I have been relating stories and publishing testimonials about the health benefits of drinking hydrogen ions produced by water ionizers for years. No matter how many people provide anecdotal evidence, the medical profession has shunned and even ridiculed the benefits of ionized water.

Until the water industry can provide scientific evidence that ionized water provides benefits beyond simple hydration, the doctors and everyone else will treat the industry with skepticism.

People want scientific proof backed by proper studies

Those who have been around the water ionizer industry for any length of time know the water works. The problem is that getting proper studies done is expensive…..crazy expensive. The outrageous costs of seeing the study process through to FDA approval is beyond anyone but the pharmaceutical companies.

Despite the insanely high costs of clinical research, progress is being made on a number of fronts. The fact that people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the smallest of studies, where there is little or no chance of recouping the costs, should tell you something.

I have been focusing my research on North American studies on water because nobody in America seems to give any credit to Japanese studies. There are numerous studies that have been completed or are in progress that clearly demonstrate the benefits of drinking mineral rich ionized water. The US government NIH (National Institute of Health) webstite is an incredible source of information for those that are interested.

A Study that Proves Hydrogen Ions Created in Ionized Water Are Effective Antioxidants

You will see lots of “claims” on the internet about the benefits of the water, but every site making the claims puts in a Disclaimer. Now there is an oxymoron for you. You will see “our machines or our water will do blah blah blah” folled by a Disclaimer. Geez, no wonder people are skeptical. You never actually see American studies on humans that people can actually sink their teeth into. They are out there, but nobody in the water ionizer industry wants to spend any time doing their research because there is no “fast” money in it.

I recently checked out a study with the title “Effectiveness of Hydrogen Rich Water on Antioxidant Status of Subjects with Potential Metabolic Syndrome”. The research was headed up by the Heart, Lung and Esophageal Surgery Institute, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, USA. The actual study was conducted at KGK Synergize, Inc., London, Canada.

Pub Med Health, the US National Library of Medicine describes Metabolic Syndrome as:

a name for a group of risk factors that occur together and increase the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes

You can combat Metabolic Syndrome diseases with an alkaline diet, or alkaline water.

I called the research faciltiy in London the other day and talked to the person who was in charge of administering the study. Even though the study was small, the results were conclusive….and expensive!

You can see review the study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831093/

The study provides clinical proof that hydrogen ions produced by running water over magnesium are effective and powerful antioxidants….not ancedotal evidence….clinical evidence. The exact wording from the summary of the study is as follows:

“The consumption of hydrogen rich water for 8 weeks resulted in a 39% increase (p<0.05) in antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD) and a 43% decrease (p<0.05) in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in urine. Further, subjects demonstrated an 8% increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and a 13% decrease in total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol from baseline to 4 weeks

What does this mean? The study showed that participants who drank hydrogen rich water demonstrated a massive increase in the antioxidant enzyme (SOD) and a massive decrease in acid in the urine (TBARS). In addition, participants showed a significant increase in HDL the “good cholesterol”, and a significant decrease in the “bad cholesterol”.

My guess is that a more comprehensive study would have demonstrated other health benefits if more parameters were examined. We will never know without further studies.

Now What?

I will solicit the water ionizer companies to join together to finance additional studies. The goal of the studies would be to investigate and provide scientific evidence that drinking ionized water creates powerful antioxidants, and is beneficial for weight loss, type 2 diabetes, acid reflux, and heart disease. It’s time that the businesses that stand to profit the most from the studies invest in scientific research so that they can back up their claims.

I doubt that the water industry guys will put up the money because they have demonstrated an incredible lack of foresight when it comes to education and research. I will figure something one way or another because the testing needs to be done. I don’t know how I will raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to complete a small study, but where there’s a will, there is a way. This will happen!

When the study results are published in a scientific or medical journal, the doctors will no longer be able to turn their backs. The drug companies will have to find a clever way to discredit the research so that doctors don’t recommend the water because water will represent a massive threat to prescription drug sales. Even if the drug companies find a way to mislead doctors, you can be sure that people like myself will be out there alerting the public of the truth.

I wish that a few of the thousands of bloggers who write about healthy diets and exercise would wake up to the fact that water plays a huge role in maintaining good health.

Related posts:

1. Clinical Improvements From the Intake of Reduced Water
2. Anecdotal Evidence versus Clinical Trials

Reverse Osmosis systems were originally created to remove salt from water. The series of filters and the membrane which lies horizontally atop the filter canisters are highly effective in removing salt and most contaminants from your source water. The only downside to drinking Reverse Osmosis water is that it makes water acidic and it removes minerals that your body requires from the water. If you use a reverse osmosis system, it is important to replenish the lost minerals through your diet, or by taking supplements. I recommend a consultation with a nutritionist or naturopath to review your dietary intake if you are drinking reverse osmosis water.

Some Good News

At one time, I recommended that people should remove their Reverse Osmosis systems unless they had to use the system to remove salt from the water generated by a water softener. My opionion changed when Antioxidant Filters were introduced to the market in 2010.

When you use an Antioxidant Filter in-line with a Reverse Osmosis system, you get the best of both worlds. By that, I mean you get the brilliant decontamination benefits of the RO system and you get the wonderful remineralization benefits of the Antioxidant Filter. It is easy to understand the benefits of getting the bad stuff out of the water, but not so easy to understand the benefits of drinking mineral rich alkaline water. The bottom line is that water that has been filtered through an Antioxidant Filter is rich in free hydrogen, the ultimate antioxidant and the the building block of every cell in our bodies.

An Antioxidant Filter, with its ability to remove chlorine, chloramines, fluoride, and many other contaminants can be used on its own for many source water conditions. However, to get the “best of the best”, or when your source water has a heavy volume of contaminants or pesky “difficult to remove” contaminants, a combination of a RO system and an Antioxidant Filter would be my choice.

Related posts:

1. Chromium 6 Solutions: Ion Resin Exchanges & Reverse Osmosis are the Best
2. Dr. Mercola: Sales Pitch Disguised as News
3. Hard Water Scale – Answers and Solutions

Public recognition of the importance of eating an alkaline diet is growing quickly, but it still has a long way to go. The professionals in the nutrition industry understand the importance of eating a healthy diet because they are faced with the consequences of poor dietary choices of their patients every day. Even the public knows that eating your fruits and veggies is something we should all do, but many of us continue to ignore the warnings.

Maybe the government should start to regulate the fast food industry in the same way that they have forced tobacco companies to put warnings on their packaging, and stopped them from advertising. Can you imagine Ronald McDonald with a sign around his neck informing us that eating a Big Mac and fries increases the risk of getting arthritis or diabetes or cancer?

Why is eating a healthy diet important?

Food and beverages provide fuel for our bodies. Humans are omnivores, which means that our digestive systems can break down and absorb the nutrients from both plants and animals, and eliminate the waste products. Despite the fact that we are omnivores, our bodies work far more efficiently when we consume plant materials. The reason for this is that our bodies are meant to be slightly alkaline (a pH of about 7.3 to 7.4) and raw fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds are alkaline. Meats and dairy products and the myriad of fast foods that we consume are all acidic in varying degrees. The nutrients found in meats and dairy are also important to our nutritional uptake, but we can survive and in fact thrive on far less of the acidic foods and drinks than most of us consume.

It is generally accepted in the health industry that the ideal diet should be 80% alkaline. In Canada and the USA, the average person consumes a diet of 97% acidic foods and beverages. That means our bodies are being fed the wrong fuel. While our bodies have an amazing capacity to process and eliminate excess acid, over time, our bodies become acidic and nasty health issues start happening. For many, the side effects begin with acid reflux and then proceed to diabetes. If left unchecked, the acidic state of our bodies becomes the breeding ground for cancer. It is well documented that cancer and other diseases can not survive in an alkaline environment. If you don’t believe me, or virtually every professional in the nutrition industry and you can afford ten minutes of your time, watch the video of a segment of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, who interviews Bill Clinton and the medical doctors who helped change or perhaps even saved his life. Mr. Clinton’s doctors say that a proper diet can prevent and even reverse major diseases such as heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. You can watch the video here:

Why does neglecting a proper diet increase our chances of getting sick?

We eat and drink because our bodies need fuel… or at least we should. Our society has created tasty treats which are advertised endlessly in an effort to convince us that we should eat the tasty products. Unfortunately, eating those tasty foods and drinks makes your body acidic. When you are acidic, your body has less ability to “reduce” the potentially damaging free oxygen in your body. Here is where it gets kind of tricky. Let me explain.

Your body obviously needs oxygen to survive. However, up to 2% of the oxygen in your body can and does become free oxygen. That means that the oxygen atoms are unstable and are in search of electrons (negative charges) to make the oxygen stable. If your body doesn’t have negatively charged hydrogen available to provide the electron hungry oxygen atoms with electrons, the free oxygen atoms will scavenge healthy cells in your body. According to the world famous work of Dr. Hayashi, when negatively charged hydrogen is available in your body, it will combine with the free oxygen and convert it to harmless water.

Others scholars such as Sang Whang and Dr. Robert Young claim that alkaline foods or beverages cause the cells in the stomach to produce acid (HCl or hydrochloric acid) and the bi-products of producing the acid are alkaline (negatively charged) buffers that enter the blood stream.

Now matter which theory is correct, it is well known that creating negative charges in the body by consuming alkaline foods or beverages helps reduce the harmful effects of free oxygen, thereby preventing or reversing disease.

Do alkaline foods and alkaline drinks do the same thing? Yes and No

Yes, both alkaline foods and alkaline beverages produce the negative charges that act as powerful and effective antioxidants that can counteract the harmful effects of free oxygen in your body. The food people use ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) as a measurement of the antioxidant capacity of a specif food. The water people use ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential) to measure the antioxidant capability of water. I have done some preliminary research, but once again, I honestly don’t know how the two measures correlate. I hope to put more research into the comparison of ORAC and ORP in the future… just not today.

No, food provides nutrients that water doesn’t provide, so you can’t live without food. On the other hand, water makes up 70% of your body and acts as your internal transportation system, so you can’t live without water. Survival is not possible without both food and water.

Is either alkaline food or alkaline water better for you than the other?

I don’t think anyone can provide a definitive answer to the question. Both work and both contribute to maximizing your health. I think the right answer is a matter of personal choice. Some people like my wife love their “greens” and don’t care for most forms of processed or junk food. Other people like myself love their junk food and find the taste of many “greens” unpleasant. People like my wife that eat properly don’t require alkaline water as much as people like myself who “cheat” more than we should. Therefore, I believe alkaline water is more important to me than to my wife. The fact that the water produced much faster and dramatic results for me than for Mary confirms my belief. Even though it took longer for the positive effects to show up in Mary’s body than mine, her health responded very positively over the period of a few months despite the fact that she still drinks her “must have” coffee every morning.

Can your body survive without alkaline food or water?

Of course it can, as we see evidence of that every time we look at the people around us. However, we also see that as the world has moved away from wholesome nutritious food and water, people are getting sick. Whether we as individuals choose to do something about it up to each and every one of us.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not intended as medical advice.

Related posts:

1. Sang Whang Talks about Cancer and Acid vs Alkaline
2. Dealing with Fibromyalgia with Alkaline Foods and Water
3. Achieving a more alkaline body for better health!

My Story:  My wife introduced me to alkaline ionized water two years ago after attending a MLM meeting, and the rest is history: full recovery from long term acid reflux problems and crippling arthritis, complete elimination of ragweed allergy symptoms, and zero colds for two years for any of the five members of our family who live in our home.

I retired last year as President of one of the leading suppliers of water ionizers so that I could start this blog to help spread the word about the benefits of ionized water.  I also wanted to provide an unbiased source of information about the water ionizer industry and its products.  It turns out that honest information goes a long way.

Benefits of the water: There are too many to mention and you can read about them all over the internet.  The important thing to understand is that drinking ionized water can play a significant role in helping your body become alkaline.  Your body is meant to be alkaline, as you were born that way.   The highly acidic diets of most Americans and Canadians cause our bodies to be acidic, which leads to degenerative diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and cancer.  The ”miracle water” or “kangen water” is not a miracle at all.  Your body is the miracle, and drinking the water simply allows your “miracle body” to perform properly as acid is slowly eliminated from your system.    

Why I started this blog: After drinking the water for a few weeks, I was stunned by the remarkable benefits.  I was also shocked that so few people were aware of the water because the results were life changing for me.  It didn’t make any sense to me that such an incredible product was hidden in almost total obscurity.  I quickly learned that the pharma industry quietly works behind the scenes casting doubt on water ionizers and other non-regulated health products .  The pharmas also carry tremendous influence with the health regulatory bodies in both Canada and the States, so it is no wonder that the medical “influencers” have not helped spread the word.

Adding to the frustration was the short sighted behavior of the players in the water ionizer industry itself.  Instead of building awareness and educating the public, they were too busy filling their pockets and stabbing each other in the back with their archaic marketing techniques. 

The “independent” review sites, which are not independent at all, only serve to confuse the public.  Claims by virtually every company that  “our product are the best and the other companies don’t match up” leaves the consumer wondering if any of the products are any good.  Given the high cost of the machines, and the uncertainty created by both the pharmaceutical industry and the water ionizer industry itself, it is no wonder that sales have languished when they should be going through the roof.  Unfortunately, the water ionizer companies seem to have adopted a philosophy that ”you only need to fool some of the people some of the time” because of the high profit margins. 

The benefits of the water are too important to leave the education process in the hands of the water ionizer companies who seem to only be interested in profits.  No wonder less than 1% of people in Canada and the United States have even heard of ionized water despite the fact water ionizers have been available here for 8 years.  My goal is to make sure the other 99% of the population learns about the water, and I hope you help me with my cause.

The Good News:  With every article I post on this blog, more and more people are taking notice.  I don’t have any delusions that people are following this blog because of my “captivating” writing style, or the “scintillating” content.  They are looking for honest and unbiased answers to help clear up the confusion created by the industry itself.  It appears that the people who are visiting this site are sharing it with others, which brings a big smile to my face.  

More Good News:  As the blog grows, so do the comments and inquiries.  In the past month, I have been contacted by people all over the world who are interested in the water as a business.  In fact, at last count, people from 85 different countries are following this blog.  That means the word is getting out there. 

Many of the inquiries are about specific issues or questions as would be expected.  What comes as a surprise is that I have been contacted by many people in recent weeks from far and near who want to get involved in the water ionizer industry.  As a result, I’m helping people from Australia (Sydney and Melbourne), Belgium, Canada (New Brunswick, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC), Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia (and the surrounding countries that used to make up the USSR), and the USA (California, Florida, and Minnesota).  My help is in the form providing education, answering questions, and letting them know who the good guys are in the industry to deal with, and putting them in touch with the right people.  If you want to get involved, contact me and I will be happy to offer whatever assistance that I can. 

When I started this blog, the goal was to share some information so that individuals could sort their way through the confusion created by all of the conflicting information about ionized water on the internet. As the blog grows, it seems that more and more people who can help others “the influencers” are getting involved.  It is similar to the old story that reminds us that if you feed a man a fish, you have provided one meal, but if you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for life. 

I’m a really impatient person.  I want everyone to learn about the water and start drinking it Right Now!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.  Creating awareness in the 99+ % of people who have never heard of water ionizers is going to take time.  However, it will happen because the benefits of the water will eventually demand attention.   At some point in time, even the owners of the companies that hate me and have been threatening me because I’m demanding accountability will figure out that there will be plenty of money for everyone if we just teach people how to fish.  In the meantime, Just Drink the Damn Water!

Thanks For Helping: I’m really grateful for the comments on this blog and the emails that I receive.  I will continue to research and write because it is my hobby and passion, but your encouragement helps far more than you can imagine.  If you want to help spread the word about the water, please refer this website to people that you care about, or link this site to your website.  Thanks for your help!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not meant as medical advice.

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