Article 7: Too Much Water – Excessive Water Storage Can Lead to Water Poisoning
Excessive water
Excessive water retention in the body can lead to water intoxication.
Fat accounts for 20% to 30% of body weight, while water accounts for 60% to 65%. Therefore, "weight gain" is basically equivalent to "water gain".
Just as getting caught in the rain makes you feel cold, excessive water retention can cause your body to feel cold, leading to a drop in body temperature. This can affect the burning of substances like sugar, fat, and cholesterol in the body, as well as the burning and excretion of waste products such as uric acid, lactic acid, pyruvic acid, urea, and nitrogen. These waste products and toxic substances remain in the blood, exacerbating hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia.
Water intake and excretion
How much water does a person take in and how much water does they excrete in a day?
Each person ingests approximately 2100-2600 ml of water daily, of which about 1000-1500 ml is specifically consumed through drinking. Water intake from food (approximately 76% in noodles, 65% in refined rice, 89% in milk, and 93% in beer, etc.) totals about 800 ml. There are also substances that, while not containing water themselves, generate water through metabolism in the body, such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins; these produce about 300 ml of metabolic water.
Each person excretes 2100-2600 ml of water per day, of which approximately 400 ml is exhaled, 600 ml is sweated, 1000-1500 ml is in urine, and about 100 ml is in feces. People who exercise and bathe frequently will excrete several hundred milliliters to 1 liter more water than this, so normal people need to replenish their fluids.
The amount of water ingested and excreted is the same every day.
Total water intake: 2100–2600 ml
800 ml of water in food
300 ml of water is metabolized (sugar, fat, and protein enter the body in the form of food, are utilized and burned in the body, and finally produce water and other metabolic products.)
The total amount of water expelled was 2100–2600 ml.
600 ml of water was lost through the skin.
The urine contains 1000-1500 ml of water.
100 ml of water in stool
My sanatorium has been operating for over 20 years, during which time I have employed dozens of staff members. I have noticed that among these staff members, obese people rarely go to the toilet, while those who are not obese go frequently.
After years of observation, I found that obese people with "fair skin and a tendency to edema" either urinate very infrequently or urinate normally (7-8 times a day), but each time the amount of urine is very small.
Even if daily water intake is within the normal range, if urine output is less than 1000 ml, or if constipation or other reasons reduce water excretion, "edema" can occur. If excess water remains in the body each day due to impaired drainage, the accumulated water will reach 1500 ml within a month. After several months, this amount will be even greater.
In other words, as long as the ingested water is completely eliminated, the body will be relatively healthy. If this balance is lost and less water is eliminated, the body will become bloated and puffy, laying the groundwork for disease.
Ishihara-style "cold, water, pain" triangle relationship
Water causes "coldness," and "coldness" is a cause of blood pollution.
Excess water retention in the body can cause "coldness." "Coldness is the source of all diseases." When the body is cold, it is easy to suffer from many diseases, such as colds, pneumonia, high blood pressure, stroke, myocardial infarction, etc., which in turn leads to an increase in mortality.
Excess water in the body can cause the lower body to feel cold, forcing "heat," "qi," and "blood" to rise to the upper body. This can lead to symptoms such as heart discomfort, difficulty breathing, shoulder pain, facial flushing, vomiting, nausea, coughing, stomatitis, and bad breath.
If heat, qi, and blood rise to the head, a person will feel restless, suffer from insomnia, and experience anxiety.
Symptoms of feeling cold in the lower body and hot in the upper body include: insomnia, redness (rash), shoulder pain, anxiety, chills, fever, ovarian cysts, irregular menstruation, dysmenorrhea, uterine fibroids, edema, etc.
In addition, if water circulation is poor, water toxicity will form, causing diseases in multiple parts of the body.
Water poisoning triggered a triangular relationship between "cold," "water," and "pain."
Myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction rank second and third, respectively, among the causes of death in Japan. Western medicine believes that these two diseases are caused by thrombosis due to thickened blood, so it encourages patients to drink more water.
Lately, we can see people everywhere holding bottled water, drinking directly from the bottle, whether on a bus or on the street, regardless of the occasion.
Undeniably, water is essential for human survival. However, excessive rainfall can cause floods, resulting in significant damage to buildings and crops. Similarly, excessive water retention in the body can also lead to flooding, a condition known in traditional Chinese medicine as "water poisoning."
Children often experience diarrhea (watery stools) and abdominal pain after catching a cold while sleeping (cold → water → pain); many people experience headaches when entering air-conditioned rooms (cold → pain); neuralgia worsens when it rains (water → pain); and everyone feels cold after getting wet in the rain (water → cold). Therefore, "cold," "water," and "pain" are interconnected.
Ishihara-style triangular relationship diagram of "cold", "water" and "pain"
Excessive water retention is a major factor in causing the body to feel cold. When the body feels cold and unwell, the excretory system kicks in to expel excess water, warming the body and restoring its overall condition.
For example, catching a cold while sleeping may cause diarrhea; catching a cold may cause a runny nose and sneezing (both are watery symptoms); when seriously ill, one may sweat profusely (to expel water, raise body temperature, and fight the disease); people with migraines may vomit (to expel gastric juices, warm the body, and relieve headaches); and many elderly people urinate frequently at night (body temperature and air temperature are relatively low at night, so the body will expel water through urination to raise body temperature in order to prevent illness).