I have been labouring away at my hobby (this blog) since I retired at the end of February of this year.   Although I’m working harder than ever for no pay,  I have to admit that I’m having the time of my life.  When people call you and tell you that you have saved their life, or the life of a loved one, or that the water has changed their life, the payoff is incredible.  

This blog has moved from near anonymity a few months ago to something much bigger than I ever imagined.  The reason for the growth is that I’m getting lots of help from other people who are sharing their knowledge and their experiences.  We are really fortunate to have Ian Hamilton from Australia as one of our commentators.  Ian has  provided us with an excellent video and comments in the short time he has been visiting the blog.  I came across the following article written by Ian some time ago and I wanted to share with everyone.  Ian’s article is long, but worth the read, especially if you are new to the world of alkaline water and water ionizers.  So, sit back with a nice cup of “water” and enjoy the wisdom of one of the leading authorities in the industry.  There is a one paragraph lead in from the publication that presented the article before Ian begins his story:

….In our previous issue of Informed Voice, we ran an article by Jan Roberts regarding perceived potential risks from using a water ioniser which creates alkaline water for drinking. Ian Hamilton, a long-time reader of Informed Voice, asked to give his side of this issue and we are grateful to him for adding some balance. We here at Informed Voice do not make decisions for our readers. Unlike most other publications on the market, we do not allow advertorial content nor do we talk down to or patronise our readership. We know that you are perfectly capable of making the best informed choices for your families and yourselves – given access to information on both sides – because every issue has two sides…..

As the managing director of ION LIFE, supplier of alkaline water systems. as well as a researcher and writer who is deeply interested in the ‘hidden giant’ of personal health, I would like to respond to an article which appeared in the previous issue (Vol 5 No 4) of Informed Voice magazine. In this article, various claims were made regarding the effectiveness of alkaline water which I feel have not been borne out by my own research and life experiences.

I have witnessed thousands of people’s life improvements as they moved from an acidic lifestyle to a balanced, naturally alkaline one. In almost every case, these people have gained their health benefits after beginning to drink alkaline water.

I did not come by my present confidence easily. In fact I was tested all the way with all manner of campaigns designed specifically to prevent people like myself from accessing this fundamental, attainable health technology, using fear of the unknown as a tool.

It was only when a remarkable man came into my life that I could fully recognise the gem I had discovered.

Sang Whang grew up in Korea under Japanese occupation, so at school he learned Korean, Japanese, and later, English. His desire to be a scientist brought him to the US at an early age to work developing electronic and medical technologies. At 55 years of age, he was told he had high blood pressure and the only thing he could use to treat it were drugs he needed to take daily until he died.

Being a scientist, Sang did not accept this. He began looking everywhere for alternative solutions, including in Japan where he found and practised maintaining an acid/alkaline balance successfully for years. It was a part of Japanese spirituality, expressed as Yin and Yang. Japanese scientists adapted Russian technology to ionise water, splitting it into acid and alkaline flows. Sang read the research and decided to acquire his own water alkaliser.

In 1986 he began drinking alkaline ionised water. After six weeks, he threw his blood pressure medication in the bin. Sang is now 75 and to me, he is a model of ageing; clear mind, brilliant intellect, flexible, and full of life and laughter. His book, Reverse Aging, has become a classic of acid/alkaline balance and is reprinted in many languages. This year he began his sequel.

Sang’s transformation from a sickness statistic back to health was dramatic and lasting. So are so many stories I receive in the mail. My ‘story’ file is filled and overflowing.

 Are there really health concerns about alkaline water, or is it just another fear tactic?

A quick internet check on the aforementioned article on alkaline water has confirmed that the writer was a reseller of a competitor’s unit. This interest was not declared. That’s why I wanted to tell you of my ‘commercial’ interest. In addition, I am always happy to respond to articles like this because I’ve found that even qualified professionals don’t really understand why water alkaliser/ioniser technology is so uniquely health supporting.

Why Call Water Alkaline?

The article by Ms Roberts stated that a chemist will always rate the alkalinity of a liquid by the volume of minerals – either acid or alkaline – in the liquid. True enough, but the words ‘alkaline’ or ‘acid’ are only a measure no, they are a descriptor of pH, (from the French ‘per Hydrogene’ which measures the hydrogen in a liquid). Alkalinity, on the other hand, as Ms Roberts said, is the amount of minerals in the water. Sure, water may have a range of minerals; both acidic and alkaline, but the balance of them will determine the pH rating. Why? Because minerals react with water to release hydrogen ions from the water itself (and ion is a positively or negatively charged atom). Water like this may show an alkaline pH, but can still retain harmful acid elements such as chlorine, chloramines and more. So water is more accurately referred to by its pH level, not as an alkaline or acid. You’ll see later why this is important.

The Ocean Within

We are around 90% water at birth, reducing to as little as 10% before death. A famous case reported by Canadian Psychologist Abram Hoffer described an elderly patient who was undergoing shock treatment. He was so dry that the electrodes could not pass voltage through his body! It naturally follows that the ‘ocean within’ as Japanese macrobiotic pioneer Herman Aihara calls it, should receive the highest priority. It’s what we are made of!

Aihara’s inner ocean is alkaline, mineralised, and saline. Supplementing it with pure water is not just unnatural – it’s dumb! Until now, humans have never drunk pure water – and for good reason. We evolved to live symbiotically with nature. Where nature perceives a lack, it attempts to rebalance it. If we drink pure water, we dilute our inner ocean and our inner environment will attempt to rebalance it by robbing our bones, tissues and teeth of precious alkaline minerals. Why alkaline? Because we already have an extreme over supply of acid minerals!

So although Ms Roberts tells us tap water has so few minerals in it as to be basically useless, it doesn’t really answer the problem pinpointed by Dr Linda Frasetto UC. In 1998, she discovered that for the first time in our evolution, we have begun to respond dramatically differently to the massive ‘acid tide’ we all experience in today’s society. Dr Frasetto suggests that we are so far down the road of acidification that our bodies resort to storing acids in our fat – because it knows that to eliminate them as it always has through the kidneys – may precipitate renal failure. So any discussion of the way a ‘normal body’ responds to acids without Dr Frasetto’s consideration is out of date.

An Acid World

We live in an acid world and we are acidic beyond our ancestor’s wildest imaginings. That’s why I get a mite upset when people trot out all the old ‘be a good boy and eat lots of vegetables’ argument. Dr Robert O. Young, Dr Theodore Baroody and many other acid/alkaline pioneers agree that we’d have to change our diet to 80% alkaline foods and 20% acid. The only person I know to have achieved this is Popeye.

So let’s get to the heart of the matter. If we agree that we are acidic, we should remedy it by ingesting alkaline substances. Yet according to Ms Roberts, serious health effects, including heart and digestive problems can occur if we drink alkaline water. It also says that there is no scientific evidence that alkaline water as a benefit to health. Strong allegations indeed!

My reply to that is that I have is not just a few dozen, but many hundreds of originals of stories users have sent us, describing significant personal health changes

Scientific evidence?

There certainly is scientific, published evidence, and it often comes from countries with naturally alkaline water that is piped into people’s homes. Finnish investigators conducted a study of 100,000 death certificates to correlate the causes of death, age at death and area of residence. It found that people who had consistently consumed alkaline water had a whopping 22% better chance of beating heart disease ( https://secure15.ozhosting.com/ionlife/Articles/finland.asp)

The ‘Rat report’

The first time I saw the ‘rat report’ I admit that I was worried. I’d been drinking alkaline ionised water for seven years! If anyone would be damaged, it would have been me, so I took action. The rat report quoted is an ‘abstract’, not the full study, so I contacted the author, Dr Watanabe in Tokyo who kindly forwarded me all of his finished studies. In it, I noted the type of water alkaliser used, including brand, and contacted the managing director of the supplier. They no longer make the unit, and quit production some years before the study, and so I concluded that it therefore must have been an old alkaliser. So Ms Roberts are talking about a study so long ago that any water alkaliser of that era would bear little resemblance to the systems we sell today.

Next, I went to my GP and asked for an identical heart test. He looked at the report and laughed. “Firstly, this test has been discredited years ago. It was never accurate.” he said. “Secondly, you’re not a baby rat!” I still wanted to know the state of my heart tissue, so he scheduled tests that showed perfect heart condition, plus excellent lab test indicators in all areas. “You’re certainly a lot healthier than those baby rats!” he laughed.

Are there ‘heavy metal’ plates in an alkaliser?

Ms Roberts has claimed that alkalisers produce a chemically altered synthetic solution. She adds insult to injury by referring to the platinum coated titanium plates in the alkaliser as ‘heavy metal plates’.

 Firstly, there is no ‘synthetic’ chemical solution produced. All that happens in a water alkaliser/ioniser is that positively charged atoms are magnetically drawn to one stream, negative to the other. Minerals already in the water go the same way, so unlike her preferred water filter, a water alkaliser concentrates acid minerals in one stream and alkaline minerals in another. Acid water on our skin and hair and around the kitchen to kill bacteria without chemicals; alkaline water for drinking to hydrate, detox and alkalize, without adding acid minerals to our body.

So what is a heavy metal and are all heavy metals toxic? Heavy metals are at least five times denser than water. Surprisingly, this includes iron and alumina. We need 70 trace heavy metals in our body for optimum health.

The heavy metals which are capable of causing harm through ingestion, include mercury, nickel, lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminium, platinum, and copper. The only ‘heavy metals’ that water in an alkaliser is in contact with are platinum and titanium – neither of which are considered to be dangerous. Titanium is used in bone implants. Platinum, a beautiful silvery-white when pure, holds the leading position on the list of ‘noble’ metals, along with silver, gold, and bronze. It is the most precious and rare among the metals. It provides supreme corrosion-resistance. Its unique chemical and physical characteristics mean it is ideal for a wide range of industrial and environmental applications. It is even used in some anticancer drugs. It is used in water alkalisers because it possesses high resistance to chemical attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics, and stable electrical properties. It is even the most common ‘high end’ watch case, on millions of people’s wrists!

Digestive Troubles or Digestive Relief?

Ms Roberts tells us that Japanese scientists registered alkaline ionised water as being capable of hyperacidity relief. She goes on to say that this belief was misplaced, by quoting a University of Columbia article which found that any alkaline water you drink will be immediately neutralised by stomach acids.

I have no problem with this, but surely it also means that if you have excess acidity, then drinking alkaline water, as the Japanese scientists said so many years ago, will also neutralise excess stomach acid, which implies it would assist with hyperacidity. The scientist’s health statement on alkaline water was issued almost thirty years ago and has never been challenged. The water alkaliser business is very truly alive and well in Japan today, with major players like Toyo, Panasonic, Akai, and Amano all producing their own models. Can we believe that a company like Panasonic would produce and sell a product that might attract a class action because the scientists were wrong?

Digestion and Alkaline Water

Let’s look more closely at digestion. When Sang Whang lectured here in Byron Bay, one eager listener discussed Sang’s theories on stomach acid and later commented that Sang Whang had a ‘diamond tip brain’. Sang’s theorys, once termed ‘left of centre’ are now being accepted by more and more researchers.

Sang suggests that the reason we lose acidity in our stomachs as we age is because we lose the ability to deliver acid from our bloodstream on demand. With narrowing arteries, accumulated plaque, and higher blood pressure (thicker blood), the normal request from ‘command central’ for acid from the blood buffer is given, but the ‘goods’ can’t be delivered because the transport system has degraded. Our acidified circulation system has lost its ability to acidify!

It makes sense. The idea of a ‘bag of acid’ in the stomach is just so wrong. We ‘issue’ acid to the stomach based on needs ascertained by our nervous system. We call for exactly what the stomach needs, based on what the nerves in the mouth have observed is ‘coming down the tube’. In this way, our stomach acid to food ratio is always optimised and we don’t have the ongoing problem of having to create more bicarbonate of soda to protect our stomach walls from the acid. Sang says that by alkalising (in his case with alkaline water), we have the capacity to reduce blood pressure, clean up the blood, balance our alkaline and acid buffers (for all the acid sent to the stomach there must be a proportionate bicarbonate of soda ratio) and ensure easy delivery of the acid and the base to the stomach in the exact volume and proportion demanded.

Theory or Fact?

I understand that this is all theory. But I keep getting stories for my customers telling me what has happened to them. I do NOT get stories of ruined digestion. Ms Roberts is correct in saying that as we age we lose up to 30% of our enzymatic stomach acid function, but her claim of digestive damage is simply not borne out by my experience.

Bear in mind that this is not new technology – it’s over 30 years old. So where is the research? Where are the papers? And if Ms Roberts is correct, why isn’t the Japanese government taking the water off the market, or at the very least modifying its own health statement that the water assists hyperacidity?

It was claimed by Ms Roberts that Dr Weil has stated that alkaline water had no scientifically-proven health benefits, so I decided to ask Dr Weil if he had actually tested a water alkaliser. After all, it said he’d answer any question on his website. Six emails later, I gave up.

I can only conclude – until proven wrong – that the good Dr Weil has NOT tested or even touched a water alkaliser. In the meantime, Dr Ted Baroody, who has tested and used water alkalisers, was so impressed he wrote a book about them in which he says that he has prescribed over 5000 gallons to patients. Dr Sherry Rogers, a very prolific medical writer, is forthright when she writes, “Certainly we are better off drinking alkaline water rather than acidic water”. (Please insert a reference here) Dr Robert O. Young, and alkaline water pioneer and researcher, when asked what single thing he would recommend to improve health was quick to respond; ‘alkaline water’. (P. 23 Detoxify or Die)

Ms Roberts also talks about the possibility of electricity being used to magnetise the water alkalising chamber. She postulates that electricity may be a future health risk. If that is so, we are all doomed. Electricity heats our shower water, our tea in the morning, our capuccino at coffee break.

My final offering.

Ms Roberts spent two full pages lecturing us on what alkalinity was. Now it’s my turn. Alkalinity is another way of expressing the number of hydrogen ions in a liquid. pH is a logarithmic measurement of the number of hydrogen ions in the water. So when I drink alkaline ionised water I receive a net increase in hydrogen ions, the ‘building block of life (Dr Alberts Szent-Gorgy, Nobel Prize Winner). If they are in an acidic state, they are positively electrically charge. If they are in an alkaline state, they have a negative electrical charge.

Positive = rust, oxidation, decay.

Negative = donation of energy to the body.

Acid = ageing= positive ions,

Alkaline = energy donation = health support.

Tap water rusts because it causes an electrical current between itself and the molecules of the metal. Put metal into alkaline water and it does not rust!

So after eight years of personal research (I am not a chemist, although I employ one whose own research corresponds with these statements), I have learned that water in the form I drink daily is unlike tap water or other filtered water

(a) because it has no acids in it, and;

(b) because it is loaded with negatively charged hydrogen, the building block of life.

Ms Roberts says we should eat greens and drink good water and I agree. But if you test your urine for the effect of greens and the effect of alkaline ionised water using a scientific meter known as an Oxidation/Reduction Potential meter, (it measures the positive or negative ion charge in water) you’ll find that a huge plate of broccoli has the same effect as a glass of alkaline ionised water. They both negatively charge your urine, demonstrating their antioxidant qualities. So what is the easiest to do – eat broccoli or drink alkaline water?

Sometimes the most basic things are the hardest to accept. There is nothing more basic than ‘alkaline neutralises acid’, and this is the fundamental health secret of alkaline ionised water. It just makes sense.

Join the Alkalarians

You want clarity about this extremely important health support strategy, one way or the other. When people called us in a distressed state after reading Ms Roberts’ article, we suggest that they look within and see how they feel about what they have read. Why was the article written? How was it designed to make you feel; empowered or scared? If you have read this article and the previous one, I would suggest you do the same; go within and ask your heart how it feels about what you have read.

Ian Blair Hamilton.

Managing Director,

ION LIFE