Salt and water - the keys to immunity

To appreciate the role of salt and water in immunity, we need to know just three basic facts:

1. Salt is one of nature’s most powerful weapons against bacteria and other harmful organisms.
   
   
2. All life on earth needs water, including the life of bacteria.
   
   
3. The saltiness of fluids determines whether a particular life form lives or dies.

Food preservation

We acknowledge the power of salt against bacteria when we gargle with salt water to relieve a sore throat. Similarly, we preserve fish, meat and vegetables in salt knowing the bacteria will not flourish and cause decay.

The power of salt was dramatically demonstrated by George Oshawa, the founder of modern macrobiotics, when he visited the famous Dr Albert Schweitzer in Africa during the 1950s.

To prove the effectiveness of his food cures, Ohsawa purposely got himself infected with tropical ulcers, a very deadly disease for which there was considered “no cure” in Africa.

Dr Schweitzer ordered Ohsawa to return to Europe, where he could get proper medical treatment. Ohsawa refused. Instead, he asked his student, Michio Kushi, to send him salt, seaweed and other macrobiotic foods. Ohsawa ate salt by the spoonful, wrapped in seaweed. Within days, his tropical ulcers cleared up and he was well again.

Unfortunately, Schweitzer remained unimpressed and refused to accept the fact that food could cure such a deadly disease.

Why is salt so powerful?

From the macrobiotic understanding, it is simply a matter of yin-yang balance. Bacteria is very yin (strong, expanding energy) since they multiply quickly. Salt is very yang (strong contracting energy). So the two cancel each other out.

At the time when Ohsawa was eating large amounts of salt, he reportedly became so yang (contracted) that his stools were hard like stones.

From the chemical perspective, we know that salt consists mainly of sodium and chlorine. We know also that chlorine is a powerful germ killer. That is why chlorine is added to tap water.

On its own, chlorine is so powerful it can kill us as well. But when combined with sodium to form sodium chloride, it is relatively harmless unless taken in exceptionally large amounts.

Salt and water – opposites

The role of water is opposite to that of salt. While we can kill bacteria by adding salt, we can also kill bacteria by removing water.

Again, this principle is applied in food preservation where fish, seafood, meat, vegetables and fruit are preserved by drying. Without water, bacteria cannot thrive. No other life on earth can thrive either.

The balance of salt and water is therefore crucial. If we have too much salt and/or too little water, we die. If we have too little salt and/or too much water, bacteria will flourish and we may also die.

Keeping cells alive with salt and water

In 1882, a British doctor named Sidney Ringer succeeded in keeping body tissue cells alive – he used a frog’s heart in his first experiment – in a solution of salt and water. If he put cell tissues in plain water, they would absorb too much water, swell up and explode. If he put them in water that was too salty, the cells would also die.

This can be easily understood in terms of osmosis – the process by which water passes through a permeable membrane. Water always passes from a thinner (less salty) solution to a thicker (more salty) solution.

In Sidney Ringer’s experiment, when he placed the frog’s heart in plain water, the fluid in the frog’s cells were more salty than in the surrounding environment. Through osmosis, the cells absorbed water, swelled up, exploded and died. When Sidney Ringer placed the frog’s heart in a very salty solution, the reversed happened. The cell lost water and also died.

We can apply this principle of salt and water to immunity, says macrobiotic teacher Herman Aihara. We can make our blood and body fluids too salty for bacteria, viruses and other harmful organisms. So when these organisms enter our body, they will lose water (through osmosis) and die.

We salt to maintain this condition.

Some health conscious people, however, are afraid of salt because of the mistaken belief that salt causes high blood pressure. This will not happen if we take natural sea salt. Due to this misconception, they either take very little salt, or they avoid salt completely. This makes the blood thin and not sufficiently salty.

Drinking great quantities of water – like 8 glasses a day even when one is not at all thirsty – has the same effect. Drugs like aspirin also make the blood thin.

When the blood is too thin, bacteria and viruses don’t die. Instead, they adapt and can now survive in a weak human body. They become stronger. When these microbes enter another body that is only slightly more salty, again they don’t die. Again, they adapt and grow even stronger. Over time, people get weaker and weaker while bacteria and viruses get stronger and stronger.

Thinning the blood will also weaken body cells directly.

In Sidney Ringer’s experiment, it was found that living cells would swell up if they are placed in plain water. If the blood is thin, water flow from the blood into the cells. The cells will still swell up. They will become big and bloated. As a result, the cell walls weaken.

Balancing salt and water

The cell walls have tiny holes that allow nutrients to enter and waste matter to be discharged. When cells bloat up, these holes become bigger. Eventually, they become big enough for viruses to pass through, since viruses are very, very tiny. Viruses now attack our cells from the inside. On their own, viruses cannot multiply. They multiply only when they enter cells.

It is not wise, therefore, to drink lots of water. It is also not natural to drink as much water as possible, just because some so-called experts say so.

Those who recommend drinking lots of water say it flushes out body toxins. This is true. But the better approach is to eat a clean diet so that we do not have much toxins to flush out in the first place.

Drinking lots of water will also overwork the kidneys, the key organ that controls the level of salt and water in the body. When the kidneys are working well, we don’t need to worry about how much salt and water to take. We only need to be sensible and avoid excesses – eat food that is slightly salty, not too strong, not too bland; and drink when we are thirsty.

We just follow our natural instincts. If we need more salt, we will naturally crave salty foods. If we need less, we will naturally prefer bland foods.

It’s the same with water. If we need more, we will feel thirsty. If we don’t need, we will naturally not feel thirsty.

Click the following links to read more about natural sea salt, the proper use of salt and how much water to drink.