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What Is Good Health Worth?

rob — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:20:46 +0000

I have always been a “value guy” when it comes to purchasing anything. What does that mean? To me, it means that the object that I’m considering purchasing offers more benefit to me than the effort I have to put out in order to be able to afford to purchase it.

Junk Food: Does a piece of chocolate provide enough pleasure to merit the ten or twenty cents that it costs. Unfortunately for me and to many others, the answer to that one is yes despite the fact that we know that it is bad for us. Our society is filled with overweight people because junk food is a low cost way of providing temporary satisfaction. Unfortunately, in the long run, the cumulative effects to our health of over consumption of junk food exceeds the financial cost. The real cost the health risk.

GMO Food: This is a tougher decision. Monsanto/the Devil is feeding the world. Productivity is up which keeps prices down. However, what is the real cost?

Entertainment: This is a far reaching category…from music to sports to theater to movies to television to the internet and so on. Other than professional sports and some theatrical productions, entertainment is typically very inexpensive from a financial perspective. To me, the real cost is the “brain dead” time that so many of us waste in front of the television, or the loss of “family time” as we all scurry off to our offices or bedrooms to play on the “net” instead of sharing with each other.

Water: You didn’t think I would let this one sneak by did you? Most of us think water is free because it doesn’t cost anything to get a drink of water out of our taps. Once again, the cost shouldn’t be measured in terms of money. While tap water is “free”, it is often filled with poisons that cause long term health problems.

The Reverse Osmosis people (a good one can be purchased for $400 to $600) have had it right all along in that they have focused on eliminating harmful contaminants from water. Adding a Calcium/Magnesium type supplement to replace lost minerals and eating an alkaline diet to offset the acidic properties of RO water is a good solution, or, you can add an antioxidant filter ($300).

I can’t leave this topic without talking about electric water ionizers. They work…plain and simple. But, how much should you pay for it? I guess that depends upon what value you attach to your health. The Kangen guys are the only “real” electric water ionizer company as they sell 5,000 machines per month in the USA. It boggles the mind to see people paying $4,000 per machine when competitive brands that work just as well or better sell for half the money….but that’s marketing baby! The market share for the alternative brands is shrinking while the Kangen brand is growing. It looks like the only real alternatives for consumers are the antioxidant filters which sell in the $300 to $400 range. I understand that sales for the antioxidant filters are taking off, but I thought their impact would have been greater by this time. Apparently the low price of the units is holding back sales as people wonder if the product actually works. Go figure.

On a percentage basis, virtually nobody owns a water ionizer. Would you use one if it was free? Would you pay $100? $200? $500? $1,000? Does the brand make a difference to you? I would really like to know so please comment below.

I don’t know any other way to describe the success of bottled water other than to recognise that the bottles are for lazy people. There is simply no reasonable explanation for people to be wasting ridiculous amounts of money and knowingly destroying our planet with bottled water other than they are too lazy to do something about it. This may sound crazy, but I think the real problem with bottled water is recycling. People think that bottled water is ok because the bottles get recycled. Wrong….less than half of the bottles get recycled.

Electro Magnetic Fields/Radiation: My new passion. Most of us know that we should avoid living near overhead telephone wires if we can avoid it. We have been hearing from out parents since we were children to not sit too close to the tv or the computer (but for the wrong reasons). We know that using micro wave ovens kills off the useful nutrients in the foods we “nuke”. Yet so many of us ignore the evidence.

We like our cell phones, our portable phones, our computers, and our televisions. Many of us broadcast WiFi through our homes and offices. The convenience offered represents great value when it comes to dollars spent versus the pleasures or efficiency derived from them. Virtually none of us has ever considered the cost of what the radiation from these appliances does to our health until the WHO announced in March 2011 that it ranks cell phone use as a Type 2B carcinogen. What does that mean? It means that using an unprotected cell phone may cause cancer. What does it cost to protect yourself or your children from this? Twenty bucks for lab tested shields that offer a 97% a reduction of the EMR’s entering your ear canal. Seems like a no-brainer to me. I have also learned that shields can also reduce the EMR from your computer screen by 89%, but you need four of them. My solution to reducing EMR’s from computer screens is to keep the screens a full arm’s length away (about 3 feet from my face as my hands rest on the keypad). I find that resting my arms on the desk also reduces the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.

I could go on and on about the value of things because the selection of items to choose from is endless. The old adage that the best things in life are free still holds true. For everything else, there is…..do your homework and please consider all the costs, not just the price tag.

Teach Your Kids About Sodas…Before It’s Too Late

rob — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:53:57 +0000

When will our legislators wake up and stop companies like Coca Cola and PepsiCo from destroying the lives of our citizens and contributing to enormous health care issues and expenses? Probably NEVER!

The people who run the companies selling Coke and Pepsi know that their products are ruining lives and contributing to disease and death all over the world. They don’t care. Hey baby, it’s all about freedom of choice. Besides, harmful acidic drinks full of sugar puts smiles on the faces of hundreds of millions of unsuspecting, uneducated people every day….and lots of money in their pockets.

The people who run Coca Cola and PepsiCo are not dummies. Far from it. They know that the world will eventually figure out that their products are far more harmful to society than cigarettes. Before you say that can’t be true, think about what sodas are doing to our society. Obesity, diabetes, and even cancer, can be tied to the insanely high consumption of sodas in America….and all without a warning label. The burden on our health care system from sodas is unbelievable. Yes, other factors such as McDonalds et al contribute, but sodas are the key to the downfall of the health of our society.

Want to lose weight?

Stop drinking sodas. If you change nothing else in your life other than switching from drinking one soda per day to one glass of water, you will lose 14 pounds per year. Want to gain weight? Drink sodas as the opposite of the above is true for putting on weight.

If you think that drinking diet sodas is better, think again as you will see below.

It gets worse!

Coke has a pH of about 2.5. So what? Since the pH scale is logarithmic, much like the Richter scale which measures earthquakes, a pH of 2.5 is 50,000 times more acidic than pure water. Hmmmm…..sounds bad, but what does it mean?

Your blood needs to be slightly alkaline in the 7.3 to 7.4 pH range. If the pH of your blood strays outside that tight range, the consequences are bad and can lead to death. Your body will do whatever it has to do in order to maintain the pH in your blood in the proper pH range. The only defense your body has is for the blood to confiscate alkali minerals from other parts of your body. Your body will steal calcium from your bones and teeth leading to osteoporosis and dental problems. Your body will steal magnesium from your bones and cells. While calcium loss and calcium supplements get all the headlines, your body can’t even process calcium without magnesium. Your body will also grab the limited amount of iodine that your body stores from your thyroid, which controls metabolism in your body.

Must See Video

The following video is the best health related video I have ever watched. It is simple and easy to understand. Please take the next 9 minutes of your life to watch the video. The time will fly by as it is simple to understand and interesting. You will want to share it with your kids and anyone else that you care about.

“Healthier” Reverse Osmosis Systems

rob — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:47:48 +0000

The debate over the benefits and faults of Reverse Osmosis systems has been raging for years. For me, the issue is about creating better drinking water, but I understand the passion behind the debate because there is so much money at stake within the industry.

Our source water is getting more and more polluted and public funding for safe water continues to disappear. People are rightfully questioning the government position that our drinking water is safe. Drinking a glass of water from your tap today won’t make you sick overnight, but the cumulative effects of drinking contaminated tap water over time is very unhealthy.

My Meeting with a Large Reverse Osmosis Water Company

I had the good fortune to be contacted recently by a large retail chain of stores that sells RO water and RO equipment to the public. They found my blog and asked me to talk to them about Antioxidant Filters. I was impressed with the knowledge and experience of the people at the meeting. I was also impressed with their responsible attitude towards serving their customers.

The participants in the meeting were supporters of the benefits of water ionizers as they had all tried ionized water. However, the feedback on the electric water ionizers was that they were too expensive s, and they are not compatible with RO systems.

The people at the meeting asked to describe how and why the Antioxidant Filters perform so well with RO systems. They “got it” right away as soon as I explained how natural ionization works as opposed to electrolysis. It was simple to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Antioxidant Filter by testing the water with pH drops after it has passed through both the RO system and through the Antioxidant Filter.

It became instantly obvious to me at the meeting that there is a huge business opportunity available to those in the RO industry who understand that they can contact previous customers and upgrade their RO systems to provide “healthier” water.

Reverse Osmosis Systems: The Good

Reverse Osmosis systems were originally created for commercial purposes to remove salt from water and they are very effective in that regard. RO systems also remove many other contaminants from water, which means that they can be very beneficial in situations of unsafe water supply. In disaster situations where sanitation is compromised, RO systems can be life savers. For those that receive their drinking water from wells, lakes, or runoff, RO systems can remove harmful bacteria and other dangerous contaminants that may be present. Gone are the days when we can take clean water for granted, so RO systems definitely have a useful function in our world.

Reverse Osmosis Systems: The Bad

There are a number of arguments against RO systems, but the primary concerns are that the systems remove good stuff (essential minerals) from the water and that the systems make the water very acidic. Both concerns are real and important. There are other minor negatives to RO systems, but they are more of an inconvenience thing as opposed to real issues.

The RO System Rebuttal

The RO industry has been claiming for years that the body doesn’t absorb inorganic minerals found in water, so the argument that RO systems removed healthy minerals is redundant. After my meeting with the RO water company, I decided to do some research. The amount of information on the internet in support of RO systems being the best solution for drinking water is staggering. However, the information is completely biased and is not based upon facts, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Your body absorbs minerals such as Magnesium and Calcium from water

Contrary to what the Reverse Osmosis industry claims, your body does absorb minerals from water. I will limit my discussion for brevity reasons to a discussion of Magnesium and Calcium, two of the most important minerals in our bodies. Intuitively, you should know that our bodies can absorb minerals from water as our species has somehow managed to survive for thousands of years despite the fact that magnesium and calcium (which the body is unable to produce on its own) are not always available to everyone.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/520182-can-the-human-body-absorb-the-minerals-in-water/#ixzz1XPWOy4nO

Magnesium:

The US government’s National Institute of Health says:

“Tap water can be a source of magnesium, but the amount varies according to the water supply. Water that naturally contains more minerals is described as “hard”. “Hard” water contains more magnesium than “soft” water”. The quote comes from http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/magnesium.

Livestrong tells us:

In general, minerals already dissolved in water are more bio-available than solid forms, although many factors affect absorption within the small intestine, such as pH levels, health of the mucosal lining and the presence of other nutrients, as noted in the text, “Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism.” A French study published in a 2002 edition of the “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition” found that the absorption and bio-availability of magnesium in magnesium-rich mineral water was almost 60 percent in healthy male volunteers.

In comparison to absorption of minerals in water, supplemental forms are not absorbed as well. According to a review article published in a 2002 edition of the “Geriatric Times,” supplemental magnesium absorption ranges from about 30 to 41 percent and depends on age, intestinal health and type of magnesium supplement. You can check out the full article at:

Wikipedia informs us about the body’s ability to absorb Magnesium hydroxide. Wikipedia says “Magnesium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Mg(OH)2……..Magnesium hydroxide is a common component of antacids and laxatives… all of magnesium hydroxide that does dissolve does dissociate. Since the dissociation of this small amount of dissolved magnesium hydroxide is complete, Magnesium hydroxide is considered a strong electrolyte.”

Calcium:

GoAskAlice, Columbia University’s Health Internet Service (http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/5403.html) tells us: “What we do know is that your body does absorb the calcium in hard water, and utilizes it the same way it would if it came from any other food source.”

I was surprised to learn from Livestrong (http://www.livestrong.com/article/440087-how-does-the-body-absorb-calcium/#ixzz1X0YyYKZX) that:

“Plant-derived foods that contain the chemicals oxalic acid or phytic acid inhibit calcium absorption by binding the mineral in your intestines. Bound calcium cannot be absorbed. Foods that contain a high concentration of oxalic acid include spinach, collards, radishes, beet greens, amaranth, carrots, lettuce and sweet potatoes. Concentrated amounts of phytic acid are found in nuts, seeds, beans and whole-grain products”.
I also learned that your body can’t absorb Calcium without the presence of Magnesium.

Summary:

Like so many things we read on the internet or hear from sales people with a vested interest, the stories are not necessarily based upon facts.

RO systems do remove healthy minerals from water along with a myriad of unhealthy contaminants. I have spoken with many individuals that have suffered from calcium leaching due to drinking RO water. At the same time, I have also spoken to many people who have consumed RO water for many years that are perfectly healthy if they take Calcium and Magnesium supplements.

There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between RO systems and Antioxidant Filters that use Magnesium as their primary ionizing medium. RO systems are superior purifiers that will extend the filter life of the Antioxidant Filters. The balanced minerals found in Antioxidant Filters replace the minerals that are removed by RO systems and add other essential minerals that the body absorbs. The Antioxidant Filters also provide the wonderful health benefits of alkaline and antioxidant water that are not possible with the use of a Reverse Osmosis system on its own.

It looks like the RO guys that brought me in to the meeting are on to something very powerful. I applaud them for their forward thinking and initiative

Related posts:
Good News For Reverse Osmosis Users

Chromium 6 Solutions: Ion Resin Exchanges & Reverse Osmosis are the Best

Hard Water Scale – Answers and Solutions

Antioxidant Filters ($329 to $499) Vs. Electric Water Ionizers ($1,500 to $4000)

rob — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:32:39 +0000

The most popular question I receive from readers these days is: “Are antioxidant filters are as good as electronic water ionizers?”

Antioxidant filters will NOT do everything that a water ionizer will do because they don’t produce acidic water. An antioxidant filter is more effective in terms of filtration, but it won’t produce acidic water like an electric water ionizer. Both types of technology are very effective when it comes to the health benefits from drinking alkaline water that contains hydrogen ions. Both technologies are effective at removing pesticides from the surface of fruits and vegetables by soaking them in water with high pH levels.

The goal of both systems when it comes to providing health benefits from drinking water is to produce free hydrogen, which acts as an antioxidant. Both systems produce micro clusters which are more readily absorbed. That is where the similarity ends.

Electric Water Ionizers “EWI”:

Electric water ionizers run water across electrically charged plates that produce two streams of water. The “drinking” stream produces a mass of bubbles in your glass when it first comes out of the machine. The bubbles are hydrogen gas. When the beneficial hydrogen bubbles rise to the surface, the benefit of the hydrogen bubbles is lost in the air. That is why I always try to drink fresh water within the first ten seconds of it coming out of the machine.

EWI’s can produce tremendous variation in pH because they are artificially forcing ionization through the power of the use of combining electricity with the available minerals in the water. The pH and ORP of water produced by an EWI will always return to the natural ionization level of the source water, which is dependent upon the level of minerals in the water. Here is a cool way to demonstrate this fact. You can use an EWI to create really low negative ORP such as negative ORP. Run a few ounces of negative ORP water into a glass and use an ORP meter to test the level. Next, put the palm of your hand over the top of the glass to make sure the water doesn’t go flying out, and shake the glass vigorously for ten seconds. When you retest the ORP, you will find that it has dropped hundreds of points. The “temporary” or “unstable” ORP level will disappear as the water reacts to the movement and the air.

EWI’s don’t remove much in the way of contaminants. Some remove more than others (Jupiter’s Biostone filter being the best and Chanson’s tiny carbon block filter being the worst). I believe that every EWI should have a pre-filter system (about $250) because there is a lot of nasty stuff in our water that you can’t see.

Antioxidant Filters “AF”:

Antioxidant Filters produce hydrogen ions naturally by running water over magnesium. This method of ionization was discovered by Dr. Hayashi in the year 2000 when he was working for the Japanese Institute of Water in an attempt to understand why water ionizers were so effective.

The pH and ORP in the water produced by AF’s is “stable”, which is why the ORP level will sustain itself at a much lower level for long periods of time such as a week. I have people reporting from all over the USA and Canada that ORP levels produced by their Alkastream units maintain the ORP level for much longer than the water produced by an EWI. The reason for this is that the AF’s put minerals in the water and the presence of the minerals causes an continued coupling and uncoupling of the hydrogen bonds that join hydrogen atoms to oxygen atoms in a water molecule. It sounds a little “scientific”, but it is true as electrical reactions are taking place in every piece of matter in the universe, including inside our bodies. So, if you plan to take the water with you to work or to the gym, you will get better ORP stability from an AF than from an EWI.

The AF’s are first and foremost a filter. In fact, I would rather have the filtration from an AF than a $250 pre-filter system that I recommend for EWI’s.

Summary:

The decision as to whether you should purchase an EWI or an AF should depend upon your needs. If you need acidic water for skin care of sterilizing applications, or for really low ORP levels for strong detoxification, or fighting off cancer (Google Dr. Robert Young’s thoughts on this subject), an EWI is the answer. I always recomment a pre-filter system with a EWI.

If you are looking for clean and safe drinking water, I recommend an AF. The reason I recommend an AF over a basic $250 pre-filter system is that the AF’s also provide all the incredible health benefits of the drinking water produced by an EWI and the incremental price difference is only $79 (derived from the selling price of an Alkastream at $329 less the $250 cost of a pre-filter system = $79).

As always, the opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

Dr. Mercola: Sales Pitch Disguised as News

rob — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:32:45 +0000

Dr. Joseph Mercola, the “master” of the internet health supplement world continues to supply us with tidbits of dated information that he presents as “news”. Mercola uses his comments on the work of others to weave a subtle but effective sales pitch. He uses a well thought out formula of drawing attention to a topic that can be linked to one of the myriad of products that he just happens to supply at his online store. He steers clear of actually endorsing or pushing the sale of his products, but the message is always there, and his loyal following eats it up. While I admire the man for his marketing skills, I understand that his “help” always comes with a sales pitch.

Mercola’s online website offers a huge array of health related products. The man employs a large research team who scan news items and articles searching for a way to connect something to one of Mercola’s products. At that point in time, Mercola’s writing skills and marketing brilliance take over.

Instead of dedicating his team to actually doing proper research, the team focuses on regurgitating story after story to feed the enormous marketing monster that Mercola has created. Mercola’s lack of research first caught my attention when he produced the brutal alkaline water hatchet video with his buddy Houston Tomasz of Aquasana water filters. The information in that video was not researched and was an embarrassment to Mercola. Using Houston Tomasz as an expert about water ionizers would be the equivalent of using Bernie Madoff as an expert on new age investing.

You may wonder why I’m so tough on Mercola. Well, he has single handedly crippled the water ionizer industry with his misguided video and commentary, which was created without proper research. The man is so powerful that he influences a lot of people, even when he is wrong. People are swayed by Mercola’s opinions and I find it tragic that so many are choosing to avoid alkaline water based upon misguided effort.

Now Mercola is saying that the water that we drink should be in the 6.5 to 7.5 pH range. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it is important to listen and respect the opinion of others. However, when someone gives an opinion that flies in the face of all the leading experts in the world, they usually provide an explanation for their divergence of opinion. But the good doctor continues to make stuff up as he goes depending upon what he is trying to sell, and neglects to produce a shred of evidence or supporting commentary.

What factors determine the proper pH of water you should be drinking?

The consensus among the leading experts in the world in regards to the pH level of drinking water is that the ideal pH of drinking water for an individual varies depending upon a number of factors. The factors include a person’s health, age, and the acid/alkalinity level in their bodies before they begin, and the amount of time that they have been drinking the water.

It is generally considered that older or unhealthy people need to start slowly and build up the pH level of the water that they drink in order to avoid excess detoxification issues.

It is also recognized that people that have diseases like cancer start with a very high pH level/very low ORP to combat the disease. Dr. Robert Young is a leading advocate of using a strict alkaline diet and very high negative ORP drinking water to combat cancer. Dr. Young contends that the very high negative ORP acts as a natural oxidant, making it similar to the drugs used in chemotherapy, but without the horrific side effects.

The experts from Japan and Korea, that have 25 to 30 years of research and personal experience to rely upon believe that people should drink water with a pH level of 8.0 to 8.5 to sustain good health. They recognize the importance of initially undergoing a detox with water that has a pH level of 9.5 to 10.0 and ORP levels of -300 to -400, but they don’t recommend the high pH levels and low negative ORP levels over a longer period of time.

The real experts such as Robert Young and Sang Whang point to the fact that the consumption of alkaline water or foods will force the cells in the stomach wall to secret hydrochloric acid into the stomach. When the HCL is created, a corresponding alkaline buffer that is very beneficial to the body is also created and secreted into the blood stream via the intestines. If Mercola would actually do his homework, he would understand this fact and he would stop embarrassing himself.

Mercola’s new position on Distilled Water

Why anyone would trust anything Mercola says is beyond me. He used to endorse distilled water and reverse osmosis water, but now he has changed his mind. The people that actually studied and educated themselves about water have known and talked about the negative effects of both reverse osmosis water and distilled water for a long time. Why has Mercola suddenly changed his position? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he now sells water filters and it looks like the rumors of him introducing a new “living water’ product in the coming months is more than just a rumor. Mercola says the following about Distilled Water: “the longer you drink it, the more you’ll develop mineral deficiencies and an acidic state. You can rapidly lose electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals, which can cause irregularities, high blood pressure, and cognitive/emotional disturbances.” The information is correct, but the information has been around for a long time and is definitely not news.

Mercola then provides us with the findings of F. Kozisek of the World Health Organization which states that water low in calcium and magnesium, such as distilled water is associated with: Cardiovascular Disease, higher risk of bone fractures in children, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Motor Neuronal Diseases, Pre-term births, low birth weight, and pre-eclampsia, various types of Cancer, increased risk of “Sudden Death”, and weakness, fatigue, and muscle cramping. Once again, the “news” has been around for a long time.

Mercola then goes on to describe how we have “learned a lot about the dangers of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) found in most treated water supplies such as trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs).” Mercola informs us that the DBPs are formed when water treatment disinfectants such as chlorine, chloramines, and chlorine dioxide react with natural organic matter in the source water.

As usual, Mercola has done a little homework, but not enough. THMs are carcinogenic as he mentions, but the THMs are formed when chlorine is mixed with natural organic matters. That is why municipalities are switching to chloramines, which is created by adding ammonia gas to chlorine. Chloramines don’t allow THMs to form. Municipalities that still use chlorine instead of chloramines use ozone treatment facilities to kill off any THMs. If the municipalities were creating THMs that were causing cancer, don’t you think we would have heard about it by now? Dr. Mercola should be ashamed of himself for trying to scare his readers into buying his filters.

Mercola takes a position on Fluoride… finally

Mercola is finally getting on the anti-fluoride bandwagon. Like always with Mercola, he is very late entering that game. What makes me gag is that he is asking his readers to join his crusade against fluoridation. Where was he when all the hard work was being done? I suppose the expression “it is better to be late than never” applies. However, like always with Mercola, the story comes with a sales pitch in the form of a suggestion that you buy activated alumina filters… which, by golly, he just happens to sell on his website.

Mercola offers us incorrect information about the percentage of fluoride removal from distillation and reverse osmosis. He then tells us that “the only viable way to get non-detectable levels of fluoride (in water that has been treated by fluoride) that I know of is using an activated aluminum filtration system”.

Well, how about that. When I was in the water ionizer business, I used to sell activated alumina filters to remove fluoride. Before I sold any filters, I talked to the salesmen and tech support people for all of the major filter companies in America. The reality is that a good activated alumina filter will remove 75% of the available fluoride. If you use two filters instead of one, you can remove 94% of the fluoride. Therefore, activated alumina filters work, but they don’t provide non-detectable levels of fluoride as suggested by Dr. Mercola. In addition, the media in an activated alumina filter may be harmful to some people with specific conditions that react to the media itself.

I have been reading the before and after contamination reports provided online by the Alkastream Antioxidant Filter people and it certainly appears that they have a system that is very effective in removing fluoride. According to their website, they created a “witches brew” solution of various contaminants that they had analyzed before and after running through their filter. Their “hard” water filter reduced the amount of fluoride from 1.7 parts per million to less than 0.1 parts per million. That means that their filter removed at least 95% of the fluoride. I say at least, because the website offers a less than sign “< ” instead of providing an exact number. When I contacted the company about the test results, they indicated that their filters use a combination of an ion resin exchange and other filter media to reduce the fluoride. It seems to me that publishing independent test results for filters would be common practice, but that is not the case. You can view the Alkastream lab results here:
http://www.alkastream.com/downloads/pdf/lab_report.pdf

Mercola’s new position on Reverse Osmosis systems

Until recently, Dr. Mercola has recommended the use of reverse osmosis systems and he tells us he used it in his own home. Now he has changed his position because reverse osmosis systems cause water to be acidic, and they strip the minerals out of the water. He also points out that it is expensive, wastes water, and the holding tank must be cleaned out often as it is a virtual haven for bacteria growth. Maybe someone on Mercola’s staff has been reading my blog! If they have, I’m sure Mercola is not a fan.

What has peaked Dr. Mercola’s sudden interest in water? Did he and had crack team just figure out that water is important and he has an undying need to serve the public? Or perhaps he has something else up his sleeve? Hmmmmmmm.

My bet it all has something to do with him being able to offer the world a wonderful new alternative. Can you think of a better way to prime his legion of followers than to tell everyone about the importance of water, the importance of drinking clean water, and how every water product is bad?

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Dr. Mercola drops a hint of a new “living water” concept which he ties into the “living food” slogan attached to raw foods? I noticed Mercola didn’t bother to let anyone know that the hydrogen stick people created the “living water” slogan and that the new Antioxidant Filters use the same concept. I suspect that it won’t be long until Mercola introduces the world to a great new product that will allow you to obtain pure “living water” right from your kitchen tap. I have to wonder how many meetings Mercola and his filter buddy Tomasz from Aquasana have had so far about the new filters. Am I just being cynical? We’ll see.

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

Water quality is not only about purity

rob — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:38:23 +0000

The quality of your drinking water is more than just its purity. In fact, completely pure water, created by reverse osmosis filtration, leaves water stripped of all its essential trace minerals, not to mention oxygen, and worst of all the water is acidic, meaning it oxidizes what it comes in contact with.

Oxidation is another word for rusting. When you put acidic water on metal, it will rust that metal. Inside your body a similar process happens where your own body’s nutrients and minerals are absorbed by the acid water. Also, too much acid build up in the body leads to a condition called acidosis. The beginning symptoms of acidosis are poor metabolism (leading to weight gain), poor sleeping habits, fatigue, headaches, and achy muscles. Later stages of acidosis include adult onset diseases like diabetes. In fact acidosis is the foundation or heavy contributor to all adult onset diseases, even cancer.

So why drink pure water that contributes to acid build up in your body? Why strip all the essential minerals and oxygen your body needs from your drinking water?

There is a better way.

A good water ionizer filters the water to 99.9% purity using two large .1 micron, multi-stage activated carbon filters. Activated carbon filters are effective because they filter out most of the impurities in the water, while allowing the essential minerals to pass through because they don’t stick to the carbon. Then, most importantly, a water ionizer uses electrolysis to raise the pH of your drinking water to alkaline levels, while at the same time restoring water’s natural antioxidant called hydroxyl ions. And when a hydroxyl ion neutralizes a free radical in your body, lots of oxygen is released, immediately energizing you! Did you know a single glass of ionized water has as many antioxidants as a glass of orange juice!

Ionized water is also as much as six times more hydrating than purified or tap water, due to its small cluster size and hexagonal shape. One of the primary causes of disease is chronic cellular dehydration, a condition which leaves the body’s cells in a perpetual state of weakness and defense. Drinking ionized water helps with this condition.

Finally, ionized water, unlike pure or tap water, will detoxify your body. This detoxification will improve your sleep cycle, your metabolism and if you’re overweight, it will cause weight loss.

This article was written by a highly respected participant in the water ionizer industry. This site is not about endorsements, but I would be happy to pass on his name and URL to anyone interested.

No related posts.