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” followed 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.
Here is link of papers, conferences and scientific papers on Electrolyzed Reduced Water from Japan:
http://www.nihon-trim.co.jp/english/lab/thesis_list01.html
Hi Fey:
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude in North America is that if the research is not done here, it doesn’t count. It is a ridiculous notion based upon a superiority complex that simply can’t be justified.
I have found that many of the Japanese studies have been conducted on animals. For most people in this part of the world, animal studies don’t count.
The reality is that the pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed the doctors and the rest of society that it is there way or the highway, which is sad.
the link will not connect..says the server is not there…
I should have said the link to the ‘study’ in the original story above…
The link is broken but I found the article instead at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831093/
Still checking this out for now.
God bless
Richard
Hi Rob,
I have executive buy-in here at LIFE Ionizers for sponsoring a clinical trial. Testing alkaline water as an intervention for GERD looks like the most promising way to go. A pre-clinical trial could be conducted on GERD that would build on:
Koufman, J, and Johnsten, N. Potential Benefits of pH 8.8 Alkaline Drinking Water as an Adjunct in the Treatment of Reflux Disease .
Koufman and Johnston demonstrated that alkaline water permanently neutralizes pepsin and buffers stomach acid in vitro. A preclinical trial could be conducted to confirm that this result translates into relief of GERD symptoms
A simple pre-clinical trial – perhaps a two month interventionary trial. Could be conducted on GERD sufferers. It would compare an alkaline water group to a plain water group. The study would evaluate whether the alkaline water group had relief of GERD symptoms compared to the plain water control group.
Please let me know if you want to get together and work on this. I think a good next step would be to form a working group online that could solicit the other alkaline water companies. If they see that there is a study going forward, they may feel compelled to be a part of it.
Hi Leo:
I will contact you at the email address you provided. I have done some research on the cost of such a project. You are probably looking at cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per candidate to get something legitimate done. A proper study should include as many candidates as possible and the cost gets crazy high. The pharmas control everything because they are typically the only companies that can afford it.
Rob
If they charge $4000. for a machine that only costs $300. to make, then they should have plenty of money to have the research done to get FDA approved.
Hi Lou:
My best guess is that the Enagic SD501 costs about $500 and I assume the cost would be a bit higher with inflation. I believe Bob McCauley used to sell them for about $900 in the States before Enagic took over the brand. I haven’t looked at Enagic stuff for a long time but I believe Enagic adds in about $1,000 to cover their marketing costs and profits…and then they add in another $2,300 for the MLM system….and presto…$4,000.
I don’t think Enagic has never been particularly interested in the science as they have always been all about the money.
Actually 25% of enagic machines is manufacturing, 20% is profit for enagic and 55% is paid to distributors.
Anyone who knows anything about business knows that almost every product you buy in any store is at least a 4 to 1 margin and most often it’s an 8 to 1 or a 16 to 1 so enagic is actually fairly priced compared to other products out there.
Also when 55% goes to regular people instead of corporations that also makes a huge difference in my eyes. I buy 90% of my food at a local farmers market and believe heavily in supporting people and avoid supporting corporations. A big part of my decision to support enagic came from this belief.
Hi Brian:
You make good points about the various levels of cost by the time a consumer buys at retail pricing. The 20% profit for Enagic may be accurate after they build in all of their costs, but I believe Enagic gets about $1,100 plus while the manufacturing costs are more like $600. It has been a long time since I looked into the costing of products but I know that the manufacturing cost a few years ago was about $500.
The real win for Enagic is their filter sales. They make about $200 profit per year on their filter sales which they don`t share with their dealers unless they have changed their policy. If Enagic in the USA has sold 100,000 machines, that means they have a cool $20 million of profit coming in each year which is locked in because anyone that pays $4,000 for a machine will continue to use the filters.
In manufacturing costs that counts all costs related to manufacturing and not just the materials. Maybe just the materials and Labour is $500 but there are other costs to running a business.
I don’t see how enagic could profit $200 from a filter when they only charge $120… I’m sure they do profit well on them but impossible to profit more than you charge lol… I’m in Canada though so maybe they charge more in the states
Hi Brian:
It’s nice to have you back. Thanks for being part of the discussion.
I don’t know what Enagic’s costs are these days but I suspect the FOB Japan price isn’t far from US$500 especially with strong US dollar. The other oosts of running the business get included in the difference between the $500 and the $1800 +/- that Enagic delivers the units to the distribution network. One way or another, the system works because Enagic has literally built the electronic water ionizer industry in the USA on its own and everybody associated with Enagic should be proud of that fact.
Unless I’m mistaken every Enagic customer goes through 2 filters per year and 2 x $100 profit per filter = $200. Yup, that is the correct profit margin for their filters as I have looked into it by getting quotes from a couple of different sources. The Enagic filter is structurally complicated and completely archaic imo, but the media is really basic.
An end user replaces a filter once a year while a distributor will replace it twice a year due to the high volume of water given away. We have a machine in a store and give away about 100 liters a day so we replace ours even more often.
It’s interesting though, enagic is the only brand I have seen that gives away water to try. We’ve had multiple people with other machines that notice a huge difference when they switch to kangen. Not saying their aren’t other good bands out there, I just havent seen or heard of one. I looked up a few that seemed on par but weren’t available in North America yet. Maybe one day they will be.
Hi Brian:
You are persistent. That’s good.
I love hearing stories about people like yourself who give out the water because they want to make a difference.
I tested a lot of machines over the years on a head-to-head basis with an Enagic SD501. Based upon my unbiased testing, I would have to disagree with your comment that other machines are not up to the standards of Enagic. That is not to say that Enagic’s products are not good, but rather to say that there are many good products on the market.
If my statement above doesn’t make you angry, then this probably will. I have also done a lot of testing on natural water ionizers that cost as little as $59 and I would put them on the same level as Enagic. I’m sure that is difficult if not impossible for you to believe because it was very difficult for me to believe at first. I ended forcing myself to learn how and why water ionizers work before I fully understood it is not how you get there with the health benefits of the water, but just actually getting there that is important.
Doesn’t make me angry, I want the best answers and the best for our customers, I’ve just seen too many people using other brands which I won’t name that didn’t have the results we did with enagic… I would like to see theSe $59 machines though and how they work.
I also believe that some of the main benefit of the machines is the dissolved hydrogen, I would like to find a way to test the level of hydrogen in water from different machines as that may be a good way to really test why some work for people and some don’t. You can have a high ORP but still have low amounts of dissolved hydrogen so I don’t know if ORP is the best way to test how good a machine is Even though ORP is usually the standard test.
being able to make hypochlorous acid and water that can emulsify oils is huge though too for cleaning purposes. the acid kills bacteria better and faster than most other sterilizing chemicals and the alkaline emulsifies oils so well that I can even clean my oven with it or clean oil based pesticide residues off vegetables. I haven’t seen another machine that can do this. My friend said he saw one that did but it made water so slowly and if you stuck a lighter under it while being made you don’t get the popping sound that you get while such a high amount of hydrogen is being produced.
I’m definitely not saying your wrong… I just haven’t seen anything better yet and we’ve had multiple customers with various competing brands switch after feeling the difference.
Email me your head to head test results if you have them documented to artisanswayorganics@gmail.com, I’d like to see what you tested for.
Hi Brian:
I hope you and anyone else reading this is enjoying the holiday weekend.
My comments below follow along your statements in your last comment to avoid confusion.
It sounds like you have done a bit of research or perhaps Enagic is sharing the current research and thinking in the industry with reps. I know Enagic has had its equipment tested in Utah. I would be interested to hear your thought on dissolved hydrogen if it is you that has actually been doing the research. I’m hoping to have a source for H2 meters shortly which I think will become the next “tool” in the industry. BTW, the Enagic SD501 tests better for H2 than any of the other electric water ionizers that I know of (and slighly better than the $59 pitcher that I had tested).
Since it is hard to refute the scientific studies supporting H2, I’m a believer in the SD501. I have been writing about H2 for a couple of years and I’m delighted that Enagic is now picking up the story. I think Enagic should be “pushing” the H2 story as it has a one to two year head start on the competition on the subject.
ORP has always been the “mystery” measurement in the water ionizer industry that people have difficulty understanding or explaining. From a scientific standpoint, ORP doesn’t really exist as a real measurement. The real measure is conductivity which can be recalculate/reconfigured to ORP. Conductivity is easy to measure, understand, and explain.
My wife loves her unit that produces hypochlorous acid. We picked it up about 5 years ago when we went to visit a number of water ionizer manufacturing facilities. The unit makes one liter of incredibly strong and effective natural “bleach” in 3 minutes. If I had been selling products from my blog over the years, I bet I could have sold hundreds of “acid water” makers because readers know that the natural water ionizers that I prefer don’t make acid water.
I made a comparison video of a number of leading brands of water ionizers in my lab a few years ago that I posted on my blog. I’m sure you can find it if you poke around a bit. The video is unbiased as it wasn’t paid for by anyone and I wasn’t selling any of the units.
I’m interested in the science. I believe that many of the mental health issues preluding criminal behavior could be prevented with proper hydration and there is no better than ionized alkalized micro clustered water. I wish to do a clinical study in Atlantic City. My email is phbalanceac@gmail.com please reach out all who are interested
Hi Marté:
If you are interested in science, you may want to start investigating the benefits of molecular hydrogen because it is responsible for all of the benefits claimed by the alkaline water industry.
You said: `There is no better than ionized alkalized micro clustered water`
There is zero scientific evidence backing the explanations of claims of the alkaline water industry. There is also zero evidence backing the theory of micro clustered water. On the other hand, there are now 700 clinical studies and review papers backing molecular hydrogen. H2 has the backing of both the scientific and medical communities, which the alkaline story was never able to achieve.
If you want to learn more, check out http://www.molecularhydrogenfoundation.org for a scientific perspective or the more “street friendly” http://www.h2healthyliving.com
Rob beat me to it… the few studies on ionized water were put out before it was even known that hydrogen was the reason for the health benefits. Alkalized and micro clustered are marketing terms and are just made up things that people used to sell machines before they knew why they really worked. Some companies refuse to remove these outdated terms from their vocabulary and back real science from hydrogen water. If your interested in science then take these terms out of your vocabulary. The molecular hydrogen Institute has many articles explaining why they are misleading and what the true science says
Great article Rob,
Totally agree with what you’re saying here: “Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude in North America is that if the research is not done here, it doesn’t count. It is a ridiculous notion based upon a superiority complex that simply can’t be justified.”
It’s really all about big corporations keeping us dumb and sick. I mean really think about it. Who’s best interest is it in to keep the American people unhealthy? Sadly, it’s become less about the well being of the people and more about the well being of lining their pockets.
Happy to see that you found some medical based research. I’ve been looking all over, but as you said, if it isn’t tested in America people won’t buy into it.
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Really great discussion!
Keep moving forward no matter what is said by “the doctors” and other vested interests. Their response to anything “new” and beneficial is always the same.
People who know what is happening to their own bodies as a result of drinking ionized alkaline water will not succumb to the intentional black pr targeting the industry.
They know better because they know and don’t have to rely on the rantings of paid “athorities” to tell them what is good.
Has anyone here attempted to simply recreate the clinical study performed in the article you cited Rob? (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831093/)
It seems to me that the most cost effective solution to produce this water is to buy a stick of magnesium on amazon for $16 and drop it in my Brita filter water pitcher. I just need to consult with a chemist to understand the right way to go about it!
Cody
Yes you can buy a magnesium stick for cheap, I own a top quality ionizer and I tried that and it works. The problem is it works great at first but after a few uses needs to be cleaned, once a month it needs a bath in an acid like vinegar and it makes the water taste a bit off. The benefits of an ionizer is the water doesn’t make you feel bloated that the magnesium stick would and has a filtering aspect to it. And not sure if using a magnesium stick would lead to too much magnesium in your body… some study needs to be done with that and see how much magnesium actually is in the water and if it’s a safe amount. The other downfall of a magnesium stick is it needs to sit for at least an hour before using and the longer it sits the more hydrogen is produced so many times to get decent levels I had to leave it sit overnight but then you also run the risk of it breaking the bottle it’s in due to pressurization.
In the end I thought it was too much work to maintain it but if you decide that the extra work is worth it then it’s definitely an economical option.
Hi Brian:
Electric water ionizers have the ability to create molecular hydrogen but they need to be cleaned every week with an acid wash in order to remain effective in producing H2 is solution. As the plates gets scaled up, the machines maintain their ability to produce molecular hydrogen but the H2 gets formed as a gas which inevitably gets lost into the atmosphere unless you “Drink Your Bubbles” which is the title of an article I wrote on my blog several years ago.
Enagic ends up being slightly better than other electric water ionizers in the production of H2 but the competitive advantage is lost if the plates are not cleaned weekly. In fact, if the plates are not cleaned within two weeks, the SD501 doesn’t produce meaningful levels of soluble H2. The good news for Enagic is that they have a reusable cleaning filter that is economical compared to the expensive alternative offered by other leading brands.
I responded to your reply to Cody to let yourself and others know that the plates of electric water ionizers have to be descaled weekly or the health benefits of the machines rapidly become diminished. This is important because the days of claiming the health benefits of pH and ORP and microclustering etc simply don’t stand up to scientific testing, but the H2 claims are backed by more than 500 scientific studies.
Hi Cody:
The hydrogen sticks work on the same principle but they are slow acting, cumbersome, and expensive as I have found that you need multiple sticks to get the job done.
There is a better solution coming shortly. I will write about it when I have the details.
Did the person who wrote this article realize that water rich in hydrogen ions is actually acidic? The definition of pH is the ratio of hydrogen ions to OH ions. When there are more hydrogen ions it is acidic, and when there are more -OH ions then it is alkaline. To create hydrogen, the process must be electrolysis. And that separates the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Kangen machines do not do this, but rather separate the various “contaminants” in water by directing them either to one stream or the other. I say contaminants, because water is H2O and anything other than this is a “contaminant”, making the water a solution of water and whatever else is in it. That is what Kangen does, separate the solution of water, and whatever, into streams that have more or less of them in concentration.
Hi Steven:
Thanks for the contribution. All contributions are appreciated, even if the information is wrong as it affords the opportunity for everyone to learn.
I will address 3 errors that you made in your comments:
1) “To create hydrogen, the process must be electrolysis.”
Not true. Hydrogen gas can be created by the process of electrolysis, but it can also be created by interacting water with elemental magnesium, aluminium, or a industrial reducer such as sodium borohydride (and others).
2) “Kangen machines do not do this, but rather separate the various “contaminants” in water by directing them either to one stream or the other”
The only way to reduce contaminants with an alkaline water ionizer is by filtration. Kangen units (and all the other alkaline water ionizers) don’t separate cations and anions in the ionization chamber. Water fills the entire ionization chamber cavity. That means both minerals (cations) and fluoride (anion) go everywhere inside the chamber. There is a microscopic sized “migration region” created around each electrode within which anions will be attracted to the anode and cations will be attracted to the cathode. However, outside of the tiny migration regions, which is most of the area in the ionization chamber, there is not enough voltage in the Kangen unit (or other brands of alkaline water ionizers) to create enough electrostatic attraction to pull the cations or anions towards the electrode. What that means is that cations (Ca, Mg, Na, K) will also get delivered out of the waste water line and anions (F-) will get delivered out the drinking water line. If that were not enough, there is also an ionic membrane between the anode and cathode that prevents ionic elements from passing through which further reduces the chances of separation.
3) “That is what Kangen does, separate the solution of water, and whatever, into streams that have more or less of them in concentration.”
Kangen ionization chambers DO NOT separate contaminants. Don’t feel like I’m picking on Kangen, because alkaline water ionizers work in the same way.
I’d like to add another mistake. Your saying that kangen does not do electrolysis. Kangen and other ionizers do perform electrolysis to create hydrogen gas. The alkaline drinking stream of kangen registers between 0.5 and 1.0ppm of hydrogen gas concentration not to be confused with hydrogen ions which is what the pH scale shows. You can measure the hydrogen gas concentration with various products on the market or can show its presence by holding a lighter to the stream of water and hear the charicteristic popping sound of lighting hydrogen on fire.
Hi Brian:
Thanks for the contribution.
You mentioned that the Kangen machine produces 0.5ppm to 1.0 ppm of H2. The people that I have been working with indicate that the Kangen machine will produce 1ppm when it has been recently cleaned. Depending upon water conditions, the Kangen unit needs to be cleaned every week. If a Kangen machine is not cleaned every week, it typically produces only 0.3ppm of H2 in the second week and zero after that.
Once again, I’m not picking on Enagic’s Kangen machine because all of the other electric water ionizers are the same. In fact, of all the popular alkaline water ionizers, I would say the Kangen units are the best when it comes to producing H2 simply because Kangen sells a reusable cleaning filter, which allows users to clean their Kangen units whenever they want.
If I had to choose an electric alkaline water ionizer as my personal favourite, I would probably choose the $895 Hybrid (it is can be hooked up to the sink, or used as a batch ionizer). The batch capability of the Hybrid allows the user to clean the ionizing chamber in seconds by simply pouring a few ounces of vinegar into the top mounted reservoir and turning the machine on for a couple of seconds until the vinegar fills the ionizing chamber. Then, the vinegar can sit in the ionizing chamber and clean off any scale that builds up on the plates. The scale builds up on the plates because calcium from the source water precipitates out of solution and forms on the plates. When a ionizer has scale on the plates, it will continue to create hydrogen, but the hydrogen forms gas bubbles as opposed to allowing the hydrogen to diffuse into the water where it can be consumed when people drink the water.
Interesting. .. I never knew why calcium blocks the hydrogen production . I haven’t tested my machine regularly so cannot fully comment on that. The lowest I ever got was 0.4ppm and the highest I got was 0.9ppm. I generally clean my machine once a month or so.
Hi Brian:
The Molecular Hydrogen Foundation (www.molecularhydrogenfoundation.org) suggests a range of 0.5ppm to 1.5ppm. Most of the Japanese scientists suggest 1.0ppm to 1.5ppm
The machine that I have been testing generates 1.1ppm to 1.4ppm in virtually any source water and has a neutral pH. The neutral pH means “no clogging up of the electrodes, or the valves or connectors, or water lines after the water cell.
Well feel free to let me know when it is out and ready… I’d be interested to learn more
So it would even work in RO water?
Which machine is this?
Hi Brian:
Yes, the hydrogen machine will work in RO water.
A condition of me being able to test the unit was that I don’t spill the beans until the unit is listed. I’m told that could be next week. I hope so.
Hello ~ I just wanted to comment how refreshing it was to read this post and all the comments. I so appreciate the sane, rational discussion here without the need to be angry or irritated at anyone’s comments. It’s nice to see the search for the truth, whatever the outcome.
Bravo!