Alkaline vs Acid in water Did you know?

[Wise Old Owl]

I walked into a home with a bug problem in the Philadelphia area and was stunned to see a machine connected to the water tap. i could not help but ask for more information... The metal box was making Alkaline water. Having never hearing about it I thought I would run this past the group to see if anyone else knows about this relatively new to me information. Some of this makes sense. Check out the video and I am interested in ones thoughts. Would you do this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yi83kOB8ug

[bfayer]

Your stomach is full of acid. The body doesn't really care about the PH of what you drink, it takes what you give it and adjusts as necessary. Another of today's fads is coconut water. Coconut water has a PH of around 5, which the coconut people (pun intended) is the perfect PH for human consumption. I bet the same people that buy the machine to make alkaline water, have a refrigerator full of coconut water :rolleyes:

However, if alkaline water is a must have why not just add a small amount of sodium bicarbonate and stir. Much less expensive than a machine.

[kayak karl]

Snake oil on tap? http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html

[colorado_rob]

Your stomach is full of acid. The body doesn't really care about the PH of what you drink, it takes what you give it and adjusts as necessary. . Yeah, but it has to take body resources from somewhere to do this. It behooves us to watch our PH intake a bit, nothing radical, but take soda for example. Hugely acidic. Coke is what, something like PH=3.5? Your body has to maintain a pH somewhere in the 7.4-ish range to live. How dies it compensate when you drink 10 cans of soda a day? By using up Alkaline chemicals. Know where a source of Alkalinity is? You bones. Do you really want to use up bone matter to compensate for drinking 10 sodas a day? My point is you have to moderate somewhat.

[bfayer]

Yeah, but it has to take body resources from somewhere to do this. It behooves us to watch our PH intake a bit, nothing radical, but take soda for example. Hugely acidic. Coke is what, something like PH=3.5? Your body has to maintain a pH somewhere in the 7.4-ish range to live. How dies it compensate when you drink 10 cans of soda a day? By using up Alkaline chemicals. Know where a source of Alkalinity is? You bones. Do you really want to use up bone matter to compensate for drinking 10 sodas a day? My point is you have to moderate somewhat.

In general I agree, moderation is always a good plan. Having said that, low PH foods are offset with a good balanced diet. If you only drink coke and don't eat a balanced diet you have more problems than an expensive water machine can fix :)

A good list of PH balance of common foods:

http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm

[Feral Bill]

Yeah, but it has to take body resources from somewhere to do this. It behooves us to watch our PH intake a bit, nothing radical, but take soda for example. Hugely acidic. Coke is what, something like PH=3.5? Your body has to maintain a pH somewhere in the 7.4-ish range to live. How dies it compensate when you drink 10 cans of soda a day? By using up Alkaline chemicals. Know where a source of Alkalinity is? You bones. Do you really want to use up bone matter to compensate for drinking 10 sodas a day? My point is you have to moderate somewhat. I imagine that most of the acidity in Coke gets burped up as CO2. The obvious solution is to drink less soda.

[Wise Old Owl]

Your stomach is full of acid. The body doesn't really care about the PH of what you drink, it takes what you give it and adjusts as necessary. Another of today's fads is coconut water. Coconut water has a PH of around 5, which the coconut people (pun intended) is the perfect PH for human consumption. I bet the same people that buy the machine to make alkaline water, have a refrigerator full of coconut water :rolleyes:

However, if alkaline water is a must have why not just add a small amount of sodium bicarbonate and stir. Much less expensive than a machine.


It funny that you mention that... a year back someone mentioned a teaspoon will shut down foot pain such as gout. I don't know about gout - I don't believe I have it. But I have tried it and an hour later the pain is gone.

[bfayer]

It funny that you mention that... a year back someone mentioned a teaspoon will shut down foot pain such as gout. I don't know about gout - I don't believe I have it. But I have tried it and an hour later the pain is gone.

Makes sense I guess. Gout is caused by a build up of uric acid, so anything that raises PH in your system might help some. I can't imagine it would do much, but if it works for you, why not, can't hurt.

[Slo-go'en]

Yea total snake oil BS. Took about 5 minutes with google to find this out when I first heard about "alkaine" water a few weeks ago by accident.

[Pedaling Fool]

That's what I love about America; so many gullible people to make a buck off :)

There are only two other countries with more people, but they are so poor. :D

[Wise Old Owl]

Well I hope you are not directing "that I am Gullible" I am keeping an open mind on this and was hoping for some thought provoking objections as well as some positive feedback. Lets move on.

[Another Kevin]

Virtually all municipal water supplies try to pump at a mildly alkaline pH (something around 7.2-7.6 is ideal) because acid water is bad for their plumbing. Since I live in karst terrain, I don't have to worry about water acidity. All the wells around here are drawing from carbonate rock.

[bfayer]

Well for me, I don't think you or anyone else on WB is gullible. Gullible is spending your hard earned money on something based on a bogus advertisement without doing the research first.

If after someone does their research, believes a product is worth the money, and then buys it, that is not gullible. Most people on here do quite a bit of research before they spend their money. Not everyone is going to agree on the value of any given product.

I think PFs point was more directed at the "as seen on TV" masses that inhabit our great country, not folks on WB.

[theinfamousj]

As someone with high uric acid concentration as a family inheritance (mine presents as kidney stones, Dad's as gout)...

(a) You'd know if you had gout. The pain and swelling would get thee to a doctor.

(b) Hydration helps. No matter what the pH, fluids help keep the uric acid from crystallizing.

So it may be entirely cheaper to just drink any old water to help with pain (wait, don't doctors tell us to do this anyway?).

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[Odd Man Out]

This is the kind of video we chemistry teachers like to use in class to teach about pseudoscience.

[Dogwood]

Music made me want to chill with a full body massage and Reiki alignment in the private back room of the Amsterdam Cafe in Vancouver B.C. while sipping fresh squeezed mango juice and learning about what a vaporizer does after finishing the PCT. :cool:

Those water alkalizing units can be rather pricey. I've seen them for $4K. My brother in law's brother bought a $2000 one to supposedly address kidney stones. It's on his kitchen sink hooked up to the public water supply. The water is then filtered, ionized, and alkalized. He can adjust the alkalinity of the water filtered and can switch back to reg tap water if he wants by pressing a button. He says it helps him, including assisting to dissolve one larger kidney stone. That's been confirmed by his MD(his kidney stones are slowly dissolving, IF the water is the reason.........?). He's definitely not into any New Agey hoity toity fads either. Supposedly it was recommended to him by a main stream Western medical trained MD in NJ. I was invited for Thanksgiving to his house. I drank the alkalized water all day. The alkalized water, which was set at the med ph alkalinity setting for me to drink, tasted great. Didn't make me feel like I immediately want to jump over any tall buildings with a single bound though.

I think I do live a lifestyle that promotes alkalinity though - at least based on much of my diet and outside influences. The BIG exception being the coffee I consume.

Funny thing though, even before watching your link(ad!) WOO I've always felt Evian and Fiji Spring Waters, which supposedly as tested here are basic(slightly alkaline, >pH 7.0), compared to the two cheapy brand acidic(< 7.0) waters, tasted better. What I'm wondering is, IF humans are able to detect wide alkalinity differences of various water; I'm speaking more about the H20 rather than what might be dissolved in the water. What one must always remember is if taking along bottled water it is always part of the ensemble to have a water bottle holster, pricey Ithingy, and tights. :D

I'll order a Pellegrino Mineral Water(always from glass) sometimes when out at dinner and I'm splurging. As far as sparkling mineral water Pellegrino is my go to 4 season water of choice. :D

[bfayer]

Then again your brother in law probably made other changes in his diet to go along with the water alkalizer. Not quite a double blind study :) Just drinking more water will help kidney stones. If I spent that much on a water filter, I would make sure to drink more water too just to make me feel better about the purchase.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I am glad your brother in law is doing better, and I am a firm believer in doing what works. If it works for him, that's great.

[Dogwood]

Then again your brother in law probably made other changes in his diet to go along with the water alkalizer. Just drinking more water will help kidney stones.... If it works for him, that's great.

I said the exact same things to him. He also told me he cut down to 1 L of Coca Cola per day from the 4-6 L he was SOMETIMES consuming, PER DAY, in the past. HMMMM?

[Wise Old Owl]

Well Dogwood that's great for your Brother in Law - glad to hear he's doing better. You really have my curiosity on this.

[theinfamousj]

Then again your brother in law probably made other changes in his diet to go along with the water alkalizer. Not quite a double blind study :) Just drinking more water will help kidney stones. If I spent that much on a water filter, I would make sure to drink more water too just to make me feel better about the purchase.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I am glad your brother in law is doing better, and I am a firm believer in doing what works. If it works for him, that's great.

As a kidney stones sufferer, I came to suggest that with the magic water machine, there was probably an uptick in water consumption to justify the purchase. The more water, the fewer kidney stones. (and don't I know it!) The branding of the water is irrelevant.

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[Dogwood]

I don't know WHY when I first posted my last comments(Post #16) I posted it with paragraph breaks that showed up in that post AND NOW when I come back to the same post it resembles one large run on of a post???

[FarmerChef]

As a kidney stones sufferer, I came to suggest that with the magic water machine, there was probably an uptick in water consumption to justify the purchase. The more water, the fewer kidney stones. (and don't I know it!) The branding of the water is irrelevant.

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Ditto here. I had almost all of my kidney stones as a high schooler and young college student. Mine were due to the Alkalinity of my water! More specifically, dissolved calcium in the well water coupled with high consumption of calcium rich dairy foods. Turns out, I wasn't drinking...enough. Now I make sure to drink plenty, living in the same house with the same well. I would think that higher water consumption not necessarily ph intake helps reduce existing stones by causing more of the crystalline uric acid or calcium to dissolve in solution and get passed out of the body via urine. I'm no doctor but it makes sense from a chemistry perspective...

[Dogwood]

I'm noticing it occurring on some other folk's multi paragraph posts as well. It makes the post more difficult to read and understand! This was also related to me by several others attempting to achieve paragraph breaks through their Return/Enter keys and NOT being able to so when on WhiteBlaze.

[Wise Old Owl]

As someone with high uric acid concentration as a family inheritance (mine presents as kidney stones, Dad's as gout)...

(a) You'd know if you had gout. The pain and swelling would get thee to a doctor.

(b) Hydration helps. No matter what the pH, fluids help keep the uric acid from crystallizing.

So it may be entirely cheaper to just drink any old water to help with pain (wait, don't doctors tell us to do this anyway?).

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actually the pain in my feet is from taking perscription HTZ over a long period of time...

[4eyedbuzzard]

This is the kind of video we chemistry teachers like to use in class to teach about pseudoscience.Don't know if you've seen this one on [gasp] dihydrogen monoxide, http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html , but I found it mildly amusing.

[bfayer]

Don't know if you've seen this one on [gasp] dihydrogen monoxide, http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html , but I found it mildly amusing.


Several years ago in early April I warned folks on here about a dihydrogen monoxide spill in SNP. Very few folks took me seriously. DHMO however, has killed more folks than any other chemical on the planet. You can argue about opinion, but you can't argue about facts :)

[Theosus]

As someone with high uric acid concentration as a family inheritance (mine presents as kidney stones, Dad's as gout)...

(a) You'd know if you had gout. The pain and swelling would get thee to a doctor.

(b) Hydration helps. No matter what the pH, fluids help keep the uric acid from crystallizing.

So it may be entirely cheaper to just drink any old water to help with pain (wait, don't doctors tell us to do this anyway?).

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Amen!
I had gout once. To simulate the pain: Take a double of sack of marbles. Heat to around 150 degrees. Dump them in your rain boots. Slip your feet in and take a stroll. Yeah, it's that painful.

Kidney stones are quite similar. According to physicians, "Kidney Colic" and passing a stone from your kidney into your bladder is the most powerful natural pain the body can produce (sorry ladies, it beats labor pains). Note I'm not talking about peeing it out, that's nothing compared to the pain while it's inside.
You will know if you have one of THOSE, because you'll be doubled over on the floor and probably puking. A friend of mine wound up with one on the AT, two days into a four day hike. I'm sure that was a horrible night in the tent.

There are different causes for kidney stones, and your best solution is to have in analyzed. A coworker of mine can't drink Tea any more. Some people have to avoid milk. Some just need to DRINK MORE. My doctor told me just to drink more water. Kidney stones are apparently a problem in my area in the early fall. Its cooler so people don't drink enough, and most of us run sort of slightly dehydrated all the time, so thats when the crystals suddenly come out of solution.

Never heard about the water treatment thing until now. Most of our water is a little on the alkaline side any way. I guess if you're getting well water you might want to test it, but judging from the stuff that crystalizes on my shower head, my water is plenty high in PH.

[Pedaling Fool]

I read this article and thought of this thread http://www.livescience.com/42266-death-alternative-cancer-treatment-cesium-chloride.html

Titled: Woman's Death Linked to Alternative Cancer Treatment

The concept is similar, here's an excerpt from this link
http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/herbsvitaminsandminerals/cesium-chloride


Excerpt:

How is it promoted for use?

Proponents claim the pH inside of tumor cells is usually very low, or acidic, compared to normal cells, and that cesium chloride supplements raise the pH level of tumor cells to a normal level, which slows the cancer's growth. Since proponents claim cesium chloride works by raising the pH of the tumor cells, its use in therapy has been called "high pH therapy."

[oldwetherman]

Only thing I know about water pH....the reason there's so much good whiskey made in Kentucky and Tennessee is that the water is alkaline.