Carolyn Burris from Laguna Beach, California is a real person, with real before and after pictures. Here is the story of how she lost almost 20 pounds of water retention in just two months.

“I began the Waterfall Diet program in earnest beginning of August, 2009.  It is towards the end of September now and I have literally peed out almost 20 pounds worth of water retention. I lost 10 pounds in the first 3 weeks. I hope to drop another 5-10 pounds. I am fairly sure all my excess weight was water retention as I have always been a decent eater. Now I am a healthy eater.  I eat plenty of foods and don’t get hungry.”

“I also joined a gym and a trainer helps with exercise. It has been 15 years since I have been in the gym. I love it but I know it is the Waterfall Diet that is making the difference.”

“When a gym trainer weighed me in before I started the Waterfall Diet, I was just short of 173 pounds. Today I weighed myself at 154. I have lost almost 4 inches of water retention from my belly. I couldn’t be happier. So many pieces of information in your book have fit for me. I feel for so many who try to lose weight and struggle and work out so darn hard. This way was easy and only took 2 months. Thank you so much Linda.”

16 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Alison in Ozark, Missouri

“Happy to report have now lost 16 lbs!…in 25 days! I only started the diet on 30th August. I’m again referencing your original book about the Waterfall diet with recipes and such, and this time around, have become more adventurous with food preparation. Have downloaded your low carb and additional recipe suggestions.”

23 lbs of Water Retention
Testimonial from Lucy in New Jersey

“Well, I bought the book on the Waterfall Diet and so far I have lost 23 pounds because I started out at 188 and now I am 165. I am still losing slowly but before it was impossible for me to lose weight.”

“I am very happy that I found this diet. It is not really starving yourself but eating foods that are right for you. Yesterday I was at the doctor’s office for a blood test which I have to take every three months. I found out that my blood pressure was 112/72, the nurse told me that reading is excellent, my normal reading use to be 120/80.  I am so happy now I know the causes of water retention for me and why I was unable to lose weight.”

More Comments

“Thanks to your book I now understand what my problem is – water retention! After 60 tests I still couldnt get to the bottom of why my legs felt separate from the rest of my body (my upper half is quite sinewy!).”

“Dear Linda I have recently downloaded your 2 books, the Waterfall Diet and Treat Yourself with Nutritional Therapy. I’m very excited to have found the first one as I have had water retention most of my life and there hasn’t been one doctor who has pinpointed it like you did. I started the diet this past Monday and already feel better. Thank you very much for this positive information.”

“I’ve signed up for your newsletter. Looking 4ward to more info to learn from. Linda’s writing is so inspirational and practical!”

“Loved the book!”

“Your Nutritional Health Bible is one of my bibles”.

“I have had this weight problem for the last 3 years. The facts mentioned in your book about water retention exactly fits my problems. Hence I was confident that my weight issues was due to water retention. In one year I had put on 15 kgs.  I tried all sorts of exercise  diet programmes  but nothing changed my weight. In the first one week after I started the waterfall diet I lost about 5 kgs. ”

“I love you Linda. My feet were swollen for 10 years before I read your book. Thank you so much. God bless you.”

“I never thought foods can make a difference to powerful and stubborn hormones, but this book has changed my perception on food nutrition for ever. Your diet does help to lose water retention weight and I would recommend your book like no other!!!! I put on water retention after my miscarriage and until now could not lose it. MILLION THANK YOUs Linda and wishing you all the best. Hope xxx”

“Linda, I just want to thank you for helping me to lose weight. I have religiously been working out since last October with barely any results in weight loss. I began at 170lbs. After drinking Acai Berry juice, I loss 7 but once again I plateaud. Leaving the 160s had been the hardest thing I ever did. When my doctor told me the amount of water I could be retaining could be caused by HRT, I googled how I could get rid of it. The Waterfall Diet came up. I ordered the book I think two weeks later and the pounds have shed like crazy. I feel healthier and don’t have to take my blood pressure pills everyday. My 30th High School Reunion is this weekend and I’m looking fabulous at 141 pounds. Thanks so much! PS I have sent a letter to Oprah requesting that she put you on her show.”

“Hello Linda, Thanks to your Waterfall diet, I have got rid of my water retention. Along the way during this diet, I have lost all my aches and pains from my rheumatoid arthritis, AND lost 8.5 kg in the 5 weeks that I have been on the diet. I must add that these joint pains I have had for 4-5 years!”

Download Low-Carb Dieting and the Waterfall Diet (E-guide). Includes full instructions for the Waterfall Diet.
Linda’s Flat Stomach Secrets. (Her latest book.) Includes help with both water retention, bloating and belly fat.

Water Retention | Testimonials is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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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?
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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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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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Here is a message from a reader with my answer below

Hello, I am 57 years old and in 2003 I was diagnosed with Chronic Heart Failure. My body retains a large amount of water due to my condition. The doctors have gave me water pills to help take the water retention off but i can not take them because of the side affect of cramping. Sometimes I cannot stand the muscle cramps. Would this diet be something you would recommend for people with heart failure or water retention?

Answer: Water retention from heart failure is a little different

Water retention from heart failure is a little different from other kinds of water retention. There is not enough pumping force from the heart, so the kidneys are fooled into believing they don’t need to work so hard either. This means they have to be stimulated with water pills.

Unfortunately many water pills make you lose valuable minerals such as potassium and magnesium along with the water retention. This mineral loss is what causes cramps.

You might find the Waterfall Diet helpful, as it is a very healthy diet. But if it doesn’t help, and if you find it stressful, don’t use it for more than two weeks with a heart condition. It won’t harm you, but stress is not good for you either.

The book will teach you many healthy principles, so try to follow its advice about healthy foods and so on. Meanwhile for as long as you need to stay on the water pills, you should drink tomato juice every day for the minerals and potassium, and fruit juices are good too. Taking multivitamin and magnesium supplements will also help, and even cod liver oil capsules, since they contain vitamin D, which is difficult to get from most foods but is now known to help the heart.

Some water pills are worse than others for causing cramps. Ask your doctor about potassium-sparing diuretics, which may be better for you.

Water retention caused by heart failure can be quite severe so don’t stop taking the pills without consulting your doctor.

Water retention, heart failure, water pills is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Swelling of the legs and feet, and sometimes even the arms and hands, is common in late pregnancy. Few women go through the whole nine months without experiencing this to some extent. During pregnancy, levels increase of several hormones, such as cortisol, oestrogens, and progesterone. These hormonal changes alone can lead to some water retention, but there are other causes too.  Swelling in the legs, ankles and feet is mostly caused by pressure from the uterus on a large vein in your pelvis. This vein is called the vena cava, and carries blood from your lower body back to your heart. Pressure on this vein makes blood flow more slowly so that it pools in your legs and ankles. The extra pressure in your legs forces your capillaries to leak fluid into the tissue spaces of your legs. You may find that the swelling gets worse the more time you spend on your feet. Warm weather also tends to aggravate the problem.

How to reduce swelling in legs

• Avoid too much standing still, and put your feet up whenever possible. This helps to stop fluid collecting in your legs.
• Move your feet and ankles as often as you can when you do have to sit for extended periods. Rotate your ankles, stretch your legs and wiggle your toes. Get up and walk about occasionally.
• Don’t cross your legs, this restricts your circulation.
• Wear comfortable shoes.
• Soak your feet in cool water.
• Drink plenty of water. This helps your kidneys and reduces water retention. When your body is well-hydrated it will not hold on to water so much.
• Get as much exercise as you can: walking, swimming, for instance, will help to boost your circulation.
• Gently massage tired, aching legs with witch hazel cream.
• Exercise your calf muscles by standing up and lifting your heels off the floor so that you are standing on tip-toe. Do this quickly ten times, several times a day.
• Lie on your left side. During the later stages of pregnancy, lying on your back puts pressure on the vena cava vein. Lying on your left hand side instead will help your blood to return to your heart instead of collecting in your legs.
• Heat can aggravate water retention in legs. Instead of taking hot baths try cool showers instead.
• Consider following the Waterfall Diet. It will improve the strength of the blood vessels in your legs, it is low in salt, and high in dietary fibre which helps to prevent constipation.

Safe, gentle remedies

In his wonderful Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine, Master Herbalist Thomas Bartram recommends drinking cornsilk tea for water retention in pregnancy. Cornsilk is the silky strands found under the green outer sheath of a head of sweetcorn (maize). Historical records show that cornsilk extract was being used in the 18th century for its diuretic properties. It was also used for kidney, urinary tract and bladder infections, bed wetting problems, cystitis, liver or gall-bladder complaints, arthritis and gout.

You can buy tincture of cornsilk on the internet or in larger health food stores. Use as directed on the pack.

More helpful advice and natural remedies for water retention can be found in the paperback version of the Waterfall Diet book (see right-hand panel opposite).

Water Retention in Pregnancy is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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If you have read some of my other posts, you may have discovered that I do not recommend diuretics (water pills) for most people with water retention.

There are some cases where water pills are necessary, but only in cases of quite serious disease, which your doctor will be able to identify. Most people with water retention do not have a disease, they have a metabolic imbalance caused by eating the wrong foods or not eating enough of the right foods. In these cases water pills are absolutely the worst possible treatment and can serioiusly aggravate your water retention.

How does that happen?

Water pills don’t cure water retention, they just force your kidneys to extract more water from your blood. However you only have too much water in your blood when you have a serious disease. If you have a metabolic imbalance, the water retention is not in your blood but in your tissues. Water pills cannot extract water from your tissues. Your tissues will give up a little bit of water if your blood gets dehydrated due to the water pills, but they will take it back again the minute the dehydration stops.

Dehydration is harmful

Can you have water retention and dehydration at the same time? Yes. The moment you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated. Women need to drink at least two litres of water a day to avoid dehydration and men need even more.  These are official figures published by governments.

Harmful effects of water pills

All water pills, even natural ones, can cause dehydration. They also cause potassium deficiency.  Potassium is the mineral in your body which helps to balance sodium or salt. If you lose potassium it is harder for your body to control sodium, which encourages water retention.  Potassium is also needed to make energy in your body, so if you don’t have enough you can start to feel tired and even your heart, nerves and muscles can be weakened. Other effects of a potassium deficiency include bloating, dizziness, drowsiness, intense thirst, and ‘pins and needles’ sensations.

Taking laxatives or ‘colon cleanse’ products can also make your body lose large amounts of potassium.

Instead of taking water pills, find out what’s causing your water retention

Eating too much salty or sugary food and not enough fresh fruit and vegetables is one likely cause of water retention. Fresh fruit and vegetables are a good source of potassium.

But if you are already eating a good diet you might need to do a test on yourself to find out whether anything you are eating or not eating is causing your water retention.  The procedure for this test is described in my book the Waterfall Diet. It is also very informative in general about water retention, and has helped many people overcome this problem permanently.

You can order the Waterfall Diet from any good bookseller (ask for ISBN 0749942533) or scroll up the column on the right to get it online.

Linda Lazarides is founder of the British Association for Nutritional Therapy.

Water Retention And Water Pills is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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Reader No. 1

I am a diabetic, I have water retention with swollen legs, ankles, feet.  I first noticed it about a year or little less ago.  I had been on Avandia, so my doctor took me off that.  But, I started insulin in Sept and I gained 35 pounds in 5 months.  I mentioned to my doc about the water retention but he says it is just weight gain.  I have never had problem with this before and I have never been this heavy before.  I was given a water pill and I felt like I went to the bathroom less that day than I normally do — as I go to the bathroom a lot, between the diabetes and I drink A LOT of coffee/tea.  I have been exercising (walking) and I cannot even go a half hour before my legs (shin area and ankles) hurt so bad I could cry and I have to stop.  It feels kind of like they are tightening up.  Is this a symptom of something?  I want to keep walking and will push myself through the pain if I know it is ok, but am worried that something else is wrong and should i push myself??  PS I am 40 years old. I do medical transcription as my job, work 1 full time and 1 part time and am sitting at a desk the best part of my day EVERY day.

Reader No. 2

Hi Linda, my wife is 33 and she has had diabetes all her life, In the past 12 months she’s has lost her eyesight thorught diabetic retinopathy and now suffering from diabetic neuropathy of which she has been prescribed various different drugs (pain killers and neuropathy disease tablets).  One of these drugs are called ‘Gabapentin’, just in the past week my wife has been taken off this drug beause it’s the main cause of severe water retention in her feet, ankles, legs, belly and (slighting lesser case in her) arms.  She has been prescibed 20mg ‘Furosemide’ and she has been taking these for the past couple of weeks but I can’t see much change if any.

Answer from Linda Lazarides

The first thing to understand about type-2 (adult-onset) diabetes is that it is a degenerative disease. This means that before I can offer any natural help or advice for this condition you have to understand what degeneration is.

Degeneration occurs when an individual’s diet and lifestyle are not adequate to maintain health in that individual. Unlike a car, the human body does not come with a manual. If it did, you would see the following instructions:

• Eat five portions of fresh fruit and vegetables every day
• Limit your consumption of sugary items to three times a week
• Limit your consumption of deep-fried foods and alcohol to once a week
• For every cup of tea or coffee, drink at least one glass of water
• Do not put sugar in drinks
• All bread must be made from whole-grain flour….  Etc.

Once degeneration has reached a very advanced state, it gets diagnosed by doctors as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and so on… It may or may not be accompanied by symptoms such as swollen legs, water retention and other problems. Insulin in particular, while necessary to treat insulin-dependent diabetes, is also prone to causing water retention.

All the doctor can do is give a pill here and there in an attempt to make the symptoms less troublesome.

If you really want to help the health of a person with a degenerative disease, you have to imagine that the person is a car, get out the manual, and do what it says. The Waterfall Diet book (paperback version, ISBN 0749942533) is a manual that can help point you in the right direction. Although written specifically for water retention, it has much useful information for people with degenerative diseases too, since water retention can occur both on its own and as part of a degenerative disease pattern.

Hoping this has been of some help, and wishing you well if you are a diabetic. Do let us know how you get on.

Water Retention And Diabetes is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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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.

High Blood Pressure and Water Retention In Pregnancy is a post from: Water-Retention.Net

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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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