Imbibe Wisely : Water Purity & Longevity

The Age-Defying Properties of Pure Drinking Water

Could pure water be the ultimate age-defying element? There is a proven connection between the quality of our drinking water and healthful longevity.

All over the world and throughout time, wherever you find the purest water, you find the healthiest and most vibrant civilizations.

In recent years, scientists and health professionals have documented the many health benefits of increasing both the quantity and quality of the water we consume.

Water has earned the nickname as the “elixir of life” for good reason. Over 70% of the human body is composed of water, and maintaining this level through proper hydration is essential for efficiently regulating the body’s normal physiological functions.

Water not only cushions joints and removes toxins and waste :

• it carries nutrients and oxygen to cells
• helps convert food into energy
• hydrates skin
• empowers the body’s natural healing process
• and slows the aging process.

So it’s no surprise that next to oxygen, water is the human body’s most important nutrient.

The Health Risks of Dehydration

We all know that we should drink more water, yet 75 percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated.

We tend not to drink water until we feel the sensation of a dry mouth. Unfortunately, a dry mouth is not an accurate indicator of the body’s actual need for water.

By the time the thirst sensation is detected, you are already short by two or three glasses of water.

Since the sensation of thirst diminishes as we age, it is important to make a habit of drinking water on a regular basis throughout the day even when we are not thirsty to avoid cellular dehydration, organ damage, and chronic health problems.

Once dehydrated, it can take as long as six to eight months of water therapy for normal thirst signals to return, and take up to a year or longer to rehydrate tissues.

It has been determined that your body needs a minimum of eight to ten glasses of water every day or on average half your weight in ounces of water per day. We know this because every 24 hours the body recycles the equivalent of 40,000 glasses of water to maintain normal physiological functions.

Within this process of metabolism and recycling, you use about six to ten glasses of its total water for essential body functions. This leaves a deficit of eight to ten glasses of water that must be supplied through rehydration each day.

Water should be taken in eight – or sixteen-ounce portions spaced throughout the day.

The Benefits of Contaminant-Free Water

There is no substitute for pure, natural water. Do not be mislead into thinking that tea, coffee, alcohol or sodas can substitute water. While these beverages contain water, most of them also contain chemicals that can alter body chemistry, along with dehydrating substances such as caffeine which will cause you to lose more water than is contained in the drink.

Detoxification is probably the single most important requirement for long-term health and relies almost exclusively on an adequate intake of contaminant-free water.

Without proper hydration, we actually poison ourselves with our own metabolic waste products and toxins.

Toxins and chemicals that cause muscle aches, headaches and fatigue are flushed out by water.

Adequate water intake is also necessary for the kidneys to remove wastes like uric acid, urea, and lactic acid from the body thus preventing kidney damage. The pathology of dehydration and the devastating damage it causes is only recently being explored and understood.

Many people are chronically ill and die when all they suffer from is persistent dehydration. Once you realize what damage dehydration can cause, you will respect the need to include plenty of pure water in your anti-aging lifestyle.

Water, Water Everywhere yet Not a Drop to Drink?

Now that we’ve talked about quantity, let’s talk about quality. Since the quantity of water we drink is critical to the life process, the quality of the water we drink is equally critical. While impure water hinders the body’s ability to absorb nutrients and impedes hydration and lubrication, pure water maximizes the therapeutic effects of good hydration including a feeling of increased energy, better memory and enhanced physical performance and appearance.

We consume about 16,000 gallons of nature’s elixir in our lifetime and thousands of undetected contaminants could be lurking in our water glasses.

Most of us assume that when we turn on the tap we are getting clean, pure water; however, approximately one in five Americans is actually drinking contaminated tap water.

While community water municipalities are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), no governmental body or private watchdog group is able to consistently monitor public water supplies.

Contaminates such as arsenic, aluminum, bacteria, chloride, chlorine, chloroform, copper, cysts (Cryptosporidium and Giardia), fluoride, lead, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), mercury, nitrates, pesticides, radium, sodium, sulfate, trihalomethanes (THMs) and viruses can be present in ordinary tap water.

Nearly all municipal tap water comes from surface water such as lakes and reservoirs, and must be treated to filter out particulates and kill microorganisms. Many microorganisms, cysts, and viruses are simply too small to be filtered out, posing serious health risks; these are suspected to be a major factor in the aging process.

While the US EPA regulations dictate that municipal water must be tested for 80 different compounds, there are several hundred thousand chemicals present in the environment-fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, fungicides, and chemical and industrial waste leeching into the water supply may never be properly identified and intercepted by municipal water departments.

Water has been called “the universal solvent” because it has a tendency to dissolve and carry with it everything it comes in contact with, from harmful chemical and inorganic minerals to organic ecological contaminants. Some impurities occur naturally in water, while others enter water supplies through aging municipal water treatment systems, contaminated ground water and wells, even home plumbing.

As the number of contaminants continues to grow, the filtration methods used in many municipal water treatment plants are simply not adequate to provide pure drinking water.

According to Dr. Allen E. Banik, author of Tour Water and Tour Health, “the major number of this nation’s water treatment plants are obsolete. They were engineered to cope with water problems of a half-century and more ago. Their primary objectives at the time of installation were to cope with the dangers of bacteria and suspended solids. They are incapable of solving the problems arising from dangerous chemicals, viruses, and metals.”

Beware the Faucet Waterdrop?

In the early 1900s, municipalities began adding chlorine to drinking water in order to control waterborne diseases by killing the bacteria that caused them. The chlorine did this job well, virtually wiping out the spread of typhoid fever and cholera through water systems.

What wasn’t known at the time, however, is that as chlorine interacts with dozens of other natural substances already present in the water which creates poisons called trihalomethanes (THMs) including chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, bromochloromethane, bromoform and others.

THMs have been found to cause cancer in lab animals and are suspected of causing kidney and liver diseases in humans.

Chlorine isn’t the only chemical being added to water that would pose a potential health danger. The addition of alum to water treatment plants to settle out particulate matter may be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Also, toxins like copper and asbestos can be leeched from household pipes.

And occasionally, the water treatment process breaks down and microorganisms such as Giardia, Cryptosporidium, and E. Coli make their way to your faucets.

Cryptosporidium, a single – celled protozoan commonly found in surface water, is chlorine – resistant and is a particularly dangerous microbe because it can create intestinal problems – even death – in infants and people weakened by age or illness.

Many microbial contaminants can only be killed by prolonged boiling – which can thereby concentrate the levels of heavy metals as water volume reduces during the boiling process.

“Pure Water” Starts at the Home

Growing concern about the safety of our public drinking water sources has caused many people to purchase in-home treatment devices. Unfortunately, most home water “purification” systems on the market today are unable to consistently remove even a fraction of the dangerous contaminants now polluting our drinking water supplies.

Even in this age of technological advancement, there is no perfect purification process; however, when you consider the alternatives, steam distillation comes closest. Distillation is the one water treatment technology that most completely reduces the widest range of drinking water contaminants: biological, organic and inorganic.

It will virtually eliminate all contaminants and will destroy waterborne pathogens including bacteria, viruses, cysts including Cryptosporidium and parasites because of the prolonged boiling process.

Distillation is the only consistent method to ensure you are getting the highest quality water possible to ensure health and longevity.

A Note About Bottled Water

Americans purchase thousands of gallons of bottled water, each of which can cost several dollars. Bottled water quality is questionable because there are no regulations in-place. As a result, many bottled water brands are no better than your tap water source, and some might even be worse.

In addition, there is a future long-term environmental impact of producing and then disposing of millions of plastic water bottles.

Bon Sante (Good Health)!

Consuming pure water has been associated with a multitude of health benefits, including:

Better Digestion and Metabolism:
Drinking enough pure water ensures that both digestion and metabolism are working at peak capacity, and helps burn fat more efficiently.

Holding Off Hunger:
Your body may send signals for food when what is really needed is water. Water’s filling effect also helps curb your appetite.

Reducing the Rise of Certain Diseases:
Researchers now believe that fluids, particularly pure water can play an important role in reducing the risk of some diseases including heart disease and kidney stones. Urinary tract cancer and colon cancer are now shown to be reduced by drinking enough pure water, which averts constipation.

A Weapon Against the Common Cold:
Antibodies in mucus that coats the throat help trap cold viruses. This defense can be weakened if you are dehydrated because the lack of water dries our mucus-producing tissues. Water is also an effective way to relieve a cough.

The Ultimate Facial Moisturizer:
Drinking plenty of pure water helps skin stay supple and plumped up -lessening the visibility of fine lines and wrinkles.

Concluding Remarks

A discussion of distilled water would not be complete without mentioning the controversial fluoride and mineral issue. For every study touting the benefit of adding fluoride to drinking water, there is another detailing its detriments, with many researchers wavering on their position over time.

As for minerals, the human body obtains the minerals necessary to good health primarily by consumption of food, not by drinking water.

For example, drinking one glass of orange juice provides the minerals equivalent to many gallons of tap water. Thus, a well-balanced diet becomes a prudent adjunct to drinking pure water.

The single most effective and simple way to improve health, well-being, and longevity while warding off disease is to drink pure water.

This is at your avail, simply and cost-effectively. Pure water is one of nature’s most powerful anti-aging nutrients for optimum health and longevity.

The Shocking Truth About Water

You are turning into stone – The greatest damage done by inorganic minerals plus waxy cholesterol and salt (Sodium Chloride) is the lining in your arteries, which makes them brittle.

Your body is beginning to turn into stone, just like stalactites and stalagmites through eons of time (the huge formations of inorganic minerals that have been building slowly).

Summarised from the book, “The Shocking ‘Truth about Water’