I was recently contacted by an old acquaintance who wanted to talk about alkaline water. He had just purchased a water treatment system for his home and thought it would be perfect for me. You know, because I’m into all that health and fitness stuff.

His pitch was simple. The more acidic something is, the more unhealthful it is. The more alkaline, the better it is for us. This $2,980 system he was selling (Kangen Water) would make all my water more alkaline. The range of things it could do was nothing short of miraculous.

It could remove ALL pesticides from veggies, grains and fruits. It can detoxify your body. It cures infections, arthritis and even cancer! Let’s start breaking those claims down, starting with how alkaline or acidic your body is.

The best way to describe the impact of alkaline water on the pH level of your stomach is this. It’s like putting a single drop of cold water into a 10-gallon pot of boiling water. You have enzymes that start all the chemical reactions in your body. Enzymes function within a narrow range of acidity. Should that acidity level fluctuate, your body quickly moves to change it back to normal. Those chemical reactions critical to our survival wouldn’t happen if it didn’t.

To measure how acidic or alkaline things are, scientists refer to the “pH” level. Normal pH levels for people are between 7.35 and 7.45. If things get seriously out of whack, the conditions are called acidosis (extremely high acidity) or alkalosis (extremely low acidity.) If you have either of those conditions, you don’t need a glass of water; you need a hospital because they can both be life-threatening.

As for those other claims? The ability to remove pesticides better than ordinary water? The cure for cancer, arthritis, infections and more? All false. No clinical trials prove those claims because those aren’t things alkaline water can do. If any of those things worked, you’d hear about it from every news source, not buried deep in online chat rooms and on sketchy websites.

Should you buy alkaline water?

But wait! There’s more!

My friend then talked about how water has different-sized water clusters. There’s big cluster water and micro cluster water. The water ionizer he was selling produced “smaller water molecule clusters which enable every nook and cranny of your body to be super-hydrated.”

Here’s what experts in Water Quality from Auburn University said.

“Chemists have long recognized that one of the special properties of water is its ability to form short-lived ever-changing polymeric units that are sometimes referred to as 'clusters.' There is no support from the scientific communities of chemistry, physics, biochemistry, or physiology that clusters of water molecules, which last on the order of billionths of a second, can be controlled nor that such clusters play any role in human health and nutrition. The only places you are likely to see these views advocated are in literature and websites intended to promote the sale of products for the 'alternative' health care market.”

Then my friend said, “But there’s lots of evidence IONIZING water makes it better for you.” So I explained what ionizing means. According to the Free Dictionary: “Ionize means to form ions in a substance. Lightning ionizes air, for example."

These devices, like the one my friend was selling, create alkaline water through electrolysis. Run an electric current through water, and the water splits to form hydrogen and oxygen. Water near the anode is acidic, and water near the cathode is alkaline. Siphon off the water you want, and you’re done.

Except, pure water doesn’t have a lot of mineral content, so it conducts electricity poorly. If it can’t conduct electricity, electrolysis can’t happen in any meaningful way. To overcome that, water ionizers use additives like salt to increase the conductivity of the water. Lots of fun things happen at that point.

At the cathode, sodium hydroxide (a diluted drain cleaner) is created when sodium chloride undergoes electrolysis. At the anode, chlorine builds up, and if it’s mixed with the hydroxide ions from the cathode, it can create hypochlorous acid, a form of laundry bleach. I don’t think drinking diluted drain cleaner or laundry bleach is a good idea.

If you see any device that makes alkaline water claiming health benefits, they’re lying to you. Any bottled alkaline water that promises health benefits is not being truthful. Demand double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trials with several hundred subjects over several months of testing. None of them provide proof like that because they know the truth. They’re selling you dreams and false hopes. Don’t fall for it.

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Reference Links:

Studies on the Physicochemical Properties and Existence of Water Products (as Drinks) Advertised as Having Smaller Cluster Sizes of H2O Molecules than Those of Regular Water

Atsushi Hiraoka, Atsuko Shinohara, Yoshihiro Yoshimura
Journal of Health Science, 2010 Volume 56 Issue 6 Pages 717-720

Click Here for the Study

WATER QUALITY - TIMELY INFORMATION - DRINKING WATER AND WATER TREATMENT SCAMS

James E. Hairston, Professor and Water Quality Coordinator, Donn Rodekohr, Agricutural Program Associate, Evaden F. Brantley, Agricultural Program Associate, Lori L. Bice, Undergraduate Student Assistant
Alabama Cooperative Extension System - Agriculture & Natural Resources Agronomy & Soils, Auburn University, AL, OCTOBER 22, 2003

Click Here for the Study

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9/27/2022