Japanese medical experts have found from field experiments that the symptoms of dementia in elderly patients can be reduced or even disappear by drinking enough water.
An article released by Professor Takahito Takeuchi of the International University of Health and Welfare on Dec. 13, 2020, mentioned that 70 percent of the elderly dementia patients had improvement or the symptoms disappeared once they drank enough water. For example, wandering and hypnopompic hallucination, once the problems were solved, there would be an improvement in 1-2 days.
In the article, Professor Takahito Takeuchi described the collective and individual healing examples. A “hydration action” was implemented in the Chiba Prefecture Dementia Special Care Nursing Home.
Among the 50 patients, 20 had mild fever during the day, and nine had hallucinations during the night. After supplementing these patients with an additional 1.5 litre (3.2 pints) of water per day, the patients with mild fever and hallucinations were reduced to zero and one, respectively.
An 86-year-old man with dementia yelled at the nursing staff while he was eating, and many female staff were afraid to approach him, “We gave him 1.5 litre (3.2 pints) of water a day, and at the same time reassured him, shortly, he stopped being violent and started talking to the people around him with a smile.”
There was also an 82-year-old woman with dementia. She collected napkins from the table, put them in her pockets and sometimes ate them, which continued for more than three months.
“The nursing staff increased the patient’s water intake to 1.5 litres (3.2 pints) per day. After she got used to it, I found that the patient’s symptoms of eating paper completely disappeared.”
Regarding the relationship between brain health and water intake, Dr. Hideki Taniguchi, MD, PhD, of the Patient Support Center of Saiseikai Yokohamashi Tobu Hospital in Japan, once told the media that more than 90 percent of the human brain is water, and dehydration also reduces water in brain and its function, in particular, salt (electrolytes) reduced, also reducing thinking ability. Even more terrifying was that some patients would forget whether they had drunk water or not because of their memory problems, and their cognitive function would deteriorate due to lack of water, which would further aggravate the condition.
According to a Japanese health and longevity website, adults are made up of 60 percent water, and, young children are 65 percent, but for those over 65 years old water content drops to 50 percent. The amount of muscle that stores the water decreases with aging.
Professor Takeuchi said that when the water in the human body is merely reduced by one to two percent, consciousness will then be affected, such as dizziness, fatigue, and irritability.
For example, for a 65-year-old person with a weight of 50kg (110 pounds), as long as the water is reduced by 250-500ml, which is only about the amount of water from a glass of water, a can, or plastic bottle, consciousness may be affected.
Professor Takeuchi suggested that you need to drink at least 1.5 litres of water every day and drink a small amount several times a day. Do not wait until you are thirsty. If you exercise or sweat more in hot weather, you need to drink even more water.
Regarding the matter of human hydration, Naiman Khan, professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, also conducted a study on 75 children aged 9 to 11 in central Illinois.
The children were divided into two groups, one group was required to drink only 0.5 litres and the other group was required to drink 2.5 litres of water per day for four days, and during the four days their cognitive ability was assessed.
It was found that at the beginning, children with higher body water content tended to have stronger task processing ability and faster reaction times. After increasing water intake, the task-processing ability of the children was also improved.
This suggested that water may facilitate cognitive performance, including memory and flexibility for tasks.
Professor Takeuchi’s book Methods of Treating Dementia Without Medicine, which is a collection of years of research and numerous treatment cases, was sold in major bookstores in Japan and on the Internet at the end of last year.
Dr. Zheng Jie, PhD from the University of Tokyo, told The Epoch Times that about 20 cities in Japan have adopted Professor Takeuchi’s hydration method, and the improvement rate of dementia symptoms is very high. But he believed that some dementias could be cured, while some were difficult to reverse.
Dr. Zheng reminded that if one has high blood sugar, kidney disease, and so on, consult your doctor or nutritionist, and follow the instructions of adjusting the amount of water intake and types of drink so that it will not affect your health.
The 11th academic meeting of the Society of Amnesia Prevention in Japan will be held in Japan from September 23 to 25, to discuss and study on how to prevent and treat amnesia effectively.
