Physician Fereydoon Batmanghelidj of Falls Church has researched the healing qualities of water for 12 years. What cures ulcers, relieves back pain, makes you sleep better, eat healthier and think clearer?

Water, say Falls Church physician Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, who has been researching the healing properties of the liquid for 12 years and is convinced that "water, simply put, is a medicine."

Batmanbhelidj, a native of Iran, happens upon the discovery by accident while incarcerated from November 1979 to May 1982 at Evin Prison in Tehran during the revolution.

It began one night when a prisoner came to him suffering from intense ulcer pain. Having no medicine at his disposal, Batmanghelidj treated the man with a pint of water.

"Within eight minutes, the pain disappeared completely," says Batmanghelidj, who later prescribed two glasses of water six times a day and achieved a "clinical cure" of the patient's ulcer over the next few months.

During the remainder of his stay at Evin, he treated more than 3,000 patient suffering from peptic ulcers and followed the conditions of 600-mostly prisoners.

But the treatment, which came to be used widely in the prison, has had less success being accepted into medical circles, especially in the United States.

After his release, Batmanghelidj, a graduate of Saint Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, moved to the US in 1982 for the sole purpose of researching and communicating his ideas to the medical field and to the public. He has received little encouragement.

"At present, the medical community recognizes water only as a solvent, a packing material and a means of transport. That's all they see. But the human body is more water (75%) than it is solid," said Batmanghelidj, who has published a large volume of theoretical material in his home country and in Europe.

Batmanghelidj said water is a vital resource without which people become dehydrated and suffer from problems such as ulcers, back pain, heartburn and rheumatoid pain.

"Most people are chronically dehydrated and don't realize it," he says.

The thirst sensation isn't incentive enough to get people to drink the water they need to make their system function properly, said Batmanghelidj, who recommends at least eight glasses a day. He said when people do get thirsty, they drink the wrong things.

"When the body cries out for water, we give it coffee, tea and sodas," many of which contain caffeine, a dehydrating agent, he said.

While most physicians and nutritionists would agree that water is both necessary and good for people, they are hard pressed to believe that water is a cure for diseases.

'Most people are chronically dehydrated and don't realize it.'

Yale University Professor of Medicine Dr. Howard Spiro, who published one of Batmanghelidj articles in the Journal of Gastroenterology in 1983, said the physician's theories are "not unreasonable, but someone needs to test them scientifically." He added that "It would be difficult to devise an experiment that would guard against a placebo effect."

Batmanghelidj, who has tried without success for more than eight years to get a university to perform an experiment, describes his mission.

"My aim is not to get rich or famous. I'm not selling a product. I'm just giving an explanation of my experiment and what I've uncovered. Any discoverer has a moral obligation to bring (it) to the attention of those who can benefit," he said.

You can order his book, Your Body's Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj, MD