PART 1: Kidney Hydration
The element of the second chakra is WATER. A healthy adult human body is composed of 55-75% water. Our blood plasma, this stuff is 92% water!
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, the kidneys are the key organ associated with winter, and the water element in our bodies. I then stuck my head in a pile of books looking up the connection between water, circulation, our kidneys, and our second chakra. These next few articles are simple explanations of what I have found.
The Kidney Function.
Let’s look at the kidneys simply. They sit in the middle of your back, towards the lower part of your rib cage. From them run ureters to the bladder, along with veins and arteries to and from the heart. Blood comes in, dumping off waste and picking up hormones and nutrients. Waste and water from the blood are then sent to the bladder. The magic of making pee.
In a sense, they are a very magical blood filter.
Water Conservation
Your body wants to conserve water, and it does a pretty good job. We tinkle to remove waste and toxins from the blood, and to get rid of extra water. You only need to drink enough water to replace the water you loose. If you are doing some sweaty work, you’ll need to drink water as well. So pee a pint, drink a pint, sweat a pint, drink a pint.
In sweat you also lose salts and electrolytes, this is where more than just water comes in handy. An article on electrolytes and salts will be later in this series.
The Regulator
If there is too much water in the system, you may be over-hydrated. Yep you can drink too much water. I know a lot of you health conscious peeps are. If you are drinking too much, urine will be colorless and clear. Too much water in the system also dilutes the blood and raises blood pressure. This means a faster flow, with less nutrients for the cells to pick up. Think colored pencil vs marker. Personally I like that nice vibrant marker blood, highly nutritious perfectly hydrated blood.
In an effort to balance, your kidneys will increase filtration and make lots of urine releasing the extra water. Say you want to detox, pick a day and drink plain water until your pee is clear. I do this often on my days off, combined with very light vegan fare. In fact, the water in your drink during a juice cleanse does more detoxifying then the sugary fruits and veggies making up the juice.
Filter Filter Filter, Pee Pee Pee.
If you are dehydrated your kidneys slow down the filtering process in an attempt to hold water in the system. Toxins and waste are left to circulate back around your body – yuck.
If this happens often enough, the kidneys send hormones into the blood stream asking our bone marrow to produce more plasma and increase blood volume. Water is still needed for this process, so it sucks it out of your muscles and tissues, resulting in cramps, headaches, and overall weakness. Once you begin to drink water again, the kidneys rush to filter out all the old waste, hence crazy pee times while rehydrating. Don’t give in under the annoying need to urinate constantly. Get your hydration up, and apologize to your body for your negligence.
The Rundown
- Blood is mostly water.
- Kidneys are your blood filters.
- Urine is the toxins, trash, and extra water taken out of the blood.
- Too little water, or too much = issues.
- Over Hydrated
- clear colorless urine,
- headaches, nausea, dizzy, confusion, cramps.
- severe cases; seizure, unconscious, coma
- diluted nutrients in blood
- Dehydrated
- dark colored urine.
- headaches, dizzy, sleepy, cramps, dry mouth, insomnia
- severe cases; fever, low blood pressure, rapid heart beat, delirium, unconscious
- Perfect Urine is clear with a light yellow tint.
- check out your urine every-time you pee
- check out: What your pee is telling you.
PART 2: A loving look at Salt.
Referenced Articles.
http://www.healthline.com/health/overhydration#Symptoms4
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dehydration/basics/symptoms/con-20030056
http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/10/what-the-color-of-your-urine-says-about-you-infographic/
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/body-blood/
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Pickling Salt 
Nice article. Didn’t know you could over hydrate and I LOVE the colorful kidneys.