In a reply to a question about the validity of ionized water (alkaline water) on his website, Andrew Weil, M.D. ( www.drweil.com ) completely denounces the use of ionized water for better health. However, he could not be more wrong with this sentiment. He states in his reply “ your body needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH. Normally, the pH of blood and most body fluids is near seven, which is close to neutral. This is under very tight biological control because all of the chemical reactions that maintain life depend on it. Unless you have serious respiratory or kidney problems, body pH will remain in balance no matter what you eat or drink.” This highlights the incredible lack of understanding by the medical establishment and the failure of our medical schools to instruct doctors on the most basic elements of body chemistry and the effects of the foods we eat have on it. While it is true that the body’s blood pH always remains within a specific range (7.25 – 7.45), body pH can vary tremendously and is a precursor to all disease when it drops below pH 6.5. All disease lives in an acid environment and won’t thrive in an alkaline environment. For instance, when a cancer patient becomes rife with cancer their body begins to produce ammonia as a chemical response to the extreme acid condition that has been created by the cancer. This is the smell that one experiences when visiting a cancer ward. One of the three things we must do if we want to be healthy is alkalize the body. The other two are hydrate and detoxify the body.
Dr. Weil continues in his response: “Unless you have serious respiratory or kidney problems, body pH will remain in balance no matter what you eat or drink.” Dr. Weil is suggesting that no matter what substances we put into the body, its body pH will remain balanced at around 7.0. This sentiment, which is also promulgated by the medical establishment at large, demonstrates their incredible misconception that our diet is not of any real critical importance when it comes to disease. All chronic disease comes from our diet and has almost nothing to do with genetics as the medical establishment have led us to believe. Dr. Weil obviously does not accept this basic premise, and like the medical establishment, he points to genetics as the culprit as to why we get diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, etc. What we inherit from our parents and grandparents are dietary habits that are passed from generation to generation; and it is from these habits that we contract the same diseases that we assume “run in the family” . The best evidence to prove that diet has everything to do with disease and nothing to do with our genes is that there is no evidence whatsoever of chronic disease in the wild. We are the only species on Earth that has chronic disease other than the animals that we domesticate and put on a cooked or processed food diet. Once we remove them from the environment of the wild where all foods they consume are raw, they contract every disease that we have.
As for water, Dr. Weil once again demonstrates in the same reply he knows little about the subject he is discussing and offers this opinion: “As for water, you should consider the fact that alkaline water is common throughout the western states but to my knowledge it has not protected anyone from the diseases and disorders that occur elsewhere in the U.S. ” I am not aware that water is alkaline in the western part of the United States or that it even tends to be more alkaline than water in the Eastern portion of the U.S. Being a medical doctor and a prominent member of the medical establishment, surely Dr. Weil would have a study or set of government statistics on what the pH of water is throughout the U.S. And as to whether it has protected anyone from disease, how would Dr. Weil know one way or the other whether the pH of water they drink had helped protect those consuming it from disease. The truth is that it is impossible to know whether it has or not unless studies have been done in that regard and which none have been. Dr. Weil is guessing. He is tossing out opinions that have absolutely no basis in fact. Yet we are suppose to assume he knows what he is talking about simply because he is a doctor and doctors are not be questioned about such things.
I have written two books on ionized water ( Confessions of a Body Builder and Achieving Great Health ) and the fundamental principles of ionized water are easily demonstrated through scientific measurement such as pH and ORP ( oxidation reduction potential – the degree of completion of a chemical reaction by detecting the ratio of ions in the reduced form to those in the oxidized form as a variation in electrical potential measured by an ORP electrode assembly). When we ionize water, the pH and ORP change dramatically. The pH can be raised on the alkaline side to 10 or higher, which is 100 times more alkaline than the body ought to be at a pH 7. (pH scale is logarithmic, meaning every move to the right or left is a move 10 fold) When we consume substances that are this alkaline, the pH of the body will rise. On the contrary, when we consume substances that are very acid, such as soft drinks which are pH 2.5 (50,000 times more acid that the body ought to be at a pH 7.0) the body is going to become more acid. All cooked foods are slightly to extremely acid. All raw foods are slightly to extremely alkaline. Dr. Weil assumes to ignore these basic principles of chemistry and the undeniable link between body pH and disease. It is a fundamental principle of health that the medical establishment as a whole has yet to learn. They see no link between diet and disease other than to pay passing attention to it and suggest it is one of many components that cause that mysterious thing called disease. Disease is not mysterious. It occurs only when we trash our bodies by putting the wrong things into it. When we put the right things into it, disease disappears and does not return. Once again, when it comes to disease the medical establishment could not be more wrong about what causes it and what can be done to prevent and cure the body of any disease.
well, of course, you are spot on, as the british would say. i began measuring my own body Ph 2 years ago when i had the whipple for the rarest neuroendocrine cancer only 51 cases ever reported i have been writing about candida for 30 years and its very prominent role in the lives of recovered alcoholics/addicts. mine, when i began measuring it, even tho i was on a carb/sugar-free diet at the time (that’s anti-cadida) was 5!!!
i have been measuring it twice a day since. unless i supplement my diet with bicarbonate of soda daily, i cannot keep it at 7
and of course there is the work of tullio simoncini, md in italy who writes that cancer is a fungus and recommends bicar injected directly into the superior mesenteric artery
keep spreading the good word; unless we become our own md’s we will never recover the hormone levels that my already metastasize cancer produces have remained very low, to the astonishment of the one expert in this field whose brains i pick every 2 or 3 years he poohpoohs the importance of Ph. do i care? not at all. i have refused chemo & radiation and even the analogue, sandostatin that is recommended for my condition a $1.39 box of bicarb is my chemo, thankyouveddy much
lol
We will see if this reply actually gets posted. When drinking or eating all foods and liquids go into the stomach. A minute quantity of what is consumed is absorbed before entering the stomach, but usually not much. The stomach has a PH between 1 and 2. This is so overwhelming to any ionized water product that most anything that is directly acidic, basic, or buffered in it is not much of a consideration. The statement “All chronic disease comes from our diet and has almost nothing to do with genetics” is almost silly. Just look up one of the more well know genetics diseases, phenylketonuria. What you eat does matter, it matters greatly, but so does genetics.
Kengan Water will differ your water differ your life. my office opportunity everyone who would take it free water for a month and in that time you will see your body made new and moe back to what God intended for it to be.
good job for wiriting a great post i think i will subscribe to your rss feed.
Beginning a site kind of similar to this one got me to do some research and I found your post to be particularly useful. My site is centered around the idea of starving cancer by countering the angiogenic process. I hope of you good luck with your research in the future and you can be sure I’ll be following it.
Bob;
Dr. Weil commented that some geographical areas have higher pH levels and this is true; however what is not said is that those mucicipalities alter the water using Lye which has a pH of 13. As you know using lye as an additive is counter intuitive to good health and it represents a unique problem to those who would like to ionize their water.
A few years ago, I was in the middle of reading one orf Dr. Andrew Weil’s books, when I came across what he thought of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. He said those of us that have it need to fall in love. That was the end of that book for me and totally discredited anything else Dr. Weil thought about anything. He lost my respect.
I got ill overnight on Oct. 13, 1992, just days after I got engaged to the man of my dreams. I could no longer work, couldn’t remember how to do my job that I’d had for 6 years and even trained people at. At that time, I tested very high for the CMV virus and years later very high for the HHV-6 virus, plus Lyme disease.
Think of the ill people that have been harmed by his words. To top that off, anyone reading his views that have family members or anyone close afflicted with the disease, especially since there is no definitive test so far for CFS.
Thank you.
Amy Flattery
I too have read comments from Dr. Weil that simply don’t add up- but regarding the body’s pH and diet-
The body is always trying to keep our blood at a specific pH 7.25-7.45. So, when and or if, we eat acidic
and cooked foods, our body is pulling minerals (calcium being one) out of our bones to keep the body alkaline-
this is why nutritiou IS extremely important to our health and vitality. This is also one reason why drinking
pasturized milk (a dead and acidic food) does NOT “do the body good.” It makes the body acidic, requiring
minerals, stored in our bones, to balance the pH and one reason why osteoporosis is prevalent in milk drinkers.
Food has such a huge impact on our health. I love Green Leafys! (spirulena & chlorella as well!)
I am a late stage cancer survivor who turned strickly to my diet, nutrients and the minds thoughts to heal.
I got rid of my cancer, in 3 months, which had “metastasized and was in
my lymph nodes” strictly by changing my lifestyle. I haven’t seen a doctor in over 5 years and it’s been 7 years
since i was diagnosed. No signs of cancer and not one sick day while dealing w/ it. I love my water ionizer as well!!
an update on tullio simoncini, m.d., of italy who states that cancer is a fungus and can be cured and, he claims, is being cured by him, using baking soda applied to cancer cells in vivo having established contact with dr. simoncini in the hopes of bringing him here to the states to present his findings at various medical/scientific conferences dealing with cancer, i asked him for any published data he might have he suddenly stopped communication i gave it some time and inquired again again no response having once run a medical/scientific journal i now asked him if he had any data that he had not been successful in finding publication for no answer i rephrased the question, offering him all kinds of outs, e.g., i know that if an editor dislikes you as a colleague, he/she will see to it that your work is reviewed by scientists who are biased against your theories still no answer all of this was after a year of his being quite chatty with me i began by being a total believer, but now…………well, i leave it to the reader
btw, while i am at it, i’d like to respond to dr weil’s belief that cancer is genetic i have been extremely disciplined throughout my life in dietary practice and nutritional supplements i cut my teeth in the early 60′s on adele davis and believed her when she said she thought her own cancer might be a result of eating too many organ meats, a practice i, myself never engaged in still, i found myself late in life with one of the rarest cancers only 200 cases ever reported both my father and his brother died of a cancer in the same family of cancers so i must concur with dr. weil on the genetics factor nonetheless i still eat a very balanced hi vegetable, modest fruit, modest protein diet because it makes me feel better and may be somewhat responsible for my having survived this rare cancer despite refusing medical treatment
My aunt recommended converting too alkaline water instead of tap water. Something aboutchanging body pH or something to that effect is supposed to alot more health for you.
data i’ve encountered recently states that it is the blood serum Ph level that is relevant and since most of us have been testing ourselves with Ph strips dipped in either our saliva or urine, I wonder of what value our results have been. anyone out there with an opinion on this?
Hi you will find a massive research paper published on our site that agrees with Doctor Weil and describes ionized water as ‘snake oil on tap’. You will also see from our comments that this is clearly a divisive topic!
URL is http://aquatecuk.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/ionized-water-snake-oil-on-tap/