Health News Article:
Water Water Everywhere - Which ones should we drink?
by David J. Getoff, CCN., CNC., FAAIM
These days it seems that water is no longer water. We have dozens of different brands of bottled water in every store. There are water-dispensing machines popping up in front of stores everywhere we look. Home centers, discount stores, and special water purification companies are selling a myriad of different types of water filtration and purification devices. HELP! Which do we want to use, buy, and drink from?
In this article I will do my best to give you as much information as I can while at the same time trying desperately not to confuse you any further than you already are.
Our bodies need water in order to carry nutrients into the cells as well as for carrying waste out of the cells. Since water is a universal liquid in our cellular makeup, it stands to reason that better water will be better for our health but what is better water?
Let’s begin by looking at some of the properties of water.
WATER PH:
Water has a pH, which is to say that it can be measured to determine whether the water is an acid or an alkaline substance as well as how far in either of these directions it measures out to be. The pH scale goes from 1 to 14 and 7 is defined as neutral. Below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline (also called basic). The more above or below 7 a substance is, the more alkaline or acid it is respectively. A pH of 2 for example would be very acid and 12 would instead be very alkaline. By the way, you can get burned both by substances, which are very acid or very alkaline. It appears that for the average person it would be beneficial to consume water, which is in the alkaline range. Although there is not a great deal of research on an optimal water pH for humans, I believe that it falls somewhere between 7.5 and 9. Since we usually consume acid water and eat the wrong foods, it can be beneficial, under supervision of a knowledgeable health practitioner, to gradually go up to the higher pH of 9.5, then after some months, go back down a bit to the lower range. If the water you generally drink is below 7, I would have to say that you are doing your body a disservice and should search for a water that is at least 7, which is neutral. If you get test strips, I suggest that you test different waters, juices, and sodas (if you don’t care about your health enough that you still drink juices and sodas). Never put the strips into a substance that you will be drinking since they have chemicals on them. Always test a small amount in a separate glass. You can purchase pH test strips at any laboratory supply house and many pharmacies. My favorite type for accuracy and ease of reading are the strips made in Germany by Merck and marketed in the U.S. by EM Science in New Jersey. Their trade name is colorpHast indicator strips and the proper range is 5-10, which is catalog number 9588. Look up laboratory supplies in your yellow pages and find a local distributor. EM Science sells to distributors only. In San Diego you can call AMICO Scientific at 619-543-9200. They will also ship these strips by mail.
WATER CONTAMINANTS:
Water contains numerous contaminants, some good and some bad. Since pure water is H 2 O, then any substance other than this particular molecule could be called a contaminant. In order to have pure H 2 O, you must have high quality steam distilled or special chemically de-ionized water. I do not believe that either of these is healthy to consume and we will cover this later on. Since all other substances would be considered contaminants, this would include numerous minerals, chlorine, fluoride, lead, asbestos, pesticide/herbicide/fungicide residues, and all the initials you may have heard of such as PCB’s (polychlorinated biphenols), THM’s (trihalomethane), and others. There are also many residues from the use of chemical fertilizers and laundry detergents such as nitrates and nitrites as well as sulfates and sulfates, etc.
Different waters appear to have health giving benefits from properties other than those listed above. Water can have an electron charge that turns it into an antioxidant and it can occur with different sized “clusters” of H 2 O molecules. The larger the number of molecules of water there are clustered together, the harder it is for the water to get into and out of your cells. Since water needs to bring moisture in and toxins out, smaller clusters of water molecules would seem to be beneficial. Studies that have been done to analyze the “healing waters” of the world such as the water in the Lourdes in France, have shown it to have these apparently beneficial properties. These special waters have a pH higher than 7, they are not contaminated with toxic chemical residues, and they have their molecules in smaller cluster sizes now being referred to often as micro-clustered water or ionized water. Later in this article I will discuss the three ways currently available for taking advantage of these possibly extra special properties of water.
THE CONTAINER MAKES A DIFFERENCE:
To start deciphering which waters are healthy to drink I will start with bottled water. The first thing that you need to know is that just because it comes in a bottle and not from your faucet does not mean that it is healthy. The label may not help too much nor the advertising which promotes the product. There are no truth in advertising laws protecting the consumer or else we would not have multiple companies all telling us that they have the best detergents, soaps, etc. What then should the consumer look for? Let us begin with the container itself. Since it has now been determined that both soft milky white and most of the harder clear plastic bottles leach harmful contaminants into the bottled water, glass bottles would certainly be preferable. A close second place goes to a special hard plastic called polycarbonate, which carries the recycling number 7 on the bottom of the bottle. According to the analytical chemist Warren Clough, this #7 polycarbonate plastic is the only one which is safe for the storage of all drinking waters. This is especially important if the water is either stored in hot places like your car, or if it is stored for many months as it often is prior to use. Call the Ozark Water Service at 1-800-835-8908 for a price list of various types and sizes of these high quality plastic bottles. You can then transfer the water you carry with you or store at home in these safer containers. I realize that for convenience, simply buying what ever is in the store is easier, but this article is about health not convenience. Between the stronger clear plastic and the more malleable milky white plastic (other than the excellent #7) it seems as though the clear is better, but the jury is not completely in on this issue yet and neither is good for you.
TASTE:
Taste is one of the worst indicators of water quality since a high concentration of healthy minerals will impart an undesirable taste to the water. I suggest that you call each company to get a copy of an independent laboratory analysis for their water. If they cannot supply this to you then who knows what may be in their water? Most companies have their name, address, and often a phone number on the label. When you get the analysis, look for lead, mercury, nickel, asbestos, sodium, aluminum, chlorine, fluoride and other substances that we should all be trying to avoid. Now look for the beneficial minerals. You know, the ones that you are used to seeing on your bottle of supplements. Compare the lab reports from the waters that you like the taste of and choose the best one. Get some pH test strips and test each water. As I mentioned earlier, you are looking for a water with a pH of 7 (neutral) or greater but not less than 7. Be sure to read any instructions on the pH strips regarding how long to leave the strip immersed before making your reading. When you find a water that you like, and it has a clean bill of health and an adequate pH, drink it! Preferably at least two quarts each day between meals. When you drink water with a meal, it becomes soup in your stomach and does not count towards the two quart minimum. You can often get lab reports from the vendors which operate water machines outside of stores as well as the bottled water companies. Since water quality can change and different local water brands are available in various states, I prefer to let you determine which water you like for your area. Health requires some effort on your part and those willing to make this effort will generally be the healthier ones throughout life.
FILTERS AND OTHER WATER PURIFICATION DEVICES
Now we get to filters and other water purification devices for your home. Water devices come in many designs. They range from simple carbon filters that either mount on your faucet or where water drips though and into a pitcher, to much more complex filters. The amount and quality of the filter media has a great deal to do with how long it will do its job and how well it can remove contaminants. I cannot recommend either the styles in which the entire unit hangs from the end of your faucet, or the ones in which the water drips through the filter into a pitcher. Both of these units have far too little filter media, in my opinion, (generally activated carbon) to do an adequate job for any length of time if at all. Look for the NSF (National Sanitary Foundation) seal of approval as well as possibly how many gallons the unit is NSF approved for. No NSF approval? You might want to look for another unit. The larger filters have their own housing and either a hose to connect them to your faucet, or else you will need a plumber to connect them under your sink and an additional faucet on top for the filtered water. A few of the well known brands which do a good job are the Doulton™ (to purchase the Doulton Water Filter Click Here) , Everpure™, Seagull™, and Multi-Pure™. I trust and respect these four brands and they will all do a good job if they are properly installed and if the internal cartridges are replaced at appropriate intervals. If the filter cartridge is not replaced when it should be, then it will no longer do the job it was designed for. If anyone tells you, among these four brands, that one of them if far superior, I would purchase from someone else because this person is either very biased or else is trying to sell the only one they carry or the one which makes them the highest profit. There are definitely differences but they are all excellent filters. I have used and installed them all in the past and although I now only carry the Doulton™ as my personal preference, I will continue to recommend them all without reservation. If someone tries to tell you that their filter is just as good as one of these, ask for a copy of the NSF certification for their filter and then possibly compare the prices to the four mentioned above. You should expect to pay between $150 and $300 for these filters.
CHARCOAL FILTERS:
Charcoal filters (activated carbon or carbon block), or in the case of the Doulton™, activated carbon and silver impregnated porcelain, will remove the petrochemicals and chlorine that we do not want in our drinking water. If your city has a problem with lead, due to old pipes in an older city, then make sure the unit is rated to remove lead. Some younger cities do not have anywhere near the lead problem of older cities because they are not riddled with old underground lead pipes. An older city like New York for instance is likely to have a higher lead content than a younger city like San Diego. If you want to be safe, since there is lead solder in most piping and even lead in many faucets, get a unit, which is rated for lead removal. None of these carbon filters remove the beneficial minerals and therefore they do not produce as much of a taste difference as distillers and reverse osmosis units, which will be discussed next. Charcoal filters will also not remove fluoride if you happen to be unlucky enough to live in a city, which fluoridates its drinking water.
DISTILLED WATER:
Distilled water has many proponents and opponents. On one hand, if it is properly distilled and then packaged in glass bottles, it is pure water. That is to say that it is supposed to contain H 2 O and nothing else. On the other hand, distilled water does not exist in nature and is referred to by some scientists I have spoken with as “dead” water. Being an active “empty” water (no minerals at all), it has a tendency to pull other substances into itself. When it is stored in plastic containers, it leaches the chemical plasticizers from the container into the water. Throughout history, populations of the world have consumed water from the pure rivers, streams, brooks, and wells in their areas. Granted that many of these are now contaminated with undesirable pollutants, but distilled water is still (no pun intended) not a historically natural source of water.
Throughout my career as a health professional and educator, I have taught the principle of consuming foods as close to the state that nature delivers them to us as possible. Even if we discount those scientists from Germany, Russia, and Japan who say that distilled water is not a life giving substance and should not be consumed, it is nonetheless not natural in my view. Water is meant to bring minerals into the cells and distilled water can do the exact opposite. I am willing to admit that for a limited time of maybe one to two months it might be an aid to detoxification, but after that I believe it would be doing more harm than good. If you have a quality distiller and you regularly change the charcoal filter that removes the final traces of chlorine, you can turn the water back into a healthy drink. Purchase a bottle of liquid ionic minerals (NOT COLLOIDAL) from your health food store. I recommend Marine Minerals™ or Trace Mineral Research™ which contain their trademarked blend called Concentrace™ Add as many drops of this liquid to your distilled water as you can without making it taste objectionable and then shake vigorously to oxygenate the water. Water must taste good or we won’t drink enough so don’t put in so much that you or someone else in your family doesn’t like it anymore. In addition to bringing back the good minerals that were removed in the distillation process, adding these minerals will also raise the pH to a more healthy level. To purchase the Trace Mineral Tablets and/or the Concentrace Trace Mineral liquid Click Here.
REVERSE OSMOSIS:
The next purification process I will discuss is called reverse osmosis and there are many different qualities and configurations of these systems. A high quality RO system with a built in water quality (total dissolved solids) indicator will contain 3-5 filters in addition to the RO membrane and will generally cost you between $350 and $550 installed. The variance is due in part to the amount of work necessary to install the unit under your sink and install its’ separate faucet, the quality of the unit itself, and last but certainly not least, the percentage of profit that the company wants to make when they sell you the unit. This last item is by far the largest variable. No matter what the salesman tells you, be assured that there is rarely more than a $50-$100 difference in the wholesale cost between the cheaper simpler units and the more complex and more expensive units. Some companies insist on making a tremendously high profit margin especially if they have to pay a commissioned salesperson. If you buy from a small owner /operator/installer you can get the best deal. Be sure to check for proper licensing and insurance of your installer/plumber. Remember, if it leaks there could be a great deal of damage.
Reverse osmosis is the process by which water is forced (by your water pressure) against a membrane (the RO membrane) and only the purist water can get through and into the drinking reservoir. Most of the minerals, both good and bad, are unable to get through and are washed down the drain with the waste water (called brine water because the minerals make it salty). As long as the membrane is working properly, generally for between 1 ½ and 3 years, it will produce water with virtually no minerals. Since toxic fertilizer residue such as nitrates, sulfates, etc., are in fact minerals, these are also removed. Fluoride, if you are unlucky enough to have it in your water, will be reduced by about 65-85% depending on how well your RO membrane is doing its job. In order to get out the chlorine as well as the petrochemical residues from pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc., one or more charcoal (activated carbon) filters are always a part of any good reverse osmosis system. These filters generally need to be replaced about once a year. If your water gets tested to determine whether these filters are still doing their jobs well, this period can sometimes be extended considerably. As with the distilled water mentioned above, RO water has been made basically mineral free and should have the good minerals replaced and the low pH raised by the addition of the same liquid minerals I spoke of earlier. A properly operating RO system, which is serviced whenever necessary, will produce very good quality drinking water if you add some minerals back in before consumption.
ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT:
Ultraviolet light is sometimes used as a final method of making water safe to drink. If an adequate amount of this light is used to bathe the clean water, then it can kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses. It is not a filter and does not remove anything. If there were any of these in the water, the dead ones are still there. Personally, I believe that using this additional method, generally called UV treatment, is overkill and not needed with a good system. If the system you like best has this feature that is fine, but I would not buy a system just because of it.
MICRO WATER OR WATER IONIZER MACHINES:
The last drinking water systems I will discuss are both the most expensive and very possibly the ones which produce the healthiest drinking water. These devices are sometimes called micro water or water ionizer machines and they require a wall outlet for electrical power as well as a connection to your faucet for water. The purpose of these machines is to both filter the water, and to make a number of molecular changes which will turn the water into a possible healing water as discussed at the beginning of this article. Although I have heard some interesting stories regarding the results obtained from drinking this special water, and although I admit that this is the water I use for myself my wife and my animals, I am not making any health or medical claims of any kind for this water. Making claims is for research scientists and people who want to get themselves in trouble with the FDA. There are at least three or four companies presently importing and selling various micro water or water ionizer machines. I can only vouch for the honesty and integrity of the one I have dealt with for many years although certainly some of the others may have fine products available. For more information and a copy of a published article, please call the company directly. The company name is High Tech H 2 O. The machine is the Singer Ionizer Plus and their phone numbers are 1-800-794-5355 Fax 1-303-449-9640.
The Singer Ionizer Plus connects to your faucet and plugs into the wall. The water passes first through a 0.1 micron activated carbon filter which will effectively remove parasites and bacteria as well as chlorine and petrochemical contaminants. This filter is rated at 6000 liters which is approximately 1600 gallons. With most brands of filters, you are guessing when to replace the filter cartridge. You either waste money replacing it much too early just to be safe, or you wait too long and unknowingly drink poorly filtered or unfiltered water. With this unit, there is a digital meter that lets you know how many liters have been filtered so there is no guessing. After the filter, the water passes into some sort of special chamber where the real magic takes place. The water is split into its acid component which is sent down your drain (or catch it to water your plants as we do) and the alkaline water which is used for drinking. In addition, the water is given an electron charge which effectively turns in into an antioxidant as well as breaking down the size of the clusters of water molecules making it more able to get moisture into your cells and take toxins out. The water also has something called its Redox potential altered to make it healthier in yet another way, but a description of this is beyond the scientific scope of this article. If these units did not cost around $1300.00, I would try to get all my clients and students to use them, but I realize that price is always a factor. It is difficult to try to see into the future to determine that the health improvements from drinking this water might actually save you more money than it costs to purchase one. My crystal ball broke before I was born and I took a great deal of convincing before I finally purchased one of these devices a number of years ago.
If you would like to get some of the benefits of this special water at a higher price in the long run, but a lower price in the short run, you have two alternatives.
The first is a clustered water product originally developed by Dr. Lee Lorenzen called Zunami water. I met Dr. Lorenzen some 6-8 years ago when he was lecturing on clustered water and the Japanese research being done on it. His products are liquid concentrates that you add to distilled water in order to change the molecular structure of the water molecules. He told me that it will not work well with a fully mineralized water, which in my personal opinion makes the micro water machine superior. It will, however, give you the benefits of his special micro cluster technology which make the molecules look like snowflakes, without spending such a large initial outlay. Also, you only need to drink about 8-16 ounces of this micro-clustered water each day in addition to your regular water. To purchase Zunami Water Click Here.
PLEASE if you get any interesting beneficial results using ANY of these very special water products, let us know here at Elite Alternatives, Inc . We like to keep track of how our readers are helped out by these articles.
SHOWER FILTER:
The last item on the list of water filtration is related to bathing water. Most people do not realize that a great deal more chlorine is absorbed through the skin in a single shower or bath, than by drinking tap water all day long. This means that if you use purified water for drinking, but then bathe in chlorinated city water, you may be doing things backwards. I often suggest that my clients and students put in a shower filter first and a drinking filter second. A good shower filter must contain at least one pound of a substance known as KDF™. Carbon filters do not last long enough to be useful for the number of gallons used to filter bathing water. Some of the largest shower filters that I have cut apart and tested are some of the poorest units available. They cost a great deal of money, have seemingly fantastic warranties, and actually do not remove chlorine for even 4-6 months in normal use. Look for both an NSF (National Sanitary Foundation) rating of 10,000+ gallons and one pound minimum of the KDF™ filter media. Moister skin and more manageable hair (chlorine is very drying) are often noticed within the first few weeks or even sooner. To purchase the Shower Filter, Click Here.
For those of you who take baths rather than showers, the task is far more difficult. Water flows into the bath tub at too fast a speed for any small filter to handle the job. If you own your home or condo then I suggest you look into having a whole house filter installed on the incoming water line. A good unit can be installed by any knowledgeable and reputable plumber. In order not to be ripped off and pay far too much money, let me give you a few pointers. What you want for best results and least expense is at least a twenty inch Big Blue™ or similar over-size filter housing along with a quality replaceable carbon cartridge inside the housing. The cartridge should be rated for particle removal at between 20 to 50 microns so it doesn’t clog up before you replace it. For chlorine removal it should be rated as high as you can get but certainly at least 30-50 thousand gallons. You do not want to have to replace it more than two times per year and less is easier and cheaper. The replacement cartridges should cost you somewhere between $45.00 - $70.00 each plus labor if you have someone else do the work. Remember, being cheap by using poor quality filter housings and doing things you are not adequately skilled to do may cause you to come home to a flood. To improve this installation, it can be set up with a ten inch big blue pre-filter fitted with a 30-50 micron particle only filter to reduce the likelihood that the more expensive carbon filter will foul or clog up prematurely. I highly recommend that a U.S. or Japanese made “ball valve” be installed on both sides of the installation for safety when changing filters. For the best possible setup, a full bypass should be designed with ball valves. This will allow you to run the house water even if a leak or other problem develops in the filter chamber. Any qualified plumber will understand this description so just let him or her read it to give them an idea of what you want. For those who want the best quality most burst proof housings, the filter pods are also available in stainless steel instead of pressure resistant plastic.
Please note that the above whole house filter, although giving you better quality water, may not be adequate as a high quality drinking water system. The water passes through the filter too quickly for a thorough job as far as drinking water is concerned. It is, however, a whole lot better than drinking tap water.
FLUORIDE:
Fluoride continues to be one of the two most used poisons in our daily life (if your water is fluoridated). This article could not be long enough to cover the topic adequately.
To purchase the NEW Doulton water filtration system that features a TWIN unit that has both an ultra carbon filter AND a FLUORIDE filter, Click Here . It comes in both the countertop model or under the countertop model.
PLEASE buy a copy of The Fluoride Deception by Bryson from the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. Read it and share what you learn with everyone you know.
READ MORE ABOUT FLUORIDE-A TOXIC CHEMICAL....
