The majority of British citizens are chronically dehydrated, not only because they do not drink water, but because the fluids they do drink act as diuretics, says a new book. Author and lecturer, Phillip Day, founder of the Campaign for Truth in Medicine and author of twelve books on health, is co-writer of The Essential Guide to Water and Salt, which was released on Friday. Co-author Fereydoon Batmanghelidj MD, an Iranian physician who spent decades studying the effects of dehydration on the human body, links water shortage to dozens of chronic conditions such as asthma, allergies, constipation, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, infertility and depression. Dr Batmanghelidj’s original book, Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, became a bestseller and inspired millions to change their lifestyle and recognise the damaging effects of dehydration on the human body.  

The Essential Guide to Water and Salt also covers the body’s requirements for organic, unrefined salt for good health. ‘Everyone’s told to avoid salt,’ says Phillip Day, ‘so the inference is, there’s only one salt and it’s bad for you. Instinctively, this does not stack up. There are hundreds of salts in nature, quite a few of which, like Vitamin C ascorbates, are essential for good health. We live on a planet that is majority water and salt. We were born out of a water and salt sack inside our mother. Our body is made of water and salt. All our body fluids are water and salt. We’re told ‘salt’ is evil and yet no-one questions why seriously ill people are put on a saline drip!’ Normal table salt is a problem, Phillip Day explains, because it has been stripped of dozens of vital minerals and super-heated during the refining process. This negatively alters the ionic structure of the salt so the body cannot use it. Yet natural salts, such as sea-salt, Celtic salt, saltpan salt and Himalayan salt retain their properties in a usable form and can be taken in proper measure quite safely. 

‘We’ve ignored the past. Civilisations like the Romans valued salt on a par with gold and even paid people in it, from which we get the word ‘salary’. In our new book, Dr Batman and I show how these two indispensable aids to good health - water and salt – can be simply employed to help reverse conditions previously thought chronic. The pressing message is, every doctor should be trained in nutrition (they are currently not), and most importantly, in proper hydration and salting techniques to assist the body in healing. Of course, prevention is better than cure. How much better not to get sick in the first place.’

Available as a download from http://www.credencegroup.co.uk/shop2/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7&products_id=137 

or paperback from www.credence.org