Living Soils Herbal Farmacy & Natural Health Center

Life by Distilled Water

The questions that are  raised when dealing with Distilled Water! Does it leach minerals from the Body? Is it safe to drink? Is not distilled water acid based? I thought distilled water was dead water?

I have research this topic for close to four years plus, and I have come to a strong conclusion through documented research and experience distilled water is one of the best and safest forms of water we can drink (depending upon the source)other than the ideal source of water  from the juice of organic vegetables and fruits.  The websites that make the claim distilled water will shorten our life, drinking acid water, leach organic minerals from our bodies are not back up with solid forms of quality research (if any) but mainly use their titles as the word of truth or to promote their products at the expense of real facts.

However, the disinformation can be traced to a research scientist from the Soviet Union. “The origins of this misconception reach back to studies conducted in the former Soviet Union between 15 and 30 years ago that were summarized in an article that came to the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO released an unofficial summary of the article (without additional research or follow-up) in 1980 entitled "Guidelines on Health Aspects of Water Desalination" by G.I. Sidorenko and Y.A. Rachmanin. (Canadian WQA)

The best example of distilled water’s lack of harm and its benefits is Dr. Norman W. Walker who lived until the age of 117 and who was probably the earliest and most forceful advocate of distilled water.  Distilled water leeches out inorganic minerals which should be a boon to arthritis and rheumatism sufferers. Dr. Charles McFerrin, writing in July 1955 issue of “Nature’s Path,” writes: “Distilled water is ‘empty’ water — a hungry water, a water capable of absorbing body poisons. You have had the experience of trying to use an old post office blotter on the desk. Everybody had used it and it is so full of ink that it will not suck up any more. So it is with a ‘full’ water, a water full of chlorine, aluminum, etc. Such water does not have the capacity of absorbing body impurities” (Rethinking Cancer).

When serving in the U.S. Navy aboard ship I survived just fine through the distillation process for drinking water, which had over 40 years of experience. In all these years, high-purity  water has not been noticed or documented to produce any negative effects and the Navy Surgeon General's office has stated, for the record, that no ill effects occur from drinking low TDS water. (Canadian WQA)

The people on Kidney dialysis can only use distilled water for their condition! Why are they not dying of demineralization from the so-called dead water? In addition, the Saudi Arabian government, the largest distillation process in the world supplying over 50% of its population (SWCC),  has the distillation process down to a solid science for decades are the Arabs suffering from demineralization and bone disease?

The marketed belief that we have been sold  is that we get our minerals from natural spring water. NOT TRUE, we get our minerals from plant based foods designed to receive rich organic bio-available minerals from the soil. Spring water deposits its inorganic minerals that are not bio-available to our system depositing them in our joints, tissues, and blood stream until they are chelated out. What happens when we do drink distilled water, it’s the water that chelates these inorganic minerals and flushes them out of our system. It is these inorgainic minerals observed in the urine which have been seen then claiming demineralization from our bones, etc.

Dr. Rudy Davis of Bayside Natural Health Center in New Brunswick, Canada used a simple idea to settle this in his own practice and mind. He distilled normal tap water over a period of time and recorded the mineral residue deposits. His clients using distilled water during the detoxifying process kept the results of the mineral deposits left in the urine as the body flushed discovering them to be the same as the inorganic mineral residue from the tap water. No evidence of any organic leached minerals as some would claim. However, noted the average person can be consuming up to 25 lbs of inorganic undissolved minerals every year by tap and bottled water consumption.

ORGANIC MINERALS VS. INORGANIC MINERALS

There are two types of minerals, organic and inorganic. Human physiology has a biological affinity for organic minerals. A growing plant converts the inorganic minerals from the soils to a useful organic mineral in the body to use. When an organic mineral (from a plant food) enters the stomach, it must attach itself to a specific protein-molecule (chelation) in order to be absorbed, then it gains access to the tissue sites where it is needed. Once a plant mineral is divested within the body, it is utilized as a coenzyme for composing body fluids, forming blood and bone cells, and the maintaining of healthy nerve transmission (Balch and Balch 1990).

Tap water presents a variety of inorganic minerals which our body has difficulty absorbing. Their presence is suspect in a wide array of degenerative diseases, such as hardening of the arteries, arthritis, kidney stones, gall stones, glaucoma, cataracts, hearing loss, emphysema, diabetes, and obesity. What minerals are available, especially in hard tap water, are poorly absorbed, or rejected by cellular tissue sites, and if not evacuated, their presence may cause arterial obstruction, and internal damage (Dennison 1993, Muehling 1994, Banik 1989). (Misner, William. Ph.D, )

A 1986 project sponsored by the US EPA in San Ysidro, New Mexico, offers an additional rebuttal to the Soviet studies. R.O. (reverse osmosis) units were installed in the homes in this small town in order to reduce a high level of arsenic in the water supply. In addition to reducing arsenic levels, the units reduced the TDS level in the water from 800 mg/L to approximately 40 mg/L (Distilled Water).

According to Dr. Thomas J. Sorg, the EPA officer in charge of the project, there were no harmful effects observed in the subjects who drank the water. The project lasted an entire year. Finally, WQA commissioned Lee T. Rozelle, Ph.D. to conduct an extensive information search to find any other published findings on this issue. The results of the search supported the position that low TDS water was not harmful to the individual. (Canadian WQA).

I hope and Pray this information has been helpful.

Note: this post will occasionally be updated, so please check back.

Works Cited

Canadian Water Quality Association “Clean the Water: When it is muddied by Misinformation”. http://www.cwqa.com/faq.php?section=cwqa&subsec=faq&question=3A

Davis, Dr. Rudy and Jennie. Bayside Natural Health Center in New Brunswick, Canada 5358 Route 117, Baie Ste. Anne, NB E9A 1C9. Tel:  506-228-9108.  www.baysidenaturalhealth.com

Misner, William. Ph.D. “Distilled Water Enhances Mineral Absorption”.             http://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/distilled-water- enhances-mineral-absorption.785.html

Rethinking Cancer. Smith, Edward. Distilled Water. Non-Traditional Approaches to the Theories, Treatments and Prevention of Cancer. http://www.rethinkingcancer.org/resources/articles/distilled-water.php

SWCC - Yanbu Power and Desalination Plant (Phase 3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Saudi_Arabia

Muehling EC, "Pure Water Now: Its Time For Action," 2cd Ed., Pure Water Inc., Lincoln, Neb., 1994:1-42.

Dennison C, "Why I Drink Distilled Water", Reprint Form 6300,  Pure Water Inc., Lincoln, Neb.,1993.

Tone J, "Your Drinking Water-How Good Is It?", National         Testing Laboratories Inc., Cleveland, Ohio,1994:21.

Banik AE, "The Choice Is Clear," ACRES USA, Metaire, Louisiana, 1989:37.

Balch JF, Balch PA, PRESCRIPTION FOR    NUTRITIONAL HEALING, Avery Publishing Co., Garden City, NY, 1990:17.

Colgan M, OPTIMUM SPORTS NUTRITION, Advanced  Research Press, New York, NY, 1993:23-24.