Hydration and Pollution: fires, construction, and air quality
Summertime can bring a more relaxed feel to the two to three months in the middle of the year. It may be the soaring temperatures that keep people inside or the time off for families and their kids with travel and vacations, but the year round intensity of business seems to ease.
What doesn’t ease is the potential of dehydration and symptoms like lethargy, headaches, dizziness, constipation, increased blood pressure, dry skin, and mouth as the temperature and humidity rise and air quality diminishes.
Wildfires in the north of Canada have blanketed parts of Canada and the neighboring US, raising concern for health on many levels.
Typical summertime construction adds to the decreased air quality, and when sitting in traffic in those areas, air pollution can increase within the car and circulate with the air conditioning running on full.
Hydration
With two-thirds of the earth's surface covered by water, and the human body consisting of 75 percent of it, it is evidently clear that water is one of the prime elements responsible for life on Earth.
Water circulates through the human body just as it does through the land, transporting, dissolving, and replenishing nutrients and organic matter while carrying away waste material. In the body, water regulates the activities of fluids, tissues, cells, lymph, blood, and glandular secretions. An average adult's body contains 42 liters of water (60% of an adult's weight, and 80% of a newborn's weight, is body fluid), and with just a small loss of 2.7 liters, he or she can suffer from dehydration, displaying symptoms of irritability, fatigue, nervousness, dizziness, weakness, headaches, and consequently reach a state of pathology.
- - Blood = 82% water
- - Lungs = 90% water
- - Brain = 76% water
- - Bones = 25% water
The beverages most people choose to consume are counter-productive to proper hydration. Coffee or tea, with added milk or cream, alcohol, and soft and sugary drinks, can have a diuretic effect and can cause not only the loss of the water they are contained in, but they will also draw water from the body’s reserves.
Dr. Robert Cass,
Physica Energetics Founder, Master Formulator and Alchemist
Ways to Support your Patient
Ensure adequate hydration comes from water getting into the cells, and while that is obvious, for many, drinking enough water daily continues to be a challenge.
How much water?A guideline to follow from our colleague, Dr. Davis Brockenshire, is to consume one ounce of water per pound of body weight. If working out or training outside, calculate daily water consumption with one ounce of water per kilogram of body weight.
Hydration and faciaHydration and facia are fascinating topics to dive into, as movement is a huge part of supporting facia, moving fluid throughout the body. For those sitting most of the day, movement is encouraged and supports hydration on a deeper level.
The Hydration CycleWater goes in, then out through sweat, urine, and stool, and if your patient is not optimally hydrated, homeostasis, drainage, and detoxification opportunities are hindered.
Signs of dehydrationHow to know if you're dehydrated? The color of your urine is a good indicator. Light straw color is ideal, and darker yellow or a tinge of brown is a sign of dehydration (note: taking B vitamins, like in Liposome B Complex and Bio Health Matrix, turns urine fluorescent yellow). The frequency of urinating should be about every three hours during the daytime.
Encourage drinkingFiltered water is recommended, no matter the filter's level of complexity. Adding in cucumber, berries, lemon, lime, and mint, or drinking herbal teas - hot or cold, help to jazz up the taste of plain water. If your patients resist drinking water because of the lack of taste, add Vita LF Powder for a superfood-boosted drink, Camu Camu, or Alkakize C for the energy-enhancing and antioxidant benefits that come with their great taste
Products to enhance hydrationReHydrate is our number one product to support hydration with the homeopathic formulation encouraging hydration balance. SpectraLyte's desalinated minerals can help electrolytic balance along with BioCell Salts of 12 essential minerals in a homeopathic drop form. Kidney Milieu supports the drainage and function (signaling) of elimination via the urinary system. Green Light Spagyric provides nourishing nutrient-dense chlorophyll and super greens to support hydrating on a cellular level and energy.
Air Quality and Pollution Support
In a recent podcast interview, Dr. Davis Brockenshire, DC Functional Medine Expert, shared his advice and protocol. Listen to episode 166 of EAT THIS with Lianne from timestamp 26:00 onwards. Highlights of his conversation and product recommendation are below. Dosage and more are talked about in the episode.
The particulates and molecules of smoke are in the air, no matter where you are from, all the parts of Canada being on fire. They’re heading down south following the air patterns, air pressure changes, and meteorologic changes, and while you can’t see it, it's adding a massive amount of stress to your reserves. If the air quality reading is over 100 or more on the warning scale, stay inside.
You breathe it (the smoke or pollution) in, and it inflames the lungs, sinuses, and throat, and you don’t know it until it’s too late. The body has to fight back to repair itself. That’s where it uses up all its’ vitamin C and Glutathione. One of the ways to combat this is to give the body what it needs to fight.
Nutritionally, update your supplements. Those particulates and road construction from concrete all stay in the air. The air is dirty, and it would be a good time to N95 mask if you've got to work outside.
Keep cheating the body, and don’t overdo it outside (while we want to be outside as it’s summer). Keep outdoor exercise intensity lower. The smoke damage can last a lifetime.
Dr. Davis Brockenshire
Dr. Brockenshire's product recommendations include:
Air Pollution and Allergies
Environmental pollutants such as smog, exhaust fumes, synthetic chemicals, heavy metals, smoke, and perfumes all play a role in the increased incidence and severity of environmental allergies. Due to the increased allergenic load in our environment, many allergy sufferers exist in a state of perpetual hyper-reaction. This chronic state of immune reactivity and inflammation can ultimately lead to more serious forms of disease.
