Water Ionization: Historical Account

The quest to create ionized water, a road to the physical regeneration of the human body, was inspired by the desire of certain perseverant individuals to capture nature's perfect water.

The modern technology used in ionization was first invented by Michael Faraday, inventor of the dynamo and the magneto. Michael Faraday was a revered pioneer in the field of electrical energy. With regard to modern water ionization, his core invention was an electrolysis device. Electrolysis is the electronic separation of water into hydrogen and oxygen, a key technological foundation that permitted the invention of the alkaline water ionizer. At the time, Faraday had no clue as to the impact his discovery would later have on the modern technology of purified healthy water.

In certain cultures, water has often been associated with physical regeneration and eternal life. It is fascinating to contemplate the paradigm of life-giving water that once led to Ponce de Leon, a conquistador and colleague of Columbus, to mount a major 15th century expedition to find the Fountain of Youth. This was thought to be an everlasting pool of water that led to eternal life. For Ponce de Leon, the hunt to the ends of the earth for life regenerating water would encompass the majority of his life.

The Christian Bible makes reference to the possibilities of eternal life giving water. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" (John 4:13-14, NIV). But this water did seem to be merely spiritual … or was it? There was the Resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus' own physical body as reported in the Bible. Was Jesus suggesting something more than spiritual regeneration?

It is thought that Dr. Henri Coanda, a renowned Rumanian scientist and subsequent Nobel Prize winner, was the first to explore water within the realm of applied science. He is known primarily for his study of fluid dynamics and his aeronautic inventions. However, his obsession with the structure of water was not to be extinguished. His scientific quest was based on a personal search for a source of longevity and his hunch that it was the water of Hunza that would satisfy his mission. In the 1930's Henri Coanda personally journeyed to the country of Hunza to investigate his hypothesis that the water of Hunza had a unique chemistry that fueled the remarkable health and longevity of the native people.

After considerable research he arrived at the conclusion that indeed, the water was different, both in properties and in structure. When the temperature of Hunza water was lowered, it assumed a snowflake-like, crystalline formation. Even more remarkable, the water, in its snowflake state, revealed a structure similar to the venous structure of the human body and to the vascular structure in plants. The natural biological pathways responsible for the transportation of fluids that support life.

Hunza in the Himalayas is the most well-known of the areas where this paradigm for life giving water was discovered. But there were other places, the Shin-Chan areas of China, the Andes Mountains and the Caucasus in Azerbaijan. Places filled with energetic, incredibly healthy and long-lived populations.

Before scientific efforts were made to recreate Hunza water, there were many scientists intrigued by the connection between Hunza longevity and Hunza water and diet. Researchers were mesmerized by a people who harbored the longest lifespan in the world and women who bore children when they were comparatively older than other women throughout the world. This was a place that seemed to have never been exposed to cancer, the common tooth carie and where degenerative diseases like rheumatism or arthritis, flourishing in the so-called civilized world, had not taken root. What caused this phenomenon of health, vitality, and an overall body balance to originate and blossom in such a far away place?

The riveting force behind Hunza water fascination has been the quest for the water of longevity. The futility of recreating glacial conditions and towering mountainous masses that had originally produced this special water was a certainty to the majority of scientists. They attempted to replicate the structure of the water, certainly a much more laboratory friendly pursuit. The considerations of replication were many: the molecular structure, the high alkalinity, the active hydrogen content, the negative Redox potential and the startlingly high colloidal mineral content. Perhaps it would be a matter of infusing water with a unique form of hydrogen that bore an extra electron.

Early history reveals that researchers from Russia and Japan explored the same waters that Coanda had explored sometime after WWII. By the 1940's Hunza water, with speculations of revitalized health achieved from its consumption, was becoming common knowledge. The virulent quest to ascertain the why and how of Hunza longevity had been launched and it seemed to lie in the Hunza lifestyle and, most intriguing, its water. It certainly seemed the water of Hunza somehow bore or helped transport some of the best liquid vitamins in the world. However, the how or why was simply unknown at this time.

Russian researchers had discovered a brand new method of electrolysis, (chemical change achieved by passing electricity through liquid) influenced by Faraday's earlier technological approach. When Japanese researchers became aware of this new method of electrolysis it raised their own interest in ionization to another level. In the 1940's, this keen interest in longevity and its relationship to water gave rise to the novel and the film Lost Horizons about Shangri-la, the legendary paradisiacal kingdom whose citizens never died. Frank Capra directed the film which portraying a hidden, blessed region, deep in the Himalayas where, undisclosed to the rest of the world, waters of eternal life poured forth for the benefit of its exultant inhabitants.

Alkaline ionic water is produced by a means of introducing electrical current into filtered tap water. This splits the water into an acid component and an alkaline component, each distributed via separate pathways. Varied levels of acidity and alkalinity in waters have different purposes- the more acidic for washing produce or used for overall cleaning and the more alkaline for drinking.

Japanese scientists soon produced the first water ionizer upon analysis of their Russian peer's electrolysis research. It was in 1954 that scientists in Japanese agricultural universities intensively studied and recorded the effects of alkaline ionic water and acid water, the process of manufacture known as functional water technology. Both plants and animals were used in the Japanese scientific studies. It was found that acid water had preservation properties so we use it today to keep cut flowers fresher longer.

More sensitivity and time was needed to conduct research using human beings, and eventually it was proven that alkaline water alone was not only especially hydrating for humans but was also very beneficial health wise. .

As commercial alkaline ionic water units were introduced in Japan in 1950, only huge commercial units were utilized by hospitals. Two years later in 1960, a medical/agricultural research institute was formed in Japan, for the sole purpose of ionized water study. January 1966 brought the confirmation of the alkaline ionic water process for health improvement and medical use by the Health and Rehabilitation Ministry of the Japanese Government.

Water ionizing systems are now available to the fortunate people of the United States. With US citizens spending millions annually on liquid vitamins and other supplements, they now have access to a scientific and specialized form of water to help transport nutrients and other life giving components throughout the body.

Water ionizers are now the norm in Japan, with 30 million Japanese citizens having access to ionized water either via home units or simple free access. Dr. Barbara Starfield heralds Japan as having the “number one health care system in the world," as written in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The United States ranked at a miserable number 37, below even Cuba, in quality of health and healthcare, as reported by Dr. Starfield. Thankfully, the individual's knowledge of good health practices, in general, in other countries is on the increase; and the use of water ionizer's in the United States is becoming more common. With time, alkaline ionic water may become, to some, a proven and stellar panacea. Whatever it becomes to the population on the whole, ionized water could prove to be nothing less than a higher road to the preservation of health and wellness.

Dr. Linda Posch MS SLP ND

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