Water, the Source of Life

There's a saying in Hawaii: "Ola I Ka Wai" meaning "Water is Life." Only three percent of the earth’s water is fresh, and less than one percent supports all life on land. A decrease in rainfall due to global climate change, plus record levels of human consumption, have made fresh water an increasingly precious commodity. At the same time, agricultural runoff containing heavy metals, pesticides, and herbicides, along with human pollution and plastic-laden refuse, have contaminated the world's oceans and threatened the marine life that's part of the human food supply.

This molecule, consisting of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, covers most of planet earth's surface and is essential to all known living things. We are mostly made of water; about 60 percent of the weight of an average adult human is water. There are organisms that don't need air or sunlight to survive, but they still need water.

Since every living cell in the human body contains water, maintaining an adequate state of hydration is vitally important for our health, and our very survival. An adequate fluid intake can reduce the risk of kidney stones, constipation and exercise-induced asthma. Staying well hydrated may help prevent arthritis, high blood pressure and stroke. As little as a two percent dehydration can cause weakness, fatigue, and impairment of your concentration, alertness and short-term memory.

Water Quality

Thanks to government standards for drinking water quality, in most parts of the country you are better off drinking tap water than you are consuming unregulated bottled water. However, if your water is delivered through lead pipes and you live in Flint, Michigan, that's a whole other story. Unfortunately, PFAS "forever" chemicals linked to cancer are estimated to be present in nearly half of the U.S. drinking water, according to a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The CDC has reported PFAS in the blood of over 95 percent of Americans.

I still suggest water as the beverage of choice. It is still safe to drink in many parts of the country. However, if you are concerned about the purity of your tap water, which is not routinely tested for pharmaceuticals and PFAS chemicals, there are expensive filtration systems that can help purify it. A less expensive distillation unit that you purchase or make yourself will remove most of the impurities, including minerals and many organic chemicals.

Some bottled waters have salt added, which will increase your thirst, and water sales. Some well-known bottle water brands have contained dangerous contaminants such as benzene. Their plastic bottles can leach BPA into the water. Bottled mountain spring water can come out of fire hydrants, albeit in the mountains where the public water comes from springs, but who wants to pay for bottled tap water? As spring water moves through soil and rock, it dissolves minerals such as calcium and magnesium, making the water "hard."

You can improve the taste of tap water by removing chlorine and chloramine with a granular activated charcoal water filter. Letting it sit in an open glass container for a few hours and then aerating it by shaking can also help with its taste. Drinking cool water or water at room temperature may be preferable to challenging your mouth and stomach with ice water or steaming hot beverages. Our paleolithic ancestors did not chill or heat their drinking water, and we have not yet evolved to deal with those kinds of internal temperature extremes.

Due to their high glycemic and osmotic loads, avoid drinking fruit juices, soft drinks and sports drinks. The weight of epidemiologic and experimental evidence indicates that increased consumption of beverages sweetened with sucrose (cane or beet sugar) or the chemically modified sweetener known as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is associated with weight gain, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

I generally advise people against drinking carbonated or mineral water. If you need to improve the taste of your drinking water, make some herbal tea with boiling water, let it steep for five minutes, and drink it when it cools. I advise against making sun tea because of the bacterial growth that can take place during the process.

Collecting rain water in clean glass vessels is even better than opening the tap, as rain is closer in purity to distilled water. If you have to drink bottled water, distilled water is your best bet. Hopefully, you can find it in glass containers that will be recycled. If you have your own well, be sure to have the water tested at the recommended intervals. Do not drink from open sources of water such as lakes or streams. If you cannot avoid it, then boil, filter, or chemically treat the water before drinking.

Scam Alert

During the last 20 years there has been an alarming increase in the sale of devices that produce ionized or alkaline waters that cult-like, multi-level marketers are promoting for the alleged health benefits that they and their customers claim to have experienced. Please do not be taken in by these "holy water" scams. There is nothing magical or healing about altered waters. Promoters of this pseudo-scientific quackery are the modern equivalent of old-time snake oil salesmen. Not only are their promotional arguments non-science, they are nonsense, as anyone who understands chemistry and physiology can plainly see.

Objective, independently verified evidence for the alleged benefits of alkaline or ionized water has never been presented, so potential customers are expected to take it on faith. Although scientific testing is possible, it has not been done during the two decades that electrically altered water has been marketed. The burden of proof rests with the profit-motivated manufacturers of the machines that produce the water. This burden has not been met, nor will it ever be. Rightly skeptical scientists are not obligated to undertake a costly study using double-blind testing against tap water placebos. The loophole in this scam is that the holy water machines are not marketed as medical devices, so there are no legal requirements for such testing.

The water scams' marketing plans are helped by the testimonials of those who have fallen under the spell of the sales pitches delivered by friends and neighbors. As true believers, these people might have experienced a placebo effect by expected the water to change their lives. Any actual benefits can be attributed to better hydration, not what's in the water. Many of the holy water faithful become distributors themselves, and there will always be deliberately unscrupulous or blindly unwitting individuals who rip off the gullible public with false and misleading claims about what they are selling. Don't believe anything they say. Anyone participating in a multi-level marketing scheme has an inherent conflict of interest, and is therefore an unreliable source of information. Don't count on our government to protect the consumers. As always, it's caveat emptor!

How Much to Drink

Drink frequently throughout the day, and increase your fluid intake when you are exercising, if you are in a hot or dry environment, have a high protein consumption, are running a fever, or are taking diuretics. Be aware that caffeine and alcohol have diuretic effects. Waiting until you feel thirsty before drinking means that you are allowing yourself to become a little dehydrated. Drink enough water to stave off thirst and maintain an adequate urinary output. If your urine is clear or pale yellow, you are well hydrated. If it is darker yellow, you will need to step up your fluid intake.

Another benefit of drinking more water, especially before meals, is that you will not eat as much. Water helps with portion control. It is probably better to drink more water before eating, rather than after, so as not to dilute the digestive juices. Always chew your food well before swallowing, to mix in the saliva and increase the surface area exposed to digestive enzymes. Eating slowly will also help you eat less, and that is generally a good thing to do.

Of course, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all prescription for how many glasses of water a day a person should drink. Over-hydration is toxic, and can be fatal. Symptoms of water intoxication include confusion, disorientation and psychosis. Severe hyponatraemia (decrease in sodium ion concentration) can lead to seizures, coma, and death. Use common sense, and pay attention to your output as well as your input.

Alcohol

The comic actor, W.C. Fields, was also well known as an alcoholic. Asked why he drank so much liquor, Fields replied, "Because I get thirsty, my boy." His interviewer responded, "Then why don't you drink water?" "Because," said Fields, "the fish screw in it." Fields continued, "I certainly do not drink all the time. I do have to sleep, you know." Fields died in 1946 from a hemorrhage secondary to cirrhosis of the liver, the result of chronic alcohol poisoning.

Ethanol (grain alcohol) is never healthy, even when consumed in small quantities. It can also be acutely toxic and even cause death when rapidly ingested in sufficiently large quantities. In sub-fatal doses, ethanol acts as a poison affecting the liver, pancreas, heart and neuroendocrine system, when it's consumed on a regular basis in amounts that exceed the body's capacity to detoxify it. Since individuals vary in their ability to metabolize ethanol, your own mileage may vary greatly from that of your drinking buddies.