Water Quality for Wellness

Part 2: Importance of water to wellness. We cover the range of purification methods that are available and how those impact on waters energetic nature and other properties.

It is an essential component of all living things. It is a force that shapes the earth. It is a rarity in the universe yet abundant on this blue planet Earth. It is water – the key to life.

Methods of Purification
The challenge of purifying water is to break down the structure to allow impurities to be removed. In distillation this is done by boiling the water which breaks apart the structures to individual H2O molecules. These rise and are condensed elsewhere, usually on some cooled surface, where they reassociate into larger order structures, to be collected as "pure" water leaving the impurities behind in a concentrated "soup". Other purification methods have the same aim. Reverse osmosis uses membranes that only allow small clusters, too small to carry impurities, to pass through. Ion exchange and activated carbon cartridge filters depend on the attraction between the filter matrix and the clusters containing impurities, which have different properties to the pure clusters without trapped impurities. Water purifiers that depend on "ionisation" methods use a strong electric field to electrically break down the structure of the water to facilitate the removal of impurities. "Depth" filters (such as sand filters used in swimming pools) and sizing membranes (such as those used to generate sterile water for medical use) simply sieve out the larger clusters that wrap around large impurities such as particulates and bacteria .

Over the past few years a sophisticated method for purifying water, using rare volcanic earth and gravel media arrayed around a magnetized core, has become available. In this technique, the interplay between the characteristics of the volcanic earths in the local magnetic field serves to disassociate any impurity-containing clusters, and the impurities are bound by the layers of earths or an activated carbon element in the filter. This technique closely mimics the process of percolation through the soil and substrata which gives deep spring water it’s characteristics as a close to ideal water. More recently this methodology has been produced in a small sport-type bottle where the media are packed into a small purification element which allows convenient access to this high-quality water at any time.

The energetic nature of water
The structure of water does more than give it surface tension and act as a net to hold impurities. The same structure allows water to carry all kinds of molecular "signatures" and energetic "information", and it has been theorised that this feature forms one of the bases of how homoeopathy works. (Recent studies suggest that there are some anomalies in homoeopathic preparations where specifically shaped clusters created by the "succussion" process may in fact concentrate the dissolved signature molecules). The structure of water also allows water to carry a quality that has been termed "life force" or "vital energy". This may equate to the "chi" of Chinese medicine or even the "kundalini" of Indian medicine. Many techniques have been used to energise water and these are discussed below. All of them work to some extent to "restructure" the water into molecular arrays more akin to the structure found in water in nature – the spring-fed mountain stream being widely characterised as the "ideal".

Why is it that these energetic characteristics are so important to hydration? There are several reasons. First, energetic water displays low surface tension as a direct consequence of its small cluster size. Low surface tension allows water to have greater "wetting" capacity and so it does a better job of dissolving other substances and making them available for transport as solutions. This is important in moving nutrients and waste products around the body – one of waters essential roles in maintaining optimal hydration. Low surface tension/small cluster size water also penetrates membranes more easily. Water moves around the body by passing through membranes. The movement of a cluster of water molecules from the gut to its final point of activity sees the cluster pass through up to a dozen membranes. In some cases these processes are actively pumped – where there is a specific mechanism to move the water from one side of the membrane to the other – and in others the mechanism is passive driven by osmotic gradients or passive diffusion. The variety of mechanisms and the factors that switch between them are beyond the scope of this article but are well reviewed elsewhere.

The importance to the hydration process of several of waters other characteristics are more difficult to pin down.

Acid or Alkaline?
One characteristic, pH – the relative concentration of hydrogen ions versus hydroxyl ions – has been touted as an essential characteristic of the ideal water. The problem is that there is not general agreement as to what the ideal pH is of the water you should drink. "Pure" water is neutral and has a balance of free H+ and OH- ions. This equates to a pH of 7.0. Most of the biological fluids in the human body, e.g. blood serum, are pH 7.4 – slightly alkaline – and it is known that in people where this value changes significantly, such as with systemic acidosis where the pH may drop by several units, and remains altered long term, there are many negative consequences.

For this reason many natural therapists promote diets and activities that promote "alkalinisation" or a move to higher pH. Consumption of alkaline water (sometimes at very high pH) is promoted as a method of alkalinisation but to my knowledge no studies demonstrate this conclusively. It has been suggested that the large volume of acid present in a healthy stomach would quickly buffer and neutralise all but the most extremely alkaline water. There are some studies to suggest that the consumption of alkaline water may have significantly deleterious effects such as degradation of heart muscle and effects on cardiac enzyme levels . On the other hand acidic water has been shown to be useful topically to manage skin diseases and counteract the effect of alkalising detergent and soap products.

In the next part of this article we will look at common contaminants and answer the question – so what water should we drink?

Note: Some of the material presented in this article has been published previously by the author in Diversity – The Journal of the Australian Compementary Health Association Vol 2 No 7, pp 2-9 2002.

Dr Jaroslav Boublik completed his initial training in classical medical research as an neuroendocrinologist before turning his interest to complementary medicine 10 years ago. He is currently Scientific Director of AquaConneXions Pty. Ltd, a complementary medical research and development consultancy.

References
Archer, J. The Water You Drink, Pure Water Press, Pearl Beach 1996, pp 83-98

Gerber, R., Vibrational Medicine (2nd Edition), Bear & Co, Santa Fe 1996, pp 77-89

Samal S. Geckeler KE Unexpected solute aggregation in water on dilution. Chem Commun., 2001;21: 2224-2225

Cater, J.H. The Awesome Life Force Cadake Industries, Winter Haven, 1884

Zeuthen, T., Molecular Mechanisms of Water Transport, Springer, Heidelberg 1996

Senay, L.C., "Potassium in Exercise and Sport" in Macroelements, Water and Electrolytes in Sports Nutrition, (Ed: Driskell, J.A. and Wolinsky, I.,) CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1999 pp155-156.

Watanabe, T. & Kishikawa, Y. "Degradation of myocardiac myosin and creatine kinase in rats given alkaline ionized water" J . Vet. Med. Sci. 60(2): 245-250, 1998