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Water: The Elixir of life

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    Water

    The only sure sign of life on another planet would be evidence of water. Water is an indispensable nutrient for all known forms of life. A fascinating fact is that all living things need the same concentration of water in their bodies to survive. The healthy adult human is 60 to 65 percent water by weight; so is the elephant, the mackerel, the bullfrog, the 'possum, and the dandelion. Only when you understand how this precious substance is used by the body can you fully appreciate the concepts of health and disease.

    To put it simply, your heart is at one end trying to pump all the water out of your body, while your kidneys are at the other end trying to hold it all in. If either succeeds, you die. Normal concentrations of minerals and other substances are maintained by drinking fluids and by excreting water and various chemical substances. A water-retaining hormone called vasopressin controls water excretion in your kidneys and sweating in your skin. Astoundingly, your kidney filters about 70 litres of water a day, but most of it is reabsorbed (about 69 litres, thank heavens). So we excrete only a litre or two of water as urine each day.

    In healthy young people, mineral substances and water are automatically balanced, thanks to an acute hormonal sensitivity to even slight changes in blood concentrations. At low blood concentrations, vasopressin is suppressed, allowing the excretion of a large amount of very dilute urine. When the mineral concentration is high, the amount of urine excreted is minimized by the "water" hormone.

    As you age, this mechanism doesn't work as well; it becomes less responsive to changes in the blood. Several things are responsible: thirst itself decreases; the kidneys become less responsive to vasopressin; and vasopressin secretion increases. Of these three factors, which can you do something about? Thirst! Even normally, thirst is experienced late in water depletion. By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. This little-known fact is even more true as you age. Though you are fully capable of requesting and obtaining water, you will experience thirst less and less as you age.

    One study explored the effect of 24 hours of water deprivation in active, healthy older men (67-75 years) compared to younger men (20-31 years). The older men lost the same amount of weight but showed large increases in concentrations of salts in the blood. Their urine analysis reflected inadequate excretion of salts. Nevertheless, the older men were not thirsty. In fact, all failed to correct their water deficit after two hours. Conclusion: people over forty, if left to their own thirst mechanisms, are likely to become dehydrated and to lose blood volume, even though they may appear healthy. People whose mental state has been compromised are particularly at risk. Many immobilized people with communication problems inhabit a virtual desert simply because they cannot ask for water.

    Even for people without communication problems, dehydration is the most common age-related cause of health disturbances. It can lead to fatigue, a drop in blood pressure, perceptions of overall body weakness, and even fainting. Elderly people dehydrate easily in hot weather but also during fever, infection, diarrhea, or vomiting. Many older people arrive in emergency rooms near death, not for lack of proper medication or care but for lack of water.

    Not only is water a necessary nutrient, it is also a catalyst for drug efficacy. All medications, liquids included, should be taken with a full glass of water. ("Water," by the way, does not mean coffee, tea, or juice. These beverages may contain caffeine or other chemicals, be high in sugar or calories, and interfere with drug action.) Drinking a full glass of water allows the medications to dissolve more quickly and be more readily absorbed, while reducing the possibility of stomach irritation. Thus, water-plain old water-can be one of the most useful agents for assuring proper drug action. In fact, most laxatives work because they are taken with plenty of water. Constipation follows insufficient water intake, and, therefore, laxatives simply do not work without enough water.

    Many drugs, especially diuretics (which are used to treat heart failure), deplete body water volume. Unfortunately, many people report that they deliberately cut down on fluid intake to "help" their medications. They think that if their diuretic pills are supposed to get rid of excess water, then decreasing water intake will be that much better. But in doing so, they put themselves at risk of falling blood pressure, confusion, pseudodementia, and kidney problems.

    Often older people ignore their thirst because drinking does not relieve persistent dry mouth or because they're afraid of becoming incontinent. Some nursing homes, concerned with inadequate water intake by their residents, ask doctors to prescribe four to six glasses of water a day for their patients. Once the order is written, nurses must give water, then witness and document the fluid intake.

    Water, then, has many virtues:

    What You Can Do

    You must make an effort to drink plenty of water each day. To maintain optimum hydration, you should drink at least a quart of water (preferably two quarts) every day. Six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day are the minimum you should be drinking for good health.

    From Live Long, Die Fast: Playing the Aging Game to Win, by John H. Bland, M.D. © 1997 by John H. Bland, M.D. Available in local bookstores, or call 800-544-8207.ß

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    Filters

    Most filters today are charcoal, or activated charcoal. Charcoal, which is mostly carbon, is the residue of partial burning or destructive distillation of organic material. When special heating or chemical processing is added to charcoal, it becomes much more absorptive, and is then referred to as “activated charcoal”. So a charcoal filter works on the principle of absorption. Large volumes of gases, including most poisonous ones, stick to the charcoal, which is quite porous. (That’s why it’s used in gas masks.) Because it has such a large porous surface area, it absorbs a lot of impurities. Charcoal filters are used in icemaker filters, under-counter filters, countertop filters, whole-house filters, and more. You get the message – charcoal really “takes out the garbage”.

    Another type of water filtration system available today is reverse osmosis. That’s the technical name for the process of water being pushed through an ultra-fine semi-permeable membrane, where it separates the tap liquid into the pure permeate which is diverted to a storage tank for later use; the brine concentrate is diverted down the drain. The water is stored in a pressure tank and is treated to a final activated-charcoal polishing filtration stage to remove all remaining odors and tastes before dispensing the purified water into your glass. The disadvantage of reverse osmosis systems is that they waste a lot of water – for every litre of purified water produced, four litres are wasted.

    Other types of water filters are ion exchange and distillation. Ion exchange is designed to remove dissolved salts in the water, such as calcium. This system actually softens the water or exchanges natural-forming mineral ions in the water with its own ions, thereby neutralizing their harmful effect of creating scale build-up. The ion exchange system was originally used in boilers and other industrial situations before becoming popular in home purifying units, which combine the system with carbon.

    Distillation is the simple process of boiling water to create steam. The steam cools and condenses to form pure mineral-free water droplets which are deposited in a container. When combined with carbon, the result is 99.9% pure contaminate-free water. These systems are extremely efficient and reliable, and are regarded today as one of the most effective ways to remove contaminates from any water, from any source.

    One other water filter worth mentioning is the portable variety. If you do a lot of camping or hiking, these are the wise choice for you.

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    Ultra Violet

    Ultraviolet water purification lamps produce UV-C or "germicidal UV," radiation of much greater intensity than sunlight. Almost all of a UV lamp's output is concentrated in the 254 nanometers (nm) region in order to take full advantage of the germicidal properties of this wavelength. Most ultraviolet purification systems are combined with various forms of filtration, as UV light is only capable of killing microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, molds, algae, yeast, and oocysts like cryptosporidium and giardia. UV light generally has no impact on chlorine, VOCs, heavy metals, and other chemical contaminants. Nevertheless, it is probably the most cost effective and efficient technology available to homeowners to eliminate a wide range of biological contaminants from their water supply. Recent testing has also shown that UV can be effective at destroying certain VOC's, although we would not specifically recommend the technology for VOC reduction.

    UV water treatment offers many advantages over other forms of water treatment for micobiological contaminants. Most importantly, it does not introduce any chemicals to the water, it produces no bi-products, and it does not alter the taste, pH, or other properties of the water. Accordingly, in addition to producing safe drinking water, it is not harmful to your plumbing and septic system. Further, it is easy and cost-effective to install and maintain without any special training

    How it works
    Ultraviolet purification uses a UV light source (lamp) which is enclosed in a protective transparent sleeve (usually quartz). The lamp is mounted such that water passing through a flow chamber is exposed to the UV-C light rays. When harmful microbes are exposed to the UV rays, their nucleic acid absorbs the UV energy, which then scrambles the DNA structure of the organism. The cell is rendered sterile and can no longer reproduce. The cell is now considered dead and is no longer a threat.

    Applications
    UV treatment is an excellent choice to eliminate biological contamination from most home drinking water, whether your home is on a municipal water system or untreated private system (well, lake water, etc.). Its sole purpose is to kill harmful biological contaminants, and therefore should always be combined with other forms of filtration (GAC / carbon block, KDF, or reverse osmosis) for reduction of heavy metals, chlorine, VOC's, and other chemical contaminants.

    What Contaminants Does Ultraviolet Remove?
    There are no micro-organisms known to be resistant to UV, unlike chlorination. UV is known to be highly effective against bacteria, viruses, algae, molds and yeasts, and disease causing oocysts like cryptosporidium and giardia. In practice, bacteria and viruses are the cause of most major waterborne pathogenic diseases. Of these enteric viruses, hepatitis virus and Legionella pneumophila have been shown to survive for considerable periods in the presence of chlorine, but are readily eliminated by UV treatment. For most microorganisms, the removal efficiency of UV for microbiological contaminants such as bacteria and virus generally exceeds 99.99%. Specifically, the following are moved to an efficiency of greater than 99.99%: E-coli, Salmonella typhl (Typhoid fever), Salmonella enteritidis (Gastroenteritis), Vibrio cholerae (Cholera), Mycobacetrium Tuberculosis (Tuberculosis), Legionella pneumophila (Legionnaires' Disease), Influenza Virus, Polio virus, and Hepatitus A Virus (better than 90%). Countertop UV systems are generally not recommended for removing oocysts such as giardia and cryptosporidium unless equipped with a 0.5 micron carbon block pre-filter since the exposure time the contaminant has to the UV ray is not always long enough to provide an adequate UV dose for disinfection of these more complex organisms. Whole house UV systems like the Trojan UV Max on the other hand, are capable or killing waterborne oocysts at household flow rates when a properly sized model is selected for the application.

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    Whole House Filter Systems

    A whole house water filter unit protects against the dangers of both poor air quality and contaminated drinking water. Just filtering your drinking water is not an effective means of protection against dangerous water contaminants. Water is swollowed during showers and baths and when brushing your teeth.

    10 Reasons to Use a Whole House Water Filter

    1. Harmful chemicals constantly escape into the air in a home from the dishwasher, the toilet, and the shower.

    2. The release of water contaminants into the air results in poor air quality in a home. This poor air quality is a leading cause of asthma and bronchitis.

      3. water shower

    3. The use of a countertop water filter and shower filter cannot entirely protect a home from harmful water contaminants.

    4. Shower filters, because they must filter water at extreme temperatures, are not 100% effective at removing all dangerous contaminants.

    5. Many skin rashes and other irritations are a result of chlorine and volatile organic chemicals VOCs) that have become embedded in clothing washed in chlorinated water.

    6. The dishwasher releases more chlorine into the air than any other water source in the house, besides the shower.

    7. The use of a whole house water filter is the only way to ensure pure, filtered water from every water source in the house.

    8. A whole house water filter purifies water efficiently and cost-effectively, making it a viable solution to drinking water contamination for a majority of people.

    9. The 2100 known water contaminants can make their way into our bodies not just from drinking the actual water but also from inhalation and dermal absorption.

    10. Merely avoiding drinking tap water by indulging in bottled water is not an effective means of protection against dangerous water contaminants.

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    Bottled Water

    Designer Water: Is It Any Better than Tap Water?
    Once upon a time, when you went to a restaurant and requested water, you got a glass of ordinary tap water. Not any more. Ask for water, and the waiter recites a list of choices longer than the daily specials-water that comes from France, from Italy, from almost every spring and stream on the planet; water with minerals or without salt; water that sparkles or just sits quietly in your glass. When you ask for the wine list in New York's best restaurants, the waiters provide one for waters as well. Still, water is water, and designer water is no different from undesigned water. Actually, it may be of poorer quality than what flows from your tap.

    The Muddied Image of Bottled Water
    Not long ago, a batch of Perrier water was contaminated with the toxic chemical benzene, prompting a recall of 160 million bottles. This incident led to concern about bottled water in the United States. A year-long investigation of bottle-water manufacturing practices ensued, with some surprising results. The General Accounting Office found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had never adopted standards for contaminants in bottled water comparable to those for tap water, which are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Yes, that's right. Bottled water can legally contain more toxic substances than tap water.

    The General Accounting Office also found that the FDA did not monitor bottling facilities closely enough to make certain that bottles complied with the few regulations that had been set. The FDA admits its regulation of bottled water is "imperfect," but they cite "no reason to question the safety of bottled water. The FDA considers bottled water to have a low potential for contamination or for causing sickness."

    To its credit, the water-bottling industry is beginning to regulate itself. Bottlers belong to a trade group called The International Bottled Water Association. Members voluntarily undergo yearly unannounced plant inspections by a nonprofit testing and certification organization known as the National Sanitation Foundation.

    There is certainly room for improvement in the regulations regarding bottled-water safety, but so far bottled water has caused no apparent health problems. Still, the General Accounting Office's report underscores the fact that, despite consumer protections, bottled water is no purer than tap water.

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