RO AND DISTILLED WATER DANGERS

There are some folks out there who believe that it is safe to drink distilled and reverse osmosis water, claiming there are no potential health risks - although there is never any supporting data associated with these claims, only to the contrary. These same few folks also claim that distilled water has a neutral pH... even though any idiot with litmus paper or a pH meter can see the pH is usually between 5.2 - 6pH, and drops lower as it sits exposed to open air. Why then would anyone with any reputation at all (or, half a brain) say that it is safe to drink distilled and R.O. water, even though basic chemistry tells us differently? "Alternative agenda", is what I like to call it. You'll notice that most of these supporters of distillers and R.O. systems usually have some government or alternate agenda - the government wants you to stay sick to keep the disease-mongering health system afloat... so why would they want you to avoid the potentially hazardous effects of drinking unnatural water that does not exist anywhere on the planet? Simple... greed.

If you want to do a cleanse for a week or two, and want to drink distilled water to help you out with that... fine. Do not drink distilled or R.O. water for any length of time - unless, of course, you enjoy arthritis, bursitis and gout.

The following two articles are the most popular on the internet describing the damaging effects of drinking distilled and R.O. water. They are for educational purposes only (what other purpose is there for words on a page, other than educational?).

Early Death Comes From Drinking Distilled OR RO Water

by Zoltan P. Rona MD MSc

During nearly 19 years of clinical practice I have had the opportunity to observe the health effects of drinking different types of water. Most of you would agree that drinking unfiltered tap water could be hazardous to your health because of things like parasites, chlorine, fluoride and dioxins.

Many health fanatics, however, are often surprised to hear me say that drinking distilled water on a regular, daily basis is potentially dangerous.

Paavo Airola wrote about the dangers of distilled water in the 1970's when it first became a fad with the health food crowd.

Distillation is the process in which water is boiled, evaporated and the vapor condensed. Distilled water is free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them.

Studies validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to cleanse or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time).

Fasting using distilled water can be dangerous because of the rapid loss of electrolytes (sodium, potassium, chloride) and trace minerals like magnesium, deficiencies of which can cause heart beat irregularities and high blood pressure. Cooking foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient value.

Distilled water is an active absorber and when it comes into contact with air, it absorbs carbon dioxide, making it acidic. The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, "Distilled water, being essentially mineral-free, is very aggressive, in that it tends to dissolve substances with which it is in contact.

Notably, carbon dioxide from the air is rapidly absorbed, making the water acidic and even more aggressive. Many metals are dissolved by distilled water."

The most toxic commercial beverages that people consume (i.e. cola beverages and other soft drinks) are made from distilled water. Studies have consistently shown that heavy consumers of soft drinks (with or without sugar) spill huge amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals into the urine.

The more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging.

A growing number of health care practitioners and scientists from around the world have been advocating the theory that aging and disease is the direct result of the accumulation of acid waste products in the body.

There is a great deal of scientific documentation that supports such a theory. A poor diet may be partially to blame for the waste accumulation. Meats, sugar, white flour products, fried foods, soft drinks, processed foods, alcohol, dairy products and other junk foods cause the body to become more acidic. Stress, whether mental or physical can lead to acid deposits in the body.

There is a correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease. Cells, tissues and organs do not like to be dipped in acid and will do anything to buffer this acidity including the removal of minerals from the skeleton and the manufacture of bicarbonate in the blood.

The longer one drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies and an acid state. I have done well over 3000 mineral evaluations using a combination of blood, urine and hair tests in my practice. Almost without exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop multiple mineral deficiencies.

Those who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation.

The ideal water for the human body should be alkaline and this requires the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium.

Distilled water tends to be acidic and can only be recommended as a way of drawing poisons out of the body. Once this is accomplished, the continued drinking of distilled water is a bad idea.

Disease and early death is more likely to be seen with the long term drinking of distilled water. Avoid it except in special circumstances.

REFERENCES Airola, P. 1974. How To Get Well. Phoenix, AZ: Health Plus Publishers. Baroody, Dr. Theodore A. Jr. Alkalinize or Die. California:Portal Books, 1995. Haas, Elson M. Staying Healthy with Nutrition. The Complete Guide to Diet & Nutritional Medicine. Berkeley, California:Celestial Arts, 1992; p. 22. Rona, Zoltan P. and Martin, Jeanne Marie. Return to the Joy of Health, Vancouver: Alive Books, 1995. Rona, Zoltan P. Childhood Illness and The Allergy Connection. Rocklin, California:Prima Books, 1996.

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Distilled Water and RO Filtered Water

by Sang Whang

Water is a strong solvent; therefore, it carries many invisible substances: minerals, oxygen, nutrients, waste products, pollutants, etc. Pure water without any substance is as un-natural as a pocket of vacuum within a normal atmosphere. A pocket of vacuum will suck in any and everything around it until the pressure becomes equal to the surrounding.

Likewise, pure water will leach out any and every substance that it can dissolve from the substances that it comes into contact with, until its content is homogeneous with its surrounding or the water is saturated with substances so that it can no longer dissolve anymore substances.

Since the creation of this planet, rainwater has been washing down minerals from the mountains into the ocean. Ocean water has been saturated for a long time with specific minerals, yet rivers continue to carry down the minerals. The result is that at the bottom of the ocean there are tons of mineral deposits precipitated. If we knew how to recover the minerals from the bottom of the ocean, we would be very rich.

Distilled water and RO (reverse osmosis) filtered water contain no minerals, simulating close to pure water. This pure water should be neutral with a pH value of 7. However, it measures acid pH! The reason for this phenomenon is that pure water sucks in carbon dioxides from the atmosphere. Although it measures acid pH, there are no acid minerals in that water. If pure water is stored in plastic bottle, the water smells plastic.

For this reason, distilled water or RO filtered water should be stored in glass bottles or special plastic bottles that can block carbon dioxide penetration. Coca Cola was bottled originally in glass bottles only. Then came the plastic bottle and it lost the fizzles. Then better plastic bottles came out that didn't lose carbon dioxides; still plastic-bottled Coca Cola has to have expiration dates. Carbon dioxides penetrate through plastics, making pure water acidic.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the health food industry recommended that people eat certain types of healthy food and exclude other types of unhealthy food. Initially, people noticed a marked improvement of their health. However, staying with this healthy diet for several years, people suffered from nutritional deficiency syndrome, which the health food industry concluded as a sickness caused by pollutants in the drinking water. The health food industry began to sell distillers and RO filters to protect people. To me, this is a case of arriving at an erroneous conclusion because they totally misunderstood the facts.

In the 1950s distilled water was sold in drug stores with the label "Not for drinking!" Distilled water was used to fill car batteries and steam irons. Distilled water is not healthy because it will leach out valuable alkaline minerals from our body. However, I realize that I cannot change some people's mind. I wish people would not drink distilled water or RO water.

REVERSE OSMOSIS/DISTILLED WATER (RO/DI)


For many years, DI/R.O. was considered the best water for you. The rational was that if nothing was in the water except water itself, then this must be the best for you. Nothing but water and nothing could hurt you.
Today we know this is not true for two reasons:

1. Natural water is a perfect source for vitamin and mineral absorption by the body

2. Ultra pure water is actually a very aggressive chemical.

I’d like to deal with the first point, of course, first. One of my areas of expertise is the precise addition of chemicals to water. If a dosage is called for, I get it there down to the tenth of a mg/L. In order to precisely dose a chemical, to have it best integrate, mix, and dissolve in the water, it must be in a liquid format. This is true to the point where if I have to deal with a powder or other solid chemical or a gaseous chemical, I dissolved it into a liquid solution with make up water before dosing it into the process.
In the same way, the minerals already dissolved in natural water supplies integrate far better into the body than do your multivitamins in pill form, and that is because of point two.
Water is called a universal solvent for very good reason. It will dissolve just about anything over time. That’s why it has needed minerals dissolved in it like calcium, magnesium and Iron. By removing those minerals and bringing it to an ultra pure state, you are creating a corrosive chemical.
Think of ultrapure water like a sponge. This water needs and craves minerals, and will get them from wherever it can. Water likes to be in whats known as an “ion balance”. The ions in the water that is in your body will move to fill the void by the new water without ions in it. The result will be a lower amount of ions in the water in your body as a whole. This works just like heat, which will move from higher heat to lower heat, leaving the whole reduced in temperature as a whole.
This also works in reverse. If your body has a lower concentration of dissolved ions, water with a higher concentration of dissolved ions (alkaline water) will impart some of it’s ions by this ion balancing process.
What all this means is that DI/R.O. water can be a problem, but it is not an acute problem, like high doses of arsenic in your water or certain pathogens would be. It is a chronic problem like taking small doses of arsenic and can affect you when taken regularly over longer periods of time. This is especially true for women who are at risk for or are suffering from osteoperosis

I hope I’ve helped you understand why DI/R.O. water is considered a chronic risk.