Water

Water is essential for life.  Unfortunately for the earth and her inhabitants (us), truly clean water is going the way of the dodo bird.  After reading numerous articles and doing experiments on water quality, here is what I recommend:

1) Avoid bottled water.  The regulations are spotty about how bottled water is handled.  It can contain MANY chemicals that regular tap water is not allowed to have.  The plastic containers it is housed in give off chemicals as well.  Save the earth, your body, and the landfills by steering clear of bottled water.  Use one of the other sources of water below and store it in stainless steel, glass or BPA free plastic containers.  Don’t heat water in plastic!

2) Tap water is OK, but not optimal.  Tap water is an improvement over bottled water.  It is much more strongly regulated.  There are limits to many harmful chemicals that it can contain.  It is tested multiple times per day.  That being said, it is not pure.  I still recommend at a minimum a charcoal filter (like a Britta) to remove tastes and odors (which come from chemicals).  An even better choice is a sinktop filter that removes fluoride, chlorine, etc.

3) Reverse Osmosis water is still a better choice.  This water has been run through a membrane that gives out WATER (as in just H2O).  It tastes like water (humans are one of the few animals that actually don’t “taste” water. We taste the impurities).  The drawbacks are that it uses much more water than it gives out to drive the RO membrane and it takes out the minerals that we need with our water.  These minerals can be replaced by adding sea salt or potassium salts to the water after it comes out of the filter.

4) Distilled Water should be used ONLY for a short time.  It contains NO minerals, and thus none of the “life” that we need from water.  If you are drinking distilled water, then do so for no more than two weeks and do it for a specific reason (like detoxification).  It will also pull in carbon dioxide from the air if left open.  That is why some distilled water takes like the plastic jug it comes in.  This makes the water acid.  If the water you use tastes like anything but water, use a different source.

5) Alkaline water is great, but has drawbacks.  To get the water alkaline, it is run through an electrical gradient.  To achieve alkalinity, particles must be moved across that gradient.  Particles from tap water….  Alkaline water still has the chlorine, fluoride, etc. in it due to the nature of the process to make it alkaline.  That does not mean it is bad, just that you should have a good source of water before connecting the alkalinizer.

This simple formula for water consumption is to take your body weight in pounds and divide that number by two.  The is the number of ounces of water you should take in daily.  That amount can come from soups, broths, or plain water.  Coffee, tea, soda pop (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) and alcohol are all diuretics – they remove more water from your body than they give you.  If you are going to consume these beverages, then here is the guideline: for every cup of coffee (tea, etc.), ADD one cup of water to your total for the day.  When adopting this guideline, start slowly and build up gradually to allow your body to adapt.

For more information about potassium salts to add to your water to help with detoxifying water soluble toxins, please call the office.  These require a visit to a pharmacy that compounds them and that requires a prescription.

Please call the office for more details.  The number is 317-228-9270.