Diuretic foods sound like a good idea if you’re trying to lose water retention or water weight. After all, no-one wants to take pills if they can help it.

But before you decide that diuretic foods are the best way to lose water retention, please be aware that they are not a cure. At best diuretics of any kind offer temporary relief. At worst they can be addictive and in the long term can end up making your water retention much worse.

You are probably cautious about them, which is why you are searching for information on diuretic foods rather than water pills (also known as diuretic drugs). But the fact is that anything which acts as a diuretic has the same effect on your body. It interferes with the natural hormones that keep your kidneys working in a healthy, balanced way.

The most powerful diuretic foods are actually drinks: tea, coffee and alcohol. All these items force your kidneys to go on excreting water even if you are becoming dehydrated. This is one of the most harmful things for your body. Dehydration in its early stages is not always noticeable. It may make you thirsty, but if you then consume more diuretic foods (drinks) you will simply stay dehydrated.

Diuretic Foods and Dehydration

If your body is constantly dehydrated, it can affect your ability to think straight, and in particular it affects your joints and your spine. Your bones need cartilage to stop them rubbing together. Cartilage is 90 per cent water. Dehydration makes cartilage shrink, and is likely to be one of the reasons why arthritis (swollen, painful joints) is such a common disease and also why backache is so common.

One of the worst effects of dehydration is to teach your body to hold on to water in your body’s tissues – preventing it from getting to the blood where your kidneys will grab and excrete it. Your tissues are where water retention collects and produces swellings, e.g. in your face, hands, feet, legs, ankles or tummy. Your body holds on to water here, to prevent these parts of your body from getting dehydrated. The more diuretic foods you consume, the worse this problem will get over time.

Diuretic Foods: The Solution To Water Retention?

Eating the right kinds of foods is often an effective solution for water retention. But these are not diuretic foods. They do not make your kidneys work harder. Some foods like dark blue and purple berries are great because they help to start healing some of the causes of water retention. But it is the overall balance of your diet, and sometimes the foods you don’t eat, which really makes a difference to a water retention problem.

Please do explore some of the other articles on this site, which tell you more about water retention causes, and about a book called the Waterfall Diet, which contains a self-test and plenty of other helpful information.

Water retention is often a sign that you need to pay some attention to what you are eating. It could turn out to be a blessing, because if you change your diet now, rather than just try to rely on diuretic foods, you may be able to prevent worse health problems from arising in the future.

Diuretic Foods is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Do You Have To Go On A Water Diet To Get Rid Of Water Retention?
2. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?

Most of us have been brought up to believe that a health problem should be treated with a tablet. This is fine if you have a disease caused by bacteria, since antibiotic tablets will make it go away quite quickly. If you have a headache, an aspirin tablet can also provide a quick cure.

But the truth is that most of today’s problems are not temporary conditions like infections or headaches. They are chronic or long-term problems like water retention, chronic fatigue, PMS or eczema. There are tablets available for these conditions, but they are not cures. They only provide temporary relief.

Meanwhile, the metabolic imbalance in your body which is causing the chronic condition, is still there in the background, and usually gets worse in time.

I don’t know anyone who is happy with the results of taking water retention tablets unless they have been prescribed them for a heart or kidney condition. In fact I get messages all the time from desperate people who have been buying water retention tablets and finding that the more they take the worse their water retention gets, so the more pills they have to take to get the temporary relief.

Please don’t become one of these people. If you have checked with your doctor and he has given the all-clear to your heart and kidneys, then your water retention is simply being caused by a metabolic imbalance. Metabolic imbalances are very common these days, and are caused by eating and drinking too many of the wrong things and not enough of the right ones.

The Waterfall Diet book or E-guide (see column on right) provides the information you need to get rid of your metabolic imbalance and permanently relieve your water retention problem. It tells you what to eat and drink, what to avoid or ration, and includes a self-test so that you can check whether there are any foods that are particularly bad for you.

Water Retention Tablets is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Water Retention And Water Pills
2. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?
3. Water retention, heart failure, water pills

I am taking bumetanide prescribed for heart failure but I think it is making me dehydrated and giving me water retention at the same time. My muscles feel weak and I get light-headed but I always feel better when I drink water. If my ankles swell up and I take a bumetanide to help get rid of the fluid, I can only pee if I drink water first. And then I will immediately pee out all the water I have drunk.

I’m wondering if the dose is too high and making me lose too much minerals and fluids and if this is also causing water retention by making my body hold on to water?

Answer

You could ask your doctor if you think the dose is too high. It’s true that if you don’t need diuretics they can make your water retention worse. But when prescribed for heart failure they are often essential. When the heart is losing its pumping power the kidneys are fooled into thinking they can also slow down. This causes water retention all over the body.  Diuretics help by telling your kidneys to step up their work.

Most diuretics do make you lose minerals as well as water but you can help to replace the minerals by drinking a lot of fruit juice and tomato juice. The herb hawthorn, although gentle, has been well-researched for helping people with heart failure, so ask a local herbalist about this. It is not a treatment for water retention but  it does help to strengthen the heart.

Can diuretics cause worse water retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Water retention, heart failure, water pills
2. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?
3. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?

Diuretics are the best medicines to treat water retention caused by heart, liver or kidney problems. They are not very effective for water retention caused by other types of water retention, including

• chronic venous insufficiency
• premenstrual water retention
• idiopathic edema

By causing dehydration they can actually make these problems worse. Dehydration is dangerous and your body will learn to hold on to water in order to avoid it.

Before buying diuretics (even natural herbal diuretics) get your doctor to check your heart, kidneys and liver. If these are ok then you should not treat your water retention with diuretics, or you will almost certainly make it worse.

Addiction to diuretics

Some people become addicted to diuretics, and swell up with water retention immediately they stop taking them. This swelling is caused by the addiction, it does not mean that the drugs are necessary. In fact the opposite is true.

Here is a message from one of my readers

Dear Linda

I have been physically addicted to diurectics for 18 years. I have been taking a combination of lasix and moduretic for this time, and lasix on its own prior to that. I cannot get off the drugs as when I don’t take them I swell up and up and up, more every day. Nothing helps, not herbal supplements, nothing. Avoiding salt only helps to stop the rapid rise in water retention, but the swelling and weight gain is simply unbearable.

I would give anything to be back to normal, but I cant see how this could ever be possible. I am desperate for help. Many years ago I used to abuse these drugs, sometimes taking up to 5 or more in one go. For a while now – probably three years or more, I take no more than one lasix per day and half a moduretic. I am not abusing them anymore as such, just totally dependent upon them not to swell up.  I am desperate, this has ruined my life, is there any hope for me?

What to do if you are addicted to diuretics

Get a copy of the Waterfall Diet book or E-guide (see panel opposite). Read the book carefully to develop a proper understanding of your condition. Get started on the meal plan as soon as you can.

To avoid swelling up too much, don’t try to come off the diuretics ‘cold turkey’.  You should reduce them very gradually.  The easiest way to do this is to ask your doctor for low-dose pills and gradually reduce the number of pills you take per week. If taking pills you can also try cutting them up or powdering them to divide the dose, or empty out capsules to do the same.

If you have a serious addiction it will probably take a good six months before you are finally free of your diuretics. In the meantime the Waterfall Diet will be working hard to treat the original causes of your water retention.

Good luck and do keep in touch by leaving comments for us all.
Linda

Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Can diuretics cause worse water retention?
2. How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention?
3. Natural Diuretics

Some types of water retention occur when water and protein leak from your blood into your tissues. The protein may stay in the tissues, where it becomes a focus for attracting water retention.

If you take diuretics, your kidneys will work harder, and will extract more water from your blood. Some water may leave your tissues, but the protein will draw it back again, leaving your blood dehydrated. Your body will then learn to hold on to water in order to protect itself from dehydration. This holding on makes water retention worse.

You can read more about this in the Waterfall Diet book.

How Do Diuretics Cause Water Retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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1. Are Diuretics The Best Medicine To Treat Water Retention?
2. Water Retention And Water Pills
3. Natural Diuretics

People often ask me if I can recommend a natural diuretic for their water retention. There’s a short answer and a long answer to this question.

The short answer is yes, there are herbal diuretics such as dandelion leaf and boldo. Alcohol, tea and coffee are also diuretics.  But why would you want to use them?

If you’re assuming that a diuretic is a cure for water retention, you are definitely on the wrong track. A diuretic is a substance which interferes with the natural hormonal control of your kidneys. By forcing your kidneys to work faster, diuretics may appear to help you lose some water because you urinate more. But in fact this water is coming from your blood, not from the places where you are retaining water.

The only time you should ever take diuretics is if your doctor diagnoses a heart, liver or kidney disease where there is too much water in your blood. All other types of water retention involve excess water in your tissues, not in your blood. Diuretics are the wrong treatment for this type of water retention. In fact they can be quite harmful and could make your problem worse by dehydrating your blood. More information.

You need to find out what is causing your water retention. Once you know what is causing it you can put the problem right and your water retention will stay away without diuretics.

Read about the causes of water retention

Natural Diuretics is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Water rich with oxygen and vitamins passes from your smallest blood vessels (your capillaries) into the surrounding tissues, where it nourishes your cells. But if something goes wrong with the pressure in your capillaries, or if they get too “leaky”, then too much fluid accumulates in the tissue spaces between the cells, and cannot get back into the blood. The tissue spaces can easily expand and allow more and more fluid to accumulate.

Water retention is a common problem. It can cause overweight, puffiness, bloating, breast tenderness and painful, swollen knees. Swollen legs and ankles are common, especially in older women and in pregnancy. Water retention raises the blood pressure, and in pregnancy this puts both mother and baby at risk.

It is sometimes hard to tell whether you have water retention. Your body can hold a lot of hidden excess water, which just makes you look overweight.

There are two basic types of water retention. With Type 1 there is too much water in the blood and in the tissues. With Type 2, there is too much water in the tissues and sometimes not enough in the blood. Type 1 water retention can be treated with diuretic medicines or herbs, but Type 2 can be made worse by these treatments, and is best treated with a diet.

What Is Water Retention? is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Medical Treatments for Water Retention

The drugs which doctors use to treat water retention are known as diuretics. There are several varieties, none of which is a cure for water retention, as they have to be taken every day.

Loop diuretics and Thiazine diuretics
These have names like bumetanide, frusemide, hydrochlorothiazide and metolazone. They encourage your kidneys to excrete sodium. As the sodium is excreted, it takes water along with it. These drugs can also cause large losses of potassium – a vital mineral which you need to replace by drinking plenty of fruit or vegetable juice..

Potassium-sparing diuretics
These have names like spironolactone and triamerine. They work in a similar way to the other diuretics, but do not cause such large losses of potassium.

Side effects of diuretics
Most pharmaceutical medicines change one aspect of our metabolism while at the same time unbalancing others. Diuretics increase your excretion of valuable minerals like potassium and magnesium. Some can cause gout. These medicines are important for treating severe water retention (oedema or edema) caused by a malfunctioning heart or kidneys. But if used in other types of water retention, such as those due to leaky blood vessels or histamine (see Causes of Water Retention), diuretics could aggravate your water retention; your body will hold on to fluid to avoid becoming dehydrated. In these situations, diuretics, whether of the pharmaceutical or herbal variety, are counter-productive. The best solution is to address the causes of your water retention with the Waterfall Diet.

Herbal Diuretics

These include herbs like dandelion leaf and boldo. They are much less powerful than pharmaceutical medicines but can still cause mineral losses. The Waterfall Diet book recommends several herbal medicines, such as red clover. But these are not diuretics, and do not stimulate your kidneys to release water. They help the Waterfall Diet to prevent problems such as swollen legs.

Water Retention Treatments is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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