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Water --- the elixir of life

05:52 AM Aug 03, 2023 IST | GK EDITORIAL DESK
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Water is known as the elixir of life, it provides vitality. The acknowledged truth finds expression in Holy Quran:

‘’Do not the unbelievers see that the heaven and the earth were joined together before We clove them asunder, and of water fashioned every living thing? Will they not then believe?’’ (21:30)

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What the Holy Verse states is a biological fact. In the second half of the 20th century the role of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as the basic unit of organism was recognized. Since 1950, life has become known as the ability to replicate the DNA originally present in the organism. It is known on empirical basis that DNA molecules take the hydrogen ion from water. The hydrogen ion known as ‘mobile hydrogen’ creates a continuous electrical field between ribose sugar [crucial for formation of DNA and RNA (ribonucleic acid: like DNA vital for living beings)]  and amino acids nuclides (Proteins, the building bricks of the body are made up of hundreds of smaller units called amino acids, nuclides: from nucleus).

The principle is the same for all organisms. That is to say, cells can continue their activity only by the virtue of hydrogen. Researches in cellular chemistry have shown that all electrical processes are sustained through lysosomes [membrane-bound organelle (one of several structures in the cell with specialized function) found in nearly all animal cells] and water ions in the cell. Again, all chemical processes are carried through the medium of water ions in the cellular laboratories; we call mitochondria [an organelle in the cell].

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It is also known on empirical basis that water molecule remains in the body for 7-14 days and is then ejected, being replaced by fresh water ions which contribute renewed vitality. It is precisely for this reason that organisms cannot tolerate dehydration. A cell is healthy if the water ions within it and surrounding it are balanced. In general energy is needed for continuation of vitality; this energy is obtained by the exchange of ions.

Water therefore is the basic element of vitality—the elixir of life.  

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