You’re probably wondering what water has got to do with detoxification however we come in contact with water in so many ways, it’s obviously a significant opportunity for toxins to enter our bodies. We use water for drinking, cooking, washing food and for bathing and showering (remember that our skin is like a complicated sponge that can absorb things we put on it).
There are some wildly differing opinions and research on water in the available literature, and it’s often not clear and sometimes contradictory. In any case, let’s consider what we can about our different exposures to water.
Drinking water
Let’s just get straight into the controversial topic here. Many people just say “tap water is fine” and many others say that they just have to drink cleaner water, either filtered, distilled, purified, rain or spring water. How can there be so many different types? Water is just supposed to H20 isn’t it? The problem is what else is in the water as well.
If something else is in my water, I’d like to know what it is and how it got there. Some of the things I’m concerned about are;
- from where did the water originate, was it badly polluted to begin with – if so, how has it been filtered and cleaned?
- what has been added to it, what have governments added to it for our own good?
- how has it been moved or transported – has it been through pipes that could be leaching substances into it?
- how has it been stored – is it in plastic containers that could be leaching substances into it?
You don’t have to search the internet too much to find a myriad of arguments and papers about all sorts of potential toxins and problems with water and the ways that it is cleaned and filtered. If you’re really interested, this post on Mercola.com is a good example, but I don’t think we really need to know all the scientific details.
The arguments in the literature are almost always along the same lines. Someone claims a particular toxin can be in water and that it’s a dangerous toxin. Someone else publishes some work that shows that, at the level found in water, it’s not toxic and that there’s no real evidence to show it’s of any concern at these levels. That’s enough for me. It seems like there’s a danger of downside with no real upside in all these potential toxins. That’s enough for me to want to avoid them.
Fluoridated tap water
In this interesting post on Mercola.com there is a section entitled “Fluoridated Water—Another Hidden Source of Radioactive Polonium”. Here are a couple of quotes from this article.
You can also consume polonium by drinking fluoridated water, courtesy of the fluorosilicic acid used. While pharmaceutical grade fluoride is a harmful-enough drug, this is not the type of fluoride being added to drinking water. If it was, at least then it would be a pure, uncontaminated form.
Rather the fluoride that is typically used to fluoridate local water supplies is a frequently contaminated chemical byproduct created during the phosphate fertilizer manufacturing process. It’s a concentrated, highly toxic chemical riddled with hazardous impurities, making it extremely expensive to safely dispose of when not sold for profit as a water additive.
and
Back in 1983, the Deputy Administrator of the EPA Office of Water, Rebecca Hanmer, summarized and defended the EPA’s policy on adding toxic fluoride to drinking water in the following manner, which is quite telling once you know where the fluoride comes from, and the origins of the idea behind water fluoridation as a public health policy:
“In regard to the use of fluosilicic (fluorosilicic) acid as a source of fluoride for fluoridation, this agency regards such use as an ideal environmental solution to a long-standing problem. By recovering by-product fluosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water utilities have a low-cost source of fluoride available to them.”
So, let’s see. The chemical companies that make fertilizer have a by-product that’s hard to dispose of and they convince the government that it’s a good source of fluoride that can be added to all the town water supplies to stop people getting teeth cavities. Problem solved. They get rid of their toxic by-product and they get paid for it! You can argue whether this is true or not, but just the possibility of it is scary. I don’t see any upside to adding toxic substances to our drinking water, but a much higher chance of downsides.
The “pregnant woman” barometer
Often I’ll read something where people state that a certain substance is safe at the “low” levels present, but then there’s a disclaimer that pregnant women should avoid it. Again, that’s enough for me. I like to use this “pregnant women test” as a barometer.
If something is discouraged for pregnant women, I’d like to avoid it as well. It’s obviously a bad thing.
Here’s one web page that discusses the controversy over whether pregnant women should avoid fluoridated water.
The “natural” barometer
Another barometer I like to use is to think of what people would have done before we became so domesticated. When there was no town water, no tap water and no bottled water. The only water available was as found in nature. So these more primitive people might have captured rain water directly or found water in streams or natural springs where the water would have been filtered by the rocks and natural organisms of the Earth. These are the natural sources of water. The way that nature intended us to find water. Unless I hear a really good argument to the contrary, I’d like to find my water in as close to this fashion as possible.
What’s the best water choice?
The healthiest thing would be to live in some amazing countryside and live near a clean, fresh stream or a lovely clean, natural spring. This would be the best source of water. Seeing that’s difficult, I currently believe the best thing I can do today is to buy spring water bottled at the source from a spring as close to me as possible. In doing this, I’m happy to know that the water has been filtered by nature and hasn’t had anything added to it. The only thing to worry about in this case is whether the plastic bottle is leaching anything into the water, and that is a concern.
The next best option would be to drink distilled water, or at least filtered water. I’m not very keen on tap water because we know it has been captured, stored, treated, had chemicals added to it, transported around through pipes and then run through more pipes in our homes. There are just so many opportunities for toxins to be added to it. In many places in the world there are reports of fluoride being added to the water supply and we know that, at least in the U.S., there is now a significant level of antibiotics appearing in the water supply because these chemicals are so prevalent in our society these days (overused for our ailments and heavily used to support poor farming practices – see Fresh – The Movie). At the very least we should filter the water to try and get some of the nasty things out before we allow it into our bodies. I find that filtered water tastes better than tap water. That’s enough confirmation for me that filtering is a good thing to do.
Swimming pool water
Should we worry about the water we swim in? I only have to think about how it feels to swim in a chlorinated pool without goggles. It doesn’t take long for my eyes to become sore and red. This can’t be a good thing. Now consider that our skin is soaking up this chemical laden water as well and I start to worry about what effects it might have on my body overall. It’s interesting to note that some hotels are providing salt-water pools or mineral water pools these days. I’m not sure how much of a difference these make and there are suggestions these can still be bad, but I do think it’s worth considering the possible toxicity of swimming pool water.
Try thinking about swimming pools in this way. We have a body of water in our backyard, for example, but none of the natural life forms (insects, frogs, etc.) that normally inhabit water want to live in it or could live in it. That’s just not a good sign for me. Some people are now building “natural swimming pools” that use plants and microorganisms to clean the water, just as is done by nature for lakes and ponds.
Shower water
When we shower or bathe, our skins soaks up some water (difficult to say how much) and especially some of the chemicals in the water. It appears that some chemicals are more easily absorbed than others. There’s a lot of debate about whether chemicals in our shower water can actually be making us sick – here’s one web page as an example.
I’d rather just filter my shower water and avoid any possible toxic load that my body might have to deal with. I bought a new shower head that contains a filter that removes most of the toxins from the water.
I’m happy with this because if there is a problem with chemicals in my shower water, the filter will have removed most of them. If there’s not, then I’ve just wasted a little bit of money.
Water to help detoxify your body
Many people say that drinking lots of water helps you body flush out your system and eliminate toxins. This is something that David Wolfe often says. However, this is quite controversial when looking at the literature. There are a lot of statements made that don’t seem to have any scientific backup.
In any case, we know that our bodies need to be well hydrated to function properly, for all the processes and chemical reactions that it needs to perform. I assume this carries over to the detoxification processes that it must perform as well. I’d guess that a de-hydrated body would not be able to flush out toxins as well as a hydrated one.
There are no downsides to keeping my body well hydrated, so that’s what I’m trying to do. I drink about 1.5 liters of water every morning now, and probably about 1 to 1.5 liters more through the rest of the day. I hope that’s keeping me well hydrated.
Related Posts & Links
- Mark’s Daily Apple on fluoride in water – http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-fluoride-safe/
- Mercola.com on the toxins that can be in water
- Study that finds unacceptable cancer risk from tap water and swimming pool water
- A webpage on alternatives to chlorination in swimming pools
- A webpage about natural swimming pools
- Is your daily shower making you sick?
- Is Fluoridated Water Safe to Drink During Pregnancy?
- I bought the shower head (with a filter) online in France from – http://www.filtredouche.fr
More small steps towards detoxification
This is the fourth post in the following detoxification series. As the posts become live, the links below will become active.
- Detoxification Through Organic Food – Step 1
- Detoxification Through Avoiding Alcohol – Step 2
- Detoxification Through Natural Personal Care Products – Step 3
- Detoxification Through Natural Cleaning Products – Step 4
- Detoxification Through Water – Step 5 (this post)
- Detoxification Through Eliminating Medications – Step 6
- Detoxification Through Eliminating Mercury Fillings – Step 7
I’d love to hear you thoughts and experiences of the water you drink and allow to contact your body. Please leave a comment. Thanks.
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