I recently took the plunge and purchased a water ionizer. Other names for this equipment are water alkalizer, microstructred water, restructured water, clustered water, antioxidant water, oxygen water, electrolyzed water and functional water.  These are just a few names. There are many benefits and features that come with these water ionizers but what caused me to buy one were these three things:

First of all, due to the polluted environment in which we live and the over processed acidic foods that we consume, we are seeing rampant obesity and more degenerative diseases than ever before. The prevalence of degenerative diseases in our society such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and obesity not only in the older population but also in the young is shocking. Back in the early 80s when I first started practicing, I rarely heard of any of my patients and their young children dying from so many types of cancers.  Yes, there were some but not as many as now.  Being in a position to interview hundreds of people abouth their health and lifestyle over many years is a great opportunity to observe what is going on in our world. I saw that those patients that had a cheerful personality and ate a simple diet, were blessed with good health and seldom required treatment.  Becuse I frequently questioned them on their eating habits, I knew that they were taking the time to eat more fruits and vegetables.  I often would hear of the weekend car trips to the country or to the local farmer's market where they bought fresh fruits and vegetables.  Further investigation into healthy eating habits helped me put some of the pieces together.  I saw that prticularly eating the green foods was producing better results.  These people seemed to have stronger bones and joints and reported a resistance to colds and flus.  The only reason I was seeing them was because of some sort of injury or accident.  This is going to sound strange, but during that time I started checking the pH of my own urine to see when it was alkaline and acid. I found that it was alkaline when I ate more greens and I would also feel better and have more energy.  However, I also found that it was hard for me to maintain that alkaline state throughout the day. Therefore, one of the reasons I decided to buy a water ionizer was so that by drinking the alkaline water, it would also help me maintain a desirable alkaline pH of around 7.3.

This brings me to the second issue that we are dealing with which is water.  What kind of water should we drink? We have the problem of bottled water leaching the chemicals from the plastic, tap water might be recycled toilet water, reverse osmosis water has a pH between 5 and 6, and the pH of distilled water is around 5. It just doesn't seem ecological either to keep buying the bottled water even in the glass bottles.  In his book "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" Dr. Batmanghelidj says that "Chronic and peristently increasing dehydration is the root cause of almost all currently encountered major diseas of the human body." He explains that diseases such as allergies, asthma, arthritis, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, peptic ulcers, angina, migraines, obesity, water retention and chronic back pain are signs of dehydration.  I think that I would rather drink water than medications. How this relates to ionized water is that this water is actually more hydrating. 

Without getting too technical, ionized water is water that has been restructured into smaller molecules through the electrolysis process which involves the administration of positive and negative currents through electrodes that are made of platinum and titanium. This process improves hydration and permeability of water.  The water ionizer will concentrate the alkaline and acidic minerals into clusters of alkaline and acidic molecules and produce two types of water, one that is alkaline and one that is acidic.  The two types of water exit the unit through two separate deliver hoses.  The alkaline water is what we want to drink for its excellent hydrating benefits.

Lastly, as stated above, we are bombarded daily with many toxic elements in our food and environment along with stress.  All these contribute to acidic waste in our bodies.  With the acccumulation of these toxins coming in along with the waste our own bodies produce, it becomes very difficult to reach and maintain the optimum pH level for a healthy body. However, alkaline water produced by the water ionizer unit will help the body eliminate harmful acidic waste by scavenging active oxygen radicals.

There are several types of water ionizers currently on the market. I believe that the Ion Fountain is a good choice because you get "more bang for your buck" due to its dependability, durability, design, reasonable price (compared to the others) and free shipping. There is a one year guarantee, however returns are rare.Ion Fountain

By Cecelia Tiemann, D.C.