Dangers of water therapy and saktifoundation

[kavikavi]

Hi everyone,
I recently tried Saktifoundation.org's water therapy. However, on reading about water therapy, I learnt there is a danger of water intoxication. How true is this? After a doing the water therapy for a day, I am a bit nervous doing it again without further research.

accoding to wikipedia

A person with two healthy kidneys can excrete about 900ml (0.24 gal)/hr.[2] Consuming as little as 1.8 litres of water (0.48 gal) in a single sitting may prove fatal for a person adhering to a low-sodium diet, or 3 litres (0.79 gallons) for a person on a normal diet. However, this must be modulated by potential water losses via other routes. For example, a person who is perspiring heavily may lose 1 L/hr (0.26 gal) of water through perspiration alone, thereby raising the threshold for water intoxication. The problem is further complicated by the amount of electrolytes lost in urine or sweat, which is variable within a range controlled by the body's regulatory mechanisms.

Given the above facts, shouldn't anyone recommending this therapy also post a warning explaining the dangers?

[dev]

Hi Kavikavi, I'm not sure abt the wiki facts(claims)... But I have seen a handful of my friends & relatives follow it without any problems so far... they have been doing it for a few years now...

[kavikavi]

Hi Dev,
Thanks. Would any pre-existing conditions have any impact? Let's say someone did not eat /drink much the previous day (so perhaps deficient in sodium??) and then had water therapy the next, what would happen to them? Also, if not warned, people m ight over drink. www.sakthifoundation.org says water is good, drink 1.5 litres, the person drinking may not know drinking 2 litres might be dangerous. It is only responsible that anyone recommending water therapy also give the warnings, just in case...

[Anoushka]

Kavikavi: I don't know about water therapy... but I easily drink two litres of water a day, sometimes I drink that much in the night alone if I have had food with too much of salt (specially fast food).

[kavikavi]

Anoushka,
In water therapy you are supposed to drink 1.5 litres of water at one go (i.e., in less than five minutes)!! It may not adversely affect everyone, but it could affect some resulting in death. Given that, anyone advising water therapy should also provide the caution. I first read about it in this forum and I have recommended it to others not knowing there could be a danger lurking. I have told about this to old people too, I am glad nothing happened to them as a result of my half-baked advise.

In sakthifoundation site's faq (I think someone from that site was the one who posted about water therapy initially in this forum) you will find a question about the woman who died drinking 2 gallons of water, but they just shrug it away without explaining that some people (given certain pre-existing condition) could die because of this. This is a life or death matter. While I appreciate learning about water therapy from this gentleman (was his name Prakash or Prasad??) I think a cautionary note should also be added to any advise on water therapy.

[pavalamani pragasam]

It is good to keep the body sufficiently hydrated. At the same time it is not wise to overwork the kidney & extend the bladder. A judicious assessment of one's body requirements generally & seasonally(external & internal) & the type of food eaten on a particular day as Anoushka has pointed out is necessary. Following blindly any treatment one comes to hear from various sources as a panacea for one's ailments is always risky. Medical advice about one's physical conditions is important. Water, it is true, is very good in huge quantities for a number of discomforts. But better avoid overdoing it.

[Anoushka]

Thanks kavikavi for explaining what water treatment is. I for one, would be a person to drink 1.5 to 2 litres of water a day but not in one go!

[pradheep]

Dear Kavi and friends
Thanks for brining this point to the forum. Water therapy is an ancient practice and over centuries people have used. I do not follow anything blindly unless i test it. i have been doing it for more than 14 years and have also helped hundreds of people for healing various ailments. People wrongly understand that it is the "the" method for all diseases. The fact is that it is the basic method to keep the body clean by detoxifying the body everyday. Without detoxifying the body the body's natural immune system or biochemical reactions does not work as efficiently. It is surprisingly that just with water therapy alone people had healed various ailments without even going to the other four elements. In these cases just by excreting out water soluble toxins , the body returned healthy.

Kidney is the most efficient organ and does not let any molecule out of the urine uncensarily. Over time I found that the body does not throw the excess water immediately, but judiciously through out the day.

Water toxicity has been medically reported in cases where individuals had died immeidately consuming large quantities of water. But one has to see the conditions in these cases. The individuals drank more than 5 liters of water while doing marathon running.

That is too much of water consumed during strenous conditoins like running. Water therapy recommends only 1.5 liters that is exactly the capacity of stomach (1.5 literes), which is a logical quantity.

I tell my friend, we eat food at a time (toxically cooked and toxic ingredients) which is most of the time more than 1.5 liters. They dont realize it because the nature of the mind is to ignore dangerous facts that are pleasant to the mind.

Of course for anything there is always criticism and I leave to individual discretion whether to keep medical bills low and enjoy peace of mind.
www.sakthifoundation.org

[Badri]

They dont realize it because the nature of the mind is to ignore dangerous facts that are pleasant to the mind.

Of course for anything there is always criticism and I leave to individual discretion whether to keep medical bills low and enjoy peace of mind.

There is no call to be defensive Pradeep. I think kavikavi's point is justified from both your own well being as well as that of others. Water intoxication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication) is a dangerous reality and it is safer to warn people of the dangers of overdoing anything.

[dev]

yeah... It's better to put up a warning when such dangers exist... Some ppl maybe over enthusiastic & might overdo things...

[pradheep]

Dear Badri
If I dont reply then it means that I accept doing water therapy is dangerous. If I reply it means I defend my statement. :roll:

Thanks for your link which shows that it occurs in strenous conditions and not in normal conditions. Again let me repeat the water therapy that is suggested as usha-kaala-sikitcha is not done at strenous conditions. It is done early in the morning when body has done all its cleansing and balancing work in the night sleep. This is why it is called Usha kaala meaning early morning.

I will post your link in the web site and warn people of water-intoxification occuring which is different from usha-kaala sikitcha.