What's the Best Water?

The answer may surprise you

A Midwestern Doctor just published an interesting article on water quality:

What Moves Water Inside the Body?

We differ on the best water to drink. Before getting into what I drink, what I recommend to my patients, and why, I want to reassure you not to worry too much about this and warn you not to trust anything but data when it comes to water.

First, you can drink a wide range of waters and do just fine. You cannot drink polluted, contaminated water, and you must not drink too much or too little.

Second, only testing can truly determine if you are over-hydrating, under-hydrating, or just right in terms of hydration and electrolyte balance.

We help patients sort out exactly what to do based on their unique context at my practice.

How we do it is beyond the scope of this blog post. Perhaps I will have time to explain it later.

I have long recommended spring water to patients of mine, and this is what my family and I drink.

Why?

A Midwestern Doctor points out correctly that positively charged cations have a deleterious effect upon the zeta potential of the blood. However, we also badly need positively charged cations like calcium for optimal health.

If you review the literature on water quality and dissolved solids, you will find that two things have a powerful impact on morbidity and mortality. Those two things are magnesium and silica content.

If it is available to you, I strongly recommend magnesium or silica-rich spring water. Most spring water is rich in neither. I still choose spring water for one simple reason.

I recommend that my patients drink at least 0.5-1.5 liters of silica-rich spring water daily. My top choices are Fiji, Antipode, and Gerolsteiner, not necessarily in that order.

Much of America receives its water pressure from water towers. Cell service providers are increasingly placing cell towers on top of water towers.

I am concerned about the effect of the radio and microwave radiation of these cell towers on our water.

Here’s a study on the effects of microwave radiation on water and what happens to plants that are watered with microwaved water.

Spring water is not microwaved.

Reverse osmosis and filtered water of any kind likely is. You can determine for yourself if your water is being microwaved on its way to your home.

Just as important as excess cations, as A Midwestern Doctor writes about, is a deficiency of these cations. If your zeta potential is robust, your diet is balanced, and you are not loaded with heavy metals and toxins, you can handle extra calcium and magnesium. The vast majority of spring waters contain a combination of minerals. The concentrations are highly variable.

If you do decide to use reverse osmosis or distilled water, I suggest using Concentrace to re-mineralize it. You can deplete your body of minerals with reverse osmosis or distilled water. This is why A Midwestern Doctor suggests taking magnesium supplements daily. I think you can do either Concentrace with the water or magnesium supplements apart from the water.

I have also incorporated Zeta Aid into my daily routine and am strongly recommending it to others, as I wrote about here:

The Power of Zeta Potential

What about other filters?

If it's not reverse osmosis, distilled, or spring water, it's not good enough. Many companies claim to filter various contaminants, particularly fluoride. I do not believe their claims.

What about plastic?

Avoid plastic whenever possible. Sometimes, it isn't practical. For the record, I drink water out of 5 gallon plastic bottles. Why do I drink water out of plastic bottles? Because I don't have the option of glass bottled water delivery in my current location. You might. I would choose glass if it were available. I am guessing that microplastic exposure is not as bad as drinking microwaved water. But I could be completely wrong about that.

Anyone who tells you with certainty that microplastics are better or worse than microwaves is either a genius or a wackadoodle. To my knowledge, we don't have the data on this one. I wish we did.

It's not a perfect world, and that's okay. Don't lose sleep over the imperfections of your water. Just pick a reasonable solution and improve upon it when you can.

Until next time, be well,

Dr. Stillman