ARE YOU STILL SICK AFTER THE ALKALINE WATER?

Artesian Spring Water Products

 ‘Water no get enemy’, the Yorubas say in Pidgin English. But, in recent decades, water has been a ruthless enemy to humanity. You have treated typhoid over and over; and you have now resorted to buying bottle water for drinking. But, as you would have noticed, your health condition has either worsened or not improved. Some have gone from treating typhoid to treating ulcer, anxiety, hypertension, and even heart conditions. The reason is that you have moved from drinking unclean water to reliance on unnatural water.

Consider the following statistics

-          70% of your body is water.

-          You can live for weeks without food, but not up to 1 week without drinking water.

-          Thewaterproject.com has it that in 2014, 783 million people did not have access to clean and safe water, and 37% of those people lived in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

-          In developing countries, as much as 80% of illnesses are linked to poor water and sanitation conditions.  

-          Finally, half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people suffering from a water-related disease. 

Water, as well as every man-made or natural substance, has acidic and alkaline qualities. There is a scale to measure acidity and alkalinity called the pH scale rating from 0 to 14. Acids rate towards 0 and alkali towards 14, while between 6 and 8 is considered neutral.

Your car battery fluid measures between 0 and 1; bleach and Lye (concentrated solution of Potassium Hydroxide) rank between 12 and 14. These two extremes are notoriously destructive to life and it is well known that the neutral range is what is safest for ingesting.

Since the body already produces acid from foods we eat and from muscular activities, it is dangerous to drink more acid, and has caused millions of health crises and loss of lives. But marketers have exploited the situation to merchandise alkaline water as the safest drinking water. Introducing it as alternative to neutral water, they have even refused to breathe a word about grave side-effects too dangerous to ignore.

Although most alkaline water is close to the neutral range, drinking it over time has been proven to cause harm to the body. Aggravated ulcer, heart conditions, hypertension, anxiety, confusion, itchy eyes etc. are only few side-effects of factory-made alkaline water. The worst alkaline water is the artificial alkaline water also called ionized or electrolyzed water.

Firstly, the stomach and small intestine require an acidic environment to digest foods. When you drink alkaline water, you neutralize that environment and begin to make digestion difficult. Taking it habitually worsens the situation, so that after some time, your stomach can no longer digest foods especially protein.

According to BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine in March 2014, alkaline water neutralizes stomach acid needed to kill bacteria and other unwanted pathogens so they don’t pass into your bloodstream. Acidity is also essential to properly digest vitamin B-12 and protein, but your artificial alkaline water counteracts this.

In laboratory studies reported in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology in July 2012, the protein-based enzyme needed to digest protein in the stomach was completely deactivated by alkaline water. These portend grave danger to the health.

Treated water is destroyed water.

The truth that water manufacturers tell is that most water found in nature may be too unclean to drink, hence the manufacturers pass it through treatment processes, the most popular being the reverse-osmosis procedure. At the end, it comes out as treated water, but its health-beneficial qualities are destroyed and such products are no longer called natural water.

Natural water is some times referred to as live water. That is because in nature, it contains dissolved minerals and ions that benefit the body greatly. In areas with heightened human activities like in urban areas, regions of high factory activities and areas with certain economic mineral resources, the natural water is likely to be polluted. The way out is to avoid the water altogether and bring in from other areas; or to treat it before drinking. The problem is that treating it removes the useful minerals along with the impurities and destroys its ‘naturality’.

Most bottle water manufacturers introduce some alkaline substances and chemicals to make up for the original minerals lost in their process of water treatment, and to raise the pH value of the water. One such substance is baking soda. The danger in this is that baking soda is known to cause several health conditions;

Metabolic alkalosis,

Heart failure,

Hypertension and/or edema from sodium overload,

Hypervolemic hypernatremia, 

Milk-alkali syndrome,

Kidney stones

Kidney failure

Solution

It lies back in nature; back in live water – undestroyed, natural mineral water, not the dead, artificial water. It ought to have calcium, magnesium and such minerals that build health without increasing acidity and in a measure that does not increase the pH value significantly. According to WHO, the pH should remain between 6.5 and 7.5. This is because alkaline water is safer than acidic water, but neutral water is safest.

Natural water is found in artesian springs, lakes, rain, mountains and snow. Howbeit, if it is collected in an area that is polluted already, it will be polluted and require the nature-destroying artificial treatment. If you are lucky to collect it in an area that urban and human activities, crude oil and metal ores have not corrupted the air, soil or water; you can simply measure the pH value to confirm neutrality and enjoy on.

Beware of ongoing scam by some bottle water manufacturers who collect water from several sources, and treat it before then marketing it as natural water. A recommended way to know who is actually manufacturing from a natural source is that they identify a well known source of water on their bottle and mention the location it s found.

In West Africa, water gotten from heavy factory and highly populated areas like parts of Lagos, Cape Coast, Porto Novo, Edo north, Enugu, Kano, Oil producing and petroleum storage coastal areas are highly likely to be polluted.

Spring water may be found in your country home, village if you please; the challenge is, do you have what it takes to test the region for pollution? Hence, it is more affordable to buy natural water products from verified sources; and once you have identified such a source, good health demands that you stick to that product.

Uduak Umo

Writing for Jabborro.com