Taken from the book The essential guide to Water and Salt
It should be appreciated that the spinal joints - intervertebral joints and their disc structures - are dependent on different hydraulic properties of water stored in the disc core, as well as in the end plate cartilage covering the flat surfaces of the spinal vertebrae.
In spinal vertebral joints, water is not only a lubricant for the contact surfaces, it is held in the disc core within the intervertebral space and supports the compression weight of the upper part of the body.
Fully 75 per cent of the weight of the upper part of the body is supported by the water volume that is stored in the disc core, 25 per cent is supported by the fibrous materials around the disc.
In all joints, water acts as a lubricating agent and bears the force produced by the weight or tension produced by muscle action on the joint.
In most of these joints, the establishment of an intermittent vacuum promotes a silent water circulation into the joint, only for it to be squeezed out by pressure borne as a result of joint activity. To prevent back pain, one needs to drink sufficient waterand do a series of special exercises to create an intermittent vacuum to draw water into the disc space. These exercises will also reduce the spasm in the back muscles that, in the vast majority of people, is the main cause of lower back pain.
One also needs to adopt correct postures.
The subject of back pain and its relationship to water is so important that I have dealt with it in a special book, How to Deal With Back Pain and Rheumatoid Joint Pain (http://www.amazon.com/Deal-With-Back-Rheumatoid-Joint/dp/0962994200). If you get back pain, and, in particular, sciatic pain, you will benefit by reading this book. In a majority of cases, sciatic pain can be totally relieved within half an hour when the special movements that produce an intermittent vacuum in the disc spaces - as shown in the book - are performed.
The rolling and stretching of the fascia as used in Bowen Therapy can also help with the circulation process.