Dehydration is much more common than most people realize. In fact, 75% of Americans are actually dehydrated right now! Even mild to moderate dehydration can lead to fatigue, dry skin, loss of appetite, headaches, muscle cramps, chills and nausea. It is recommended that we drink a minimum of half our body weight in ounces of water each day to replace the water lost through the daily activities of living. But not all water is created equal.

He we will discuss the water you should and shouldn’t be drinking:

Unfiltered tap water

The positives of tap water are that it is inexpensive and regulated by the government to be neutral or slightly alkaline on the pH scale with a pH of 7 or higher. However, filtering your tap water is Prevention Magazine’s #1 suggestion for reducing your risk of cancer. This is because municipal tap water is laden with a host of known or suspected carcinogens like chlorine, fluoride, mercury and arsenic along with hormone-disrupting chemicals. Some of these toxic chemicals (namely chlorine, chloramines and fluoride) are actually regulated by the government to be there, despite known adverse health effects. Agricultural runoff, chemical cleaning fluids, and pharmaceutical drugs including sex hormones often find their way into our water supplies due to improper disposal. When the water leaves the treatment plant it must travel miles through pipes which may be old and rusted and leach heavy metals into your water. When we consume water that contains traces of synthetic chemicals, we force our liver and kidneys to be the filter, ultimately damaging or destroying two of our vital organs.

Bottled, reverse osmosis or distilled water

Due to fear of contaminants and pollutants in city tap water and added convenience, many people turn to bottled waters, despite the high cost and negative effect the plastic bottles have on the environment. They are then shocked to find that the cons to bottled water don’t end there. Most bottled waters are nothing more than tap water which has been run through a reverse osmosis filter. Reverse osmosis systems remove the good with the bad, so the end product is actually dead, acidic water which forces your body to leach alkaline minerals from your bones to neutralize it. The pH levels of most bottled and distilled waters usually range from pH 3.0 to pH 6.9! A 7.0 reading would be neutral, and because it is a logarithmic scale, a change of one pH unit implies a tenfold shift in alkalinity or acidity. Anything with a pH of less than 7 is acidifying to the body, which means it creates an internal environment where disease can thrive. Distilled water has this same effect on your body and is not recommended for long-term consumption.

The majority of bottled waters have a positive oxidation reduction potential (or +ORP) value, which means it is oxidizing to the body. A negative ORP is required in order to fight free radicals in the body.

Additionally, bottled waters are not heavily regulated, and there have been more than 100 recalls for bacteria and contaminants. A four-year study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that one-fifth of the sampled bottled waters contained known neurotoxins and carcinogens such as styrene, toluene and xylene. Another NRDC study found that, out of 103 brands of bottled water, one-third contained traces of arsenic and E. coli. This means that out of a sample of 1,000 bottles sold in the U.S., at least 300 would have some level of chemical contamination. Many of the plastic water bottles that the dead water is stored in for months contains BPA, a suspected carcinogen which can and does leach into your water.
 
A new report on how to reduce exposure to carcinogens from the President’s Cancer Panel suggests that home-filtered tap water is a safer bet than bottled water, and the Environmental Working Group performed a study which determined that the quality of bottled water is often not higher—and is in some cases worse—than that of municipal sources. So despite trying to get contaminant free-water by buying bottled, there are no guarantees except that you will pay more for it than gasoline.

Well Water, Artesian Water, Glacier Water

The water from standard wells contains valuable alkaline minerals and may not have added chemicals like that of municipal tap water supplies, but it also usually contains contaminates and bacterial organisms. Depending on where the well is located, it may be polluted with nitrates form agricultural runoff, arsenic, pesticides, radon, chemicals found in gasoline, etc. Very few regulations exist to govern the quality of private well water supplies, so it is up to the well owner to monitor and test their well water regularly and/or safeguard with a good filtration system.

Artesian water is comprised of naturally pressurized deposits of water that comes up to the surface when a well is sunk, and has the same quantities as those from standard wells. Artesian water is naturally filtered through the aquifer when it surfaces which removes many of the impurities. However, this natural process can require many years, making it harder and harder for the purification process to keep up with the vast amount of contaminates that man puts into the land nowadays.

Glacier water is formed when glaciers melt and the water enters the water cycle. The water is sometimes advertised as being purer than ground sourced water, but where pollutants or precipitation has been combined with water from glaciers, it shows the same impurities as other water.

Spring Water

Pure spring water is difficult to find and sources are limited. Many springs which were once viable are becoming increasingly contaminated. Unless you live next door to a spring, pure spring water is not usually a viable option, and even if you are able to find a reliable source of spring water, you will still be required to filter out the heavy metals. And unfortunately, bottled spring water carries all the same negatives and issues as regular bottled water (outlined above). 

Sparkling/Carbonated Water

In order to acheive the fizzy bubbles found in sparkling and carbonated waters, carbon dioxide gas is dissolved under pressure in water. This carbonation process actually renders the water acidic and is oxidizing to the body, which means it speeds up the death of your cells. This applies to all carbonated drinks including sodas which are actually the worst beverage you can choose to drink, as they most of them are even more acidic than alcohol. All acidic beverages can actually leach minerals from your body, thus weakening bones and connective tissue.

Filtered, alkaline ionized water
 
Chanson water ionizers were created to replicate what happens in nature to unpolluted streams of alkaline water when it runs over rocks and is given a slight electrical charge. Many doctors, scientists, researchers and water experts across the globe agree that filtered alkaline ionized water with a pH of 9.5 is the healthiest type of water you can drink as it provides your body with alkaline minerals which helps neutralize acidity in our every day diet. According to Dr. Robert O. Young, disease cannot thrive unless it has an acidic environment to live and grow in, and by alkalizing our bodies with alkaline water, we are creating a more disease-resistant body. Ionization causes the water molecules to be microclustered, so they are able to hydrate up to six times better than tap or bottled waters.

Alkaline ionized water is also a powerful antioxidant which seeks out and neutralizes free radicals which would otherwise cause damage to cells and bring about disease and premature aging. This is also known as having a negative ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential). Most tap and bottled waters have a very high ORP, which creates free radicals that actually accelerate the aging process. And alkaline ionized water also delivers an abundance of healthy oxygen to your cells in the form of OH-, which is very stable because it is mated with positively ionized alkaline minerals. Thus, drinking alkaline ionized water results in a body rich in health, oxygen and energy. 
 
You have the choice to continue to consume and to bathe in water that has been processed, chemically altered and deconstructed to a form that bares little resemblance to that which God intended, or to turn the clock back using some very clever science and technology that may improve your health dramatically by merely hooking a Chanson prefilter and water ionizer up to your own tap. Insist on the cleanest, healthiest water available - filtered, alkaline ionized Chanson water.

Tags: Alkaline Water, artesian water, Bottled Water, carbonated water, chanson water, contaminants, dehydration, distilled water, glacier water, Ionized Water, Pollutants, reverse osmosis water, sparkling water, spring water, Tap Water, types of water, water, water filter, well water

Bottled water is not only illadvised for its water quality but also for the PET bottles it is packaged in and shipped from hundreds of thousands of miles accross the globe to reach us. This hurts the environment in every possible way. The carbon burnt as fuel, The amount of garbage that such ships litter the oceans with but above all its PET Plastic bottle that is not bio degradable. Trashed at beaches world wide and dumped in the ocean in coastal cities, this PET bottle wrecks havoc to the environment.

As humans we have responsibilities not only towards ourselves, our immediate families but also to the overall environment… to the Earth. It is our home. Environmentalists and concerned citizens accross the globe are raising their voices against the extensive use of PET Bottled water. This is with all the more reason because things such as water purifiers and water ionizers are available as a much healthier and environmentally freindly alternatives.

A Dying Ocean

California-based sea captain and ocean researcher Charles Moore discovered what is now known as the Eastern Garbage Patch—an aggregation of plastic and other marine debris occupying some 700,000 square kilometers in the North Pacific Ocean—during a crossing of the North Pacific in 1997. In a 2003 article inNatural History Magazine, Moore reported being astounded that he couldn’t be further from land anywhere on Earth yet he could see plastic bags and other debris coating the ocean’s surface as far as the eye could see.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135° to 155°W and35° to 42°N estimated to be twice the size of Texas. The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.

The area is frequently featured in media reports as an exceptional example of marine pollution.

Formation

Like other areas of concentrated marine debris in the world’s oceans, the Eastern Garbage Patch has formed gradually over time as a result of marine pollution gathered by the action of oceanic currents.The rotational pattern created by the North Pacific Gyre draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including the coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region.

The Size

The size of the affected region is unknown, but estimates range from 700,000 km² to more than 15 million km², (0.41% to 8.1% of the size of the Pacific Ocean). The area may contain over 100 million tons of debris.

Sources of pollutants

It has been estimated that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources, and 20% from ships at sea. Currents carry debris from the west coast of North America to the gyre in about five years, and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less.

Plastic photodegradation in the ocean

Unlike debris which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues down to the molecular level.

As the plastic flotsam photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic animals which reside near the ocean’s surface. Plastic waste thus enters the food chain through its intense concentration in the neuston.

Impact on Wildlife

The floating plastic particles resemble zooplankton, which can be inadvertently consumed by jellyfish. Many of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, including sea turtles, and the Black-footed Albatross. Besides the particles’ danger to wildlife, the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs. Aside from toxic effects, when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal.

We urge you through this blog, to stay away from bottled water and be a responsible human. We owe this to Earth and to our future generations. Use a good water ionizer. It is much healthier and environmentally freindly.

Tags: Bottled Water, Eastern Garbage Patch, Environmental Hazard, Health, Ionized Water, Marine Life, Pacific Ocean, Pollutants, Unhealthy Bottled Water, Water Ionizers, Water Pollution, Wild Life