Water : Alkaline, Acid, Kangen, Filtered, Distilled?

Water is the elixir of life!

Nothing in the human body can happen without water.

We all know these kinds of basics about water, but then we hear all kinds of hype about special kinds of water. What really is the truth?

All over the UK and the USA people are advertising machines and potions to make alkaline water.
Why? Because alkaline water will cure whatever ails you (according to them).

All over Asia they are talking about acid water and how important it is.
Why? Because acid water will cure whatever ails you (according to them).

Can both of these things be true? It doesn't seem logical does it.

I'll skip to the bottom line here, so you can get on to other things, then I'll give more detail for those interested.

Bottom line : Water is good for you. Drinking sufficient quantities of it will help tremendously in taking care of many of the things that ail you. Try to get it non-polluted, but get it.

All claims of improved health made by both the 'acid water' people and the 'alkaline water' people, can be seen in anyone who drinks sufficient water. People using these products have increases in health levels because they drink MORE water, not because they drink better water.

Shall we look at a few particulars?

If you decide to drink alkaline water, you will probably be given something to make your water have a pH of 9 or 10. (By the way, you can do this your self with out the special machines by adding real sea salt.) When you drink this water, what happens?

Well, it first goes to the stomach where it encounters an acid environment with a pH of 2. Guess what..., all the water you just drank is now very acidic.

If you decide to drink acid water, when it hits the stomach, it is still very acidic.

So then what? Well the body has a wonderful way of delivering the right things to the right places in a balanced and healthy way, as long as it is given the resources to do so. The body carefully manages the pH of your body through a myriad of complex activities that require water and minerals. Thus we see the importance of getting good minerals.

Some parts of your body are supposed to be acidic (like the stomach with a pH of about 2), and some parts are supposed to be alkaline (like the small intestine with a pH of about 9). The body balances all these things out if we just give it good resources to work with.

One of the advantages of mineral water is that it helps to supply some of these minerals.

One of the advantages of distilled water, or of other filtered waters, is that it cuts down on the pollutants and toxins that the body has to try and deal with.

Acids help to dissolve things that need to be dissolved, as well as helping with some disinfection.

Kangen water has been making a name for it's self all around the world. What is it? It is filtered to get rid of toxins, and it is mineralized. But by far the biggest advantage is that it gets people to drink more water!

You see, it was proven in the prison camps during World War II that sufficient water, even though it wasn't the most hygienic, could help to cure many diseases.

The biggest problem today is that people generally don't drink enough water, and they drink all kinds of other junk instead.

I probably said enough, but let me share one example of how misleading the hype can be. There is a lot of bad research out there, this is an example of it.

There is a doctor who treats people with digestive and colon problems. He has started having his patients drink a quart of alkaline water one half hour before each meal. He is having fantastic success with most of his patients. He uses this information to help sell alkaline water machines.

It is great that he is helping these people get better, but he has never told any of them that they could get the same results by drinking any good clean water. The sad part is that he probably doesn't even know it himself. You see, he never thought to try it, so it isn't a part of his "research".

Look for these kinds of 'research' flaws in all the hype and advertising you see. It can save you lots of wasted money.

It's the same as in vaccine research, they never compare vaccinated people against un-vaccinated people in a controlled study for long term health effects. Go ahead... ask your doctor for a copy of a study that proves that vaccines work.

But that's another issue, we can talk about that later. (Wow, my mind sure can jump around!)

See my previous water discussion for more details.
http://garnerhealth.blogspot.com/2009/07/water-you-need-to-know-this.html