Do you know what’s in the water you get from the faucet? Have you considered the health consequences of drinking this? Water is one of the essential elements of life, making up approximately 60% of the human body and over 70% of the earth. It’s health implications include physical and cognitive performance, bowel function, headaches, moisturized skin and maintaining heart and kidney regulation among others. As with so many things in our modern world, we’ve robbed Peter to pay Paul. We have destroyed our freshwater system with the industrialization of society to make life convenient, which has contributed to the massive chronic disease situation. We’ve tried to solve the problem through the industrialization of water, but the standards to which we’ve “cleaned” our toilet, sink and farm runoff water is beyond concerning.
The World Health Organization has demonstrated that numerous pharmaceuticals and metabolites can be found in our drinking water. Now that being said, they are usually detected in amounts below the “acceptable” level of consumption. Similarly, chemicals from factories, farming and human/animal excrement can be found in water sources at an “acceptable” level. Why is any level “acceptable”? Other chemicals with unintended consequences include chlorine and fluoride. Chlorine acts as an antimicrobial, so what effect is that having on our gut and skin flora? Could your gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, eczema, or dry skin have anything to do with water? Fluoride is touted as the savior of dental health, but haven’t other first world countries experienced similar improvements in dental health without fluorinated water? I am not an expert in this field, but I am a professional health investigator, and we need to consider the consequences of these actions. Clean water should be a priority for our current health and the future health of not only humans, but the planet.
So, what should we do? Social change would be the best step, but as that may not be practical right now, let’s look at alternatives. Plastic bottles are NOT the answer. The plastic we use can get into the water itself, which means it can then accumulate in our bodies…doesn’t sound good, right? Most brands of bottled water are no cleaner or safer than tap water; in fact, some companies are just selling you tap water in a bottle. The best option is filtration of our water, not only what we drink, but what we bathe in (skin is our largest organ). Start where you can, even if it’s a simple refrigerator carbon filter. The optimal options would include filters that remove microscopic particles, microbes, chemicals, heavy metals, acids and other undesirable contaminants, while still providing appropriate minerals. While there are many companies out there providing quality devices, some I would further research include: AquaSana, AquaTru, Berkey Filters, MultiPure, Pristine Hydro (I can get a discount on bulk orders) and Soma.
Elemental Health 