Water – What you Need to Know

Water is the basic building block of life. Most of our body consists of water, yet, most people do not drink enough water. My opinion as to the reason is that most water today, whether from the tap or a bottle, is not healthy.

How do I know this? Personal experience.

Back in 1995, I was really working on improving my health. I went to the gym, took supplements and started drinking a gallon of water per day. I thought I was safe because I had a carbon filter. Let me tell you, that was WRONG!

What I began to notice was a slow deterioration in my health. By the summer of 2005, a mere 10 years, I had high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, a chronic skin fungus infection that kept coming back, cramping in my hands, feet and legs, low thyroid and failing vision. In addition, my kidneys had started aching.

When the kidneys started acting up, I went to my clinic and they did a urine test. I was told that I was too acid. However, they didn’t know what to do about it.  So, as near as I could tell, my kidneys were hurting because I was too acid but they couldn’t tell me now to fix it.

So, I started doing research. What I found out saved my life.

I will be forever grateful to Kevin Trudeau, the alternative health journalist because his information on acidity directed me to a site called, Never an Outbreak.  This site introduced me to the concept of alkalinity and had products that promoted alkalinity. This in turn led me to Sang Whang, the engineer who developed the Alkalife product. I also discovered the research of Dr. Young and Dr. Baroody. Their books are interesting although I don’t agree with the vegetarian lifestyle they advocate.  Mr. Whang has a much more practical lifestyle based on alkaline water.

With this information, I discovered that what I had done to improve my and my family’s health was actually harming us. You see, when I discovered that the water authority had started putting fluoride in the tap water in 1995. They didn’t put it to a vote, they simply held one public meeting that few people knew about. My chiropractor said he went down there and pleaded with them not to put this toxic substance in the water but they did anyway.

Notice the date? That’s exactly when I started increasing my water consumption. Consequently, I had hypothyroidism. A carbon filter doesn’t do much to cleanse the water. So I found out that Reverse Osmosis, RO, would take out the fluoride and other things as well. Thus, in October of 2004, I installed a system and the family and pets started on the “clean” water.

I had noticed on the directions that the RO company stated that the water was acid and that some people thought that was not a good thing but others said it didn’t matter. Let me tell you, IT DOES MATTER!

In about a years time, my health, my wife’s health and my pet’s health deteriorated. I had a sweet cat that died of throat swelling. The vet had never seen this before. But it was the RO water. How do I know? A friend with cats also installed an RO system and had a cat die of the same throat constriction. Even the Vet school at the University of Georgia could not identify the cause. But, it was ACIDITY.  That thing that most health authorities say doesn’t matter.

Every day, me, my family and pets were less healthy. One died. I still feel incredible sadness about that because I know it was the water.

Thank goodness for the clinic identifying the acid problem, even if they didn’t know how to fix it, and Kevin Trudeau for pointing me in the right direction.

The city where I live has the worst water in the entire United States. For safe consumption, it has to be treated with Reverse Osmosis. However, I discovered you can put the minerals back in as well as put drops to bring up the alkalinity.

Today, we all drink strong alkaline water balanced with calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. I not longer have high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, skin fungus, brittle finger nails, low body temp, etc. My wife no longer has gout which she suffered for many years.

I cannot imagine a health care professional claiming that alkaline water doesn’t make a difference. Me, my family and pets were the classic, double blind experiment. We were drinking acid water thinking it was healthy and our health deteriorated. We thought it was healthy because that is what we had been told. But, the results, sad results with the pets and the one cat in particular, told a different story.

When I started the alkaline water program, I didn’t know if it would help or not. All I knew is that I had to try something our I was going to die. It worked. Was it a placebo effect? No. You see, the pets health improved as well and now, they REFUSE to drink other types of water. They will actually go thirsty until they can get to the clean, remineralized, strong alkaline water. They instinctively know it is healthy for them.

I still drink a gallon of water per day. My special, strong alkaline water. No more hypothyroidism, high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, cramps, etc. Even my eyes have improved that my glasses are too strong for me!

Will you have the same results? I can’t say. All I can say is that me, my family and the pets are healthier than we were in 2005. I hope you look into your water.

Mind Affects the Body

We tend to think that our thoughts have no effect. How often have you heard the phrase, “It’s just a thought”?

The truth is, our thoughts are much more powerful than we know and it’s been demonstrated by research.

In her book The Intention Experiment, Lynn McTaggart presents several research examples.

In one example from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one group went to the gym to work out and one group imagined going to the gym to work out. What was the effect? The group that went to the gym had a 30% increase in muscle strength which was to be expected. However, the group who did NOT go to the gym, who only exercised in their mind had a 14% increase in muscle strength.

Think about that for a moment, the people who only imagined working out had strength increases without actually working out. You might think that 14% improvement is not much but since they didn’t actually work out, it should have been ZERO!

This is not the only example. Another group between 20 and 35 years old imagined flexing on bicep muscle as hard as they could five times a week.  All they did was imagine and yet, they had a 13.5% increase in strength AND muscle size!

It’s clear that thoughts do have a powerful effect on the body. Are you thinking negative thoughts about your body or health? You’d better look into it today!

Zinc – A Very Necessary Micro-Nutrient

Ever think about zinc?  I know I never thought much about it until I started having white spots appear on my fingernails. When I researched it, I was really surprised at all the important things that zinc does in the body.

It does so much that in 1978, Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer wrote an entire book, Zinc and Other Micro-Nutrients! The book is very technically oriented and is mainly about zinc although it has valuable information on other micro-nutrients such as selenium.

One thing I discovered is that zinc plays a critical role in male fertility! It also helps that pesky prostate function properly.

Basically, zinc is required for synthesis of DNA, regulates muscle contractions, is essential for the synthesis of protein and helps in the formation of insulin. There are just too many functions of zinc to list in this post. That’s how important it is.

If you have wounds that heal slowly, you are likely low on zinc. White spots on your finger nails? Ditto! Unfortunately, most of the effects of low zinc are internal and can’t be seen but you sure feel them. You have these health issues, such as frequent infections, reduced sense of taste or smell, or mental dullness and difficulty in concentrating but probably don’t know that low zinc is the problem.

One very fascinating effect of low zinc mentioned by Dr. Pfeiffer was that a severe zinc deficiency produced symptoms of schizophrenia in some people! Needless to say, adequate zinc is VERY important.

One other point made by Dr. Pfeiffer: Always take B6 with your zinc. Otherwise, the zinc is not utilized properly.

A hair test is an easy way to see the status of your micro-nutrients.

Manganese – A Deficiency Made it Hard for Me to Swallow

Again I want to write about a trace mineral that I had personal experience with.

If you are like I was, you haven’t heard of manganese. Manganese isn’t really in food that I normally eat either. One day, I discovered that I was having trouble swallowing.  It’s like my throat muscles wouldn’t work correctly.  It was at this time that I ordered my first hair test. The results showed a number of deficiencies but my manganese was in the red on the deficiency side! I immediately got me some manganese supplements and over time, my difficulty swallowing went away.

When you look at what manganese does, it’s easy to see why my deficiency affected me as it did. Manganese reduces nervous irritability, aids in muscle reflexes, improves memory, and helps combat tiredness.

It’s also  needed for normal bone building (I had broken a couple of ribs years ago that didn’t heal properly) and is important in the production of thyrosin, the principal hormone of the thyroid gland (I had low thyroid). It is also essential for proper digestion and efficient use of food because it makes up enzymes that extract energy and metabolize proteins. Manganese also helps the body properly use vitamin B1, biotin, and vitamin C. Manganese is important for normal central-nervous-system functioning and reproduction.

About the only food that contains manganese is Brazil nuts. Even though I like them, I cannot eat many because they are very filling. Supplementation was the only way to go.

Although it’s claimed that manganese deficiency is rare, I certainly had it. The only thing I changed was adding a manganese supplement and after a while, my swallowing problem went away. It had been going on for many months and was getting worse so I know the manganese supplementation was what solved the problem.

You should make sure your multi-vitamin has manganese it it!