CHAPTER 8
You can go days without eating and still be alive—though it’s not something I’d advise in any circumstance. But you can’t go very long without water and expect to survive. In hot climates, going without water for even several hours puts you at severe health risk. Water is what makes the human body function. It can comprise between 70 and 75 percent of one’s total body weight. Water has such a simple molecular structure—two hydrogen atoms bonding with a single oxygen atom—yet life on Earth as we know it would cease to exist it without its presence. Water also covers 70 percent of our planet, with 97 percent of that water located in the oceans. (One wonders why both the planet and human body have somewhat similar amounts of water.)
Water is your body’s most important nutrient and is involved in every bodily function. It helps you regulate body temperature, aids in digestion, transports valuable nutrients, and flushes toxins from your body. Drinking clean water is so vital to optimal function that a deficiency of less than 1 percent can begin producing signs and symptoms of dysfunction—from low energy and poor circulation to reduced brain function. Slightly more dehydration can produce serious health problems that include neurological dysfunction and shutting down of organ and gland activity. The key to maintaining proper hydration is to drink plenty of water throughout the day.
Water is the key ingredient in maintaining chemical balance in your body. This includes transporting nutrients to the cells, maintaining the function of blood, and eliminating wastes from the lungs, skin, and colon. Water also plays a major role in hormone regulation and balancing acid-base levels. More importantly, water is like your car’s radiator, cooling the reactions that normally create heat in your body. For example, muscle contraction, digestion, and the processing of nutrients produce large amounts of heat, which must be cooled by water. If this regulation did not occur effectively, your temperature would rise to a level that would destroy your enzymes and other protein-based substances, and you would die. The water literally absorbs the excess heat and carries it to the skin where it is dissipated through evaporation and other means.
Water is distributed unevenly throughout the body, with different areas accounting for various percentages. Here are some examples:
• About 80 percent of your blood, heart, lungs, and kidneys is water.
• Your muscles, brain, intestines, and spleen are about 75 percent.
• Your bones are 22 percent water.
• Fat stores are about 10 percent water.
• One of the biggest problems of dehydration is that it decreases blood volume.
Maintaining blood volume is important because so many vital functions are associated with it:
• Transport of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to the muscles.
• Transport of nutrients, including glucose, fats, and amino acids.
• Removal of carbon dioxide and other waste products.
• Transport of hormones that help regulate muscular activity.
• Neutralization of lactic acid to maintain proper pH.
• Maintenance of efficient cardiovascular function.
Most of the body’s water is contained inside the cells of muscles, nerves, organs, and bones, helping to regulate the intracellular environment. Water also functions in between the cells by helping to carry nutrients and hormones into the cells. One of the most significant functions of water is to regulate the balance of potassium (on the inside of the cell) and sodium (outside the cell). This balance is most important in nerve and muscle cells, producing nervous system function and muscle contraction.
Thirst is how most people remember to drink water. But this is not the best indication that you’re dehydrating since the brain’s thirst center does not send a message until you are almost 2 percent dehydrated. By then, you’re already slightly dehydrated. The kidneys, however, provide you with a better signal that you’re dehydrating. They can give you two signs: reduce urine production and color change.
If your urine output is diminished, you’re beginning to dehydrate. What is meant by “diminished”? If you’re not urinating at least six to eight times each day, you may be dehydrated.
The color of your urine may be the best and earliest indicator that you need more water. Urine should be clear, except for the first urine in the morning because you’re mildly dehydrated then and drinking water should be one of the first things you do upon awakening. If your urine has a yellow color, it probably means you need more water. The darker the yellow, the more water you need.
A simple formula is important to remember regarding water balance:
Water input = water output
Water input from drinking must balance loss, which occurs from several areas of the body.
• Most water is lost through the kidneys. This water is used to help eliminate normal waste products from the body. During exercise, the body attempts to conserve water, and loss through the kidneys is very limited.
• Evaporation from the skin, important for controlling body temperature, is also a major source of water loss. Even under cool, resting conditions, about 30 percent of water loss occurs here. But sweating, from exercise or normal daily activity, increases this amount dramatically—during exercise, it’s about three hundred times the amount lost during rest!
• Water loss in exhaled air is also significant and a bit less than the skin. The air going in and out of your lungs needs to be humidified.
• A small but significant water loss (about 5 percent) occurs through the intestine.
• The amount of water loss is determined in part by air temperature (the higher the temperature, the more water loss), humidity (drier climates result in more water loss), and body size (the larger the person, the more water loss).
If you’re dehydrated, just drinking a glass of water won’t immediately solve the problem. Complete water replacement throughout the body may take twenty-four to forty-eight hours no matter how much you drink at one time. Unfortunately, the human body does not function like that of many other animals. By drinking a large volume of water, dehydrated animals can consume 10 percent of their total body weight in a few minutes and rehydrate. Humans need to drink water in smaller amounts much more frequently to correct dehydration and maintain proper hydration.
What should you do to prevent dehydration and maintain proper hydration? Here are some general everyday guidelines:
• Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink water. Drink water every day, throughout the day.
• Drink water between meals, not during meals, as it can interfere with digestion of food.
• Drink smaller amounts every couple hours rather than two or three large doses a day.
• Have a source of water near you at all times and get into the habit of drinking water. Especially keep water near your immediate area during work hours or where you spend much of your time (at your desk, by the phone, in your car).
• Avoid carbonated water as your main source; the carbonation may cause intestinal distress.
• Get used to drinking water before and immediately after exercise. If you exercise for more than about an hour, drink small amounts of water during the workout.
• Learn to drink water without swallowing air—drink slowly and without tilting your head up and back.
• The average person may need about three quarts of water each day.
• Avoid chlorinated and fluoridated water and water stored in plastic bottles.
In addition to the above recommendations, get used to drinking water as your main source of liquid. This does not mean drinking heavily marketed, ridiculously overpriced synthetic, vitamin-enhanced bottled water that is sold as a “healthy alternative” to drinking good, clean water. While it’s true you obtain some of your water needs through food and other beverages, most should come from plain water, consumed between meals, not during meals since it can interfere with proper digestion.
Certain drinks such as coffee and tea, which contain caffeine, and alcohol can actually increase your need for water because of their diuretic effect (causing the body to lose water). Even decaf coffee and tea can contain small amounts of caffeine.
So don’t count these beverages as part of your daily water intake. The same goes for juices, all colas, and other sodas (which you shouldn’t be drinking anyway.)
Only 1 percent of the world’s water is safe to drink. Today, more people are questioning not only the quality of their drinking water but also the container it comes in. Contaminants in drinking water can be a significant risk to your health and fitness. Surprisingly, millions (if not billions) of people are exposed to unhealthy, unnecessary toxins in drinking water every day. Don’t just assume your water is safe to drink—you need to take active steps to find out for sure. And if there is a problem, you need to correct it.
CAN YOU REALLY DRINK TOO MUCH WATER?
You may have read media reports about water intoxication—that drinking too much water can cause serious health problems. While this issue is usually related to more active people, especially athletes of all ages performing long training and racing such as marathons and triathlons, it potentially can occur in others. The problem is not just drinking too much water as the media portrays but consuming larger amounts of water in an unhealthy body.
We’re about to come full circle with new water recommendations. For years, suggestions regarding water intake during exercise was “more is better.” People started carrying water bottles during their thirty-minute walks and kept water within reach during treadmill, stationary bike, and aerobic dance workouts. Of course, drinking water this often during short exercise sessions is not necessary if you maintain proper hydration.
But then athletes competing in long events started dying and getting seriously ill due to overhydration, and the term “water intoxication” was born. A condition called hyponatremia—abnormally low blood sodium—often accompanied overhydration in these individuals, providing the first clue that there was a cause other than just drinking too much water. The proper regulation of water and that of sodium go hand in hand.
While we know that serious water and sodium problems can occur in some people who exercise for long periods, especially in endurance athletes, it’s a question of which came first—too much water or body dysfunction that causes poor fluid regulation. Perhaps a better question is this: can excess fluid intake be an aggravating factor rather than the cause of water and sodium imbalance?
The answer to this question is yes. And new recommendations about to hit the exercise world will be that of reducing water intake. Unfortunately, restricting fluids would be treating the symptom.
One of the causes of water intoxication and that of low blood sodium is hormone imbalance. Another cause may be due to chronic inflammation.
The best recommendation is to maintain proper hydration and be healthy and fit.
Most contaminants in water fall into four categories:
• Environmental chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides, trihalomethanes (from chlorination), and manmade chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) that can leach out of plastic bottles
• Heavy metals, including lead, copper and nitrates
• Bacteria, including the most common coliform bacteria
• Radiological pollution, including radon, radium, and uranium
If you’re concerned about the water in your home, the first step is to analyze it to find out what, if any, contamination exists. Once any questions about the quality of the water are answered, necessary steps to improve it can be taken more logically. The first question to ask is in regard to the source of your water. For most people, this is either a public water system or a well.
Individuals on public systems have the legal right to ask for and obtain the results of past water tests from their water supplier. The supplier must also inform you of any problems, past or present, in meeting federal requirements for safety. The supplier can also tell you if your water contains chlorine or fluoride. This may be easier said than done as many water companies don’t want you to know about past tests or current hazards.
If your source of water comes from a well, you’ll have to take the initiative and have the water tested yourself. If you’ve recently purchased your home, a water test should have been done before the sale. At other times, the health department may do certain tests, especially if there are local pollution problems. Deeper wells generally have less contamination than more shallow, often older, wells. Even if your area has a safe environment, many problems can come from water runoffs and chemical leaks far away from your well.
Whether you drink public or well water, another potential source of contamination is your pipes. The biggest problem is potentially found in older houses. Because lead is a serious health hazard, lead pipes, and lead-containing materials were outlawed in 1986. However, in older houses (built before 1930), the plumbing may include lead pipes, lead-containing solder, or other lead-based materials. These soft dull-gray metal pipes are very dangerous, especially with soft water. Some cities, like Chicago and New York, may have lead connector pipes, which connect the city water supply to homes. The water department or city engineer should be able to tell you whether this is the case with your home.
Copper pipes can also leach copper into your drinking water. High copper levels occur in areas where there is soft water (sometimes referred to as a low pH or high acidity). Although not as serious as lead, excess copper can cause health problems, including disturbances of mineral balance, especially zinc, iron, and manganese, with excess copper being stored in the liver and brain where it can be toxic.
Some homes, especially in the north-western United States, have older pipes or tanks made of galvanized steel. This metal can leach cadmium, and as with copper, this may pose health dangers.
Corrosion of pipes can also cause excess contamination. This is typical in areas where basements are damp year-round. The most common source of corrosion is from the grounding of a home’s electrical system. This is easy to inspect. Electrical ground wires should never be attached to your water pipes, but to a separate ground.
Although the most accurate method of analyzing your water is through a lab, observing the stains in your sink may be a clue to some contaminants. The exception is lead, which won’t render any discoloration. Copper, however, will produce a blue-green stain and iron a brown streak.
Having your water tested by a competent laboratory will remove all the guesswork regarding its safety. Samples should be taken from a frequently used source, such as the kitchen sink. A morning sample would generally have the highest levels of mineral contamination as water sitting in the pipes all night tends to accumulate these substances. For this reason, let your water run a few seconds or more in the morning or whenever water has stayed in the pipe more than six hours to allow that water to be discarded. If water sources in your area have been contaminated, or if several members of your household have symptoms related to contaminated water (such as recurring diarrhea or vomiting) the health department may do testing. The health department may also give you names of reputable labs that can test your water. These labs use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, and although some feel the EPA’s ranges of normal are too conservative, at least you are ensured accurate testing. The lab may want to provide you with special collection containers as some samples need to be properly preserved.
In some instances, such as in the case of high lead content, you may ask your doctor about testing the levels in your blood. The EPA has changed the standard for this toxic metal from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb when testing home water. But even at low levels, a long-term buildup in the body is always a possibility. Children are most susceptible to lead toxicity.
If you still have questions about your water, the EPA has a Drinking Water Hotline in Washington DC: 800-426-4791. It can provide you with a list of contaminants and the allowable levels. If you find contaminants in your water supply, there are several things you can do to remedy the problem. If the source can be corrected, such as your septic or lead pipes, this becomes an obvious priority. If the source cannot be found, a water-filtering system can usually solve your problem.
THE ABCs OF BPA
The public is understandably anxious about reducing its exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) following a 2008 federal government report warning that the chemical may be linked to breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other health-related problems. BPA is a man-made plastic component that is found in baby bottles, water bottles, food containers, and even toys. Health advocates have advised against using any containers made with BPA. The potential for toxic contamination is too great to overlook or ignore
The Environmental Working Group at Environment California put together these health and safety guidelines:
• Avoid bottles and other food containers made of clear, hard, polycarbonate plastic (made from bisphenol A), which may be labeled #7 or PC on the underside. Also avoid polyvinyl chloride (PVC), labeled #3, which can contain phthalates.
• Choose plastic food containers, bottles, and cups made of #1, #2, and #4 (polyethylene) and softer, opaque #5 (polypropylene), plastics, or glass or stainless steel.
• Avoid canned foods, including baby formula, which may contain bisphenol A in their lining.
• Avoid foods wrapped in plastic.
• Do not put plastics in the dishwasher and dispose of any plastic containers or dishware that look scratched or hazy.
The issue of fluoride and its safety is a long and complex one, and I won’t attempt to cover the complete debate here. But I do want to address the use of fluoride as an additive to drinking water. I’m basically opposed to having fluoride in the water supply because it is a high-dose supplement used out of its natural environment. And we’re all forced to consume it, whether it’s needed or not. Instead of treating everyone with fluoridated water, an attempt should be made to target those who really need it. In the case of cavity prevention, it would be better to treat susceptible individuals than have fluoridated water be part of an entire city’s water supply.
Despite what most people think, fluoride is no longer considered an essential nutrient. Natural fluoride is found in most foods, especially chicken, fish, seafood, and tea; and it’s found naturally in most drinking water. Through a healthy diet, enough fluoride can be consumed to have a positive effect on cavity prevention. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says tooth decay has declined sharply in recent years, even in areas without fluoridated water. British researchers also found, after studying people from eight different countries, that tooth decay was declining equally in both fluoridated and nonfluoridated areas.
Fluoride can also negatively affect other areas of the body—especially the bones.
Some studies show that fluoride can substantially increase bone loss, producing bone fractures in the spine, wrist, and arm. Other studies have shown that in communities that have fluoridated water, hip fractures are more common.
Fluoride also interferes with energy production. This occurs in the anaerobic biochemical pathways that convert sugar to energy.
About half the water systems in the United States have fluoridated water. If you wish to avoid this water, filter what comes through the tap. But most water filters don’t remove fluoride, so check the manufacturer’s information regarding which chemicals its product filters.
The first step in considering a water filter is learning what contaminants are in the water. Once you know what needs to be filtered, you can use the appropriate system. Unfortunately, there is no single water filter that will solve all your potential water problems. Keep in mind that toxins also can enter the body through the skin or lungs when bathing or taking a shower—the inhalation or absorption of trihalomethanes, a cancer-causing chemical found in chlorinated water, is a common problem. This can be remedied by using a system that filters all water entering your house. You can also install a water filter on your showerhead or bathtub tap if that’s frequently used. Jacuzzis and hot tubs may also pose problems if they use unfiltered water swimming pools that are chlorinated are significant health hazards because evaporating chlorine gas is highest just above water level where it’s easily inhaled. Avoid chlorine pools and find alternatives—many other mechanisms are used to keep pool water clean, including infrared, bromine, and salt. It’s also relatively easy to convert your pool from chlorine to salt.
The three best water filters include activated-carbon systems, reverse-osmosis systems, and distillation units. Each one will filter specific contaminants.
Carbon filters dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans trap contaminants as the water passes through the filter. Solid-carbon-block filters are the most effective for this process (as opposed to granular-carbon devices). Carbon filters remove most organic chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, chlorine, bacteria, metals (lead, iron, copper), and radon; but they do not remove minerals (so they won’t soften water), arsenic, nitrates, viruses, and radioactive particles. Carbon filtration usually improves the taste of the water. Some carbon filters contain silver nitrate to prevent bacterial buildup; these filters may have the potential to leak silver, which is toxic. Ideally, the carbon cartridge must be replaced periodically to maintain effectiveness and normal water flow. Small carbon-filter units for water bottles are also available, making safer water possible when you are away from home.
Preventing Tooth Decay Naturally
More effective than fluoride in the prevention of tooth decay is maintaining proper oral pH. Some foods, mainly carbohydrates, are acid-forming. Many commercial toothpastes also make the mouth more acidic. An acidic environment in the mouth promotes tooth decay. Conversely, a more alkaline environment prevents decay. Certain foods, such as cheese, some toothpastes, and baking soda as well as natural fats and oils, will leave the mouth more alkaline. Honey is one carbohydrate food that can also make the mouth more alkaline and also help reduce dextran, a sticky substance that enables bacteria to stick to the teeth. Oral pH is especially important before bedtime. For children, a glass of apple juice or milk just before bed can promote tooth decay, and fluoride won’t necessarily remedy that problem.
Reverse osmosis has been used for large-scale projects, such as industrial desalination of seawater. Essentially, it’s a more complex filtration system that includes carbon. Reverse osmosis removes toxic metals and radiation contamination, except radon, but does not remove many organic chemicals.
Distillation, like carbon filtration, is also an ancient method of treating water. This is the best all-around method as it “filters” more items than any other single device, although it is not technically a filter process (it’s more like rainwater, made from evaporating water that becomes clouds). The process involves boiling the water to be treated and capturing and cooling the steam, which gives you cleaner water. Distillation removes toxic metals and radiation contamination, except radon, and also removes minerals and thus softens the water. It may not remove all organic chemicals.
Manufacturers of these different filtering devices can provide you with more information on which contaminants they remove as well as proper use, installation, and maintenance costs. Also, it’s well worth testing your water again after installing a water filter to be certain it is performing properly.
Water (and other foods) stored in plastic containers may not be as safe to take as once thought. For many years, plastic has been suspect regarding the possibility that harmful chemicals contained in many plastic materials can leach into water. As research continues showing this is a real hazard, there are a variety of things you can do. Here are some recommendations:
• Avoid using plastic as long-term storage containers for water or other foods. Instead, save all your glass containers to use for food storage.
• Certain foods react strongly with plastic. Avoid buying vinegar, tomato, alcohol, and similar products contained in plastic.
• Remove the plastic parts to bottles containing these foods. For example, some bottles of vinegar contain plastic pouring spouts, which can be removed.
• Use glass or stainless steel bottles for water when you are way from home.
When it comes to water—whether you are drinking it, swimming in it, or showering in it—this life-giving substance remains one of the most potential sources of environmental contamination. Always play it safe with water. Your health depends on it.