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News & Research:

• Poor Hydration May Be Linked to Early Aging and Chronic Disease, a 25-Year Study Finds - NBC, 1/2/23 - "The researchers looked at levels of sodium in the participants' blood as a proxy for hydration, because higher concentrations are a sign that they most likely weren't consuming enough fluids. The researchers found that the participants with high blood-sodium levels aged faster physiologically than those with lower levels, which was reflected in health markers associated with aging, like high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar ... The study participants all had blood-sodium concentrations considered to be within the normal range: 135 to 146 millimoles per liter. But the findings suggested that people with levels at the higher end of that normal range — above 144 millimoles per liter — were 50% more likely to show signs of physical aging beyond what would be expected for their years compared to people with lower blood-sodium levels. They also had a roughly 20% increased risk of premature death"
• Drinking 8 glasses of water a day usually isn’t necessary, an exercise scientist says - Washington Post, 5/2/21 - "The kidneys will make molecular adjustments to both underhydration and overhydration within 40 seconds in response to any upset in the water balance. These adjustments result from the mobilization armies of AQP-2 water channels, numbering about 12 million per collecting duct cell ... This is why when we drink more water than our body needs — above thirst — we immediately have to discharge any excess water. Or when we forget our water bottle during practice, we stop urinating to conserve body water. This quick coordinated action between the brain, cranial nerves and kidneys is far more efficient and precise than any phone app, gadget or personalized recommendation available ... Improvement in skin complexion, kidney function and constipation, with increased water consumption, are not clearly supported by science. Drinking extra water alone does not help kids lose weight unless water intake replaces the ingestion of higher-caloric beverages, such as soda, or makes people feel “full” before meals."
• 7 ways drinking more water can make you healthier - CNET, 9/25/19 - "You'll feel energized ... You're less likely to get constipated ... You'll be in a better mood ... Keep headaches at bay ... No more mindless snacking ... A lower resting heart rate ... Your kidneys will thank you"
• There’s a persistent myth that you shouldn’t drink water while eating. You can disregard it - Washington Post, 4/22/19 - "The idea that water would dilute the digestive juices in the stomach is untrue for several reasons. First, water is absorbed in the stomach, and fairly quickly — typically within about 20 minutes. This means any possible dilution would be transient. But “even if you had a stomach full of water, it would not interfere with digestion of the food,” said Deborah D. Proctor, governing board member of the American Gastroenterological Association. Water wouldn’t hamper enzyme activity, she said, because “enzymes adhere to food particles regardless of the presence of water.” ... Nor would water affect the stomach’s acidity, Freuman said. While anything you consume — food or drink — will momentarily make the stomach slightly less acidic, it responds by producing as much acid as it needs to digest that meal. That’s what it is designed to do. “It’s not like you start off with a certain amount of acid and that is it. If you need more, your body will make it,” she said."
• Drinking Enough Water Could Be Key to Avoiding UTIs - WebMD, 10/1/18 - "The new trial included 140 younger, premenopausal women in Europe who had all experienced high numbers of recurrent UTIs. Their total daily fluid intake at the start of the study totaled less than six 8-ounce glasses per day ... During the year-long trial, half of the women drank just over six cups more each day of water, in addition to their regular daily fluid intake. Intake remained the same for the other half of women ... The reduction in UTI frequency for those who drank the additional water was significant. While the average number of UTIs during the study period was 3.2 for women who did not increase their water intake, it fell to 1.7 for those women whose intake rose"
• Drinking water may help exercising seniors stay mentally sharp - Science Daily, 4/23/18 - "The normal hydration group showed noticeable improvement in the completion time of the trail-making test after cycling when compared to their pre-cycling test. The dehydration group also completed their post-cycling test more quickly, but the time reduction was not significant. "This suggests that older adults should adopt adequate drinking behaviors to reduce cognitive fatigue and potentially enhance the cognitive benefits of regular exercise participation," the researchers wrote"
• A prospective study of water intake and subsequent risk of all-cause mortality in a national cohort - Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Nov 30 - "Over a median of 11.4 y of follow-up, 3504 men and 3032 women died of any cause in this cohort. In men, neither total water intake nor each of the individual water source variables (plain water, water in beverages, and water in foods) was independently related with risk of all-cause mortality. In women, risk of mortality increased slightly in the highest quartile of total or plain water intake but did not approach the Bonferroni-corrected level of significance of P < 0.002"
• Glass half empty: Is your tap water safe? - MSNBC, 2/15/12 - "Barium, chromium, copper, lead, nitrate, and other chemicals, as well as E. coli (E. coli!?), have been detected over the past year ... Antibiotics, hormones, a cancer drug, a chemical found in gasoline, antiseizure medication...research shows that hundreds of unregulated contaminants may be flowing from my tap ... a reverse-osmosis system filters out many EPA-regulated contaminants; and an ultraviolet filter kills bacteria and other microorganisms" - See
• Water disinfection byproducts linked to adverse health effects - Science Daily, 10/24/11
• New method for making large quantities of deuterium-depleted drinking water - Science Daily, 1/5/11
• Drinking water: Environmental pharmaceutical contamination removed by Octolig - Science Daily, 12/14/10
• Tap Water’s Lead Levels Rise in New York City Homes - NYTimes.com, 11/4/10 - "New York City health and environmental officials on Thursday advised residents to run their tap water for at least 30 seconds before drinking or cooking with it after testing showed a rise in the percentage of homes with elevated levels of lead ... about 14 percent — exceeded allowable lead levels"
• Professional athletes should drink more water, Spanish research finds - Science Daily, 10/21/10 - "91% of professional basketball, volleyball, handball and football players are dehydrated when they begin their training sessions"
• Absorption of silicon from artesian aquifer water and its impact on bone health in postmenopausal women: a 12 week pilot study - Nutr J. 2010 Oct 14;9(1):44 - "bottled water from artesian aquifers is a safe and effective way of providing easily absorbed dietary silicon to the body. Although the silicon did not affect bone turnover markers in the short-term, the mineral's potential as an alternative prevention or treatment to drug therapy for osteoporosis warrants further longer-term investigation in the future" - Note:  It's something to think about.  Is the purified water (the stuff in the BPA plastic containers that might be toxic) purified to the point of eliminating the silicon?  Personally, I've been taking Jarrow BioSil for years.  I use reverse osmosis water and drink out of stainless steel bottles.  Some day if I get rich I might get a distiller.  See Jarrow BioSil at Amazon.com.  See water distillers at Amazon.com.
• Drink water to curb weight gain? Clinical trial confirms effectiveness of simple appetite control method - Science Daily, 8/23/10 - "We found in earlier studies that middle aged and older people who drank two cups of water right before eating a meal ate between 75 and 90 fewer calories during that meal. In this recent study, we found that over the course of 12 weeks, dieters who drank water before meals, three times per day, lost about 5 pounds more than dieters who did not increase their water intake"
• Water's unexpected role in blood pressure control - Science Daily, 7/6/10 - "Name a drink that can make you more alert for late-night studying, prevent you from fainting after giving blood, and even promote a teensy bit of weight loss ... ordinary water -- without any additives -- does more than just quench thirst. It has some other unexpected, physiological effects. It increases the activity of the sympathetic -- fight or flight -- nervous system, which raises alertness, blood pressure and energy expenditure ... We had to unlearn the idea that water had no effect on blood pressure, which is what all medical students had been told until the last couple of years"
• Water as an essential nutrient: the physiological basis of hydration - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep 2 - "The regulation of water balance is essential for the maintenance of health and life. On an average, a sedentary adult should drink 1.5 l of water per day, as water is the only liquid nutrient that is really essential for body hydration"
• Homes Pollute: Linked To 50 Percent More Water Pollution Than Previously Believed - Science Daily, 8/19/09 - "scientists are reporting some unsettling news about homes in the residential areas of California. The typical house there — and probably elsewhere in the country — is an alarming and probably underestimated source of water pollution ... current models may underestimate the amount of pollution contributed by homes by up to 50 percent ... Pollutants detected in outdoor runoff included ant-control pesticide products"
• What Can Be Done About Micropollutants In Water Resources? - Science Daily, 6/23/09
• Declining Male Fertility Linked To Water Pollution - Science Daily, 1/18/09 - "The study identified a new group of chemicals that act as ‘anti-androgens’. This means that they inhibit the function of the male hormone, testosterone, reducing male fertility. Some of these are contained in medicines, including cancer treatments, pharmaceutical treatments, and pesticides used in agriculture. The research suggests that when they get into the water system, these chemicals may play a pivotal role in causing feminising effects in male fish" - See water distillers at Amazon.com.
• Best Bottled Water? - Dr. Weil, 1/8/09 - "Two systems that I use personally are the D-3 distiller from Glacier Water Treatment Systems, and the Purefecta System from Pall Corp. I also like cheaper carbon block/KDF systems" - See water distillers at Amazon.com.
• Dying for A Drink - Time Magazine, 12/4/08 - "Some areas of the world will grow wetter as a result of climate change, but others will grow dryer, and so far the drying is winning. The area of the earth's land surface classified as very dry has doubled since the 1970s; by 2050, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes, that trend will worsen. "You do the math, and it gets a little scary," ... In the past century, we treated water as if it were inexhaustible. But that illusion has dried up. The only way to thrive in a warmer, thirstier world will be to learn to get more out of less ... Watch CNN's award-winning series Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, Dec. 11 at 9 p.m. EST, on CNN" - I've got it scheduled on TiVo.  I've been questioning for years where they are going to get the fresh water to grow the crops for biofuel.
• Bottled Water: FAQ on Safety and Purity - WebMD, 11/7/08
• Evidence Lacking On Health Benefits Of Drinking Lots Of Water, According to Review of Literature - Science Daily, 4/2/08
• Marathon Runners Beware Of Drinking Too Much Water - Science Daily, 1/9/08
• Aging May Tinker With Thirst - WebMD, 12/17/07 - "healthy men in their 20s or 60s get equally thirsty when injected with salt water. But older men drank half as much water as younger men to slake their thirst"
• Even Low Doses of Arsenic -- At Levels Found In Drinking Water -- Can Be Harmful - Science Daily, 11/13/07 - "low doses of arsenic disrupt the activity of a hormone critical in development. The finding is further evidence that arsenic at low doses (at levels found in U.S. drinking water in some areas) can be harmful" - See reverse osmosis systems at Amazon.com.
• Many Tap Water Filters Work Well - WebMD, 4/9/07
• Choosing the Best Drinking Water? - Dr. Weil, 6/20/06
• Marathoners Warned About Too Much Water - New York Times, 10/20/05
• How much water is enough during exercise? - MSNBC, 1/3/05
• Hard Water May Protect Against Heart Attacks - WebMD, 1/14/04
• Drinking Water May Speed Weight Loss - WebMD, 1/5/04 - "The researchers estimate that over the course of a year, a person who increases his water consumption by 1.5 liters a day would burn an extra 17,400 calories, for a weight loss of approximately five pounds"
• Should You Drink “Softened” Water? - Dr. Weil, 12/19/03
• Too Much Fluids as Bad as Too Little - WebMD, 7/17/03
• Don't Deny That Thirst - HealthDay, 7/13/03
• Water Intake Recommendation Debated: Are Eight Glasses of Water a Day Really Necessary? - New Hope Natural Media, 7/3/04
• Winter Sports Call for Water Bottles - HealthDay, 2/15/03
• Does Alkaline Water Promote Health? - Dr. Weil, 9/4/02
• Want a Healthy Heart? Drink Water - WebMD, 5/13/02
• A Cuppa Caffeine Instead of Water? - Dr. Weil, 4/25/02
• Arsenic in Well Water Related to Atherosclerosis - Doctor's Guide, 3/26/02
• Streams Contaminated with Drugs - WebMD, 3/13/02
• Millions Drink Contaminated Water - Intelihealth, 1/8/02 - "Millions of Americans have been drinking tap water contaminated with chemical byproducts from chlorine that are far more than what studies suggest may be safe for pregnant women ... Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect drinking water. When it is added to water that contains organic matter such as runoff from farms or lawns, however, it can form compounds such as chloroform that can cause illness ... EPA and the Congress have forced water utilities to chlorinate water that is contaminated with animal waste, sewage, fertilizer, algae and sediment ... EPA studies showed that reducing the level of trihalomethanes might mean 2,332 fewer cases of bladder cancer per year, down from its estimate of up to 9,300 annual cases caused by trihalomethanes"
• Dirty tap water puts pregnant women at risk - USA Today, 1/8/02
• What's That Floating in Your Water? CDC: If You're Susceptible to Infection, Be Careful What You Drink - WebMD, 5/11/01 - "The team found no evidence that the higher-than-usual arsenic levels in the drinking water had any ill effects whatsoever on the babies. For each of the three variables, "the percentages were close to Michigan as a whole, and not far from national averages""
• Study: Bottled Water Not Better - Intelihealth, 5/3/01
• Current Safety Standards Worry Environmentalists - WebMD, 4/6/01
• Dirty Water? Arsenic May Stay if EPA Has Way - WebMD, 3/21/01
• Eighth Leukemia Case In Nevada - Intelihealth, 12/31/00
• Do Water Filters Filter Fluoride? - Dr. Dean, 7/22/99
• Drinking More Cuts Risk Of Bladder Cancer In Men - Intelihealth, 5/5/99
• Some Bottled Water Said Not Pure - Intelihealth, 3/30/99
• Study: Some home water filters may make lead problem worse - CNN, 6/18/98