who have been dumping toxic waste into rivers and streams that find its way into your drinking water. Agricultural runoff (herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and synthetic petrochemical fertilizers, antibiotics and synthetic hormones) also finds its way into your drinking water as well. Its no exaggeration to say that we have a problem here.City drinking water cannot possibly remove all of these contaminants. The bottom line is that this is a major stress to your body’s physiology. Ideally, water acts to clear your body’ of contaminants. Poor water quality greatly compromises one’s health!

• Stress Tip for the Day:
First: Stay hydrated. If you are thirsty, most likely you are already dehydrated. Caffeine (found in coffee, teas and soft drinks) is a diuretic, drawing water out of your body through urination. Consider cutting back on your caffeine intake for better homeostasis, and at restaurants, order water as your first choice of beverage.
Second, if you don’t have a water filter system in your kitchen (to remove chlorine-based compounds that some say are carcinogenic) this would be a good time to install one (google water filters and do your homework. If you do have one, remember to replace the filter REGULARLY!
Third, get active in your local politics about the quality of your drinking water. When it comes down to it, water is a local issue.

Links Worth Noting:
NPR’s Fresh Air hosted by Terry Gross held a special interview the other night with a writer for the New York Times who has written an informative series of stories about the state of water in our country. Here is a link to the transcript.
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=113927993

• Photo of the Day:
Water was not is short supply at the Skoggafoss waterfall when I was in Iceland last year, but climate experts have noticed that glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Peru, Africa (Mt Kilimanjaro) and many other parts of the world are certainly diminishing in size, which ultimately will affect water supplies for the people who rely on these melting waters to sustain their lives.

• Quote for the Day:
“Water has become a highly precious resource. There are some places where a barrel of water costs more than a barrel of oil.”— Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister of Canada (1999 – News Conference)

Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D. is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of stress management, mind-body-spirit healing and stress and human spirituality. He is the author of over 10 books including the bestsellers, Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water, Stressed Is Desserts Spelled Backward, The Art of Calm, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart and Managing Stress (6E). He can be reached through his website:www.brianlukeseaward.net

© Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D.

Brian Luke Seaward

Author Brian Luke Seaward

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