We often hear that water is essential to life and that without it, all life would be impossible. So why is this natural element vital and yet so commonplace in our consumerist industrial society?
L’eau : une histoire de mathématiques
Several elements make this aqueous substance essential to our structure and its metabolic functioning. The first element is purely mathematical and undeniable since it is about molecular mass and proportion.
In fact, our total body mass (weight) is made up of 65 to 70% water. That is, a man of average height and weight (75 kg) is made up of 48.75 to 52.5 kg of water. This proportion is slightly higher in babies and young children, and slightly lower in women. It decreases with advancing age, as one could almost summarize aging as dehydration.
From a molecular point of view, the proportion of water is even much higher since at this level we are made up of 99% water molecules. Each cell in our body is in fact made up of 22,437,135,779 molecules. Of these, there are 22,240,561,910 molecules of water and 196,573,869 molecules of other components of which 121,680,875 are ions.
So if we establish the mathematical ratio between the number of water molecules and the total number of molecules that make up a cell, by multiplying this ratio by 100, we obtain a number equivalent to 99.1%. This means that the molecular mass of all of our cells is 99.1% water molecules. This is therefore even significantly higher than the proportion of water mass (65 - 70%) to our total body weight. In practical terms, this means that if we dehydrate a body, 99% of the material that makes it up evaporates and barely 1% of dry matter remains.
A second fact makes this chemical element fundamental to our bodies. Our vital tissues and responsible for all cellular life are liquid tissues whose base is water. This includes blood and lymph and a little bit of other serum circulating in the intra- and extra-cellular media. In naturopathy, this set of body fluids is called the humors. It is these fluids that carry the elements that will nourish our cells. They are also the ones that are going to allow the waste products to be removed and drained to the outlets of our body.
L’eau est indispensable d’un point de vue
A third, more subtle level makes the element water fundamental to our biological life. In this case, we must place ourselves at the electromagnetic level. Everything in our universe functions by electromagnetic attraction or repulsion, and this is true from the smallest microscopic and cellular element, to the arrangement of the largest galaxies. The functioning of our cells as well as all the reactions that take place in them are carried out thanks to the ions (i.e. minerals and trace elements) provided by our food.
From the physiological point of view, in order for the ions to reach the cells and enter them, they must be coupled either to the hydrophobic part of certain amino acids or to metallo-enzymes. Only these biochemical combinations will allow the ions to cross first the intestinal barrier and then the cell membranes in order to penetrate to the heart of the cells where they will be able to fulfill their metabolic roles. It is now totally demonstrated that all these biochemical combinations and all these exchanges and cellular penetrations or excretions are only realized thanks to subtle and permanent electromagnetic games.
This is because the cell membrane itself has potential differences between its outer and inner sides. It is this set of charges (potential differences) and polarities (positive - negative) that regulate all vital metabolic exchanges.
It is as if all these biochemical elements were circulating in our body by a permanent game of magnets that attract or repel them. It is by the same magnetic process that water moleculesattract certain ions serving as carriers for them to enter or leave the cell through aquaporins. Aquaporins are the entry and exit gates reserved for the passage of water molecules and the elements they carry.
L’eau, cet élément vital à notre corps
Forget about the so-called benefits of bottled mineral water and the assimilation of the minerals it contains. These health arguments so much vaunted by our advertisers are only purely commercial arguments. They are not based on any scientific basis, because in order to be assimilated and used by our cells, minerals must be chelated (combined with other elements).
This is the case for the minerals and trace elements provided by our food. In contrast, bottled water only contains unchelated minerals. They are therefore unassimilable. These chemical elements only overload the humors and unnecessarily increase the work of the kidneys. In short, the minerals and trace elements contained in drinking water do not bring any benefit.