It seems like nobody wants to get older except the kids. They just can’t wait to grow up and be adults.I have always told my kids to enjoy every day and to love their youth. When they look at me like I’m nuts, I tell them that they will be adults for a very long time. They still think I’m nuts, but that’s just part of the job.

What is Aging?

Wikipedia describes aging as: “aging is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time.

Women worry about wrinkles and notice how good young guys look with their shirts off.

Men count their aches and pains and reminisce about the days when they took their shirts off.

What do I think aging is? To me, aging is a complex thing. It is about gaining wisdom and sharing it with others who care to listen. It is about noticing that I don’t move with the same fluid motions that I once enjoyed despite my best efforts to deny the inevitable. It is about realizing that my body doesn’t process certain foods (especially alcohol) like it did in the past. While all of our bodies grow and change in physical ways, the real signs of aging are mostly in our heads. Of course we slow down physically and mentally, but it is the way we think about things that has the greatest effect on our lives. Events, both good and bad will happen in our lives, but it is how we deal with the events that define us and

Can We Do Anything To Slow Down the Aging Process?

I don’t watch a lot of television or read magazines, but when I do, I’m always amazed at how much focus is placed on women’s skin. If mankind spent as much effort educating people about how to look after their skin through their diet and lifestyle, as they do on creating the “next new and wonderful” skin care product, we wouldn’t need the skin care products. But, who would make any money on that?

The recently departed Sang Whang wrote an interesting and very informative book in 1990 called “Reverse Aging”. I believe everyone interested in their health and who is concerned about aging should read the book.

Mr. Whang believed that eating properly and drinking alkaline water was the key to not only halt the aging process, but to actually reverse the process for a period of time. Mr. Whang correctly identified the fact that our bodies dehydrate over time, just like a piece of fruit. In fact, babies are about 90% water at birth and the percentage of our bodies that is made up by water decreases as we age. The body of a typical healthy adult is about 70% water in our thirties and forties, and decreases to 60% and eventually 50% as we approach the end of our lives. In essence, we are actually “drying up” as we age.

Drinking water prevents the body from “drying up”. That means more elasticity in our skin. It also means better “lubricated” joints, more clarity in thinking, and a host of other health benefits.

We need to drink water to replace the water that we lose each day.

Most of us are chronically dehydrated. It shows in our skin, our eyes, our hair, our joints, and in many other ways. In fact, if you are dehydrated by as little as 3%, your mental capacity drops by 10% or more. The older we get, and the more dehydrated we get, the less efficient our brain and the rest of our body operates.

Drink water… lots of water. It is the only liquid our body needs once we stop nursing. Don’t look to liquids to provide your nutrients, because more often than not, the non-water fluids you consume are hurting your body more than they are helping. The amount of sugar that we consume in soft drinks is a major contributor to obesity and eventually Type II Diabetes. Drink water… lots of water.

How Much Water Should We Drink?

The consensus seems to be that we should drink half our body weight in ounces each day. That means that if you weigh 120 pounds, you should drink 60 ounces of water. The trouble with any approximation is that it never really applies to anyone. For example, if you are active, you need to drink more than if you are less active. If you sweat a lot, you need to drink more. If you live at a high elevation, you need to drink more. If you live in a warm climate, you need to drink more.

The reality is that you need to replace the water that your body burns off each day. I believe you should drink a little more than you burn off each day to be on the safe side. Your kidneys will easily dispose of any excess. Unlike food, the concern should be not enough as opposed to too much.

What Type of Water Should we Drink?

In a perfect world, we should drink the water that is coming out of a mountain glacial ice pack. The water from these sources is almost milky in color and is bursting with minerals and nutrients.

If you don’t live near a glacial water source, a clean natural spring is the next best thing because it will be devoid of the nasty chemicals that municipalities introduce into the water supply. For those willing to do a little work to find natural water, check out www.findaspring.com

I receive my water from a municipality. While I respect the efforts of the town to keep costs down, I can’t say I’m happy about the fluoride or the chloramines that they put in my water. I can understand chloramines because they are needed to kill bacteria and chloramines are not susceptible to cancer causing THM’s in the same way as chlorine, but let’s not pretend that they are OK.

My primary concern when it comes to drinking water is that is it clean. That means reducing fluoride, chloramines, chlorine, THMs, VOCs, heavy metals, and as many other “goodies” as possible. A good pre-filter system, or the antioxidant filters do a good job in this regard.

My secondary concern when it comes to drinking water is to drink water that has free hydrogen. The reason for my concern is that the human body typically only uses up about 98% of the oxygen that it takes in. the remaining 2% can become potentially harmful “free radicals”, which is another name for “free oxygen” or “oxygen atoms”. Dr. Hayashi has speculated/proven that the best way to eliminate “free oxygen” in the body is to consume “free hydrogen” because the hydrogen combines with the oxygen to form harmless water.

You can obtain “free hydrogen” or “antioxidants” by eating certain foods such as blueberries. You can obtain much more effective antioxidants by drinking hydrogen ions produced by antioxidant filters or electric water ionizers. My preference between the two machines is the antioxidant filter for several reasons, the most important being that they are a fraction of the cost of an electric water ionizer, which makes them affordable to many more people. They also remove all of the contaminants listed above, and they maintain their higher pH and lower ORP levels much longer under normal use conditions that electric water ionizers. However, electric water ionizers have they own unique benefit, which is producing acidic water that is wonderful for external skin treatment.

The opinions in this article are those of the author