When I first started this blog, I wanted to let people know how ionized water had helped me with my arthritis and acid reflux. I also wanted to share the stories of many others with health issues ranging from cancer to diabetes to fibromyalgia t0 eczema and weight loss and so on.
I have been writing a lot lately about the benefits of hydrogen gas (H2) because the scientific community has presented more than 700 independent studies and review papers indicating the health benefit of H2 in 170 human diseases.
Constipation:
Nobody talks about constipation. Even discussing the subject with your doctor or pharmacist seems to be embarrassing for many. You never hear people having a conversation about constipation because… well… people just don’t talk about it. But it is real and it can be painful and it affects far more people than you would think.
Causes:
Wikipedia provides a quick and simple analysis: “Causes of colonic slow transit constipation include diet, hormones, side effects of medications, and heavy metal toxicity. ”
Treatment:
Wikipedia once again sums it up well: dietary habits, laxatives, enemas, biofeedback, and surgery. What Wikipedia fails to mention is that ionized water also can be found to be effective.
My wife’s story:
I’m grateful that I don’t suffer from constipation. However, my wife Mary has had the misfortune of battling constipation for as long as she can remember. When we are at home, and in our comfort zone, she can somewhat control her constipation for the most part but it is an ongoing struggle. Even though my wife eats better than I do, constipation and bloating had plagued her life before she started drinking hydrogen enriched water.
When we started drinking the water, the results for me were rapid and dramatic because I have a very poor diet. My 15 year struggle with acid reflux reduced dramatically in about one week and virtually stopped permanently in a couple of months. My painful battle with arthritis ended in resounding success within a month of starting to drink the water. My wife eats well and she didn’t notice anything for the longest time after we started drinking the water. One day, I mentioned that she never seemed to complain about constipation anymore. She looked at me in her funny way and said “you are right”. Now how often do you hear that statement from your spouse?
It took five or six months until we realised that her lifelong ordeal with constipation was over. We are not talking about something as dramatic as curing cancer, but if you live with constipation, it is a big deal.
Every time Mary stops drinking the water for a few days, which happens for reasons that only she can understand, her constipation comes back. As soon as she starts drinking the water again, her constipation goes away. Now days, as a means of personal self-preservation, I make sure we have a good supply of H2 tablets in our supplements cabinet.
- Tags: constipation, H2, molecular hydrogen
Hey Rob. I have a new family now drinking the water. It’s helped with a number of issues…weight, diabetes, energy, etc. Dad and adult daughter are feeling the improvements as you state in the above blog. Mom however, who has been on the opposite end of the spectrum since a surgery 20 years ago, is having trouble turning off the flow if you know what I mean. She’s had to supplement with immodium. I’ve told her to back off on the amount she’s drinking. Any ideas or past experiences to advise from?
Hi Gabe:
It is amazing how many people experience weight loss when they start drinking the water. However, weight loss is definitely not a universal thing, as many experience only minimal or not weight loss at all. I wish I could explain why so lose weight while others don’t, but I have no clue.
A significant percentage of people experience increased energy. That one is easier to explain as the body is receiving more oxygen and nutrients are absorbed more efficiently.
Great to hear about the improvement in diabetes. Do you have any numbers to share with us? If anyone out there is going to start drinking the water to combat diabetes, please get your glucose level tested by your physician before drinking the water. After you have been drinking the water for awhile, a return visit for a checkup with your doctor will show the doctor the improvement. This request is selfish on my part, but we have to wake up the doctors. There is nothing like real test results from their own patients to “get it”.
I have spoken with a number of people who developed Diarrhea when they first start drinking the water. The reason this occurs is that people drink too much ionized water, or water that is too strong, faster than their bodies can handle it. Most people are very acidic and when you start drinking the water, the body starts releasing acid and the kidneys are not able to expell the acid fast enough. The usual symptom is headaches, but for people that go too fast, flu like symptoms or diarrhea can result. The good news is that within three to four days, the kidneys catch up the issues go away.
I have also spoken to a few people that have chronic diarrhea that don’t do well on the water. Generally, this happens with older people, and women in particular. The solution is to bring the pH level down until the problem goes away. I have found that a pH level of 8.0 will do the trick, but even that can be too strong for some. In that case, I suggest people drink the purified water and supplement with a low pH level water.
Thanks Rob. I’ll back her down a bit.
As far as the glucose levels, this is what she’s told me. When she started drinking 2 weeks ago, the level was consistently 250+. She had to take insulin every evening or she had a hard time getting out of bed the next morning. Within about a week, the level was down consistently to around 150-160 and that she had back down the daily insulin dose a bit. As of last Friday, she had stopped the insulin completely and the level had maintained about 150. What she was most impressed with though is that she has energy like she hasn’t had in years in the morning…without the insulin boost.
I think she has a doc appt this week with her doc where they will go over the last 90 days worth of data. We’ll see what he says. I’m sure none of it will be pro alkaline water though.
I’ll keep you posted.
Hi Gabe:
Thanks for reporting in on your patient with diabetes.
Perhaps she should email Dr. Mercola and tell him, as he seems determined to undermine the benefits of ionized water without drinking the water or testing the water, or doing any research.
Hi, Rob, lovely to see someone else carrying the message to the masses. I’ve been running my blog for about 5 years now and would love to share stories.
http://ionlife-healthemail.blogspot.com/
Hi Ian;
It is great to have you join us. I have been on your site and blog many times. Your recent message to Dr. Mercola was excellent.
For those of you not familiar with Ian, he is one of the leaders in the industry. He represents Jupiter in Australia and has been drinking ionized water for ten years. I recommend his website and blog to anyone interested in ionized water.
I have a testimonials tab at the top of the page where people can write about their experiences with the water. The man that helps me with my blog will be putting the comment section on the home page shortly. My goal is to attract thousands of testimonials for various health issues from the public and the pros like yourself. When people like Dr. Mercola decide to speak out without doing their homework, we will have a mountain of testimonials that they can read about before they go spouting off. Your contributions would be greatly appreciated.
Once again, it is a priviledge to have you join us.
Thank you, Rob!
I saw an item somewhere on your blog about a ‘rat report’. This one was used in Australia by our competitors and the reply I posted here gives my own rather detailed experience with this issue. Here’s the link.
http:/www.alkaway.com.au/downloads/informed-voice.pdf
Hi Ian:
I don’t think I put up anything about a “rat report”, but it may have been added as a comment by one of our readers. I try to stay away from the animal testing reports because I don’t see how they relate to human consumption. I understand why animal testing is done, but when we have tens of thousands of human testimonials available to us, I just don’t see the relevence of some of the animal tests.
I purchased a Ionize unit and been drinking the water for about 31/2 weeks. Since then i notice to be getting constipated. Is this a side effect?
Hi Sal:
Thanks for your comments.
I have only come across your situation a couple of times out of the hundreds of people that I have talked to about the water. The situation is usually reversed as people can develop diarrhea if they drink too much water or drink water that is too strong in the beginning.
When I have investigated further into the couple of cases of constipation developing, it has turned out that the people were taking their medications with alkaline water. The manuals for every company are very clear that you are supposed to take medications with the “pure” or filtered water only as the alkaline water can alter the absorption rate of the drugs. It is recommended that you wait at least half an hour up to one hour after taking medication before you start drinking the alkaline water again.
Please let us know how things turn out.
I am experiencing the same thing…I was thinking the minerals that were placed in water wasn’t being absorbed properly by my body. I don’t take any medication just a few supplements from time to time. I’m on a vegan/vegetarian diet most of the time… Can you be too akaline? Can that cause constipation? When I go back to drinking regular water with some lemon I’m regular again? I’m currently have a ph 8 water, because the ph 9 would give me a headache. I talked to the owner of the store where I buy my water, and she said that I need to do a yeast cleanse due to yeast overgrowth…I’m going to try hopefully that will help??
Hi
I just recently found a scanned paper from a clinic double blind test result “Alkaline ionized water effective against constipation and diarrhea”.
Allthough it is not very surprising to me, but I just thought of sharing this since I have never seen a scanned paper before, only texts from websites and PDF:s.
http://bonniesherbals.com/information/water-articles/item/106-ionized-water-passes-double-blind-placebo-controlled-study
163 volunteers participated and about half drank alkaline ionized water 500+ ml/day during 4 weeks.
Here is the full report:
http://bonniesherbals.com/information/water-articles/item/110-clinical-evaluation-of-alkaline-ionized-water-for-abdominal-complaints-placebo-controlled-double-blind-tests
It is just one thing that I cannot fully understand from the first link … Onfirst page on the left a note says:
” 25 volunteers who suffered from abdominal discomfort took 1000 liter/day alklaine ionized water for 2 weeks 88% of them felt somehow improved. No one got worse. ”
So, A THOUSAND liters a day? Even if I divide it by 25 volunteers it will still be too high amount of 40 litres/day! Either it must be misprinted or there is just something I am missing… Do you have any clue, and do you happen to know where that full report has been published? I can only find it at commercial sites.
Hi Dan:
Thanks for passing along the study.
You will notice that the paper states 163 volunteers drank 500ml of ionized water per day. Later on in the paper, it is stated that 25 volunteers who suffered from abdominal discomfort took 1000 liters/day. That is obviously a typo as the intention must have been to write 1000 ml/day.
The patients in the videos from the Japanese hospital drink six liters per day. The Olympic athletes that I support only drink 6 or 8 liters at the most per day when they are training hard. Nobody could drink 1,000 litres per day, as that would be over 2,000 pounds per day. A typo for sure.
What surprises me about the study is that the volunteers only drank 500ml (17 ounces) per day. Most people that understand the benefits of the water drink 2 to 3 liters per day, so half a liter is minimal. Even the 25 volunteers who drank 1000 ml per day were not drinking enough water imo.
I would have to read the parameters of the study before I would give it any credence. Were the volunteers biased? What were the controls? How long did the study last? Did they use the WOMAC scale for detailing pain relief, or some other known scale, or did people just say “I feel better”. How many volunteers had constipation and how many had diarrhea? There are too many variables that have not been presented to make this “study” anything more than anecdotal evidence. Personally, I’m a big fan of anecdotal evidence because I have experienced a great deal of anecdotal evidence since I became interersted in the water. However, the scientific community correctly blasts holes through anecdotal evidence. I say correctly because unless there are well designed parameters and reporting methods used, the “study” becomes little more than unsubstantiated opinions.
I wish I had the personal resources to fund proper studies. Unfortunately, I don’t. I think the big ionizer companies should fund studies, or at least create a fund from their profits to fund proper studies. Unfortunately, they can agree on anything and they hate each other. Hopefully, some day the industry will be run by real business people who will understand the importance of “doing it right”.
Scientific studies need to be scientific.
“I would have to read the parameters of the study before I would give it any credence. Were the volunteers biased? What were the controls? How long did the study last? Did they use the WOMAC scale for detailing pain relief, or some other known scale, or did people just say “I feel better”. How many volunteers had constipation and how many had diarrhea? ”
As I can see from the full report where my second link refers to:
The test were double blinded lasting only 4 weeks. Basal symptoms were divided into chronic diarrhea, constipation and abdominal complaints (dyspepsia) and overall improvement rate was evaluated for each of them to study effect of alkaline ionized water.
According to this link:
http://sites.google.com/site/orientalhealthhk/alkalinewaterinjp
The study referred on my previous post was brought up at 25th General Assembly of Japan Medical Congress -Theme: Function of Ionized Water in Medical Treatment, and it was verified as being effective by the world’s first double blind clinical study.
On this page it also clarifies that it was as you said only 1000ml/day for those 25 volunteers
Talking about medical treatments… Do you happen to know how many hospitals in Japan are using IAW to treat their patients? Is the number growing or is it only a few particular hospitals…. if so, if only a handful, which hospitals?
I remember you have been on a visit once
Hi Dan:
Thanks for the update. I don’t have any idea how many hospitals in Japan are using the water. Maybe some of our Kangen readers can help us out with this one.
Hello,
I have a herbal powder which takes care of constipation problem. I have till date given to 140 people and have 100% positive feedback. It is not expensive at all. I gave to people who were taking some sort of medicines and laxatives from 4 years. They were relived in 2-3 days.
I would now like to commercialize it.
Let me know if someone would be interested in exporting. You can contact me at varun07 at hotmail dot com
Hi Varun:
Good luck with your business venture.
I don’t know anything about this product, so I don’t have any comment.
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I enjoyed the article thank you very much my question is do you still retail ionizers
i have cronic constipation for over 25 years try overthink laxative naturel product.
i am from Canada were do i by this water
Hi Frank:
I don’t suffer from constipation but I know a number of people (especially women) that do. I have a couple of ideas that you can try.
1) Magnesium seems to help in our family. We use the H2RENU tablets as they are a great source of molecular hydrogen (I’m a big fan of the benefits of hydrogen gas) and the magnesium seems to help regularity.
2) Caster oil works wonders if you can stand the taste. Mixing caster oil with orange juice helps with the taste