The
Dangers Of Distilled And Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water
There are some folks out there who believe that it is safe to drink distilled
and reverse osmosis water, claiming there are no potential health
risks - although there is never any supporting data associated with
these claims, only to the contrary. These same few folks also
claim that distilled water has a neutral pH... even though any idiot
with litmus paper or a pH meter can see the pH is usually between
5.2 - 6pH, and drops lower as it sits exposed to open air. Why
then would anyone with any reputation at all (or, half a brain) say
that it is safe to drink distilled and R.O. water, even though basic
chemistry tells us differently? "Alternative agenda",
is what I like to call it. You'll notice that most of these
supporters of distillers and R.O. systems usually have some government
or alternate agenda - the government wants you to stay sick to keep
the disease-mongering health system afloat... so why would they want
you to avoid the potentially hazardous effects of drinking unnatural
water that does not exist anywhere on the planet? Simple...
greed.
If
you want to do a cleanse for a week or two, and want to drink distilled
water to help you out with that... fine. Do not drink distilled
or R.O. water for any length of time - unless, of course, you enjoy
arthritis, bursitis and gout.
The
following two articles are the most popular on the internet describing
the damaging effects of drinking distilled and R.O. water. They
are for educational purposes only (what other purpose is there for
words on a page, other than educational?).
Early
Death Comes From Drinking Distilled Water
by Zoltan
P. Rona MD MSc
During
nearly 19 years of clinical practice I have had the opportunity to
observe the health effects of drinking different types of water. Most
of you would agree that drinking unfiltered tap water could be hazardous
to your health because of things like parasites, chlorine, fluoride
and dioxins.
Many
health fanatics, however, are often surprised to hear me say that drinking distilled
water on a regular, daily basis is potentially dangerous.
Paavo
Airola wrote about the dangers of distilled water in the 1970's when it first
became a fad with the health food crowd.
Distillation
is the process in which water is boiled, evaporated and the vapor condensed.
Distilled water is free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the
special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the
body and eliminate them.
Studies
validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to cleanse
or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time).
Fasting
using distilled water can be dangerous because of the rapid loss of electrolytes
(sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals like magnesium, deficiencies
of which can cause heart beat irregularities and high blood pressure. Cooking
foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient
value.
Distilled
water is an active absorber and when it comes into contact with air, it absorbs
carbon dioxide, making it acidic. The more distilled water a person drinks,
the higher the body acidity becomes.
According
to the US Environmental Protection Agency, "Distilled water, being essentially
mineral-free, is very aggressive, in that it tends to dissolve substances with
which it is in contact.
Notably,
carbon dioxide from the air is rapidly absorbed, making the water acidic and
even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water."
The
most toxic commercial beverages that people consume (i.e. cola beverages and
other soft drinks) are made from distilled water. Studies have consistently
shown that heavy consumers of soft drinks (with or without sugar) spill huge
amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals into the urine.
The
more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism,
coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative
diseases generally associated with premature aging.
A
growing number of health care practitioners and scientists from around the world
have been advocating the theory that aging and disease is the direct result
of the accumulation of acid waste products in the body.
There
is a great deal of scientific documentation that supports such a theory. A poor
diet may be partially to blame for the waste accumulation. Meats, sugar, white
flour products, fried foods, soft drinks, processed foods, alcohol, dairy products
and other junk foods cause the body to become more acidic. Stress, whether mental
or physical can lead to acid deposits in the body.
There
is a correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely
soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Cells, tissues and organs
do not like to be dipped in acid and will do anything to buffer this acidity
including the removal of minerals from the skeleton and the manufacture of bicarbonate
in the blood.
The
longer one drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral
deficiencies and an acid state. I have done well over 3000 mineral evaluations
using a combination of blood, urine and hair tests in my practice. Almost without
exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop
multiple mineral deficiencies.
Those
who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient
but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water
drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation.
The
ideal water for the human body should be alkaline and this requires the presence
of minerals like calcium and magnesium.
Distilled
water tends to be acidic and can only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons
out of the body. Once this is accomplished, the continued drinking of distilled
water is a bad idea.
...
Disease and early death is more likely to be seen with the long term
drinking of distilled water. Avoid it except in special circumstances.
REFERENCES
Airola, P. 1974. How To Get Well. Phoenix,
AZ: Health Plus Publishers.
Baroody, Dr. Theodore A. Jr. Alkalinize
or Die. California:Portal Books, 1995.
Haas, Elson M. Staying Healthy with
Nutrition. The Complete Guide to Diet & Nutritional Medicine. Berkeley,
California:Celestial Arts, 1992; p. 22.
Rona, Zoltan P. and Martin, Jeanne
Marie. Return to the Joy of Health, Vancouver: Alive Books, 1995.
Rona, Zoltan P. Childhood Illness and
The Allergy Connection. Rocklin, California:Prima Books, 1996.
Distilled
Water and RO Filtered Water
by Sang
Whang
Water
is a strong solvent; therefore, it carries many invisible substances:
minerals, oxygen, nutrients, waste products, pollutants, etc. Pure
water without any substance is as un-natural as a pocket of vacuum
within a normal atmosphere. A pocket of vacuum will suck in any and
everything around it until the pressure becomes equal to the surrounding.
Likewise,
pure water will leach out any and every substance that it can dissolve
from the substances that it comes into contact with, until its content
is homogeneous with its surrounding or the water is saturated with
substances so that it can no longer dissolve anymore substances.
Since
the creation of this planet, rainwater has been washing down minerals
from the mountains into the ocean. Ocean water has been saturated
for a long time with specific minerals, yet rivers continue to carry
down the minerals. The result is that at the bottom of the ocean there
are tons of mineral deposits precipitated. If we knew how to recover
the minerals from the bottom of the ocean, we would be very rich.
Distilled
water and RO (reverse osmosis) filtered water contain no minerals,
simulating close to pure water. This pure water should be neutral
with a pH value of 7. However, it measures acid pH! The reason for
this phenomenon is that pure water sucks in carbon dioxides from the
atmosphere. Although it measures acid pH, there are no acid minerals
in that water. If pure water is stored in plastic bottle, the water
smells plastic.
For
this reason, distilled water or RO filtered water should be stored
in glass bottles or special plastic bottles that can block carbon
dioxide penetration. Coca Cola was bottled originally in glass bottles
only. Then came the plastic bottle and it lost the fizzles. Then better
plastic bottles came out that didn't lose carbon dioxides; still plastic-bottled
Coca Cola has to have expiration dates. Carbon dioxides penetrate
through plastics, making pure water acidic.
In
the 1980s and 1990s, the health food industry recommended that people
eat certain types of healthy food and exclude other types of unhealthy
food. Initially, people noticed a marked improvement of their health.
However, staying with this healthy diet for several years, people
suffered from nutritional deficiency syndrome, which the health food
industry concluded as a sickness caused by pollutants in the drinking
water. The health food industry began to sell distillers and RO filters
to protect people. To me, this is a case of arriving at an erroneous
conclusion because they totally misunderstood the facts.
In
the 1950s distilled water was sold in drug stores with the label "Not
for drinking!" Distilled water was used to fill car batteries and
steam irons. Distilled water is not healthy because it will leach
out valuable alkaline minerals from our body. However, I realize that
I cannot change some people's mind. I am often asked if it is OK to
add AlkaLifeŽ to distilled water. I wish people would not drink distilled
water; however, if one must drink distilled water, it is better to
add an pH booster product, like AlkaLifeŽ.
The
question is how many drops of AlkaLifeŽ
to add to distilled water. For a glass of ordinary drinking water,
I recommend two drops and typically, the pH value increases from 7.5
to 10. However, two drops of AlkaLifeŽ
in distilled water does not bring the pH value up to an alkaline value.
Sometimes, one may have to put more than 10 drops to make distilled
water alkaline. This is caused by the presence of carbonic acid in
"pure" water, so, how many drops should one put in? My answer is 2
drops.
In
two drops of AlkaLifeŽ,
the number of hydroxyl ions (OH-) is 1 followed by 20 to 21 zeros,
and they are mated with potassium and sodium. In the presence of carbonic
acids (H2O + CO2 = H2CO3 = H+ + HCO3-) the hydroxyl ions combines
with H+ ions (H+ + OH- = H2O) and potassium+ and sodium+ ions combine
with HCO3- ions and become potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) and sodium
bicarbonate (NaHCO3) which are alkaline buffer. When CO2 are removed
from these bicarbonates by the lungs, the original KOH and NaOH in
AlkaLifeŽ
are restored. When we are dealing with carbon dioxides, the pH value
can be confusing. What is important is the number of OH- ions in the
water that will neutralize H+ ions in the body acid. For this reason
I recommend 2 drops of AlkaLifeŽ
in a glass of distilled or RO filtered water and ignore the pH value.
