Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

nudaveritas — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:52:41 GMT

Dr. Mercola, while I'm certain an RO system is effective in removing contaminants, I'm concerned about the waste of water (3-9 gallons used for every 1 gallon of water filtered, so I've read.) in addition to the removal of vital minerals... Are there any other systems you would confidently recommend without so much water waste? As well as a possible solution to replace minerals?

I am currently looking into the Wellness filtration system, but one major drawback I see is that it does not appear to filter fluoride...

Thank you!

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

suecullen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:42:24 GMT

I am looking for a whole home water filtration system that does not remove all of the natural minerals like an RO unit does....been looking at the Aquasauna until and wondering if anyone has had any experience with this? Also Wellness filter..but mega $$$ thanks!

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

madame wolfe — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:03:25 GMT

A More Introspective View On Kangen Water

The comments posted here that the pancreas fails to get stimulated if drinking water that is too alkaline is unsubstantiated. In particular the author indicated Kangen water. However, everywhere I have researched, Drinking Kangen water over time has been shown to lower the epidemic problem of acidosis which is foundational to most degenerative disorders. Even Dr. Otto Warburg won a Nobel Price for his paper in 1931 showing that the root cause of cancer is acidosis and acidosis comes from our substandard American Diet (SAD), acidic water (just test the pH of bottled water and even worse, sodas. When you watch the videos on Dr. Hiromi Shunya's work with the colon scope where you can plainly see the vast difference in colons of individuals with cancers, etc. and see what they look like 3 months after drinking Kangen water and an alkaline diet after 3 months to a year - it's like a miracle. Please You Tube search for these videos or refer to Dr. Shunya's book, The Enzyme Factor.

Remember, in addition to drinking Kangen water which is ONE key to reducing acidosis, there is the balance of eating foods that are both alkaline and acidic. Based on the tens of thousands of individuals both in America and in hospitals in Japan who have used this water as part of a foundational health paradigm to restore their health, there seems to be NO evidence of Pancreatic malfunction. I'd like to see some documentation on your claim that Kangen water causes pancreatic malfunction long term.

Also, it's important to point out that Kangen water is much more than just alkaline/ionized - it's strong negative oxidation reduction aspect is equally important to enter into the "which water is really best" equation. As an effective anti-oxidant that can quickly and easily hydrate all tissues and organs, it has a very powerful means to address any disorder associated with acidosis - which can range from cancer to diabetes, pain/ joint inflammation.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

DougM — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:58:15 GMT

Oh, I get it. If you don't bow to the RO system then any products that WORK BETTER cannot be talked about.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

DougM — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:57:11 GMT

I am apalled to find that the comments I left about this topic have been removed. Don't you want an open forum that exchanges information? I provided good and factual information about filtration units that could conceivably help many people.

You'll probably delete this to but I thought I would say it anyway.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

afmedici — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:05:46 GMT

What about bottled water? Many bottled waters are RO. Some are called spring water. There is no regulation governing bottled water that prevents a company from filtering tap water and calling it “pure”, “spring” or almost anything else. The AP ran an article on 10/15/2008 that stated “tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants, including cancer-linked chemicals three times higher than California's health standard, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group. What about over alkalinity? Well if anybody would test the food and drinks that we normally intake you would know that over alkalinity is almost impossible. It would take 32 ounces of alkaline water to bring soda to a neutral state (7pH). For Gator Ade it’s 25 to 1. Then there is also the normal stress of everyday life that actually can produce even greater amounts of acid. Reasons for drinking ionized water. Due to its micro-clustering it is readily absorbable especially compared to plain purified water. This is vital in helping your system get the full effects of the supplements you may take. The strong high alkaline water is absorbed into every part of your body. This helps your system eliminate excess fatty acid and actually acts as a detoxing agent. This is why most people will loose weight when drinking ionized water and not changing anything else in their diet. Good ionized water carries a negative ORP (oxidation reduction potential) which is essential for the removal of free radicals from your body. Ionized water will remove heavy metals from the water, which by the way, was the original reason for making the ionizer in Japan to begin with. THE END

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

afmedici — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:59:05 GMT

PART 2

What about reverse osmosis? Well let’s start with the myth that you can only use tap water. Any water can be used and often is, like in desalinating ocean water. The process removes all minerals as noted by many of the readers. Distilled water is much the same, void of all minerals. These are some of the worst waters you can consume. Some believe that because we get most of our minerals from food rather than water that this makes no difference. However, water is the source for our bodies to absorb these minerals. This is what a good ionizer can do. It will change the molecules of water and micro-cluster them. What that means is the size of the molecules is made to be much smaller (1/6 its normal size) and thus much more absorbable. This enables your body to absorb vitamins and minerals with greater efficiency and speed. Also, your body will try to balance it self and if it needs minerals it will take it from where ever it can, like your bones. Another disadvantage to reverse osmosis is RO units use a lot of water. They recover only 5 to 15 percent of the water entering the system. The remainder is discharged as waste water. Because waste water carries with it the rejected contaminants, methods to re-cover this water are not practical for household systems. Waste water is typically connected to the house drains and will add to the load on the household septic system. An RO unit delivering 5 gallons of treated water per day may discharge 40 to 90 gallons of waste water per day to the septic system. END PART 2

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

afmedici — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:48:21 GMT

PART 1

This is going to be a long comment but I do believe that there is a lot of confusion out there about water ionizers and alkaline water and its benefits.

What do ionizers actually do and why is the water so healthy? What about spring water, well water, bottled water reverses osmosis etc.?

Before we start with that lets remember that the reason we are trying to get away from tap water. It comes from “waste water” treatment plants. The government allows these plants to use 25% of waste water from the sewer mixed in with the water that they “treat” and send to your home. What they do is put chemicals into the water to make it”fit” for human consumption. Why doesn’t congress do something about this? Congress will never do anything about the problem do to the fact that one of the largest lobbyists in Washington is the pharmaceutical companies with lots of money.

Let’s start with well water. Well water is not much different that tap water except the government hasn’t had the chance to add its chemicals (yet). Where does well water come from? The ground. What is in the ground? All the toxins that have come from rain falling through the air which has a number of toxins in it. Ever heard of acid rain? Where do wild animals defecate? What about natural spring water? Not much different. Same rain water, same wild animals. This also covers rain water itself. Natural spring water was at one time the best water for us to drink. The best ionized water is called Kangen water. Kangen means "return to origin" in Japanese. END PART 1

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

Father_11 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 02:21:09 GMT

I have been thinking of purchasing a Berkey water filter for a while; can anyone give an educated opinion on whether or not this would be a good way to filter tap water in light of the things addressed in this article (DPBs, meds etc.)?

Some of the pros of getting a berkey are that it can filter water from any source under any conditions, such as in a disaster situation when there is no municipal water or electricity available etc. and if you had to hit the road, you could just take it with you (since it's a simple gravity filter). Also, I would imagine that it is a lot cheaper than an atmospheric water generator (or many other systems for that matter). Another pro is that you can attach another filter specifically for flouride and arsenic.

I guess the question is whether it's able to actually filter the multitude of contaminants found in municiple water supplies, and if so, to what degree. Any opinions?

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

aswbasix — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:10:18 GMT

Actually to my knowledge, there is NO Ta single shower filter system certified for Chloraimines reduction in regards to the bathing protocol questions that have come up here in the forum. Where is the NSF Certification on this? What is the NSF Certification number?They can claim Chlorine, Chloraimines, and VOC'ss...all contaminants can that can be removed by a good carbon block filter at low temperatures and flow rates, but none of which can be removed in a high temperature, low contact time situation like the shower. I am feeling more accurate information could have been given on this subject with honest product reviews with NSF Certification attached to the article. Is the Pure and Clear, if not, why would you recommend using something without NSF Certification.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

TMC Consultation and Speaking Services — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:32:38 GMT

I will not reiterate the positive, reinforcing data presented and many comments are scientifically validating and cogent to the article. The significance of "Healthy and Non-Injurious" water is without question. I would like to tell of a product that is, to my research and knowledge, the most effective creator of alkalinized, CA++ Ionized, Hexagonal water available: The Alka-Puro System. This system is less money than most and it has a 5-filter procedural protocol and the third filter takes out particle sizes down to 0.0001 m or 0.1 micron. They have an outside unit which will do the whole house. It is not a softener, but a larger, outside Alka-Puro System. They have reports of effectively removing THM (Trihalomethanes) and HAA (Haloacetic Acid) down to <5 PPB. The site is www.alkapuro.com. and the main plant is located in Downey, CA.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

javert — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:59:28 GMT

I hate to rain on the 'Kangen water' parade BUT...one should NOT drink alkaline water on a regular basis. While a more alkaline body environment is what we all strive for, there is a BIG PROBLEM when water pH gets too alkaline...The Pancreas fails to get stimulated. This is important, because every individual with a health problem today has some difficulty in metabolizing proteins. So, any reduction in Pancreatic output due to alkaline water would equate to a lower level of serum trypsin and chymotrypsin (among other proteases) needed to help you use your proteins. If this continues long enough, then the body must turn to connective tissue to satisfy its amino acid requirements in the serum rather than derive them from total protein.

The process of reverse Osmosis, on the other hand, is so efficient that it does in fact remove essential minerals, along with toxins, including Flouride (which I note is not mentioned re the Kangen system). However, the forth stage in a 4 stage reverse osmosis system, allows the pure filtered water to pass through a re- mineralizer to replace those lost essentials. It also raises the ph of the treated water to around 7, which is ideal.

For those who doubted Dr Mercola's recommendation re the reverse osmosis system. hopefully this will clarify things a little.

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

electra2002 — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:24:17 GMT

Dr. Mercola:

If we are to use R/O water filtration systems, then how do we add minerals back in? Do we add Trace Minerals in liquid form? And how much per gallon?

Thanks,

Electra

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

earth angel — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:17:25 GMT

We all deserve health, clean water. Thats' a simple basic fact.It should flow out of our faucets. Now we NEED a filtering system.........

Rachel Carson tried to warn us in the 1970's, but big business, public officials, and most of us ignored her statements.

I respect Dr. Mercola but disagree in suggesting R/O filtration as healthy.

R/O units do take everything out of the water but they also remove BENEFICIAL MINERALS. The water also pulls minerals out of our body to buffer/alkalize the acidity. In addition, R/O (and distilled water), become ACIDIC with a pH of about 5.5-6.0. If anything, we humans are supposed to be ALKALINE (WITH A pH of OVER 7). The R/O (and distilled) water are also made up of large water molecules and is NOT HYDRATING. aka, "dead" water.......

By drinking lots of R/O ( or distilled water) acidic water we lower our pH and minerals.

I suggest IONIZED ALKALINE water filtration, which filters the water, takes out chlorine and a majority of contaminants, and (depending on the model) tastes clean and fresh. The IONIZED ALKALINITY of the water (with a pH of 8-10) helps to flush other things out of your body and clean your colon, it has a HIGH hydration ability with smaller water molecules/"wetter water", contains beneficial minerals, is high in natural bicarbonates/alkaline buffers, high in oxygen, high in very beneficial OXIDATION REDUCTION POTENTIAL (-ORP)/reverse aging, and more. Ionized "acidic" water for brushing the teeth, washing the skin, is antifungal, antibacterial, and more.........

Try: www.AmethystBiomat.com to see the ALKAL-LIFE Ionized alkaline water filtration system, 30 years of research/development.............

namaste', rachel

re: Tap Water Toxins: Is Your Water Trying to Kill You?

Lissco — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:52:10 GMT

I have a question. We have well water. We have lived in the home for 16 years. In the past couple of years, we have had a strange smell to the water. The taste is the same, but you have to raise the water to your face to drink it and you get the smell that just turns me off! It reminds me of a rotten egg smell. Anyway, we had heard that pouring clorox down the well will help. So we will pour a half gallon down the well and open all the faucets of the house and run them till we smell the chlorine. Then shut the water off and wait about 2-3 hours. Then come back and open all faucets again and let the water run until we can no longer smell the chlorine. The smell is gone and the water is clear for about 2 months. Then it will start over again and we will do the clorox process again.

I have never felt good about putting the chlorine down the well, but was told to do this to "Shock" our system.

I have also been using a refrigerator filtering water pitcher for my drinking water and that helps too. If this process is not correct, can you give me some cost effective ways to treat my water or a filter for my house? I have been taking notes and plan on looking into the Kagen and the ecoloblue filters that were mentioned.

Thanks for your help!

Lisa

Salem, VA