Lessons I have learned about Alkaline Water
When I began drinking ionized alkaline water I didn’t even know what an ion was.
I failed gloriously at chemistry at school. I was the class disruptor. The idea of a universe of elements confined to a single table of values was anathema to me. I wanted infinite possibility rather than the confines of a periodic table that explained the ‘Theory of Everything’.
Well, things have changed.
I’m still no expert in chemistry but I’ve grown to love the process of learning about a subject that fascinates me; the relationship of pH balance to my – and others’ – health.
Alkaline Water and pH Balance
As I learned that the world in general refuses to accept the huge advantage of an alkaline body, I delved into physics, chemistry, biology and psychology.
Strangely, I look back on myself at school and understand that unless a person is ready to learn – and change – they simply can’t hear even hear the words of their best friends when it interferes with their idea of normal life.
Enough of the philosophy; you are reading this to learn about alkaline water, so let’s get on with it.
If you’ve come this far you’ve probably already been exposed to some form of information, most likely from someone attempting to sell you a water ionizer. So let’s begin at the beginning with the word ‘ion’.
An ion is an atom. Got that? Good.
You are half way. But it’s an atom that carries an electrical charge, or is in need of an electrical charge.. so if you like, it’s an electrically unbalanced atom.
Of course nothing is imbalanced in nature. So an atom with a positive electrical charge has just one purpose in creation; it is looking for an ion that is missing a charge so it can donate its charge, and return to normal atomic state of equilibrium. It’s a completely beneficial meeting for both atoms involved because they both return to being just atoms instead of ions.
They return to balance.
Photographer: Elena Mozhvilo | Source: Unsplash
It took me some time to see the significance of this and I wish my chemistry teacher had told me about ions and what I’m about to share. (Of course, he did, but I was busy disrupting.)
We read about chemical reactions everywhere; in the air, in the earth, in industry and medicine, and within our body. A chemical reaction is the action of ions co-operating to create a new molecular substance.
They give and they take and they form a stable substance rather than simple separate atoms. So ions are the key to all chemical reactions plus the formulation of new substances.
This extends from simple salt – a joining of ionic sodium and ionic chlorine – all the way up the high level multi-atom substances.
But we don’t need to worry about getting into the understanding of complex substances because ionized water is a very simple ionic transfer. Basically, it’s the creation of a new form of water that has more negatively charged ions in it than usual.
You probably think that there’s just one way to do this. That’s not true; there are a number of ways including magnetics, electrolysis and passing water over certain reactive elements. The latter is the cause of the amazing so-called ‘healing’ springs around the world, evidenced simply by a lighter molecular weight of these special waters.
I have experienced excellent health (in the main) over my 21 years of alkaline water based life.
I don’t attribute all of it to ionized alkaline water but it’s my personal belief that so many years without my usual annual colds and flu has something to say about the water’s immune support abilities. You’ll find hundreds of testimonials for the water online and although in my opinion most of them are real, I need to caution you that nothing fixes everything and every case needs to be seen in the context of their previous lifestyle choices.
To give a simple example – when did you ever see a diet that didn’t claim miraculous benefits from ‘Mrs J. Smith of Alabama”.
The reality of all diets is that if a person is already slowly killing themselves with the SAD (Standard American Diet) anything a little healthier will provoke a healing response.
Was it the specific diet? Yes..and no.
The specific diet provoked the response but any diet of equal quality would probably have done the same. So please be a little careful in your research.
I think I can assist you hugely today because I’m going to share a meta-analysis of over 100 international studies of the health effects of natural alkaline water. And then I’ll attempt to show you the differences between electrically created – and natural alkaline water. There are very important differences as well as very important similarities.
The study: and what I learned.
The study linked to here is the best piece of information on alkaline water I have read for 13 years. It is completely crossreferenced to actual studies, which makes it head and shoulders above any other form of document you would usually read on the net. What it says is as correct as science has managed to make it. (The foundation of scientific inquiry is that your study’s result is correct only until someone proves otherwise.)
So what does it say about Alkaline Water?
Photographer: Manki Kim | Source: Unsplash
It concentrates on the two major elements of alkaline water in nature; Calcium and Magnesium.
“Both of these elements are essential for thehuman body. Calcium is a part of bones and teeth. In addition, it plays a role in neuromuscular excitability (decreases it), good function of the conducting myocardial system, heart and muscle contractility, intracellular information transmission and blood coagulability.”
It goes on to say that osteoporosis and osteomalacia are the most common symptoms of Ca and Mg deficiency.
Please note: it does NOT say directly that more calcium will cure these conditions. We’ve independently researched this and there’s a much bigger story here. But let’s move on. (If you’d like to know more go here)
The report then talks about the superstar of alkaline minerals, Magnesium:
“Magnesium plays an important role as a cofactor and activator of more than 300 enzymatic reactions including glycolysis, ATP metabolism, transport of elements such as Na, K and Ca through membranes, synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids, neuromuscular excitability and muscle contraction etc. … Magnesium deficiency increases risk to humans of developing various pathological conditions such as vasoconstrictions, hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, atherosclerotic vascular disease, acute myocardial infarction, eclampsia in pregnant women, possibly diabetes mellitus of type II and Osteoporosis.”
Think about it.
Is there a pill anywhere on earth that gives so much benefit? It’s so commonly available, so well researched to PROVE these claims, yet most of us (according to the report) are severely lacking magnesium in our diet!
Although there were some scattered studies as early as 1927 recommending hard water over soft, it wasn’t until 1950 when Japanese scientists concluded that hard alkaline water was more beneficial than soft water in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
To be very clear, they found higher mortality rates from cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) in the areas of Japanese rivers with more acid (i.e. softer) water compared to those with more alkaline (i.e. harder) water used for drinking purposes.
Many studies of alkaline water followed across the world with similar conclusions.
In the two decades of investigation of water hardness and its association with heart disease, over 100 studies were completed!
My question that must be asked is that if it is so obviously scientifically proven, why have our health authorities not advanced a diet giving the required amounts of both?
Some people may reasonably ask how sure researchers are that it is calcium and magnesium that has such an effect. Could it not be any of the other essential minerals we all need? Yet in study after study, no significant association with other minerals was found.
(One significant finding was the effect of acidic water on home reticulation systems and its tendency to corrode sufficiently to cause leaching of toxic heavy metals)
By 1992 it was generally agreed that Magnesium was the great healer and that calcium had only a supportive effect against heart disease.
But as you’ll soon see, magnesium in water is quite different to magnesium in food.
By 1990 studies had advanced to a stage where even more hard data and beneficial correlations between Ca, Mg and CVD was available. Before this time there were a number of studies questioning the methodology of some earlier studies. These are to me, a healthy debate phase and although some earlier studies were not as rigid as they could have been, the basic fact of the correlation survived the rigour of scientific debate.
The later studies extended the benefits of magnesium beyond CVD to AMI (Advanced Myocardial Infarction)
“…the persons enrolled in the group with the highest water Mg level had a risk level of death from AMI by a third lower (odds raio 0.64) as compared to the groups consuming water containing less Mg than 8.3 mg/l.”
It’s also interesting to see how some of the studies learned about hard water’s health benefits. In one Finnish study, the hard water benefit was only discovered when health authorities investigated why one particular geographic region consumed less heart drugs.
It was the water!
Another peculiarity of one study was the discovery of a correlation between ambient temperature and heart disease. While this seems to have nothing to do with magnesium or water, it reminded me that Chinese Shaolin monks alkalize with cold dips in mountain streams.
As the studies rolled on, it became clearer and clearer that it was magnesium that was doing the work in preventing Advanced Myocardial Infarction, not the calcium.
Next, a study popped up showing less danger for sudden infant death syndrome,
“It is hypothesized that magnesium deficiency is implicated in cardiovascular spasms and cardiac arrhythmias leading to death.”
More good news followed.
Unlike most trace minerals, which take many months or years to have a beneficial effect, studies emerged showing that the effects of drinking hard water surfaced in a matter of weeks rather than years. This probably explains the sometimes ‘miraculous’ reports we get from users. (I remember one man who was dragged into our offices by his wife and was very against the whole idea. He said nothing but drank a glass to keep his wife happy. They were back the next day. “For the first time in years I had no reflux!” he exclaimed.)
Here’s where it gets really interesting.
If switching over to alkaline water is good for you, what happens if you have been drinking alkaline water all your life and you change to soft water? This is what happened in a number of recorded cases:
“…among Czech and Slovak population who started to use reverse osmosis based systems for final treatment of drinking water at their home outlets in 2000-2002 and several weeks later reported different health complaints suggestive of acute magnesium deficiency.”
More benefits studies rolled in.
A French study found that calcium in the water contributed to a lack of neurological disturbance in the elderly. Ever heard of the old adage; “A glass of milk before bed for a good night’s sleep”? Milk is loaded with calcium!
In Spain a report found schoolkids drinking alkaline water suffered less fractures.
Another report found that hard water drinkers had consistently lower blood pressure.
A second report discovered the same in pregnant women, which is no surprise to me given that the embryonic child is dragging all his/her mother’s alkaline minerals out to create a new skeleton.
And it wasn’t only mothers who benefited.
A Taiwan study of 1751 women found that hard water gave better protection against low pre-and post-birth baby weight. Furthermore,
“Higher intake of calcium is believed to decrease smooth muscle contractility and tonus, which clinically results in lower blood pressure and lower rate of pre-term births.”
Next came a study showing low Mg levels in drinking water to be a factor in motor neurone disease, closely followed by another with similar indications for preeclampsia.
Not all studies of alkaline water effects agreed with each other.
A Taiwanese study correlated low Mg and diabetes but a US one found no such correlation.
Personally, given the fact that diabetes is often the result of bad diet and excess fat accumulation, which renders the body almost permanently in a state of inflammation, I would theorize that magnesium’s anti-inflammatory abilities were probably what the Taiwanese observed.
More studies, more results.
Low Ca and Mg levels were linked with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis A.K.A. Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Even dental caries and periodontal disease are reduced with a sufficiency of Ca and Mg in drinking water… even when fluoride levels are low!
So..if we all had the right amounts of Ca and Mg we wouldn’t have fluoride forced upon us in our drinking water; a chemical already proven to reduce children’s intelligence.
From Russia came studies linking low Mg and Ca in drinking water with a whole range of ailments including:
“significantly higher incidence rates of hypertension, IHD, adrenergic function disturbances, gastric and duodenal ulcer and other diseases in the areas with soft water.”
Alkaline Water and Cancer
Please note: This is not a substitute for proper medical advice. Please consult a qualified physician before embarking on any health regimen change.
Here’s a simplified list of a host of studies coming out of Taiwan. All of them relate to the consumption of hard water and the beneficial effect.
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Cerebrovascular diseases (Mg)
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Hypertension (Mg)
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CVD (Hard Water)
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Esophogeal cancer (Hard Water)
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Pancreatic cancer (Hard Water)
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Rectal cancer (Hard Water)
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Breast cancer (Hard Water)
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Gastric cancer (Calcium in water)
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Colorectal cancer (Calcium in water)
“Further studies from other countries are needed to confirm these results. Although previous studies dealing with relationships between water hardness and the incidence of cancer elsewhere in the world were mostly suggestive of protective effect of hard water, the results were ambiguous as stated in a review paper (Cantor, 1997) underlining the need for further studies in this promising field.”
Not Detox but AntiTox.
We all know what detox is, but what about antitoxic?
Antitoxic in this sense means that something has the ability to neutralise toxins as they enter the body. To explain how this applies to calcium and Magnesium, I quote:
“Calcium and to a lower extent also magnesium in both drinking water and food were previously found to have a beneficial antitoxic effect since they prevent – via either a direct reaction resulting in an nonabsorbable compound or competition for binding sites –absorption or reduce harmful effects of some toxic elements such as lead, cadmium etc.”
We are, I believe beginning to see alkaline water for the powerful protector it really is.
The next study looked at how much hard water one would need to drink to reduce heart disease. This 1999 study concludes;
“…relatively low magnesium intake with drinking water (usually less than 10 % of the total daily magnesium intake) can reduce mortality from CVD by even 30 %.”
As a doctor friend said, “If I could patent that I’d be a billionaire!”
Modern Food and Alkaline Water
There is no argument that the nutritional value of modern supermarket food has dropped. An early casualty was magnesium. It means that virtually all of us live in a state of permanent magnesium depletion. Now that you and I understand the amazing health support that this natural mineral offers us, we have to be wondering how to reverse this situation, especially now that we also know from these studies that we can have a health turnaround in as little as a few weeks!
Now here’s something extremely important to us in our quest for magnesium self-sufficiency.
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If you eat 1000mg of magnesium in your food, your body will get 300mg.
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Magnesium in water, however, gives an extra 30% absorption. It’s 30% more efficient to take magnesium in water than in food.
There’s more; we’ve all seen ‘megadose magnesium supplements. Well, studies show that the higher the dosage, the lower the absorption level for food, whereas water absorption levels remain constant.
Cooking with Alkaline Water
If you choose high magnesium vegetables to cook, then cooking with soft water has been found to deplete magnesium levels even before you get to eat the vegetables. Conversely, cooking with hard water increases the levels of Mg and Ca in the food. You will also retain far more of the wider range of minerals in the food.
One study goes so far as to conclude that it’s the bioavailability of magnesium in water that makes it a far superior way of getting your daily quota. This is due “to its increased utilization probably resulting from the biologically advantageous (hexahydrated) form of water magnesium.”
“Repeated tests on animals yielded highly surprising results: the animals given the element studied (i.e. Zn or Mg) with drinking water showed statistically significantly higher increase of this element in the serum than those given a much higher amount of these elements with food and demineralized water to drink.”
Remember we talked earlier about a study of a population that changed over from hard water to RO water? They quickly displayed signs of magnesium deficiency. Further proof of the basic principle was found in the observation that patients being fed pure water intravenously quickly lost their normal levels of a whole range of electrolytes (minerals).
Isn’t this amazing material? Can you imagine how you are going to ‘kick the habit’ and regain your birthright evolutionary health model with this simple change?
Relationship of Mg levels and Health response.
Here are some interesting summary statistics that should banish any doubt in your mind. And remember as you read these that the RDA for magnesium for us is 700-1000mg per day.
Study 1: America. An increase in the water magnesium level by about 8 mg/l led to reduction of mortality from all CVD by about 10%.
Study 2: South Africa. An increase in drinking water magnesium by 6 mg/l led to reduction of mortality from IHD equally by about 10%.
Study 3: Germany. If drinking water magnesium is reduced by about 4.5 mg/l, the incidence of myocardial infarction increases by 10%.
Study 4: England. An increase in total hardness ..from 0.5 to 1.5 mmol/l – … should result in a 7.2% decrease in CVD mortality.
Study 6: Los Angeles. the decrease in the absolute cardiovascular mortality ranged from 0.1 per mg (of Mg) per 100,000 population.
Study 7: Finland. The relative risk decrease ranged from 0.001 to 0.034 per mg of magnesium.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about alkaline water.
For more, go to www.alkaway.com in USA, www.alkaway.co.uk in UK or EU, www.alkaway.ca in Canada, www.alkaway.com.au in Australia or NZ.
If you enjoyed this, please pass it on. I wrote this to help more people access the huge benefits of alkaline water. With your help we can help thousands learn what we now know.
Primal alkaline water
Ian Blair Hamilton is the founder of AlkaWay, and has been a researcher, writer and advocate for alkaline health philosophy for over 21 years.