Alkaline Water Benefits
What Are Alkaline Water Benefits
Like any particular product or food these days, there are always people that support their use and claimed benefits, and there are people that do not support their use and claimed benefits. Think for example, the use of copper bracelets for ‘balancing one’s energy levels’, or the the consumption of gluten, coffee, wine, or meats.
If you are visiting this page or website, it is because you have heard about and/or are interested in, consuming alkaline water made with Chanson Countertop Alkaline Water Ionizers or Chanson Under Countertop Alkaline Water Ionizers.
Having access to this and all information about alkaline water benefits is intended to help you in making your decision to either consume or not consume alkaline water, and we suggest that you balance this information with your own common sense and having your questions answered before arriving at your decision.
For the purpose of answering the question ‘what are alkaline water benefits’ from a consumption standpoint, I have chosen to include some generally accepted alkaline water benefits as claimed by alkaline water consumers, with some references to scientific studies and their conclusions for your consideration where feasible.
The main alkaline water benefits for which people have claimed results with in consuming alkaline water include the following:
1. Acid Reflux Reduction
Acid reflux is a condition in which stomach contents, including the acid produced by the stomach to digest food, makes its way back up to and past the esophagus at the entrance to the stomach. The result is an irritating discomfort up the esophagus due to the aggressive nature of stomach acid on tissue. People often complain about the taste of ‘acid’, or ‘heartburn’ in their mid section.
Jamie A. Koufman MD, and Nikki Johnson PhD, published a study titled Potential Benefits of pH 8.8 Alkaline Drinking Water as an Adjunct in the Treatment of Reflux Disease in the Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of alkaline water with a pH = 8.8 on reducing pepsin, a digestion enzyme responsible for breaking down proteins in our stomach that is also believed to be the cause of discomfort pf people who suffer from acid reflux.
The conclusion states “Unlike conventional drinking water [which has a pH of 6.7-7.4 typically], pH 8.8 alkaline water instantly denatures pepsin, rendering it permanently inactive. In addition, it has good acid-buffering capacity. Thus, the consumption of alkaline water may have therapeutic benefits for patients with reflux disease.”
We can deduce from their conclusion that alkaline water may help people who suffer from acid reflux to reduce or minimize their discomfort by simply drinking alkaline water.
2. Anti-Aging Properties
Ok, here we go, this one is interesting for obvious reasons 🙂
First, let’s describe ‘aging’:
Aging is the process by which we get older than we currently are and eventually we die. Nice thought, right?? 🙂
Now that we have defined ‘aging’, what is ‘anti-aging’?
Well, we can define ‘anti-aging’ as getting younger than we currently are. Although this is a much better thought than aging and eventually dying as per above, using our common sense approach, we know that we don’t physically reverse age, and so we are stuck with aging.
However, think of anti-aging as doing what you can to reduce the impact of getting older. For instance, exercising, eating a properly balanced nutritional diet, and taking vitamins that supplement deficiencies in your diet on a regular basis, helps in staying fit, having more energy, and sleeping better to name a few benefits.
Since our bodies are made up of 45-75% water, it makes logical sense to consume an appropriate amount of water on a regular basis for the purpose of transporting nutrients to your body cell’s, and removing wastes and toxins from your body cell’s on a consistent basis.
Taken one step further, if you read the section on Antioxidant Rich Properties on this page, you will learn that antioxidants help to neutralize free radicals in our environment that lead to aging.
In the Okinawa Japan Centenarian Study of the highest concentration of living centenarians, people over age 100, the authors found that, among other findings, Okinawa Centenarians had low blood levels of free radicals, implying they suffer from less free radical damage then other world centenarians, possibly due to lower caloric intake, healthier lifestyles, and consumption of natural drinking water high in calcium with an alkaline pH.
So, in concluding this section, I would like to point out that we believe the antioxidant properties of ionized alkaline water are beneficial in slowing down our aging process, even if we are getting older 🙂
3. Antioxidant Rich Water
Antioxidants are substances that simply inhibit, or slow down, the negative effects of damaging molecules known as free radicals.
How do antioxidants work?
Free radicals have positive charges, and antioxidants have negative charges. When they come together, antioxidants neutralize free radicals, thereby preventing the free radicals from causing damage, known as oxidation, to any living thing in their environment.
Consider if you will, the example of cutting an apple and leaving it on your countertop.
What happens to it? You are correct if you said it ‘browns’.
Why does it brown? It browns due to free radical damage present in the air surrounding the apple oxidizing the exposed surface.
However, if you apply a thin layer of lemon juice on the cut apple, the apple stays fresher longer, meaning it takes longer to brown, or in other words, the lemon juice acts as an antioxidant to the surface of the apple.
Just like lemon juice protects the apple from oxidizing, or aging, or ‘browning’, we believe consuming freshly produced ionized alkaline water with negative ORP Oxidation Reduction Potential helps our bodies neutralize free radical damage.
4. Blood pH Balancing
The number one thing your body is responsible for in maintaining optimal health is body temperature. Too hot and you get a fever, too cold and you get hypothermia.
The number two thing your body is responsible for in maintaining optimal health is your blood pH. Your blood is responsible, for among other things, transporting nutrients, vitamins, minerals, oxygen, and water to your cells, and responsible for taking cell by-product wastes from your cells and organs for evacuation through your skin, urine, and feces.
In a process beyond the scope of this website known as acid-base homeostasis, our blood’s pH is typically maintained between 7.32 and 7.42 by many complex bodily systems.
According to research, a slightly alkaline blood pH = 7.365 to 7.45 is sufficient to prevent disease in your body.
Although our body’s are incredible at maintaining blood pH through a variety of biological processes, we can logically accept that our body’s ability to maintain an ideal blood pH is affected by what we eat and drink.
Taking a common sense approach, if you consume foods and beverages that are acid containing or acid producing in your body, your body will have to work harder to neutralize those acids, compared to if you consume foods and beverages that are alkaline containing or alkaline producing in your body.
Since your body is made up of 45-75% water, we believe the easiest way to help your body regulate its blood pH is through the water you consume.
If you consume water with a pH > greater than 7.0, known as alkaline water, then you are helping your body maintain its blood pH close to or at the ideal alkaline blood pH = 7.365 mentioned above.
In our opinion, the easiest way to do this is by consuming freshly produced ionized alkaline water with a pH = 8.0 – 9.5 on a regular basis.
Wang Yu-Lian, published a study titled Preliminary Observation on Changes of Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, and Blood Lipids After Using Alkaline Ionized Drinking Water in the Shanghai Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The purpose of the study was to observe changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids in the participants after consuming ionized alkaline water for 3 and 6 months.
The results showed that the levels of all three markers, blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids, all decreased significantly at 3 and 6 month intervals.
To paraphrase, the author concluded that ionized alkaline water may be used as an accessory therapeutic method for treating blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and blood lipid levels.
5. Detoxifying Properties
Due to its antioxidant properties, drinking ionized alkaline water is helpful in removing toxins from our body.
Our body’s are made up of cells that for all intense purposes, are little individual factory’s responsible for many millions of processes.
Simply put, blood is the carrier in our body takes nutrients, vitamins, minerals, oxygen, and water to each cell so they can do their specific task, whatever it may be.
As in all biological processes, by-products are formed in cells during their specific processes.
It is very important to remove cell by-products constantly in order to keep cells functioning properly.
The best way to help your body remove by-products efficiently is by constantly providing your blood, which transports by-products / toxins out of cells and eventually eliminates them through urine and feces, is through the consumption of water.
If you are going to drink an adequate amount of water to help your body and blood remove cell by-products and waste, in our opinion, the best water to consume is freshly produced ionized alkaline water with a pH = 8.0 – 9.5 on a regular basis.
6. Improved Bone Health
Gerry L. Schwalfenberg published a study titled The Alkaline Diet: Is There Evidence That An Alkaline pH Diet Benefits Health in the PubMed Central® Archive of Biomedical and Life Sciences Journal Literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine.
The purpose of the study was to review the role of an alkaline diet in health as a whole. Although very complex to do, the study evaluated pH levels of living organisms and more importantly the tightly controlled human blood pH of 7.35-7.45, the role of pH in various cells, organs, and membranes, chronic acidosis and bone disease, alkaline diets and muscle, alkaline supplementation and growth hormone, alkaline diet and back pain, and alkalinity and chemotherapy.
To paraphrase, the study concluded that alkaline diets may result in a number of health benefits such as:
- benefiting bone health
- reducing muscle deterioration
- reducing chronic diseases such as hypertension and stroke
- increasing growth hormone levels that may improve cardiovascular health, memory, and cognition
- increasing the amount of magnesium available in cells that leads to better enzyme systems and increase in vitamin D activity
- increased alkalinity may result in added benefit for some chemotherapy that work better under higher pH
All in all, the conclusion is that ‘it would be prudent to consider an alkaline diet to reduce morbidity and mortality of chronic disease’ in an aging population, and that there still needs to be considerable studies done to validate these observations with statistical significance.
I would like to add here that the study doesn’t single out alkaline water as a source for alkalinity, however, in thinking from a common sense approach, I believe that any thing we consume that is alkaline stands to increase blood pH, and consequently, be beneficial to health as is the conclusion of the study.
7. Improved Heart Health
Heart health is dependent on many things, including the quality of your blood and how efficient your heart works at transporting blood to and from all your cells and organs.
Wang Yu-Lian, published a study titled Preliminary Observation on Changes of Blood Pressure, Blood Sugar, and Blood Lipids After Using Alkaline Ionized Drinking Water in the Shanghai Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The purpose of the study was to observe changes in blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids in the participants after consuming ionized alkaline water for 3 and 6 months.
The results showed that the levels of all three markers, blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids, all decreased significantly at 3 and 6 month intervals.
To paraphrase, the author concluded that ionized alkaline water may be used as an accessory therapeutic method for treating blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and blood lipid levels.
If your heart is running more optimally due to being under less physical stress as per above test results, then it stands to reason that drinking alkaline water helps improve your heart health.
8. Increased Hydration
Increased hydration due to the consumption of ionized alkaline water refers to a concept of small water clusters being more easily and readily absorbed in our body due to smaller diameter molecules.
Joseph Weidman, Ralph E Holsworth Jr., Bradley Brossman, Daniel J Cho, John St. Cyr, and Gregory Friedman published a study titled Effect Of Electrolyzed High-pH Alkaline Water On Blood Viscosity In Healthy Adults in the Journal Of The International Society For Sports Nutrition.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of high-pH water (or alkaline water) on four biomarkers (blood viscosity at high and low shear rates, plasma osmolality, bioimpedance, and body mass) after exercise-induced dehydration in 100 healthy adults aged 25 to 37.
The conclusions state that “a significant difference in whole blood viscosity was detected in this study when assessing a high-pH, electrolyte water versus an acceptable standard purified water during the recovery phase following strenuous exercise-induced dehydration.”
Going in to our common sense thinking perspective, if your blood viscosity is reduced, then it will be easier for your body to move blood and nutrients around and at the same time, easier for your body to excrete cellular wastes for removal through urination, feces, and through your skin.
9. Immune System Boosting
Boosting your immune system comes down to your body’s ability to function efficiently and fight off infections.
The more efficient your body systems operate, the more energy is left for your immune system to function properly and fight off infections and remove toxins.
By consuming alkaline foods and freshly produced alkaline water, you help your body systems operate more efficiently, and hence, help your immune system fight off infections and remove cellular waste.
10. Weight Loss
An acidic body is a result of an acidic diet, and an acidic diet is a result of consuming meats, dairy products, sugar based foods, and highly processed foods which leave what is known as an acidic ash in your body that must be neutralized by alkali minerals in your blood.
Fat storage in the body is the body’s way of attempting to protect its cells and organs from the aggressive nature of an acidic environment brought on by an acidic diet.
When we alkalize our body with alkaline foods and freshly produced ionized alkaline water, fat cells tend to get smaller since it no longer needs to protect the cells and organs as in an alkaline environment.
Guy Abraham and Jorge D Flebas published a study titled The Effect of Daily Consumption of 2 Liters of Electrolyzed Water for 12 months On Body Composition And Several Physiological Parameters in Four Obese Subjects: A preliminary Report in the Original Internist Medical Journals.
The purpose of the study was as suggested in the title, to study the effect of daily consumption of 2 liters of electrolyzed, or alkaline water with a pH of 7.4 to 10.4, over 12 months on body composition.
The authors results show that some participants showed weight loss of up to 12 pounds and improved flexibility and joint mobility over 3 to 6 months using the alkaline water for both cooking and drinking.
Alkaline Water Benefits Summary
Are you going to experience some or all of the above benefits from consuming alkaline water on a daily basis? There is no way that anyone can without a doubt prove to you that yes, you will.
My family and I have been consuming Ionized Alkaline Water using a Chanson Under Countertop Alkaline Water Ionizer since 2011.
The main reasons for us consuming alkaline water have been we believe that it simply tastes more hydrating because it seems to be more easily absorbed in our mouth’s; is antioxidant rich as dictated by the measured negative ORP Oxidation Reduction Potential; for cooking; and to clean our vegetables and fruit from pesticides before consuming, and because overall, we feel better in drinking it. You can read a little about my decision to consume ionized alkaline water in the first place here.
We do not guarantee any specific results for your health in consuming ionized alkaline water.
For you, the ultimate decision as to whether consuming ionized alkaline water is beneficial for you or not comes down to actually consuming it and judging for yourself in how it tastes, smells, and how it makes you feel.