A common element of good health has been mentioned in a number of articles — drinking water. Drinking water is vital top your health, with 75% of your body and 85% of your brain being made up of water. But what happens if you are making the correct effort to drink water but didn’t experience the benefits you expected?

You may have heard of the various problems with water. I will go over a few of the common problems experienced.

drinking tap water

Tap water can have the wrong pH* balance, contain toxins and taste bad.

In general, a water with a low pH (< 6.5) could be acidic, soft, and corrosive. Therefore, the water could leach metal ions such as: iron, manganese, copper, lead, and zinc from the aquifer*, plumbing fixtures, and piping. Therefore, a water with a low pH could contain elevated levels of toxic metals and have associated problems such as a metallic or sour taste.

In addition, drinking too much of this water could also affect the pH balance of your body, leading to other health risks such as parasites or yeast infections. Or even dehydration!

drinking water from plastic bottles.

Plastic has certain components which disrupt the body’s hormone* system. Tiny amounts of the plastic compenents can be absorbed into the contents, in this case water. Ingesting these tiny amounts daily for a long period of time can lead to long-term effects such as incorrect hormonal balances, low birth weight, miscarriage, infertility and cancer.

distilled water – only for the short term

Drinking distilled water has it’s place when detoxifying the body but can only used for the short-term. In the long-run it can pose health risks. To quote Dr. Zoltan Rona:

“Distillation is the process in which water is boiled, evaporated and the vapour 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.”

so are there any solutions?

Of course. If you suspect that your water is wrong for you here are some tips:

Drink filtered water, or spring water bottled in glass or polyethylene. Polyethylene bottles can be located at health focused stores such as Natures Food Patch. Glass-bottled water is available for use with water coolers by delivery in Clearwater and, presumably, other cities.

My key advice is, come in and see me with the waters that you drink and find out which one works best for your body.