Ionized Water: Healthful remedy, or beer fart?

[Gvac]

Alright Doc...I'm using you as the tie breaker in this debate.

I have a buddy of mine who has been drinking ionized water to level off his body's PH balance and he swears it's been a miracle worker. He'd been taking Nexium for acid reflux for almost 15 years and had to sleep sitting up because he had it so bad, but he says that since he's been drinking the ionized water he's completely off the Nexium and hasn't had a hint of heartburn or discomfort. His mother in law is an old hippie and really into homeopathic medicine and she's the one that got him to try the stuff.

Another body of mine is a doctor and he claims the whole "PH balance" of the human body is nonsense, and that ionized water is the latest craze in New Age "science" and that it's nothing more than modern day snake oil.

Who's right? Is there a certain PH level we should keep our bodies at? Does ionized water help? Or is it all bullshit?

Remember; I'm using your opinion as the final word on the subject.

With great power comes great responsibility.

See ya in the funny papers,

Uncle G

[Gvac]

P.S. - Why the fuck isn't your latest podcast up on your site yet? Come on...let's get with it.

Thanks.

[Dr Steve]

Alright Doc...I'm using you as the tie breaker in this debate.

I have a buddy of mine who has been drinking ionized water to level off his body's PH balance and he swears it's been a miracle worker. He'd been taking Nexium for acid reflux for almost 15 years and had to sleep sitting up because he had it so bad, but he says that since he's been drinking the ionized water he's completely off the Nexium and hasn't had a hint of heartburn or discomfort. His mother in law is an old hippie and really into homeopathic medicine and she's the one that got him to try the stuff.

Another body of mine is a doctor and he claims the whole "PH balance" of the human body is nonsense, and that ionized water is the latest craze in New Age "science" and that it's nothing more than modern day snake oil.

Who's right? Is there a certain PH level we should keep our bodies at? Does ionized water help? Or is it all bullshit?

Remember; I'm using your opinion as the final word on the subject.

With great power comes great responsibility.

See ya in the funny papers,

Uncle G

Ok, first, you can't argue with success and SOMETHING made your friend feel better. However, it wasn't "Ionized Water", or at least any true physiological effect from hydrolyzing water.

"Ionized water" is a misnomer...what they're talking about is somehow alkalizing water by applying an electric current to it. There are so many fallacies in this that are obvious to anyone who took chemistry in college that it's not funny. What's bad is that so many people either didn't take chemistry, or forgot about it after they took it that they can't critically examine nutty claims and scams that are out there.

1) Most "ionized water" systems are sold through "multilevel marketing" companies. These companies don't have to make a lot of claims, they get their sales force (who are always trying to recruit new sales people into the fold so they can sell more shit) to do it. This keeps the pesky FTC and FDA out of their hair.

2) you can't "Ionize" pure water. Pure water is an insulator and no significant electrolysis can happen when a current is placed across it (although a little can happen thanks to the dipole nature of the water molecule). Add some impurities, however, and you can electrolyze the hell out of it. A little salt, or other mineral substance will do it.

3) Pure water can never be made "alkaline" through electrolysis. You lose hydrogen and oxygen and that's it. The pH will never change, and by definition water is never acidic nor alkaline. If you really want water that is alkaline, just add some baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to it for chrissakes. People used that as an antacid for a hundred years before Prevacid and Nexium came out. (PS: I'm not saying to actually DO this, just that if your goal is "alkaline water", why not just add some alkali to the water instead of buying some two hundred dollar machine that doesn't even work?)

4) "Ionized water" is just a moronic term...it's meaningless chemically.

5) The body controls its own pH...the pH in the stomach is usually less than 4, the pH of blood is 7.4 (usually controlled very tightly within a 0.1th of a point). There's no way you can affect the pH by drinking a little water....you can totally fuck up your system by dumping in a ton of acid or base, but even if you drank sodium bicarbonate solution now, within a few minutes your body would adjust.


6) you get rid of acid by excreting acid urine and by blowing off carbon dioxide. That's it.

7) if you drank an alkaline solution, the acid in the stomach neutralizes it immediately (of course, it neutralizes the acid in the same amount as well, but there's a lot more acid in the stomach than there is even in the claims of ionized water).

8) bring me a "water ionizer" and let me measure the pH with a lab instrument and you'll see what a ripoff these devices are.


Having said all that, the placebo effect is SO powerful that we have to literally subtract it out from every study we do. I don't laugh at the placebo effect...I'm in awe of it. I'd postulate that's what "cured" your friend. If we can harness the placebo effect's ability to make the body heal itself, we'd be on to something.


your pal,



steve

[Dr Steve]

P.S. - Why the fuck isn't your latest podcast up on your site yet? Come on...let's get with it.

Thanks.

It's up. Generally takes me a week cuz I'm lazy.

I like this guy's blog on Ionized water:

http://pigmystrong.com/?p=732

[TheMojoPin]

Fascinating stuff, Dr. Steve. Thanks!