Water, Water Everywhere
By now, most people are aware how important water is for our health. The human body is about 60-75% water. Babies and kids usually have a higher body percentage of water than adults. Men generally have a higher percentage than women. People with higher muscle mass have a higher percentage, and conversely, people with higher fat content have a lower percentage. Water is necessary for every single bodily system to even exist and/or function. Water is required at the cellular level. Plasma, which makes up about 55% of blood volume, is 92% water. Vital organs (brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys) are 65-85% water depending on the organ. Even bones are 15-20% water. Maintaining proper hydration is beneficial for circulation, detoxification, proper digestion, relief of muscle and joint inflammation, healthy skin, and maintaining a healthy weight.
As I did cancer research, the importance of drinking enough water was made obvious, and drinking enough pure water was emphasized even more. Seventy to eighty percent of Americans are in a state of chronic dehydration, and they don't even realize it. The more one is hydrated, the less the risk of several kinds of cancer. So one of the simplest ways to increase your health and reduce your cancer risk is to drink more water.
But what kind of water should we drink? Tap water, bottled water, distilled water, purified water, mineral water, spring water, alkaline water? It can get complicated! Hopefully I can help clear it up a little.
Tap water contains high amounts of arsenic, aluminum, fluoride (fortunately Kiel's city water is not fluoridated), and chlorine (which are all toxic), parasites, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, hormones, and disinfection by-products (DBPs). Chlorine is nasty in and of itself, but DBPs are the results of disinfecting water with chlorine, and are 10,000 times more dangerous than chlorine! DBPs are potent carcinogenics and have been linked to serious kidney, liver, and nervous system problems.
Bottled water is often just bottled tap water. And plastic bottles contain more harmful chemicals that leach into the water.
Distilled water is actually dangerous to drink on a long-term basis. Distilled water is boiled and evaporated away from its dissolved minerals, leaving the water acidic and seeking to balance itself by drawing minerals right out of your body. For the same reason, it also draws out contaminants from the container it's stored in. What's worse, any contaminant in the water that vaporizes at a lower temperature than the water, such as volatile organic compounds like DBPs, will be condensed and actually concentrated in the finished distilled water. So you end up with contaminants that are even more dangerous than those present in the water when you started! There may be a place for drinking distilled water on a very short-term basis for detoxification purposes only, since it will draw out toxins from the body, but otherwise it should be avoided.
Alkaline or ionized water is highly touted in some health circles as the ultimate healthy water--especially for fighting cancer. Cancer is generally recognized as thriving in an acidic state, so changing from acidic to alkaline would fight cancer. However, alkaline water causes problems, too--especially among individuals with digestive problems related to having too little digestive acids. Alkaline water, like distilled water, should only be used for a week or two at most for detoxification. Alkaline is the opposite extreme of acidic, and neither extreme is beneficial overall. The body needs balance. A side point is that ionizing water machines are usually very pricy and sold by multi-level marketing companies which can have questionable ethics.
Spring Water, specifically mountain spring or gravity fed spring water is neither too alkaline nor too acidic--its pH is neutral (between 6.5 and 7.5) which is the ideal balance for the body. It is also living water (just like we encourage eating living foods) with naturally occurring minerals that structure the water to be very beneficial to the body. (And I don't mean the jugs of "spring" water sitting on store shelves.) There is a very cool website called http://www.findaspring.com/ that will direct you to local gravity-fed springs where you can collect your own water--using glass or stainless steel containers, of course.
Purified Water is the best option for in-home use, but there are many choices here, too. There are all kinds of water filter systems available from faucet filters, showerhead filters, whole-house filter systems, etc., using different types of filters at a wide range of costs. I used to be interested in a reverse osmosis system, but I found that the process actually results in acidic water, and the units are very expensive and require a plumber to install. To keep a long story short, I will share the system that I purchased for my home after doing quite a bit of research. I bought the Berkey Water Filtration system, which is a highly recommended, guaranteed & warranteed free-standing, gravity-fed purifier that is a very high quality, portable, economical, and the most simple system I found. There are different sizes of units based on your family/group size. We've been using it since January, and I absolutely love it! I receive no incentives for promoting this product; I just love it. :) Check out their website, and read every bit of information on it for yourself. http://www.berkeywaterfilters.com/
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