Early Death Comes From Drinking Distilled Water
by Zoltan P. Rona MD MSc
During nearly 19 years of clinical practice I have had the opportunity to observe the health effects of drinking different types of water. Most of you would agree that drinking unfiltered tap water could be hazardous to your health because of things like parasites, chlorine, fluoride and dioxins.
Many health fanatics, however, are often surprised to hear me say that drinking distilled water on a regular, daily basis is potentially dangerous.
Paavo Airola wrote about the dangers of distilled water in the 1970's when it first became a fad with the health food crowd.
Distillation is the process in which water is boiled, evaporated and the vapor condensed. Distilled water is free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them.
Studies validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to cleanse or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time).
Fasting using distilled water can be dangerous because of the rapid loss of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals like magnesium, deficiencies of which can cause heart beat irregularities and high blood pressure. Cooking foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient value.
Distilled water is an active absorber and when it comes into contact with air, it absorbs carbon dioxide, making it acidic. The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, "Distilled water, being essentially mineral-free, is very aggressive, in that it tends to dissolve substances with which it is in contact.
Notably, carbon dioxide from the air is rapidly absorbed, making the water acidic and even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water."
The most toxic commercial beverages that people consume (i.e. cola beverages and other soft drinks) are made from distilled water. Studies have consistently shown that heavy consumers of soft drinks (with or without sugar) spill huge amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals into the urine.
The more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging.
A growing number of health care practitioners and scientists from around the world have been advocating the theory that aging and disease is the direct result of the accumulation of acid waste products in the body.
There is a great deal of scientific documentation that supports such a theory. A poor diet may be partially to blame for the waste accumulation. Meats, sugar, white flour products, fried foods, soft drinks, processed foods, alcohol, dairy products and other junk foods cause the body to become more acidic. Stress, whether mental or physical can lead to acid deposits in the body.
There is a correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Cells, tissues and organs do not like to be dipped in acid and will do anything to buffer this acidity including the removal of minerals from the skeleton and the manufacture of bicarbonate in the blood.
The longer one drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies and an acid state. I have done well over 3000 mineral evaluations using a combination of blood, urine and hair tests in my practice. Almost without exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop multiple mineral deficiencies.
Those who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation.
The ideal water for the human body should be alkaline and this requires the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium.
Distilled water tends to be acidic and can only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body. Once this is accomplished, the continued drinking of distilled water is a bad idea.
... Disease and early death is more likely to be seen with the long term drinking of distilled water. Avoid it except in special circumstances.What Chemicals do Reverse Osmosis and Distillation Remove/Reduce?
Reverse osmosis will generally remove any molecular compounds smaller in size than water molecules. Such compounds include salt, manganese, iron, fluoride, lead, and calcium (Binnie et al, 2002). Reverse osmosis is extremely efficient at stripping minerals from water, and it is highly valued as a water purification process in the printing industry, in which mineral-free water must be used.
Although reverse osmosis supplies useful, mineral-free water for printing purposes, it does not provide the healthiest drinking water. Reverse osmosis will remove several mineral and chemical materials from water, including salt, fluoride, lead, manganese, iron, and calcium. Reverse osmosis, because it removes minerals according to physical size, is non-selective in its removal of dangerous and beneficial minerals.
Clearly, mineral contaminants like salt, fluoride, and lead should be removed from drinking water, but minerals like iron and manganese, because they are essential to natural body processes and important components of drinking water, should be left in that water. Iron builds and maintains healthy red blood cells while manganese helps in regulating protein, fat, and carbohydrate metabolism. Manganese, like calcium, is also an essential component in the building of bones and the clotting of blood. Though many foods contain these minerals, drinking water can and should be a major source for their intake.
Distillation removes chemicals similar to those removed by reverse osmosis, but in a different manner. Distillation, through its water evaporation process, will remove any chemicals or organic materials with higher boiling points than water. Such chemicals and organic materials with higher boiling points include bacteria, minerals, trace amounts of metals, many volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), and nitrate (Binnie et al, 2002). Clearly, distillation is valuable in its removal of the potentially deadly VOCs and nitrate. It strips water of nearly all of its natural minerals, though. Many of the minerals the distillation process removes are vital to the body’s natural processes. The distillation process is not selective in its removal of minerals, and it strips water of both dangerous and valuable mineral compounds.
Showing posts with label drinking water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drinking water. Show all posts
Friday, March 19, 2010
Friday, October 30, 2009
Chlorine Damages Fetuses in Pregnant Women!
Two Studies Confirm:
Chlorine Is Very Dangerous for Your Health
Which Is Found In Your Shower Water
(and also in Your Drinking Tap Water)
by www.SixWise.com
The long-term health effects of exposure to chlorinated water are becoming more common in the news headlines. The health effects of chlorine through inhalation (from the steam in your shower, for instance) and ingestion (from tap water) include:
* Cancers of the bladder, liver, rectum and colon
* Heart disease
* Atherosclerosis
* Anemia
* High blood pressure
* Allergic reactions
And now two studies further confirm the risk of exposure of chlorine to the fetuses of pregnant women.
Studies Link Chlorine to Birth Defects
Two recent studies focused on the health effects for pregnant women who drank chlorinated water. One, published in the Environmental Health Journal, reported that pregnant women who lived in areas with tap water with high concentrations of chlorine disinfectants nearly doubled their risk of having children with heart problems, a cleft palate or major brain defects. Other specific birth defects listed in the study were:
*
Anencephalus, a brain condition, rose to .17 percent in high THM areas
*
Hole-in-the-heart defects nearly doubled
*
Number of cleft palates rose from 0.029 percent to 0.045 percent in high THM areas
*
Risks of having children with the above three birth defects increased between 50 and 100 percent
*
Slightly raised risk of having children with urinary tract defects and Down’s syndrome
“Our findings don’t just add to the evidence that water chlorination may cause birth defects but suggest that exposure to chlorination by-products may be responsible for some specific and research common defects,” said Professor Jouni Jaakkola of the University of Birmingham who led the research team.
Exposure can happen by drinking the water, taking a bath or a shower or by standing closely to a boiling pot of tea. The danger of exposure to pregnant women happens when the chemical by-products of chlorination called trihalomethanes (THMs) are absorbed through the skin and then transmitted to the womb.
THMs are one type of disinfection byproduct (DBP) created when the disinfectants used to kill bacteria in the U.S. drinking water supply, such as chlorine, react with natural organic matter, such as decaying vegetation, or when certain compounds such as bromide are present in the water.
Studies have linked THMs with low birth weight and neurological abnormalities in infants, along with increased incidences of neural tube defects, small body length, and small head size in babies born to women drinking water containing 400 ppb THMs.
Research has also linked an increased risk of bladder cancer with exposures of 50 ppb, and first trimester miscarriage in pregnant women drinking water with 75 ppb -- both of which are under the EPA “safe” limit.
The second study published by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry showed that some birth defects such as spinal bifida and neural tube defects are linked to total THMs ingested in drinking water. Risks of neural tube defects were doubled among women with the highest exposure to THMs.
How Did Chlorine Find Its Way Into the U.S. Water Supply and Who Regulates it?
Back in 1908, chlorine was added to a community water system in New Jersey as a way to get rid of many types of water-borne diseases such as Cholera and Typhoid fever. Before chlorination, many major cities experienced death tolls of 1 in 1,000 people from Typhoid alone.
For over 80 years, chlorine has been used to disinfect municipal water and it wasn’t until the 1970s that it was discovered that combining water with natural, organic matter such as vegetation and algae produced Trihalomethanes. Today, chlorine is injected into drinking water in two ways: injected directly by bubbling chlorine gas into the reservoir of drinking water or by adding calcium hypo chloride (bleaching powder) to water.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the standards for acceptable levels of contaminants in drinking water. Their defined standard for chloroform, the most common trihalomethane found in chlorinated water, is 100 parts per billion or 100 micrograms per liter of water.
They base this on an estimate that this level of contamination results in an added lifetime cancer risk of about 2 per 100,000 person-years, assuming the average person is consuming about two liters of drinking water per day.
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health believe that the cancer risk from chlorinated water may be up to 10-50 times higher than the EPA estimate. This is due to the fact that the EPA’s estimate is based solely on ingesting drinking water as the source of trihalomethanes. They didn’t take into account the chloroform exposure from bathing, showering and doing laundry.
According to some studies, two-thirds of the harmful exposure to chlorine is due to inhalation of steam and skin absorption while showering. Taking a warm shower opens up your skin pores and clears the way for accelerated absorption of chlorine.
The steam inhaled during showers contains up to 50 times the amount of chemicals in tap water. This is because the chlorine, along with other contaminants and DBPs, vaporize at a faster rate and at a lower temperature than water. Once inhaled, the chlorine goes directly into your bloodstream.
Leading experts are confirming the dangerous effects of inhaling chlorine while taking showers.
According to researcher Bruce Black during a meeting of the American Chemical Society:
“Taking long, hot showers is a health risk. The chemicals evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. They can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking the water.”
Further, a Professor of Water Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh claims that exposure to vaporized chemicals in the water supplies through showering, bathing and inhalation is 100 times greater than through drinking water.
And according to Dr. Lance Wallace, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly every home because of chlorine in the water.”
________________________________________________________
Also note that chlorine is not the only dangerous chemical in your water. PRescription Drugs are a recently observed, but fast growing hazard. Just as you would fear having your unborn baby and the rest of your family exposed to chlorine, I have no doubt that you would not want them exposed to birth control pills, ritlin and other antidepressants, powerful heart disease and anti diabetic drugs. A recent study found the residue from 52 different drugs in the Philadelphia, Pa public water! A simple chlorine filter will NOT remove the prescription drug residue.
Check out this site to learn about a Japanese Ionic Water Generator that is so powerful it is used in hundreds of Japanese hospitals and is certified as a medical device by their FDA and is used to fight many chronic diseases, including diabetes and cancer! The Best Water!
Chlorine Is Very Dangerous for Your Health
Which Is Found In Your Shower Water
(and also in Your Drinking Tap Water)
by www.SixWise.com
The long-term health effects of exposure to chlorinated water are becoming more common in the news headlines. The health effects of chlorine through inhalation (from the steam in your shower, for instance) and ingestion (from tap water) include:
* Cancers of the bladder, liver, rectum and colon
* Heart disease
* Atherosclerosis
* Anemia
* High blood pressure
* Allergic reactions
And now two studies further confirm the risk of exposure of chlorine to the fetuses of pregnant women.
Studies Link Chlorine to Birth Defects
Two recent studies focused on the health effects for pregnant women who drank chlorinated water. One, published in the Environmental Health Journal, reported that pregnant women who lived in areas with tap water with high concentrations of chlorine disinfectants nearly doubled their risk of having children with heart problems, a cleft palate or major brain defects. Other specific birth defects listed in the study were:
*
Anencephalus, a brain condition, rose to .17 percent in high THM areas
*
Hole-in-the-heart defects nearly doubled
*
Number of cleft palates rose from 0.029 percent to 0.045 percent in high THM areas
*
Risks of having children with the above three birth defects increased between 50 and 100 percent
*
Slightly raised risk of having children with urinary tract defects and Down’s syndrome
“Our findings don’t just add to the evidence that water chlorination may cause birth defects but suggest that exposure to chlorination by-products may be responsible for some specific and research common defects,” said Professor Jouni Jaakkola of the University of Birmingham who led the research team.
Exposure can happen by drinking the water, taking a bath or a shower or by standing closely to a boiling pot of tea. The danger of exposure to pregnant women happens when the chemical by-products of chlorination called trihalomethanes (THMs) are absorbed through the skin and then transmitted to the womb.
THMs are one type of disinfection byproduct (DBP) created when the disinfectants used to kill bacteria in the U.S. drinking water supply, such as chlorine, react with natural organic matter, such as decaying vegetation, or when certain compounds such as bromide are present in the water.
Studies have linked THMs with low birth weight and neurological abnormalities in infants, along with increased incidences of neural tube defects, small body length, and small head size in babies born to women drinking water containing 400 ppb THMs.
Research has also linked an increased risk of bladder cancer with exposures of 50 ppb, and first trimester miscarriage in pregnant women drinking water with 75 ppb -- both of which are under the EPA “safe” limit.
The second study published by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry showed that some birth defects such as spinal bifida and neural tube defects are linked to total THMs ingested in drinking water. Risks of neural tube defects were doubled among women with the highest exposure to THMs.
How Did Chlorine Find Its Way Into the U.S. Water Supply and Who Regulates it?
Back in 1908, chlorine was added to a community water system in New Jersey as a way to get rid of many types of water-borne diseases such as Cholera and Typhoid fever. Before chlorination, many major cities experienced death tolls of 1 in 1,000 people from Typhoid alone.
For over 80 years, chlorine has been used to disinfect municipal water and it wasn’t until the 1970s that it was discovered that combining water with natural, organic matter such as vegetation and algae produced Trihalomethanes. Today, chlorine is injected into drinking water in two ways: injected directly by bubbling chlorine gas into the reservoir of drinking water or by adding calcium hypo chloride (bleaching powder) to water.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets the standards for acceptable levels of contaminants in drinking water. Their defined standard for chloroform, the most common trihalomethane found in chlorinated water, is 100 parts per billion or 100 micrograms per liter of water.
They base this on an estimate that this level of contamination results in an added lifetime cancer risk of about 2 per 100,000 person-years, assuming the average person is consuming about two liters of drinking water per day.
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health believe that the cancer risk from chlorinated water may be up to 10-50 times higher than the EPA estimate. This is due to the fact that the EPA’s estimate is based solely on ingesting drinking water as the source of trihalomethanes. They didn’t take into account the chloroform exposure from bathing, showering and doing laundry.
According to some studies, two-thirds of the harmful exposure to chlorine is due to inhalation of steam and skin absorption while showering. Taking a warm shower opens up your skin pores and clears the way for accelerated absorption of chlorine.
The steam inhaled during showers contains up to 50 times the amount of chemicals in tap water. This is because the chlorine, along with other contaminants and DBPs, vaporize at a faster rate and at a lower temperature than water. Once inhaled, the chlorine goes directly into your bloodstream.
Leading experts are confirming the dangerous effects of inhaling chlorine while taking showers.
According to researcher Bruce Black during a meeting of the American Chemical Society:
“Taking long, hot showers is a health risk. The chemicals evaporate out of the water and are inhaled. They can also spread through the house and be inhaled by others. House holders can receive 6 to 100 times more of the chemical by breathing the air around showers and bath than they would by drinking the water.”
Further, a Professor of Water Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh claims that exposure to vaporized chemicals in the water supplies through showering, bathing and inhalation is 100 times greater than through drinking water.
And according to Dr. Lance Wallace, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Showering is suspected as the primary cause of elevated levels of chloroform in nearly every home because of chlorine in the water.”
________________________________________________________
Also note that chlorine is not the only dangerous chemical in your water. PRescription Drugs are a recently observed, but fast growing hazard. Just as you would fear having your unborn baby and the rest of your family exposed to chlorine, I have no doubt that you would not want them exposed to birth control pills, ritlin and other antidepressants, powerful heart disease and anti diabetic drugs. A recent study found the residue from 52 different drugs in the Philadelphia, Pa public water! A simple chlorine filter will NOT remove the prescription drug residue.
Check out this site to learn about a Japanese Ionic Water Generator that is so powerful it is used in hundreds of Japanese hospitals and is certified as a medical device by their FDA and is used to fight many chronic diseases, including diabetes and cancer! The Best Water!
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