Open letter to John B (& Peter K)

As per usual, I am not highlighting this individual to shame.  I highlight his condition to demonstrate the dangers of consuming JJ that Jillian Mai Thi Epperly ignores because she thinks she is smarter than anyone else.

So by what he writes, it looks as if he is currently consuming 2 cups/day.  So if made per Jillian's recipe that is one TBSP of salt or 6,900 mgs of sodium.  The generally accepted RDA is between 1500-2300 mgs/day. Excess sodium causes fluid retention and water weight gain. However, your body needs sodium to manage blood volume as well as control muscles and nerves. You need a minimum of 200 milligrams of sodium per day to function.

So John describes deep, open sores that do not heal quickly.  Some occurring on his legs possibly due to swelling.  As a laywoman who has issue with swelling in the legs and feet, this is concerning.  My heart doesn't always do what it's supposed to and I am way too sedentary.

Edema is the collection of fluid in the interstitial space due to a systemic or local condition. Understanding its etiology will determine how it is  treated.  Systemically, when the body fails to maintain a state of equilibrium, swelling can develop and be caused by various systems.  IOWS John, you could be having issues with your cardiac system, musculoskeletal system, respiratory system, urinary system with kidney failure; or liver failure. 

As noted above, there are a myriad of conditions that could be causing or contributing to your issue. The possibility of any of these conditions, is not a situation I would leave in the hands of some uneducated narcissist on the internet.  Jillian has no medical training or experience in ANY relevant field!!

From another discussion, Peter asks a simple question of Jillian.

Get my book is her answer.  Which, BTW, I should have by end of next week.  This is a woman who claims to have all the answers from 3 1/2 yrs of research.  If her current book is anything like her last, there will be no answers to be found.

Because Peter dares to disagree or not understand Jillian's information, she publicly scolds him and threatens to remove him from her page.  This is the type of treatment you can expect John.

But back to your issue,,,

Instead of suggesting getting a medical opinion, Jillian et al tell you to drink more water.

There is a slight problem with that John!! While it may seem intuitive, it can lead to more issues. When you consume too much sodium in your diet, your body holds extra water. That’s because the kidneys, which filter out waste from the blood, maintain a special ratio of electrolytes, such as sodium to potassium, to water.

According to Jonathan Williams, a physician in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital,

Several hormones are involved in regulating the amount of water and salt in the blood, and they don’t always keep excess salt out of the bloodstream when you eat too much salt. When some people eat a high-salt diet, their kidneys don’t remove all the excess salt, so it builds up in the blood. Salt attracts and retains water, so excess salt causes the volume of water in the blood to rise, which raises blood pressure.

IOWs, the more salt in the diet means the kidneys keep more water in the system. That can have lots of undesirable effects, such as edema (swelling in places like the hands, arms, feet, ankles, and legs); more fluid in general means more blood coursing through veins and arteries. Remember, per Jillian's recipe, you are consuming 6,900 mgs of salt per 2 cups.  Approximately 3X the recommended RDA/

Taking that into consideration, is it possible to over hydrate? During normal daily activities we should consume between 91-125 fl. oz of liquid (11-14 cups) per day.  (Activity, heat, and sex dependent.)  But, when you drink fluids in excess, you can overwhelm your kidneys’ ability to excrete it all.  Basically the kidneys cannot flush it out fast enough and the blood becomes waterlogged. "Drawn to regions where the concentration of salt and other dissolved substances is higher, excess water leaves the blood and ultimately enters the cells, which swell like balloons to accommodate it."

In a recent trigger video, Why Swelling on the JJ can be substantiated through academia regarding the antidiuretic hormone, Jillian states,

So what happens is, when you dont drink enough water - and this is why people swell on the JJ, they don't drink enough water .  What happens when you are dehydrated or you take a lot of salt and you swell it triggers the ADH to retain water.  And when you retain water, it is the bodies defense mechanism to make sure you dont dehydrate.

As noted prior, what Jillian ignores, the release of ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) is a specific reaction to specific conditions within the body; what she states is overly simplistic and overly vague. For a complex subject as ADH regulation she neglects much information.

Its most important role is to conserve the fluid volume of your body by reducing the amount of water passed out in the urine. It does this by allowing water in the urine to be taken back into the body in a specific area of the kidney. Thus, more water returns to the bloodstream, urine concentration rises and water loss is reduced. Higher concentrations of anti-diuretic hormone cause blood vessels to constrict (become narrower) and this increases blood pressure. A deficiency of body fluid (dehydration) can only be finally restored by increasing water intake.

Bear in mind, Jillian's goal is to induce "waterfalls," aka explosive diarrhea.

High levels of anti-diuretic hormone cause the kidneys to retain water in the body. There is a condition called Syndrome of Inappropriate Anti-Diuretic Hormone secretion (SIADH; a type of hyponatraemia) where excess anti-diuretic hormone is released when it is not needed,,, With this condition, excessive water retention dilutes the blood, giving a characteristically low salt concentration. Excessive levels of anti-diuretic hormone might be caused by drug side-effects and diseases of the lungs, chest wall, hypothalamus or pituitary. Some tumours (particularly lung cancer), can produce anti-diuretic hormone.
,,,
Low levels of anti-diuretic hormone will cause the kidneys to excrete too much water. Urine volume will increase leading to dehydration and a fall in blood pressure. Low levels of anti-diuretic hormone may indicate damage to the hypothalamus or pituitary gland, or primary polydipsia (compulsive or excessive water drinking).

Excessive diarrhea, aka waterfalls, bypasses this function causing dehydration. Stated another way,

ADH constantly regulates and balances the amount of water in your blood. Higher water concentration increases the volume and pressure of your blood. Osmotic sensors and baroreceptors work with ADH to maintain water metabolism.

The regulation of various body functions are  tightly controlled with minimum and maximum ranges.  Those functions are not as simplistic as Jillian makes them appear.

Roughly 60% of the mass of the body is water, and despite wide variation in the amount of water taken in each day, body water content remains incredibly stable. Such precise control of body water and solute concentrations is a function of several hormones acting on both the kidneys and vascular system, but there is no doubt that antidiuretic hormone is a key player in this process.

Yes, ADH is a hormone, it is one of 200+ hormones in the human body, and works in conjunction with other processes and internal conditions within the body.

The most important variable regulating antidiuretic hormone secretion is plasma osmolarity, or the concentration of solutes in blood.

When plasma osmolarity is below a certain threshold, the osmoreceptors are not activated and secretion of antidiuretic hormone is suppressed. When osmolarity increases above the theshold, the ever-alert osmoreceptors recognize this as their cue to stimulate the neurons that secrete antidiuretic hormone.

Osmotic control of antidiuretic hormone secretion makes perfect sense. Imagine walking across a desert: the sun is beating down and you begin to lose a considerable amount of body water through sweating. Loss of water results in concentration of blood solutes - plasma osmolarity increases. Should you increase urine production in such a situation? Clearly not. Rather, antidiuretic hormone is secreted, allowing almost all the water that would be lost in urine to be reabsorbed and conserved.

Simply put John and Peter, Jillian's information is either incomplete or incorrect.  At best it is vague.  At worst it could be deadly.  Her suggestions as well as that of her minion's are not based in reality.

Think about,,,

Why are you thirsty? Because you are in-taking an ungodly amount of salt.

Why are you swelling? Because salt causes your body to retain water.

Jillian's solution, drink more water.

Why not reduce your salt intake and increase water intake (if needed) to the medically acceptable range.  Oh,,, and see your fecking doctor to make sure there is not a physical reason for your issue as well.