>> Dr Lower: "Ionized water is nothing more than sales fiction; the term is meaningless to chemists"
Not true.
In the 1950's Japanese water researchers studying the properties of high altitude spring and glacier water discovered that electrolysis could be used to improve the quality of tap water. This water ionization discovery became a part of Japanese Functional Water technology, which also includes the use of magnetic fields. Since the early 1950's some thousands of Japanese and Korean scientists have been working with ionized/electrolyzed water. The first water ionizers built were very large units, first used in Japanese hospitals in the early 1950's, commercial units became available over a decade later, so you can hardly call that 'sales fiction'.
Are we to believe that these people don't know anything about chemistry, or that these countries don't have any chemists? In the UK high street Chemists do stock water ionizers. The term 'ionized water' may be meaningless to chemists that don't know anything about the technology, or don't want to know, but not to all scientists.
Chemists are far removed cutting edge science in any case!
See our Clinical Studies Section for some 100+ published studies. Much of the early work has not been translated into English.
Some 15% of Japanese households use ionized water. Alkaline water is available in hospitals and clinics throughout Japan and Korea and is registered as a medical device by the Governments of both these countries. The combined output of the major water ionizer manufacturers (Toya Industries, Panasonic, Akai, Royal Water/Jupiter Science and Ion Farms) is over 1 million units per annum. Sanyo has announced a washing machine that uses electrolyzed water which will not require any washing powder. Just think of the cost savings and environmental benefits of using just ionized water instead of chemicals for most household things like detergents, antiseptics, shampoos, etc. In 10 years time electrolyzed water and devices will be available in every home.
Japanese and Korean research in things like 'Functional Properties of Water' is far more advanced then anything in the west. This is because research funding is allocated differently over there - less controlled by the pharmaceutical companies and what are called the government-industry revolving doors that we have in the west.
A doctor at the prestigious Seoul National Medical University, Dr Choi says that 'the effects of alkaline water are both a scientific fact as well as medical fact'.
In connection with this Korean University, recently there has been much media interest on the level of Korean scientific advancements when Professor Hwang Woo-suk, who reportedly produced the world's first cloned dog and human embryos and stem cells tailored to be used on individuals was judged by a Seoul National University panel of fabrication of the stem cells data. They confirmed though that Snuppy was a clone.
>> Dr Lower: "Most water that is fit for drinking is too un conductive to undergo significant electrolysis."
Not true. Try it yourself on your tap water. Measure the pH of the tap water, the acid water and the alkaline water using a pH meter or universal indicator. Measure the ORP values with an ORP meter. If you don't find any significant pH change, then return your unit and most suppliers from reputable manufacturers like Royal Water will give you your money back. In 99% of cases we find that tap water does undergo significant electrolysis, particularly with the latest Jupiter models that add beads of coral calcium and tourmaline to the filter which aids the ionization process.
>> Dr Lower: "Pure water can never be alkaline or acidic, nor can it be made so by electrolysis....pure water can be considered to be ion-free, as evidenced by the fact that it will not conduct an electric current."
Not true. What I assume Dr Lower means is that pure distilled H2O is neutral, but chemically pure H2O does not exist in nature; even when you make distilled water it soon absorbs atmospheric gases and its pH becomes slightly acidic. Chemically pure H2O is not pure water, but an artificially created substance - it does not have any ions and cannot conduct electricity. But such water does not occur anywhere outside the chemistry lab, so this argument is not relevant to anything. The statement is totally misleading.
Try telling an electrician that tap water doesn't conduct electricity, so you can pour it on electric power sockets!
Virtually all the water in the world and all the water in your body contains ions, it is the ions that allow the water to be used for life. Without the ions the water would not sustain life - fish, for example, die when placed in distilled water. Even rain water is not distilled water.
>> Dr Lower: "Groundwater's containing metal ions such as calcium and magnesium can be rendered slightly alkaline by electrolysis, but after it hits the highly acidic gastric fluid in the stomach, its alkalinity is gone."
As we discussed, any tap water (not counting lab distilled water) contains ions, which is why it conducts electricity and can be electrolyzed Yes, if your stomach contains a lot of food that it is digesting with strong acids, then the alkaline pH would be gone because the stomach acids would be several thousand times more acid then the slight alkalinity of the ionized water.
But this doesn't mean anything - the purified water will still be hydrating, provide alkaline minerals and all the other benefits, and zero toxins - you just won't get the slight alkaline boost for your blood pH that's all. This is a minor benefit in any case, but you should drink water first thing in the morning and in-between meals, not during or after meals to get the most benefits. When the stomach is empty, the water or freshly squeezed juices will flow straight through, and not be significantly effected by the acid stomach pH.
The actual pH (i.e. the measurable pH, 8-10 usually) is not the major benefit of this water - 'alkaline' is just a label used to describe the water, one of many labels.
You could call it natural water, pure of contaminants, or pure natural water, pure mineral water . If you analyze natural spring water from the Alps or better still Glacier water, you will find that it has all these properties: alkaline pH, high colloidal alkaline mineral content, low acid mineral content, low ORP (i.e. reduced), low NMR (small clusters).
What is important is what is contained in it. In health circles alkaline water is also called Microwater, Light water, Micro-clustered water, Reduced water, Electrolyzed Reduced Water (ERW), Ionic mineral water and even Miracle Water in this Japanese TV documentary.
Our Clinical Studies section lists abstracts from 100+ published papers that give an indication of the diverse uses of ionized water and terminology used.
When sensible nutritionists and naturopaths talk about an 'alkaline diet' they are NOT talking about neutralizing the acidity of the stomach acids that are needed to digest our food with chemicals!
Alkaline foods like super greens and carrot juice are not particularly alkaline if you measure the pH with a meter, but they will have an overall slight alkalizing effect (or less acidifying effect) when you change your diet to eat more of them. An important point to note is that if you are eating live, alkaline foods like fruits, freshly squeezed juices you should do so on an empty stomach to help the digestion process and get the most benefits (i.e. nutrients, enzymes and energy) from the food. This is less of an issue with alkaline water, since there is nothing to digest in water. JK]
>> Dr Lower: "The claims about the health benefits of drinking alkaline water are not supported by credible scientific evidence"
Health benefits are difficult to quantify with any natural substance like clean water, fresh air or live food; this does not mean that there are no health benefits. Common sense tells us that good clean water would be more beneficial for our health then dirty, poisoned water. Pure natural water from high altitude mountain springs and glaciers is alkaline water.
If you were to go to the Alps and live there, you'd find after several months an improvement in your general health.
Researchers that have looked at the heath of high mountain people have traced it to the local water that they are drinking.
There is plenty of credible evidence to suggest there are some benefits from alkaline water - seek and you shall find. Our clinical studies section lists abstracts from some 100+ published papers.
Is not one of them even a teeny, wee ny bit 'credible'?
Do we need something labeled as 'credible scientific evidence' to know that clean water or clean air or clean food is good for our health? Isn't a little common sense enough?
I would be very interested in any evidence (credible or incredible, published or not published) that pure, unpolluted water is NOT good for your health, and polluted water is.
Take 2 glasses of water, one tap water which has chlorine, fluoride, female sex hormones and 100's of other toxic substances in it; the other glass has the same water, but with all those poisons taken out of it. Which would be better for your health?
Do you need credible scientific double blind studies published in prestigious journals to prove that drinking toxic sludge is NOT good for your health before you stop drinking it?
Who decides what is credible, high priests behind modern medicine: The New World Religion?
Surely if world renowned experts like Dr Gabriel Cousin's, Daniel Reid, Sang Whang, Deepak Chopra,Tony Robbins, Ray Kurzweil, Dr Terry Grossman, Dr Theodore Baroody, Dr Sherry Rodgers, Dr Susan Lark, Dr Robert Young and countless others worldwide are drinking alkaline water and recommending that you should drink it too, then it's worth considering?
Do these people have anything to do with water ionizer manufacturers?
Do they benefit in any way from the water that you drink in your home?
Do you really think that these people are snake oil peddlers?
Could it be that these experts are giving honest advice, based on their personal experience?
>> Dr Lower: "There is nothing wrong with drinking slightly acidic waters such as rainwater"
Yes, slightly acid water is harmless, but it's not particularly beneficial either. By definition, acid water if deficient in alkaline minerals and has harmfully acid elements in it. This study of "Cola beverage consumption induces bone mineralization reduction in ovariectomized rats", of rats fed cola (acid, pH 2.5) suggests that calcium from the bones is used up in maintaining an alkaline blood pH balance, so your better off not drinking it.
Body pH
>> Dr Lower: "Body pH is a meaningless concept; different parts of the body (and even of individual cells) can have widely different pH values."
Not true. Body pH doesn't become a meaningless concept just because different parts of the body and cell have different pH values. We are like alkaline batteries, the polarity between acidity and alkalinity could the key to many bodily functions - like acid-alkaline batteries, we need the cellular polarity, otherwise we'd be dead.
What do Clinical Studies of Alkaline and Acid water suggest?
This study of "Cola beverage consumption induces bone mineralization reduction in ovariectomized rats" (the rats were fed cola - acid, pH 2.5 - and the effects on bone density measured) suggests that calcium from the bones is used up in maintaining an alkaline blood pH balance. The researchers concluded: "These data suggest that heavy intake of cola soft drinks has the potential of reducing femoral mineral density".
This study on the effects of alkaline ionized water on milk yield, body weight of offspring and perinatal dam in ratstentatively concludes that "higher calcium concentration of AKW [alkaline water] enriched the mother, serum calcium which was transferred to the fetus through the placenta and to the offspring through the milk."
This study on the Influences of alkaline ionized water on milk electrolyte concentrations in maternal ratsstates "These data suggested that the Ca cation of AKW enriched the Ca concentration of the milk and accelerated the postnatal growth of the offspring of rats given AKW"
In 1996 Dr. Lynda Frassetto at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that as we age, starting around age 45, we lose the alkaline buffer bicarbonates in our blood. By the age of 90, we lose 18% of bicarbonates in our blood. This loss was shown to be diet induced. This is from the published abstract
"Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity."
Stomach Acidity
>> Dr Lower: "If you really want to de-acidify your stomach (at the possible cost of interfering with protein digestion), why spend hundreds of dollars for an electrolysis device when you can take calcium-magnesium pills, Alka-Seltzer or Milk of Magnesia?"
Who said anything about de-acidifying the stomach?
You can never 'de-acidify the stomach' simply because the body produces acids on demand, and without this acid you won't be able to digest your food so you shouldn't try to de-acidify it.
Alkaline water is much too mild to have any significant effect on stomach pH. Ant-acids are a billion dollar business, but a total waste of money, and actually harmfully as they reduce our ability to digest protein foods.
When you drink alkaline water, two things are possible:
1. If your stomach is full, the water could get trapped in the acid stomach environment. The alkalinity would be neutralized by the stomach acid, and the stomach may produce slightly more acid. A pathologist friend of Sang Whang, Dr. Stephen Weiss explains that in the process of producing more stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), the body creates sodium bicarbonate (an alkaline buffer) and adds it to the bloodstream.
H2O + CO2 + NaCl = HCl + NaHCO3
Water + carbon dioxide + salt = hydrochloric acid + sodium bi-carbonate
So the net result is an increase in alkaline buffer. This does not happen if you ingest bicarbonates (baking soda) because the body converts these to water, carbon dioxide and sodium salt. The bicarbonates will not reach the bloodstream no matter how much you consume.
2. If the stomach is empty, it is likely that the water would go straight through the stomach to the intestine, and go to the blood stream to give it an alkaline pH boost, and any excess will replenish the alkaline buffers. As Sang Whang explains
"If alkaline water is introduced directly into the bloodstream from the intestine, the acid buffer (carbonic acid, H2CO3) will interact with the alkaline water to bring down the blood pH and the acid buffer will become the alkaline buffer
Ca(OH) 2 + 2(H2CO3) = Ca++(HCO3-)2 + 2(H2O) (calcium bicarbonate buffer in the blood is the net result)
An increase of bicarbonates in the bloodstream will prevent aging and the onset of adult degenerative diseases."
Acid-Alkaline, Stomach Acids and Food
Yes, after a heavy meal alka-seltzer might help disguise indigestion, but the badly combined food that you've ingested will need to be processed by the body, and this is not easy. If you artificially add Alka-Seltzer, you're not helping the body.
My suggestion would be to follow simple acid-alkaline food combining guidelines, and don't eat so much, so you won't get this problem. I know this from personal experience as I've been doing this for the last 15+ years.
Remember the Pavlov experiments with rats - a protein-starch mixture takes 3-4 times longer to digest then the same things eaten separately. "In rodents!" you might say.
Yes, but it could be an indication of what may happen in our stomach. Our body is quite intelligent; it can handle up to some 70% mixtures, particularly of natural foods, but that's no reason to continuously abuse basic dietary principles.
Try a little experiment: one day for lunch eat a steak with chips, and monitor how you feel after an hour or so. Next day eat the same steak, but with a simple vegetable salad. Which day did you feel more tired, drowsy? Which day did you feel less tired drowsy? You ate the same amount of food on both days, so what could account for the difference? Try a Mcdonalds diet for a month; then try an alkaline diet of fruits, vegetables and juices and super greens for a month. Notice a difference?
The level of acid on the stomach is related to the type of food that you consume. This is a fact: eat lots of proteins and the body manufactures a lot of acids, and enzymes that require an acidic environment. Salads and fruits produce much less acid and require enzymes that function in an alkaline environment.
What about acid fruits?
This includes acidic fruit like lemons and oranges. The pH is not relevant for here; what is important is how the body treats the food. There is an intelligence native to the body, that tells it what enzymes, gastric juice concentrations, and other factors will best digest what you eat.
If you eat two opposing foods like protein and starch in the same meal then the food combination will be harder to digest, no matter how intelligent the digestive system is. Fruits, which are digested not in the acidic stomach, but in the duodenum, will start to ferment in the acid stomach environment.
Isn't alkaline mineral water neutralized by stomach acid lining?
Is the stomach lining always acidic, even with no food in it? Ray Kurzweil and Dr Grossman and many others believe that the very slight acidity of the stomach lining when the stomach is empty is easily by passed by alkaline water.
Would the stomach lining of someone who has been fasting for 7 days on Alkaline Mineral Water alone be acidic?
I don't know the answer, but either way nature will have found a solution because we do absorb minerals from the water that we drink.
Korean research, for example, suggests nature may well have a mechanism for transporting essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium to the cells where they are required through the acid stomach and the stomach lining.
According to Dr Moo-Shik Chun, professor at the Korea Science and Technology Institute, ionized calcium atom forms hexagonal water structures around it. They surround the ions, as if to ensure that it is delivered to where it is needed.
Prof Chun says that one protein molecule is surrounded by 70,000 water molecules, which form 3 different layers called X, Y and Z layers. These layers have different properties and different structures according to Dr Chun, and about 60-65% of this water is hexagonal water, which is most suitable for our body.
It is as if the Water Structures form around the colloidal mineral to protect it on its journey through the stomach and fluid system.
Dr Chun says: "It can be said that hexagonally structured water is the water that living organisms like. This may explain the fact that snow melted water is good for the growth of plankton, green algae, etc. The water from snow has high contents of hexagonal structures."
You don't drink ionized water to neutralize stomach acidity - evidence suggests that the minerals in alkaline water do reach the cells where they are needed.
>> Dr Lower: Electrolysis devices are generally worthless for treating water for health enhancement, removal of common impurities, disinfections, and scale control
Again, not true. See the Clinical Studies. I think that in 10 years time electrolysis devices will be used used for all these things, and more. All the medical people that use alkaline water say that it helps enhance general health. Just removing the chlorine is a significant health benefit.
Water Tests show that a water ionizer removes all common impurities; the 0.01 micron filter units, for example, filter to the same purification level as kidney dialysis machines.
Alkaline or acid water kills most if not all known microbes within seconds.
The Placebo Effect and Alkaline Ionized Water |
How does Dr Lower explain that the thousands of users world wide that drink ionized water swear by it, and won't give up their water ionizers for anything? 'It's the Placebo Effect - stupid '.
This looks at the real reasons.
Dr Lower: "Will water that purports to be "ionized" or "alkalized" make me feel better, younger, more vigorous, etc.?"
Dr Lower: "Quite possibly, yes! Studies have shown that placebos can relieve the symptoms in about 40 percent of those who suffer from chronic ailments. They are probably even more effective for those who are inclined toward "alternative medicine" or the "wellness" industry.
In other words, if you "believe" that something might help, it may well do so, and the more people are made to pay for it, the more eager they will be to have their beliefs confirmed."
This is very true about belief, but the effects of ionized alkaline or acid water have nothing to do with the placebo effect.
The first Japanese Government tests in the 50's were conducted on plants and animals. Plants and animals are NOT subject to placebo effects. Read the Livestock results from 27 dairy farms. The Clinical Studies section lists 100 published studies on the effects of ionized water, are these effects due to a placebo?
Try a simple experiment yourself - take 3 seedlings and daily feed them tap (control), acid and alkaline waters. See what happens after a fortnight/month. Plants are not subject to placebo, but to to make it more 'scientific', make it double blind by, say, getting a supplier to provide the water in batch labeled water bottles and giving them to someone else to administer. That way, neither you or nor the feeder knows which water is fed to which plant. At the end, check the growth levels in the 3 plants. Repeat the experiment 100 times for statistical accuracy.
What results do you think you'll get? These and other experiments on the effects of alkaline and acid ionized water have been repeated time and time again, with the same results.
REAL Modern Medical Science = Chemical Drugs;
Natural Health Products = Placebo Effect
Why is it that 95% of cancer patients die from Chemotherapy treatment?
Why do 95% of AIDS patients die from AZT treatment?
Surely, from the placebo effect alone, some 40% should have got better in both cases?
What would happen if you feed 100 patients MacDonald’s food and nothing else for a month, and told them daily that it would 'make them feel better, younger. more vigorous, etc' so they get the max possible dose of the placebo?
Would they be "better, younger, more vigorous" at the end of it, or would they all be dead?
If they all end up dead, which I suspect they would, then what happened to the 40% placebo effect?
Why does Dr Lower not warn about the dangers of fast food chains, supermarket processed foods,fraudulent medical research, Chemotherapy, AZT and lies about AIDS, Aspartame, Fluoride,Microwave ovens, mobile phones, Industrial Pollution, GM Foods, and countless other real dangers that we are faced with? Could it have something to do with the fact that these very real scams are made by large multi-nationals, including chemical and pharmaceutical giants who put profits before peoples health?
 Watch this amusing look at the drugs culture: Licensed to Pill
It's interesting that the 40% placebo effect is always labeled as the cause for any health improvements caused by simple natural things like:
1. Alkaline ionized water
2. Diet
3. Proper nutrition
4. Food Combining
5. Restoring proper pH balance
6. Fasting & cleansing
7. Removal of toxins and acid wastes
The so called alternate-health stuff on this and other sites some of which I have been practicing for over 30 years, and which has a tradition going back to over 5000 years! Modern medicine is barely 100 years old.
"This is just alternate crap, for REAL medicine you need REAL drugs, with REAL credible scientific evidence, published in REAL Journals that we control".
But why is it that you don't get this placebo effects from all these REAL drugs peddled by the commercial giants?
Glaxo Chief: Our Drugs Do Not Work on Most Patients
Commercial Reality and Academic Research
In the early 1980's I worked as a lowly undergraduate on industrial work placement with Professor Rodger Ekins at the Middlesex Hospital in London. Prof Ekins is a brilliant biophysicist who had just missed out an winning the Noble Prize for his pioneering work on radio-immuno assays and ligand assays. One project I worked on was the 'WHO free T4' study where over a 2 year period we measured blood samples and the effectiveness of 10 manufacturer's kits, under Dr Tom Jackson.
The report was completed and a pre-publication report sent to all the manufacturers. Some weeks later, Tom asked me bring up the summary charts that I had prepared on an Omnis database that ran on the Apple Macintosh just launched. Tom told me to take out some of the points for one of the large manufacturers (the ones that diverged significantly from the reference), so that the data would be closer to the +- 5% error - he said it could be due to batch/human error, and the final report was slightly changed. I didn't query it at the time, but I suspect that it was due to an appeal by the large manufacturer to tone down our criticism! We all knew that this manufacturer didn't understand the process, and his kit didn't measure anything - the Prof talked about it often.
This was a harmless case, but now the commercial reality is that with so much invested in drugs, academic interference, suppression or outright control is something that happens time after time and is one reason so many toxic substances and drugs like Aspartame get approved for human consumption and simple remedies that would save lives are ignored or actively suppressed, often with legal threats and intimidation. This years Nobel Prize winners talked about the huge resistance they had in their fight against to get the role of Helicobacter Pylori accepted as the true cause of ulcers and gastric cancers.
Professor William Doe of the Australian National University comments, "how difficult it is to change medical paradigms because everyone has a vested interest in the status quo". The pharmaceutical industry held the biggest vested interest in ulcers. Two of its biggest all-time earners have been the acid suppressing drugs cimetidine (Tagamet) and ranitidine (Zantac), and Astra had just launched the first of a new, even more potent type of acid suppressant. These drugs did not cure ulcers, meaning patients often needed lifelong therapy. The notion that common garden varieties of antibiotics (many of which were out of patent and so did not hold the lure of vast profits) might cure ulcers was, unsurprisingly, not high on the industry's priorities. The pharmaceutical industry is the main source of information for doctors, which helps explain why Tagamet and Zantac are still big sellers.
Government officials also collude: [Public health authorities and pharmaceutical interests are often in collusion without regard for public welfare. The recent FDA approval of Vioxx is a more current example.]
Physicians promoting Chondroiton and Glucosamine for arthritis also mentioned that none of the companies was interested in them because they can't be patented. This is the case with all natural remedies - the profits of pharmaceutical companies are threatened by simple truths about the causes and cures for disease. Dr Batmangheldj writes about his struggles to get the simple truth about water spread amongst physicians in his book The Bodies Many Cries for Water via bodies like the American Medical Association and the National Institute of Health. If you read it, it will bring you to tears: the people that we have entrusted with with the responsibility to look after our health have sold their consciences.
Rodger Williams, a Cambridge Graduate and a British MP mentions Parliamentary privilege(protection) to be able to speak about the aspartame scandal:
"Eminent academics from the UK and further afield have persuaded me beyond doubt that aspartame represents a serious health problem....The history of aspartame's approval is mired in controversy, not least because of the likes of Donald Rumsfeld "calling in his markers" to get it approved. The science that supported its approval was biased, inconclusive and incompetent. Aspartame is in a higher category of risk than Sudan 1, the UK's fastest recalled food substance. However, bad science, bad regulation and bad politics have left the bigger of those two threats in everyday products on our supermarket shelves.
Crucial questions that have been largely repressed since the early '80s hang over aspartame's safety. When journalists attempted to tackle those questions, their newspapers were threatened with intimidating letters from the industry's lawyers. I am duty-bound by the immunity afforded to me under parliamentary privilege and as a servant of the public to initiate a debate that has been silenced for over two decades."
In the late 80's I worked at the Health Education Authority, who at that time produced all those national TV adverts about HIV causing AIDS. In one campaign the HEA produced AIDS information material at a cost of 5 million pounds. At a late stage, the then Margaret Thatcher Government decided it didn't like the leaflets, so they all had to be scrapped! None of us at the time were aware that not a single paper had been published to prove that HIV causes AIDS. If you know of a study paper, then you can collect a10,000 dollar reward. A German court has established that there is no proven link. How then did Robert Gallo announce that HIV causes AIDS? He became a millionaire from a HIV test that he patented just before the announcement. Is this whole thing not a scam and a fraud, especially since Gallo was later convicted? Why have so many academics remained silent for all these years? Contrast this with the men of conscience that spoke out about the Prof Hwang and the fabrication. This fraud could have also gone on for years, if Hwangs colleague didn't have a conscience. |
A Critical Look at Alkaline Ionized Water Web sites |
Dr Lower rubishes all Alkaline Ionized Water promotion web sites with the same brush. This page looks at the errors, the scientific myths and the truths.
Alkaline Ionized Water Web site Analysis
>> Dr Lower: "Here is a summary of some of the more common claims with my comments."
My comments are marked JK (James Khan)
|
|
| Dr Lower: "Ionized water machines actually bring about the electrolysis of ordinary water."
[Yes, they do. Fact, not fable, see above. If you do simple tests (pH, ORP), and find that they don't then send your unit back. JK] |
Dr Lower: "If the water is pure enough to be potable, the amount of electrolysis that actually occurs is too small to be significant."
[Not true. See Previous parts JK] |
| Dr Lower: "These devices separate the alkaline water (produced at the negative electrode) from the acidic water (produced at the positive electrode), allowing you to draw them off separately."
[Fact, not fable... JK] |
Dr Lower: "This will not work with pure water because it is physically impossible to have water that contains an excess of OH (alkaline) without the presence of a charge-compensating metallic ion such as Na+ or Ca2+. Similarly, any water that is acidic (excess H+ ion) must contain a compensating impurity ion such as bicarbonate or sulfate. Thus ordinary drinkable water which contains only very low concentrations of metal ions will yield only weakly alkaline solutions."
[Not true in the real world. See my comments above about 'pure' H2O. JK]
|
| Dr Lower: "Alkaline water is important for maintaining proper body pH and preventing acidosis."
[Fact, not fable, read the many books and other literature all over the world about Alkalizing for Health] |
Dr Lower: "The pH of intracellular bodily fluids such as blood is controlled by an exquisitely-balanced set of reactions involving removal of (acidic) carbon dioxide through the lungs, removal of (alkaline) ammonia through the kidneys, and the buffering action within the blood by bicarbonate, and to a smaller extent by phosphate and certain proteins. In the most important of these mechanisms, carbon dioxide produced by cell metabolism reacts with water to form carbonic acid H2CO3, and this reacts with carbonate in the blood to form bicarbonate
which is carried by the blood to the lungs, where the carbon dioxide is then regenerated and expelled:
Dr Lower: The pH of blood is especially critical and must be maintained within the range of about 7.35 - 7.45. If the blood pH falls outside this range the condition is known as acidosis or alkylosis. Temporary acidosis can be induced by holding your breath, preventing release of CO2. Temporary alkylosis can be induced by hyperventilation, causing excess release of CO2. Chronic acidosis or alkylosis can be very serious and is often associated with kidney failure."
[Yes this is true. However, this does not prove that alkaline water is NOT helpfully for maintaining proper alkaline body pH and preventing acidosis! How can alkaline water not help the body maintain alkalinity? If you take 10 gallons of water with pH 7.3, add 3 liters of alkaline water at ph 10, will the original pH of 7.3 become more alkaline or less? Our body has around 10 gallons of water, and if you continue to drink 2-3 liters/day of alkaline water, it will gradually help the body maintain the ideal alkaline pH of about 7.365 JK]
Dr Lower: "The pH of ordinary drinking water will have little effect on the pH of the stomach contents because gastric fluid has an overwhelmingly low pH (Gastric fluid is essentially a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid.) Hundreds of millions of years of evolution have adapted humans to tolerate drinking waters having a fairly wide range of pH (5-8). Any water that is sufficiently alkaline to significantly affect gastric pH is unlikely to be considered potable by most people. Further, the enzymes that digest proteins in the stomach require a low pH in order to function properly, so if one were to ingest sufficient alkali to reduce gastric pH, it would also interfere with digestion."
[Also true, but again beside the point! Gastric juice neutralization has nothing to do with alkaline water, and gastric juice neutralization would be bad for food digestion. This is definitely not advised by naturopaths and nutritionists that advice an alkaline diet!
Incidentally, there is no danger of alkalizing the gastric juices - even if you drink 32 glasses of high pH alkaline water it will only upset stomach pH balance to the level as a can of cola with a pH of 2.5 would. JK]
Dr Lower: "If you really want (or need) to reduce gastric acidity, products such as Milk of Magnesia or Alka-Seltzer are cheaper and more effective than "water ionizer" machines. But bear in mind that acidosis and alkylosis are serious conditions that require medical intervention and can be properly diagnosed only by measurements of blood electrolyte and CO2 content."
[Again, misleading. Alkaline water is not about removing stomach acidity. JK] |
| The oxygen produced during electrolysis invigorates the body.
[FALSE! Who said anything about oxygen gas produced during electrolysis? Take 2 equal glasses of water, one with neutral water, the other with the same water, but all the H+ ions taken out of it. Which water glass will have more oxygen atoms in it (as OH)?] |
Dr Lower: "The amount of oxygen that water can hold is very limited, and it is not significantly absorbed by the gut anyway. You can acquire far more oxygen by just taking an extra breath. For more on the myth of oxygenated waters, see the OxyScams page."
[Very true, but nothing to do with alkaline water. This, incidentally is another reason why deep, regular breathing is so important for health. JK] |
| "Ionized water" acts as an effective antioxidant and free redical fighter, and can even halt or reverse ageing.
[Fact that ionized water is an anti-oxidant. What do you understand by the terms 'Reduced water' and Oxidized water? How does one measure them?
Sang Whang presents a theory of aging, which is that aging is a gradual process of the accumulation of organic acid wastes in the body. Experimental evidence shows that this appears to be the case - increase the rate of acid wastes in single cells and you decrease the life span, decrease and remove the acid wastes and you increase the life span.
Researchers believe that if you remove the wastes a cell produces, and provide it the nutrients it needs, the cell will live indefinitely. Our bodies are just trillions of cells, so it is logical that this anti aging theory may be valid. JK] |
Dr Lower: "There is no reason to believe this. Some sales sites reveal their ignorance of chemistry by stating that the enhanced oxygen content causes the water to act as an anti-oxidant (any high-school chemistry student should be able to debunk this one!) It should also be pointed out that evolution has allowed our bodies to develop anti-oxidant enzymes such as peroxidase that are millions of times more efficient than anything that an electrolysis device could produce even if it did work! Finally, although anti-ageing nostrums are widely marketed to the notoriously credulous seekers of alternative-health products, there is absolutely no evidence that any of these is effective."
[There is lot of evidence from many anti-aging writers that say that aging can be slowed, stopped or even reversed. Think of it like a car, if you provide it with the right fuel, remove the wastes that it produces, change it's oil, brake and other fluids, drive it with care then it will last longer then if you don't do all these things.
Good clean water and clean air are the two most important factors for our health and longevity. JK] |
Critical Look at Water Clusters |
Dr Lower rubishes the work of Dr Emoto's and countless others that are investigating Water Clusters and Structured Water.
Does water have a memory, a hidden structure, as the Homeopaths have always maintained?
Water Clusters (Images by Dr Emoto)
Spring Water of Saijo, Japan |
Biwako Lake, the largest lake at the center of Japan and the water pool of the Kinki Region. Pollution is getting worse |
Spring Water of Sanbuichi Yusui, Japan |
Yodo River, Japan, pours into the Bay of Osaka. The river passes through most of the major cities in Kasai. |
Antarctic Ice |
Fujiwara Dam, before offering a prayer |
Fountain in Lourdes, France |
Fujiwara Dam, after offering a prayer |
Hydration and Water Clusters
From the point of hydration, the only point of interest here is that the less clumped together water molecules there are the better the absorption, the less 'boated tummy' you get from drinking the water.
This is often the first thing experienced when you drink ionized water. This is confirmed by NMR figures for tap water and ionized water.
Van-Der Waals Forces and Water Clusters
The clumping-together is caused by van-der-waals forces between water molecules.
Ionized Water, 'Memory' and Virgin Water
The other alleged properties of water clusters like 'memory' are not relevant to Ionized Water because electrolysis reset the memory to a blank state. This is why it's sometimes called 'virgin water'
This phenomena, and the common 6 molecule pattern found in Ionized or Micro-Clustered Water, led researchers to wonder; if there is a clumping-together of water molecules, what pattern would they make?
What would it look like?
Could it that there is a mystery of life hidden in there?
Could there be a message in the water patterns?
Structured Water Criticism
Japanese and Korean scientists have been exploring these Structured Water Clusters for many years.
Dr Lower discredits the work of all researchers in the field of Structured Water Clusters like Dr Emoto, Dr. Mu Shik Jhon and Dr Hayashi, but I feel his views are like a bull going into a china shop! UK and many other universities are looking at structured water.
Dr Lower: "Well, if the water in your body is anything like the ideal shown at the top, then I have bad news: you are dead, and are no doubt residing in a deep-freeze!"
Very funny Stephen!
Shall we all have a big laugh over these mad Japanese and Korean scientists?
Ha, Ha, Ha, crazy Japanese mystic, crazy Koreans professor with over 250 published articles; they think that water is made of solid crystals...Ha, Ha, Ha!
Dr Emoto does not say that water has solid structures in it. He is trying to show that there is a hidden, invisible 'structure', a pattern or memory held in water.
Dr Emoto has devised a method to try to capture, decode or make visible this hidden information. His method is not perfect, but nature does not reveal it's secrets that easily.
Dr Emoto's starting point was when someone told him that EVERY snow flakes made a different pattern. He wondered, and then showed that this pattern that a water crystal (snow flake) makes is greatly influenced by our thoughts, words, music and so on.
It could be that there are flows in the experimental procedure, but to prove that you need to duplicate the findings, approaching the experiment with the same mind-set.
If you approach it convinced that THOUGHTS CAN NOT POSSIBLY HAVE AN EFFECT on water, then chances are that that is the results that you'll get. This is not a scientific approach, but a biased one.
Look at the photographs and ask yourself why a particular thought should create a particular pattern/picture?
What is it saying?
Why do you perceive one photograph as 'beautiful', another as 'ugly'?
Why does water subjected to 'beautiful' classical music look appealing, where as the one subjected to rock music looks nasty.
How do we judge beauty?
Supposing you wanted to program a computer with a camera to take 'nice' photos, how would you define 'nice', 'ugly', 'peaceful', 'serene'?
Dr Emoto didn't draw the photographs, he just took the pictures - they appear to reveal a hitherto hidden aspect of nature.
Look at the pictures and judge for yourself.
Detailed Criticism of Water Cluster Images
>> Dr Lower: "More of Emoto's photos and pseudoscientific rubbish can be found at the Hado site. For even more far-out phantasy, see More Messages in Water or The Power of Prayer Made Visible.....Emoto's book "The Message from Water" contains photos of ice crystals from waters which have been exposed to:"
music, words spoken, words typed and taped to the glass containers, photographs and long-distance thought messages. Some of the photographs are amazing and all of them show a response from the water.
>> "Many of the photos are quite nice, but the shapes of ice crystals are highly dependent on the conditions and rates of freezing, so Emoto's fanciful interpretations have no scientific validity"
These are true scientists that are presenting the evidence, which others are invited to replicate.
Just because there are challenges in the experimental procedure does not mean that it does not have 'scientific validity'.
You are welcome to make your own interpretations. Dr Emoto is just presenting the evidence, the pictures of Water Clusters speak for themselves.
Calling Dr Emoto's pioneering work "pseudoscientific rubbish" is insulting, and tells you more about the attitude of accuser then the accused.
Evidence of Memory held by Water?
I believe that Massaru Emoto's photographs are the first evidence that water is able to store or hold a memory in its structure and that it responds to or reflects our thoughts. This could explain why homeopathy works, and possibly explains many other mystery water cures like at Lourdes in France that have been reported for 100's of years.
As we are mostly water, this means that if you have loving thoughts, these will change the cells in your body and the water clusters in your body will reflect this love. Conversely, thoughts of hate, fear, and so on will create the corresponding nasty looking, toxic 'clusters' in your body.
This could be the primary cause of all ill health and disease, which over time manifests in visible forms.
To explore some of the mysteries of water, read Water and the Tao.
Dance of the Water Molecules
The 'hexagonal' water that Dr Emoto, Dr Jhon and other scientists are researching is a soft, moving water 'clustering' or clumping phenomena that is continually changing, like a dance of the molecules; our thoughts are able to change it.
The research is not related to any device that is marketed as being able to produce such water; it is about exploring a mystery of life. The clusters and images of water crystals give us clues to something hidden, invisible to our sight. Remember, 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Could memory, knowledge, experience be 'stored' or 'reflected' by water. Like paintings or flowers, Dr Emoto's water crystal images are saying things about the mysteries of life that words can not express, the rational mind can not comprehend.
What we know (scientifically speaking) is that hexagonal crystals are formed when water is frozen (e.g. a snowflake); we also know from NMR values that electricity appears to reduce similar clusters in water molecules, a property that lasts for 1-2 months, after which stored water reverts to 12-13 clusters for some reason.
From Dr Emoto's work we are introduced to the possibility that somehow the thoughts, intentions, music, spoken words are somehow are reflected by water molecules. This, he suggests, is by means of intriguing patterns of water clusters, that are invisible, but could be made visible by Dr Emoto's method.
Dr Emoto is not selling any quack products (and neither was the late Dr Jhon). After Dr Emoto made his discovery, and took the photographs, Japanese publishers wouldn't publish them. He self-published, and the water messages spread by word of mouth to today become a New York Times best seller.
Now many people throughout the world have seen them and have been moved by them. It is as if a key mystery of nature has been revealed to the general public consciousness.
Dr Jhon and the Water Puzzle
>> Dr Lower: "Prof. Paul Shin, of California State U. - Northridge and an expert on NMR, has demolished this nonsense in a very readable article."
In the linked article Prof. Paul Shin admits that he confirmed Dr Jhon's experiments:
'Sure enough I was indeed able to replicate his data precisely!'.
This is not exactly 'demolishing this nonsense', but rather confirming that NMR does give an indication of the cluster size of water molecules, and that it is different for different waters.
Prof. Shin seems to have an axe to grind, probably because a commercial device is being marketed on the back of the translated book, but this is not scientific attitude, and the late Dr Jhon probably was not aware of this product.
Prof Shin mentions that the NMR results for other waters like Urine, Distilled, Strawberry Juice, etc was the same as the Hexagonal water, and therefore implies that Dr Jhon's work or translation is flowed - i.e. hexagonal property is not unique to a particular water. But this does not mean that the research is flowed - Dr Jhon and people like Dr Hyashi show that the water in the body is ideally hexagonal, this is the case for all water in the body - urine, blood - and the water in nature and water existing in plants. This is confirmed with NMR readings. Lab tap water, on the other hand (from Dr Shins results), shows cluster sizes of twice this size, i.e. 12-13 clusters. If you take this water and pass it through an ionizer, you'd find that it will then give lower NMR/cluster size values.
There are a number of products, often sold via multi-level or pyramid marketing schemes that make various claims about producing such 'Structured Water', which seem to be dubious, as Prof. Lower explains. But this does not mean that the research by people such as Dr Shik Jhon and Dr Emoto is flawed by association. In connection with this, it can be demonstrated that certain naturally occurring substances like certain ceramics, tourmaline and even the natural flow of water along streams results in a water with lower surface tension and smaller clusters as compared with 'dead' tap water.
Remember, your thoughts are able to change the water cluster patterns - and this for me is the most important aspect of the water clusters work and the messages from water that are contained in the patterns.
|
Completion of Responses to Criticisms
This completes all the detailed sections looking at Dr Lowers 'scientific' criticisms.
Dr Lower has certainly gone to a hell of a lot trouble to rubbish Alkaline Ionized Water, and one wonders why?
I am, however, grateful for his contribution as it has given me the opportunity to respond to the criticism.
My Experience
I had been drinking filtered water for some 12 years and switched to a water ionizer some 3+ years ago after hearing about it from the author Daniel Reid, who has been drinking it for 8+ years. I'm glad I switched as I now virtually live on ionized water. I have done several 7 day water fasts with it, and find ionized water is much better then the previous 7 day fasts with charcoal filtered water.
I find this water much easier to drink, I drink a lot more of it and I wouldn't give it up for anything.
My family (a very large family!) all drink it, and won't drink anything else.
I have introduced 100's of people to it, who all say that they are drinking a lot more water then they used to, and feel better for it.
As for any health benefits, these are always difficult to quantify with total accuracy. I feel certain that my health has benefited from drinking Ionized Water, but I don't really know as I have always been in good health. But when I'm abroad, as I often am, and don't have access to ionized water, I feel that my health suffers (sore throats, etc).
As water is the main substance consumed during detox, fasting and cleansing programs, Daniel Reid devotes much of his new book 'The Tao of Detox' to it. Dan Reid is a living Taoist master and has over 30 years personal experience of such things, and some 20+ published books on a wide range of topics.
Many other health practitioners, particularly those that take up Detox, Fasting and Cleanse programs and those concerned with Peak Performance such as Tony Robbins have also switched to using alkaline water for their water purification needs. So have experts that have looked into Longevity and how to reverse the natural process of aging.
Science and Pseudo-Science
Dr Lower explains Science as what is agreed by the general scientific community, and pseudo science as something that is on the fringes, not generally agreed upon. This makes sense academically, however, in practice with vested interests and large corporations that have an interest in the status quo this distinction is often not as it would seem.
Dr Lower says that only research published in the top western scientific Journals is credible. This is just misleading, any research is credible if it can be repeated. If an experiment can be repeated, then it becomes scientific fact. What you then get is a campaign to suppress the scientific fact by those that feel threatened by the fact becoming generally accepted.
This has happened throughout the years, and continues to happen today.
The Horses mouth: You can't argue with observed phenomena
In 1984 I worked at the Middlesex Hospital in Professor Ekins what was then Molecular Endocrinolgy Department within Nuclear Medicine. My supervisor and friend Dr Phillip Edwards told me a story about the importance of getting it straight from the horse's mouth in any true scientific endeavor.
Several centuries after Socrates two experts were discussing the number of teeth there are in a horses mouth.
One said it was 'X' because the horses evolution (and he explained this line).
The other guy followed the line of argument, but disagreed at a point and said it was not 'X' but had to be 'Y'.
He then and explained what he thought was the mistake in evolutionary line that the other had explained.
This argument continued for several months when a third guy, who was passing by said:
'You're both wrong, the number of teeth in the horses mouth is "Z"'.
Both the experts laughed out loud, 'who ever heard of 'Z', where did you get that number from?' they asked laughing.
'I got it from the horses mouth'
replied the third guy. End of argument.
This has been the basis of true scientific endeavor over the years. You conduct simple experiments, and see the results.
A universal indicator comes with every water ionizer, so everyone can test for themselves. You can also take the water to labs to have other measurements such as ORP, TDS, NMR and compare these with the Manufacturer Specifications.
With Alkaline Water, if the 'litmus test' from the horses mouth indicates that the water is acid at one end and alkaline at the other, then that is the end of the argument.
Similarly, if 95% of the people that drink it say that it feels lighter, they can drink more of it and that they don't get the 'bloated' tummy feel from drinking it, then it suggests that the water is better absorbed.
If you take tap water water, pass it through an ionizer to separate water into acid and alkaline. Then feed acid to one plant, alkaline to another and after a while the acid fed plant degenerates, while the alkaline fed plant flourishes then this is clear evidence that alkaline water is beneficial. If you get the same results with rats, chickens, cows then that's also clear evidence. If your chemistry, physiology textbooks or philosophy says that this can not happen (when it clearly does), then you need to change your chemistry and text books.
Conclusion
I have shown that in the UK/EU the cost of a water ionizer compares favorably with other water purification systems and it can be easily tested that it does indeed produce acid, alkaline and purified waters. The units have manufacturer specifications (for example ORP, acid and alkaline levels) which have been independently tested to be accurate.
Any health benefits are difficult to quantify as people are very different, and any benefits from the water would be gradual, imperceptible over the short term.
The reported benefits may not be 'credible', but I think there is enough evidence to suggest that there are some benefits; there is no harm from drinking water that has all impurities, chemicals and acid elements taken out of it.
Drinking pure, clean water in it's ideal state (which is alkaline water) is good for your health, and anyone that says alkaline water is not good for your health is not telling you the truth, and you would need to question why he wants you to believe that.
A water ionizer is not a 'snake oil' scam, some 15 Million Japanese people use it.
Dr Lower discredits himself when he suggests that it's a scam and that every expert would concur, when every expert that I know clearly does not.
As a chemist Dr Lower should not rubbish world renowned experts on Nutrition, Health and Longevity, especially not in their own fields of expertise.
A chemistry professor coming up with basic chemistry equations to try to prove that acknowledged world experts on health, nutrition and longevity like Dr Gabriel Cousin's, Daniel Reid, Sang Whang, Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Ray Kurzweil, Dr Terry Grossman, Dr Theodore Baroody, Dr Sherry Rodgers, Dr Susan Lark, Dr Robert Young and others are wrong is a bit like the 'scientists' that reasoned that the earth was flat.
What is needed here is a Paradigm change that the late Dr Batmangheldj called for since his breakthrough in Medicine at the Evin prison. He got it straight from 3000 horse's mouths, each crying out in pain, that the body needs water, not drugs.
You can't argue with this evidence - not with basic chemistry equations, not with pseudo science allegations, not with 'germ theories', not with anything.
This site has the translated transcript and some parts of a TV documentary called 'Miracle Water', which was made after urging by the Japanese Minister of Health. I wonder if such information would ever be made public in the west. I wonder if Dr Batmanghelidj message will ever reach the general public that's crying out in pain or the physicians who's job it is to alleviate the pain.
Maybe you can help?
|
|
|
