We all know that water is essential to life. What follows covers the importance of water’s pH.
There are several elements, especially water and minerals, that must be present in the patient’s body before any form of therapy can be effective.
Water is the most important element in the body. The human body is composed of over 75% water, and the nervous system is over 90% water.1 Water is involved in the efficiency of all body functions. An adequate supply is needed for oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange in the lungs; food assimilation, utilization, and elimination; and the elimination of body toxins and wastes. Water is the transporter and solvent for the proper mixing of all the solids and chemicals that are needed for tissue-cell growth, repair, and functions. Water is especially needed for the function, repair, and growth of all avascular white tissues, including ligaments, cartilages, joints, and spinal discs.1
Not all water is the same. The pH of water determines its acid or alkaline state. A logarithmic scale from 1 to 14 is used to measure the pH of water, with 7 pH being neutral. Below 7 is acidic, and above 7 is alkaline. A change from 7 pH to 6 pH is 10 times more acidic than 7 pH, etc.2 Blood normally is 7.3 pH. The water one drinks should be slightly more alkaline than blood, that is, about 7.5 pH. When the pH drops below 5.8, the body cannot absorb vitamins A, B, E, F, and K. In addition, minerals such as sulfur, potassium, calcium, chromium, zinc, iron, and vanadium cannot be absorbed from food or supplements.2 This forces the body to absorb these minerals back from the bones in its attempt to continue functions that depend on their presence.
Patients often believe that distilled water, reverse-osmosis water, and all bottled water are good for them to drink. Most distilled and bottled water is acidic, less than 7.0 pH. This is referred to as “dead water” because it is devoid of minerals, is extremely acidic, and tends to further dehydrate the user. Drinking alkaline water (7.1–7.5 pH) helps regulate hydration needs by causing one to be thirsty, which automatically generates the drinking of more of the same. Drinking acidic water shuts down the nerves that cause the body’s thirst for water.2
Most patients with musculoskeletal problems are already dehydrated. The lack of necessary vitamins and minerals is also often the cause of many conditions that may not respond to care, and the body cannot absorb those nutrients until an adequate amount of alkaline water is consumed each day by the patient. Neural functions and cerebrospinal fluid content, pressure, and flow are dependent upon water. When there is inadequate water in the body, neurotransmitters are shut down.2
There is abundant research which is available to all healthcare providers that concludes most health problems, including cancer and diabetes, etc., begin in an acid environment.
An adequate supply of water is essential for the effective function of all nine of the body’s systems. Further, the body has a water-rationing system in place all the time. When one doesn’t drink enough water, the musculoskeletal system’s water supply is depleted first. Water delivery to the spinal discs, ligaments, joints, cartilages, and muscles is rationed and/or eliminated so that the nervous and digestive systems have sufficient water to function. Should the water supply be further depleted so that there is insufficient water for digestion, one develops stomach and digestive problems in addition to musculoskeletal problems. Neither the “purple pill,” nor any other pill, for that matter, will take the place of an adequate water supply; therefore, one should make sure his or her patients are drinking water with the proper pH before resorting to medication of any kind. (Often with the ingestion of adequate water amounts, gastro-intestinal symptoms will disappear.)
Water’s pH can easily be regulated by the addition of a regulator that is available at animal supply stores to regulate fish tanks, or by the addition of calcium to the water. There are no side effects from these pH regulators.
- Balch PA and Balch JF. Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 3rd ed. New York 2002 Avery
- Pettibon BR: Unpublished research re: effects of water and water quality on human health. Gig Harbor, WA 2006 The Pettibon Institute