Mercola Puts On His His “Water Dunce” Hat Again

by Bob McCauley, CNC, MH

Just when I think I’m done talking about Dr. Mercola for a while he comes out with another ridiculous pronouncement about water, demonstrating he doesn’t understand the basics of human health.  This time around he is denouncing the practice of drinking at least 8 glasses of water each day. It’s now been confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt – by an obscure Scottish medical doctor – that the notion of drinking a lot of water daily is a stupid practice based on myths and superstition.  The editorial, which was NOT peer reviewed, was endorsed in principle by Mercola none-the-less.

Dr. Margaret McCartney, a general practitioner from Scotland, says that the common health advice that you should drink six to eight cups of water each day is “thoroughly debunked nonsense”.

Dr. Who?  Exactly what is Dr. Margaret McCartney’s credentials on water?  I must confess that this is the first time in my life I have ever heard of anyone from Scotland offering health advice.  From what I have seen thus far, I will certainly not be looking for more if the best they come up with is not to drink water.   I can not think of any worse health advice than to tell people not to drink at least 8 glasses of water each day.

To go on the record, as I have countless times, I recommend that people drink 1 – 1.5 gallons (4 – 6 liters) of water each day, never around mealtime – 30 minutes before, during and 60 minutes after.  You will have a lot better digestion because you are not washing out your digestive track and disrupting the delicate balance of enzymes, chemicals and pH balance that proper digestion requires.  I sometimes drink 2 gallons (8 liters) on a hot day where I work out and go for a Far Infrared Sauna session after, which requires 1.5 liters unto itself.

Mercola sides with some no-name doctor from Scotland confirming what I have said for years, doctors know about medicine; they know nothing about health. It’s because medicine and health have nothing to do with each other.  Gabriel Cousens is a medical doctor, and that is certainly NOT what I admire about him.  I admire Dr. Cousens as a vegan, a raw foodist and a spiritual mentor.  The fact that he’s a medical doctor has nothing to do with it one way or another.  Dr. Fred Bisci, a respected colleague of mine, is another example of a Medical Doctor who understands what true health is all about.

And here we have Dr. Mercola essentially regurgitating what an obscure medical doctor from Scotland – that no one has ever heard of – to tell us we have all been duped and to stop drinking water.  What idiocy.  I guess doctors stick together because it legitimizes their profession, or at least they think it does.  I wonder sometimes if Mercola knows anything about true health.  He is good at pointing out flaws in the medical establishment but in the end he goes right along with most of it.  The truth is that most doctors probably agree with Mercola’s attacks on the medical establishment because they are legitimate and called for.  Mercola calls out the weaknesses and hypocrisy of the medical establishment, the AMA, the pharmaceutical industry, the FDA, the government’s awkward involvement in medicine as a whole as well, including the crippling bureaucracy of the medical establishment.

“Appropriate hydration is particularly important for the elderly and the very young and for most people it is better to obtain most fluid intake from water, whether bottled or tap water, than from other beverages (especially sugar containing and alcoholic beverages). … MacCartney [sic] focused on the more whacky claims made for water and appeared to cherry pick her references to make a story.”

So now telling people to drink a lot of water is a “whacky claim”.  If you make that statement about the most important part of human health and get away with it, you can get away with any ridiculous statement about health and go unchallenged.  The

Mercola then attempts to use the rare and extreme incidences of hyponatremia, extremely low salt levels in the body, as an excuse to denounce the practice of staying properly hydrated.  Hyponatremia is the result of drinking too much water in a short period of time.  It is known as water intoxication.  Hyponatremia is dangerous and has resulted in death in the past.  This is why I recommend to Never drink more than one liter of water per hour, and no more than 8 liters per day.   This is a very simple rule and easy to remember.  Just because people sometimes hurt themselves with knives doesn’t mean we should outlaw them, and similarly, just because people wrongly drink too much water in a short period of time doesn’t mean we should use that as a pretense to not stay hydrated.  If you eat the right kind of salt, such as Himalayan Salt or unprocessed Celtic sea salt, you will not experience hyponatremia.

Mercola states: . . . your urine should be a very light-colored yellow. If it is a deep, dark yellow then you are likely not drinking enough water. If your urine is scant or if you haven’t urinated in several hours, that too is an indication that you’re not drinking enough. (Based on the results from a few different studies, a healthy person urinates on average about seven or eight times a day.)

As the title of the blog declares, this is not the first time Mercola has donned his “water dunce” cap, and I’m getting tired of writing about it, but unfortunately people read and believe Mercola on a host of issues.  His fans are right to listen to Mercola on some health issues, but this is not one of them.  Mercola puts on his Water Dunce cap with another no-name water filter salesman and denounces Ionized Water. I cringed to watch Mercola’s interview of this “water expert” that no one has ever heard of and has been in the water business a whopping 10 years.  For the record, I am a Water Supply Operator in the State of Michigan with D-5 and S-5 Certifications as a Water Specialist.  There only five of us in the State of Michigan who do not work for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.   I have been in the bottled water business since 1993, and started working for my father, Dr. Robert McCauley, at 15.  My father had a PhD is environmental engineering from MIT, the MIT in Cambridge, MA.  He taught at Michigan State University for 15 years then ran Wolverine Engineers of Mason, MI, for 18 years.  Ionized water is the healthiest substance we can consume.

Here is a American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study found that children don’t drink enough water.  In the study only 15 to 60 percent of boys and 10 to 54 percent of girls, depending on age, drank the minimum about of water recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine.  Drs. McCartney and Mercola apparently don’t think much of the U.S. Institute of Medicine and the standards they set.

Thomas Sanders, a professor of nutrition and dietetics from King’s College London wasn’t in agreement with McCartney and said in a rebuttal:

“Appropriate hydration is particularly important for the elderly and the very young and for most people it is better to obtain most fluid intake from water, whether bottled or tap water, than from other beverages (especially sugar containing and alcoholic beverages). … MacCartney [sic] focused on the more whacky claims made for water and appeared to cherry pick her references to make a story.”

Mercola does valuable work and he has an informative website.  He also sells products.  So I do.  However, I sell products that are entirely different from Dr. Mercola’s products because they actually lead to great health.  Other than chlorella and Astaxanthin, almost everything Mercola promotes and sells is the same “me-too health products” that are more enablers than products that actually lead to health.

I don’t want to see Mercola gone from the web, however I would like to see him become better educated about what truly leads to health, including the most fundamental aspect of health, in fact the very cornerstone of health, that of drinking enough of the right kind of water. Mercola sadly just does not get it, at all!