Natural Alternatives

Drinking Water | Spotlight on Natures' Products
By Trish Barbara - Water
April 1, 2008

WATER WATER EVERY WHERE, DO I DRINK IT? DO I DARE?

Water, the essence of life, without it we do not survive.

Emerging from the warm and watery solution of the womb, the body of a newborn baby is 77% water.  Children are 59% water and adults are between 45% and 65% water.  The blood is 83%; kidneys are 82%; muscles, 75%; the brain is 74%; the liver 69% and bones are 22% water.  Water is the principal constituent of the fluids that surround and are within all living cells.

The human body loses a substantial amount of water, around 2.5% of its total body water, every day -which is equal to around 1.2ltr - through perspiration, breathing, urine and the gastrointestinal tract.  This water needs to be replaced on a daily basis for our body to function at its best.  Under normal conditions, water accounts for around 65% of lean body mass .  The symptoms of dehydration include thirst, sunken and dark eyes, dry mouth, infrequent dark urination, lethargy and irritability, nausea and vomiting.  The skin may also lose elasticity.  Dehydration occurs when fluid levels in the body are exhausted. Dehydration is serious and can be deadly.

Clean water is essential to the health of your skin. Water helps to keep your skin hydrated, supple and retaining its elasticity.   Soft drinks, juices and coffee do not put enough clean water into your body, which is essential in keeping your skin well hydrated and keeping other body organs and body tissues such as brain, kidneys and muscle, clean and hydrated and functioning at their best.  Water has the ability to flush our organs clean of infection and inflammation. 

It is recommended to drink 8 - 10 cups of water a day.  If 1 cup measures 250ml in the metric scale then 10 times that amount would be 2,500ml = 2.5ltres.  This is an awful lot of water to drink every day and seems overwhelming to most of us, which in turn discourages many of us in drinking any at all.  If you are able to drink this much each day, then stay with that and I commend you!  I find this amount too much and then I find I do not stick with it each day, actually I start to feel water-logged.  I now aim for 1.5ltrs each day or at the least 1 litre.  I do admit that I don't love drinking water, but I do like it, it always makes my body feel good and I see the benefits it provides.  There are times I do have to push myself to drink at least a litre that day.  I have a sealed 1ltr glass bottle that is filled each morning and my aim is to finish it by the time I am going to bed.  If I drink more than that one litre, then I consider it a personal daily success.   When you are eating a nutritious diet the body is able to ingest water from other sources such as water absorbing foods like rice and pasta; fruits and vegetables and drinks such as juices, tea and coffee.  So if you were to add at least one litre of clean water a day to your diet you should be taking in at least what your body expires every day and you should see and feel some real health benefits.

 

It is obvious that water plays a very important role in our overall health I encourage you to be water aware not just for your own good health but also for the health of our planet. 

It is a well known fact that drinking clean water every day is beneficial to your overall health especially the health of your skin.  So go and grab a glass of clean fresh water and one for someone else, clink them together, say 'bottoms up!' Bring the glass to your lips and pour that life giving liquid into your mouth and down your throat, allow your body to feel its cleansing and energising presence as it absorbs into your body.  Your skin will love you for it!

Here are a couple of articles to give you a heads up on an important alternative to include in your lifestyle for the good health of your skin.  There are many ways to obtain clean water and as you will see, the choices may be many, but the choice always remains yours.

 

Some of the above information has been sourced from Anatomica-The complete Home Medical Reference by Global Book Publishing and Nutrition Almanac by John D Kirschmann and Nutrition Search Inc, The McGraw-Hill companies.

 

 

 

TOXINS IN OUR ENVIRONMENT, WATER POLLUTON.

Article sourced from:  The Weekender Newspaper, Living, Health Clinic with Dr Sandra Cabot. 2005

Drinking eight to ten glasses of water each day is essential to maintaining good health.  But just how pure is the water that comes out of our taps and should we be drinking it?  Approximately 60,000 tonnes of fifty different chemicals are used each year to treat the Australian water supply (ref, Dept of Water Resources, Victoria).  The main problems with the water supply are chlorine and its by-product lead, as well as bacteria, nitrates and organic compounds.  Chlorine is added to drinking water to control bacterial levels.  Studies have shown that chlorinated water can act as a skin irritant and may be associated with eczema.  Chlorinated water may generate free radicals in the body and can destroy polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E in the body. 

Chlorine in the water destroys much of our beneficial intestinal flora, making us more susceptible to digestive upsets.  When chlorine mixes with organic compounds (leaves, dirt) in the water it forms what are called ‘trihalomethanes.'  Chloroform is one of these chemicals.  These chemicals are known to be carcinogenic (cancer causing) and they are stored in the fatty tissues of our body.  Lead can leak into the water supplies from solder and/or brass fittings in the hundreds of kilometers of underground pipes.

Bacteria can live and multiply in pipelines, feeding on slime that builds up over time.  Bacteria levels may be acceptably low at storage sites, but increase substantially by the time our water reaches the tap.  Some bacteria have developed a resistance to chlorine and are not killed by it.

Nitrates that enter the water supply usually originate from pesticides that have contaminated stored water.   While looking for pesticide residue many researchers around the world have identified pharmaceutical drugs in the water supply.  Drugs identified include painkillers, cholesterol lowering drugs, antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs, hormone residue from the contraceptive pill and Hormone Replacement Therapy - HRT, anti seizure medications and beta-blocker.  It is quite a cocktail that comes out of our taps.

 

 

AVAILABLE CHOICES FOR CLEAN WATER

Choice Magazine Study  March 2006                                   www.choice.com.au

FILTERING SYSTEMS

The Carafe or Pitcher system is certainly the simplest and least costly solution to water quality issues. These pitchers are portable, use no electricity and waste no water. There is no professional installation. These pitchers or jugs are inexpensive and only require a change of filter every two months. Even this is low tech, the procedure involving nothing more than, in some applications, pulling out and replacing a short, fat cylinder.
This cylinder holds a carbon filter that strains out minute impurities. The water passes through the filter as it is dispensed. These filters significantly reduce chlorine, benzene and sediment quite effectively as well as pesticides and industrial solvents. They are not effective in removing bacteria. Check the product label to see if it contains an ion exchange resin that removes heavier metals like copper and lead.

One disadvantage to this system is the prolonged wait time for water to pass through the filter, sometimes amounting to more than 20 minutes. If your household drinks a lot of water you may find yourself refilling the carafe or jug many times a day, lugging it over to the sink, waiting for the water to filter. If you have a smaller refrigerator, its real estate can be diminished by a large jug of water.   If it is difficult for you to keep track of the filter cartridge's usage, this may not be the best method for your water treatment. If the filter is old and no longer able to reduce contaminants, the system is useless. Some of the filters are known to clog easily impeding the water's passage into the jug. These jugs and pitchers have a life cycle of only about five years.
Before you buy, check the label and see what contaminants it removes and if those claims are certified by the National Sanitation Foundation International, a non-profit testing laboratory.

 

Pressure Reverse Osmosis systems force water through filters to remove large contaminants and harmful chemicals and then through a membrane to remove very small contaminants. These systems are effective in removing 90% of metals like copper, chromium and lead and minerals like sodium chloride as well as fluorides and nitrates.
A reverse osmosis system is almost double the cost of the under-the-sink filtering product. However, it is extremely effective in removing contaminants, particularly arsenic. If you live in an area serviced by private well water, you might sleep a little easier with this system.
Reverse osmosis systems are large, and can take up all the cabinet space beneath your sink. Like the under-the-sink filters, they require another faucet for water dispensing and can be very slow. These systems require good water pressure to operate at an adequate output. More than five times as much water is wasted as is filtered with reverse osmosis. If you are looking for a speedier filtering than the drip of the carafe, you may not get it here.

Whole House Filters - This system, also known as point-of-entry, filters your water as it comes into your home. All the water used in your home, whether for bathing, washing or drinking, is filtered. If sediment in your water is a problem, this system can help remove it and prolong the life of your major appliances that depend on water, such as your water heater, dishwasher and washing machine. However, this system usually will not remove dangerous health pollutants.
Make sure the system is certified for the contaminants you want removed. Most whole house systems are not effective in removing lead and chloroform.
Whole house filters can cost about $250 for purchase and installation with inexpensive, long lasting filtering cartridges.

 

If the previous options are not quite what you are looking for, consider an Under the Sink Water Filter. This type of filter is attached to the cold water line underneath the sink and the water is retrieved through a separate above sink faucet. This system provides a better water flow than the faucet mounts.
These filters are out of sight and contain cartridges that need to be changed only twice a year. These cartridges may be difficult to get at under the sink and therefore difficult to change. You may not want to install an extra faucet in your designer sink, a usual requirement of this system and you will need to install a unit for each location that you require filtering. The initial cost can run over $100 for the filter and another $100 for installation by a professional plumber.

 

Faucet mounted filter. If you get tired of lugging the filtered water pitcher over to the sink and waiting for it to refill, you might consider a filter mounted on your kitchen sink faucet.
If you are a tad handy, you can install it yourself for about $40. The filter screws directly onto the faucet. The water is filtered at the point of service and there is no waiting, unlike the carafe method. If you do not require filtering for a particular job, there is a valve that allows you to bypass the filter. The cartridges in these filters need to be changed every three months and can clog well before their three months is up, severely slowing the delivery of water. If aesthetics is a concern the filter apparatus itself is not always very attractive.
If you want filtered water at more than one sink, you will need to install it at each venue. This can get expensive and tedious as you try and keep track of filter schedules.

  

PURIFIED WATER

Spring water must come from underground. But it's not necessarily untreated and it doesn't necessarily come from the picturesque location implied by the graphics on the label. Unless the label specifies that the water has been ‘bottled at source', it's probably been transported to a bottling plant in a bulk tanker. Many spring waters are filtered and some may be chemically disinfected (usually with ozone).

Artesian Water is similar, except that the water probably comes from deeper underground. Artesian water is confined underground between layers of impervious rock and is under pressure, so it comes to the surface without pumping.  Some brands have a high mineral content and others have much the same as spring water.

Purified Water could be tap water that's been distilled (a process that removes almost everything that's not H2O) or otherwise treated to remove bacteria, dissolved organic material and minerals. Some brands, though, are purified spring water.

 

 

THE CHOICE IS YOURS ... REMEMBER THAT WHATEVER WATER YOU CHOOSE TO DRINK WILL HELP TO KEEP YOUR SKIN HYDRATED AND HEALTHY