Barbara had severe water retention and consulted me in 1992 when she was seven months pregnant. She was aged 23 and a vegetarian, and it was her first pregnancy.
Food was a problem for Barbara. Her appetite was so poor that she only ate foods for their taste, not from hunger. While the rest of the family had a complete meal, she would only pick at a piece of cheesecake. Yet in spite of this she was very overweight. Her legs and ankles were very swollen with water retention.
Barbara was also badly anaemic. Her haemoglobin levels had been progressively dropping since early pregnancy, despite increasing doses of iron prescribed by her GP and then by the hospital. By the time she consulted me, Barbara’s skin was extremely pale, and her blood pressure sky high due to the water retention. Both Barbara and the baby were at risk. Barbara agreed to see me because her doctor wanted to keep her in hospital in order to give her iron injections. She had refused this, and was desperately seeking alternatives.
Barbara had received counselling about iron-rich foods recently from a hospital dietician, but told me that she couldn’t follow the advice because she had no appetite.
In taking Barbara’s history, I found a lot of indications that her high blood pressure was due to water retention, which in turn was due to a number of nutritional deficiencies. By throwing her out of balance, the massive doses of iron that Barbara was getting from her doctor were making her worse.
I asked Barbara to obtain permission from her doctor to stop the iron supplements, and I gave her instructions for the Waterfall Diet and a more balanced supplement program.
To her doctor’s amazement, Barbara’s haemoglobin levels started to rise within days, and she went on to produce a healthy baby.
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Hi, I am a pregnant woman that is about 6 months old, I observed that my legs get swollen most of the time especially the ankle areas. I try to take some walk, raise the legs while in a seated position and put my legs in a bowl of cool water.