Today’s drinking water has been treated with so many chemicals and recycled so many times that it has been rendered a lifeless, tasteless liquid. Chemically, it is still H2O, but much of the good has been lost and, unfortunately, many toxic things have been added as well. This phenomenon is like the air you breathe while in an airport and more specifically the airplane itself. You can breathe but the air is markedly stale and lacking in oxygen. The same happens to water. But just as you can filter and ionize the air, adding back negative electrons with an air ionizer machine, you can do the same with a water ionizer machine.
Why We Need Alkaline Water
The human body creates acid, all day, every day, as a by-product of metabolism. In addition, acid is introduced into the system through food and digestion. Much of this acid is swept away by the blood stream, filtered by the kidneys and released from the body in the urine. Some acid is lost through perspiration. Your body can only process a certain amount of acid, so it is possible to overload the system and for the body to become overly acidic.
The American diet is also extremely acidic. Meat, including beef, pork, chicken and turkey, is acidic. Dairy, such as milk, butter and cheese, is acidic. Grains such as rice and barley, and simple carbs such as potatoes, pasta and bread, are acidic. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks are extremely acidic. These dietary influences, along with toxins and chemicals we breathe, and our internal metabolism, add to the overall acidity of the body.
The Benefits of Alkaline Water
1. Anti-aging and the prevention of chronic degenerative diseases
Aging in the body is the result of damage to bodily tissues by organic acids and by active oxygen (free radicals). Free radicals cause oxidative damage to molecules within the cells of the body. They damage cells, and over time, damaged cells lead to tissue break down, which over time results in chronic disease.
A number of diseases, including arthritis, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, have been associated with free radical damage. Inflammatory illnesses such as allergies, arthritis, fibromyalgia and psoriasis, are related to low-grade metabolic acidosis.
High cholesterol, a major issue in today’s society, occurs because produces excessive amounts of cholesterol to neutralize the large amounts of acid in the blood stream before they damage living cells. Hence there is a link between acidity and high cholesterol.
Alkaline water can help counter the free radical damage that leads to chronic disease. It neutralizes acids and scavenges free radicals. This antioxidant effect is one of the primary benefits of drinking alkaline water.
2. Weight loss
Research by Dr. Robert O. Young, author of The pH Miracle for Weight Loss, shows that the epidemic of obesity in the industrialized world is the result of acidity in the body. We already ascertained that the body produces acidity through its own metabolic processes, and that the standard western diet adds to this load tremendously. The result is that the body creates fat cells to trap and neutralize these excess acids in the system. Some fat molecules can be excreted from the body, while others are stored, resulting in weight gain.
Traditional methods of weight loss are often not successful – reducing portion size only minimally decreases acid intake. Reducing calories will actually increase the acidity of the body if sugar substitutes and “fake foods” are used as substitutes, as they increase the overall acidity of the body. Similarly, reducing fat intake does not change the acidity of the body.
Drinking alkaline water and maintaining a healthy body pH can, on the other hand, reduce fat storage by releasing the acidic waste build up. Without excess acid in the system, the body has no need to hold on to the fatty layer it has created to protect itself.
In other words, a healthy, alkaline body creates weight loss, not the other way around.
3. Detoxification
There are many detoxification systems within the body – but the preeminent organ of detoxification is the liver. The liver has various filtration systems and enzyme systems in place to neutralize toxins and prepare them for excretion by organs of elimination such as the skin, lungs, kidneys and bowels. The enzyme systems of the liver are categorized as the phase I and phase II detoxification systems.
The detoxification systems of the body are taxed by the increasing amount of acidity in the body caused by today’s common diet and pollution levels. Our phase I and phase II detoxification liver enzymes are very sensitive to pH – an overly acidic body will stress out the natural processes. Given that toxins need to be neutralized and made into harmless forms before they can be excreted, it is crucial to have the phase I and phase II systems optimized.
Also, due to their smaller size, micro-clusters of ionized water molecules can penetrate and are expelled from cells more easily, carrying damaging toxins out of the cells and flushing them out of the system.
How Water Ionizers and Alkalinizers Work
Water ionizers turn ordinary tap water into ionized, alkaline water by delivering a strong electrical current to the water. This process, known as electrolysis, separates the water into two streams: alkaline mineral water for drinking and acidic mineral water for the skin, and for cleaning and sanitizing. The process also breaks large clusters of water molecules into “micro-clusters” that are readily absorbed by tissues and cells, leading to better hydration at the cellular level.
The ionized, alkaline water has an abundance of negatively charged ions. Once absorbed into the system, these negatively charged molecules are attracted to positively charged free radicals, which are linked to aging and disease. When the two meet, they exchange electrons and bond. This process neutralizes the free radicals and prevents them from causing cellular damage.
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