Saturday, April 18, 2015

All Purified Water is Not Created Equal

Manufacturers of bottled water love to tell you how pure their water is. Purity being the measures taken to filter out particles and large micro organisms and further disinfect of viruses and other pathogens through heat or chemical processes. Meanwhile, other Premium water manufacturers will tell you how natural their product is coming from some under ground aquifer or some glacial mountain stream. While lastly, there are the water "purists" who tout alkaline water as the only water we should be consuming. I can see how it can be a little confusing.

I noticed that my coworkers have spent the last month or so battling some sort of Upper Respiratory Infection, right about the time that I noticed that my coworkers started drinking a particular bottle of water provided to us by the vendor that runs the VMI Program.

Last week, the April showers did not yet bring May flowers, but the tree pollen levels were certainly rising up and I found myself feeling particularly lousy and my normal allergy medication not being particularly effective. What I did not realize right away was that I had also recently changed the bottled water I was drinking.

So, I decided to test this for myself using 5 drops of this PH Testing drops I bought from Amazon and the results were not necessarily surprising.
The glass on the left is the bottled water I have been drinking for years (PH=7.0). In the middle is the water that my coworkers have been drinking recently (PH=6.0). Lastly, the glass on the right is the water I have recently started drinking (PH=6.5). Is it a coincidence that my coworkers got sick, and more importantly stayed sick, when they were drinking water that was slightly acidic? 

What about the mountain spring water? What about the alkaline water?

The glass on the left is the bottled water I have been drinking for years (PH=7.0). The glass in the middle a popular European mountain spring water (PH=7.0). Lastly, the glass on the right is a brand of alkaline water I have seen at Whole Foods and elsewhere that touts a PH of 9.5+ on the bottle; it does not disappoint.

Now, I am a man of science and I know that, like everything in life, there must be a balance. Our bodies strive to maintain gradients of salt, potassium, calcium, glucose and, yes, PH.

That said, I think that people put all filtered and disinfected water in the same category and if you are feeling particularly tired or sick perhaps you should reevaluate your water.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.