Researched & Written by: Dr.Parmeshwar Arora
Drinking water in excess can harm your health:
While, at present everybody is inclined for drinking maximum possible water for keeping healthy, our ancient Ayurvedic texts & Vedas surprisingly direct us to drink minimum possible water to remain healthy. There are certain diseases where water has been contraindicated or is allowed in very minimum quantity.
These days it is a common practice that if you have to fix your digestion – drink lots of water, if you have to detox your body – drink lots of water, if there is burning while passing urine – drink lots of water, if you have to lose weight drink lots of water etc.
But when we try to understand as to how drinking water in abundance help in these conditions, the reasoning which surfaces up is something completely beyond our understanding. For example, for all the problems related to digestion like – Constipation, Acidity, Gas formation and even IBS , the cause is our sluggish digestion power. Even the modern science says that for all these conditions the reason is decreased secretion of digestive enzymes.
Hence, we can get rid of these conditions by improving our Jatharagni i.e. digestive fire. In such a case, how would the excessive intake of water, which is the worst opponent of fire, increases digestive fire and how would it help in fixing the problems, is totally beyond understanding. Is it not possible that this excess quantity of water consumed by us to resolve our digestive issues actually make these conditions chronic which eventually become incurable? Same is the case for other conditions also. Please do think about it.
Drinking too much of water at a time, even when thirsty, can make you ill
As per Ayurveda, a generally healthy person should drink adequate amount of water in summer (Mid May to Mid July) and Autumn (Mid September to Mid December) and minimum possible amount of water in rest of the seasons. If someone has a tendency to drink too much of water at a time even when thirsty, this can become a cause of ‘Pitta’ and ‘Kafa’ related diseases like indigestion, bloating, nausea, vomiting, over-salivation, heaviness in the body and even cold-cough and respiratory issues. Especially, the fever patients should only drink small quantity of water slowly and with patience.
Modern science does not have any specific guidelines about consumption of food while Ayurveda which has been written with the main motive of maintenance of good health, talks about food/drinks in detail. So if we go by the deteriorating levels of health, the time has come when we should drop the common beliefs and adopt the food habits directed by our Shastras which will eventually help us in keeping healthy like our ancestors and keep away from diseases.
Water is ELIXIR only when taken correctly, can be POISON if consumed otherwise :
As per Ayurveda whether water has to be taken on its own or after medicating it with suitable herbs or taken after boiling it or taken in cold form or taken as just warm water, deciding this on the basis of state of body and when taken in right quantity at right time & in right way, then only acts like Elixir else it acts like Poison if used otherwise.
There is almost opposite opinion about drinking of water when present trends are compared with the directions of our ancient Ayurvedic texts. Whereas there is no authentic & detailed book about correct diet and life style of present era, Ayurveda was written with the primary intention of maintaining health by correct diet and correct life style. For the same every dietary item including water has been explained in detail in Ayurvedic texts.
Drinking water in excess can complicate or produce diseases like Indigestion, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure & Kidney diseases :
Anyone who tends to consume water in excess or at wrong time or in wrong manner initially weakens his Digestive fire (Jatharagni) and subsequently fire at tissue level (Dhaatvagni) & cellular level (Bhutaagni). It gives rise to a condition of Ajeerna (Indigestion) & Aama (Undigestive Food) at various levels in the body. Ajeerna & Aama are supposed to be the root cause of almost every disease, including Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Kidney Diseases & Heart Diseases etc.
How drinking excess of water complicates or leads to Indigestion Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Kidney Diseases etc. has been explained in detail in the book, “Water-Elixir or Poison ?”. Various other important facts about water consumption have also been explained in the book.
Recommended Quantity of Water can not be defined:
The common recommended quantity of water consumption can’t be defined for every person. The adequacy will vary based on the physical work done by that individual, environment around them and status of body health.
Right Quantity, Right Time & Right Way of drinking water:
In general, a healthy person should consume between 1 to 1.5 litres of liquid in a day which includes water, milk, juice, tea, coffee etc. To put it more precisely, we can assume a person to be consuming enough quantity of liquid if he/she is releasing ½ to 1 litre of clear urine in a day.
General recommendations are as follows:
For Intestinal Cleansing: Consume 250-300 ml or a full glass of warm water, sip by sip on empty stomach in the morning.
For Helping in Digestive Process: Water with Meal: a cup (i.e. about 150 ml) of warm water should be consumed, sip by sip while having meal. After Meals, consume a small cup (150-200 ml) of warm water every hour or two, even when not feeling thirsty.
On Feeling Thirsty: Drink a small cup (i.e. 150-200 ml) of water, patiently. It is best to drink warm water or boiled water kept for less than 24 hours.
Drinking too much of water at a time can lead to indigestion:
The excess water consumed, being a good medium of transportation, pushes the food down ahead of time irrespective of digestive stage. Due to this hurry, the digestion-process of the prior stages is missed out and hence the digestion remains incomplete. This results in a condition of indigestion. Even in summer season, consuming small quantity of water at regular intervals, when feeling thirsty, helps in maintenance of better health. Consumption of more water in summer season is usually the reason behind our digestion fire becoming sluggish and hence we feel less hungry and also there is trouble in digesting consumed food.
Always Drinking Boiled Water is beneficial for health:
Consumption of un-boiled water increases the possibility of different types of infections in the body. Water is the only liquid food which is neither cooked before consumption nor it is processed by our digestion fire. So, it is clear that if water is contaminated, it can reach out blood streams and become the cause of infections. In general this contamination is removed by boiling process. Hence it is recommended to consume only boiled water, even in Summers.
Special contribution of this research besides providing better health:
This research papers about water would not only give us better health by avoiding the possible damages from drinking excess water, but it would also help in coming out of the misunderstanding about consumption of more and more water. This will also help us in reducing the need of scarce potable water resources and would also help in its conservation.
If one fourth of the population of India comes out from the myth of drinking excess water and reduce just 1 litre of water intake, then there will be saving of about 500 crores litres of clean drinkable water everyday. Calculations about this figure have also been explained in the book.
Dr. Arora’s questions for the Doctors recommending consumption of more and more water:
1. While giving commandments of drinking of more and more water, is not it their moral responsibility to also mention the deadly effect of this on diseases related to heart, digestion, kidney and hundreds of issues related to hormones?
2. Can I ask those water healers who are associated with either Allopathy, Ayurveda or Naturopathy, as to how does consumption of excess quantity of water help our body? Do they have a scientific, textual or research based evidence to support their process?
3. I would like to ask these water healers who simply quote Ayurveda in their lectures on consumption of high quantity of water, that have they even touched the original text books of Ayurveda like Charak Samhita, Sushruta Samhita or Ashtang Sangrah by Acharya Vagbhatt? Can they quote even a single line from these texts which recommend consumption of excess water? If not then what action should be taken against these people who are spreading the wrong trend and creating health hazards for millions of people?
4. These water healers should explain to the society if a patient of kidney problems or blood pressure or diabetes which impacts the kidneys negatively or diseases which bring swelling in different parts of body – should drink excess water? If yes, then please explain how as otherwise it is well known to have adverse effect on the health condition. You can read about scientific and Vaidic analysis of this subject along with references in my book – “Water – Elixir or Poison?”.
Follow the correct way of Water Consumption even in Summers:
A person should consume water on the basis of the condition of their body in right quantity, at right time and in right process. The time has come when we should come out of the jugglery of over consumption of water as it can lead to several health conditions. This is the reason that our texts have called it even a ‘poison’ if water is consumed in a wrong way. We should consume water patiently and in right process even in Summer. You would notice that in the summer oriented seasons i.e. even in rainy season a person feels less hungry and the possibility of issues like indigestion and other digestive problems also increases, a person may feel low energy levels and anxiety and restlessness. If you observe closely, these things happen to a person more he/she consumes more and cold water.
Same way winter dominated seasons like Autumn, Fall and Winter a person feels comparatively more hungry and chances of diseases also reduce, energy levels are better and one finds self in better mental health too. Please notice that these are the times when we usually consume lesser amount of water and certainly not cold water.
So it is quite evident that the hunger, better digestion and good mental health are all dependent on our digestive fire i.e. Agni and not on consumption of water. Is it not possible that the because of effect of summer we consume excess water that makes our Agni sluggish which in turn makes our digestion worse resulting in indigestion, lack of hunger etc. and we feel physically and mentally weaker.
A person should drink adequate quantity of room-temperature water patiently and slowly in small quantity as per the need of our body to maintain our digestive fire properly.
Not drinking increased quantity of water in Summer – is not the reason behind Diseases:
Please note that most of the dehydration issues found during summer are not because of lack of water intake but they are caused by consuming contaminated water resulting in indigestion and diarrhea. The issues like headache, bad throat, cold and cough etc. are caused by drinking cold water after coming from high temperature environment. Hence it is recommended to consume only adequate quantity of water at right time and in right way as per the requirement of one’s body.
