Treatments for Water Retention

	Treatments for Water Retention
Causes of Water Retention The Waterfall Diet Home	Medical Treatments
	Three main types of drugs - known as diuretics - are used to treat water retention. Loop diuretics These have names like bumetanide and frusemide, and encourage your kidneys to excrete sodium. As the sodium is lost, it takes water with it. This is not a cure for water retention, since the drugs have to be taken every day. Side effects: these drugs step up your excretion of other minerals as well as sodium. They are notorious for causing deficiencies of potassium, magnesium and other minerals which are vital for water balance and for maintaining a normal heart rhythm. Loop diuretics can also raise cholesterol levels. Thiazide diuretics These have names like hydrochlorothiazide and metolazone, and are of medium potency. Like the loop diuretics, they also work by encouraging your kidneys to excrete sodium. Side effects: These drugs also step up your excretion of vital minerals, especially magnesium and potassium. They reduce excretion of uric acid, which increases your risk of developing gout and arthritis. Another reported side effect is male impotence. 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. Hence they are often used in combination treatments. Side effects: Some of these drugs have been reported to cause loss of libido and menstrual irregularities as well as abnormal growth of hair in women. Osmotic diuretics These increase the excretion of water but also of essential minerals. Other side effects of diuretics Most pharmaceutical medicines are imperfect and clumsy, changing one aspect of our metabolism while unbalancing several others. Because of the dangers of diuretics, doctors generally prefer to reserve them for severe water retention (oedema) caused by a malfunctioning heart or kidneys, where the weight and pressure of the retained water could cause a further strain on the heart. If used in other types of water retention, such as those due to leaky capillaries or histamine excess (see Causes of Water Retention), diuretics could aggravate your water retention since 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 Treatments
	Herbal treatments are more versatile and much less drastic than pharmaceutical medicines. Several, such as red clover, are recommended as part of the Waterfall Diet. Several herbs can enhance the therapeutic effects of the diet, especially by helping to strengthen leaky capillaries. Herbal diuretics such as dandelion leaf and boldo require similar cautions to pharmaceutical diuretics, since valuable minerals will be lost together with the extra urine produced. But herbal diuretics are gentler and often replace some of the minerals lost.
	Drinking less fluid will not cure water retention, and could make it worse. Useful Links Health Directory diet-i.com Limesearch UK Weightloss for All