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Hello Dr. Rona -
I have published a website (www.cyber-nook.com)
on drinking water for over 15 years. My goal is to provide visitors with
accurate, unbiased information on drinking water contaminants and their health
effects, describe effective drinking water treatment methods, and warn visitors
about drinking water scams.
One of most common search terms people use to find my site
is "distilled water and health". Many questions I receive are from people
confused by the contrast between
my discussion on distilled water
and the article you wrote, "Early Death Comes From Drinking Distilled Water", both of which come up on the first page of
a Google search on distilled water. I noticed that the article on your
website is currently titled a less alarming,
Early
Death Comes With Regular Drinking Of Distilled Water. That
qualification helps, but it still does not address the apparent lack of support for the
claims you make as outlined below.
I regularly review pubmed and other sources to try and find legitimate
studies to support either of the opposing claims that:
A) distilled water is "better for health" than "regular" water that is
free from harmful contaminants.
B) distilled water is "worse for health" than "regular" water that is
free from harmful contaminants.
So far I have failed to find any studies that would convince me that either
claim is true for individuals with normal health… Actually, I have been able to find very few real studies at all on
the subject. That fact alone leads me to the conclusion that drinking distilled
water is not a health issue - if it were, I would expect to find research that
would quantify the harm/benefit of drinking distilled water and provide a
mechanism to explain the effects.
Yesterday I received an e-mail that contained this statement,
"...Recently I was frustrated
because Dr. Mercola, Dr. Zoltan Rona and others began to criticize R.O. because
of its "high" acidity. I had thought of the fact that water goes to the stomach
and blends with whatever foods are in it but what did I know, I have never even
taken chemistry much less have a B.S. in a related field..."
That note finally convinced me to re-read your paper. Even though you do
indicate that "water filtered through reverse osmosis
tends to be {pH} neutral and is acceptable for
regular use provided minerals are supplemented." your paper still provides me no convincing evidence to support the rather alarming claims you
make about distilled water. I went to
your website, and I am questioning
the statements below copied
directly from
your paper:
I would like to request that you provide me references to good-quality
research papers or other evidence to support the following statements you made
in the paper:
A) Distilled water is
free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the special property of
being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them.
Studies validate the benefits of drinking distilled water when one is seeking to
cleanse or detoxify the system for short periods of time (a few weeks at a time).
Where are references to clinical trials that support
that claim and describe a mechanism whereby distilled water "actively
absorbs toxic substances from the body" any more
effectively than regular water. How would the absence mineral ions in a glass of
water cause those specific water molecules to behave differently in the
intestine, be absorbed differently into the blood stream, or "absorb" and
transport "toxins" differently than regular water?
Specifically:
a) I have always been confused by the phrase that water "...actively
absorbs toxic substances from the body". What are
"toxins" and how are they different from ordinary metabolic waste products?
b) How does that process differ from the normal transport of waste
products from cells to the kidneys, lungs, skin, etc. by water in the blood or
lymph, and how can that process be altered by drinking a specific type of water?
c) How would distilled water be able to selectively absorb and transport toxic
substances from the body any differently than regular water?
d) Once the water enters the blood stream distilled water is absolutely
no different from regular water. Water enters the body as individual molecules
through osmosis, and the presence or absence of a few milligrams of mineral ions
will not significantly change the rate of water entry or the properties of the water molecules
that enter the blood stream.
B) "Cooking foods in distilled
water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient value."
Actually, I might be inclined to believe this statement, since there are
fewer mineral ions in distilled water than in regular cooking water. Can you
supply any specific studies that provide a quantitative description of the
mineral loss?
C) Distilled water is
an active absorber and when it comes into contact with air, it absorbs carbon
dioxide, making it acidic The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher
the body acidity becomes. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Distilled
water, being essentially mineral-free, is very aggressive, in that it tends to
dissolve substances with which it is in contact.…
Studies have consistently shown that heavy consumers of soft drinks (with or
without sugar) spill huge amounts of calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals
into the urine. The more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis,
osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and
a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging.
I am unclear how you make the leap from the carbon dioxide in water to the
premature aging argument in these two paragraphs.
First, does distilled water dissolve a significantly greater amount of
carbon dioxide than "regular" water under identical conditions? If so, I would
appreciate references that support that statement. I am not a chemist, but it
does not seem plausible that a few milligrams of calcium/magnesium would prevent
carbon dioxide from dissolving.
Second, the amount of acidity in water caused by dissolved carbon dioxide
is minimal and would immediately be neutralized by the stomach contents. A glass
of orange or apple juice would be far more acidic. I have seen no studies that
would conclude drinking a moderate amount of acid or alkaline beverage would
have any effect on the pH of the body - which is finely tuned at the cellular
level in response to local chemical reactions.
Specifically, I have never seen any references that conclude that "The
more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes."
I would be very interested to read references to any studies you can provide to support
that statement.
Third, I do not understand your reference to the EPA quote "...Many metals
are dissolved by distilled water". That might be an argument for not storing
distilled water in metal cans, but the EPA statement is not about dissolving
metals (or other substances) from the body and does not address any
health-related issues that I can determine. Regular water dissolves many
metals too.
D) "The most toxic commercial beverages that people consume (i.e.
cola beverages and other soft drinks) are made from distilled
water. Studies have consistently shown that heavy consumers
of soft drinks (with or without sugar) spill huge amounts of
calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals into the urine." Would
pop prepared with filtered tap water be any less "toxic"? I would like to
read any studies you can point me to that quantify the loss
of minerals from drinking soft drinks - I could use those studies on my site
where I plan to devote a page to the benefits of drinking water over drinking
pop.
E) A growing number of health care practitioners and scientists from
around the world have been advocating the theory that aging and disease is the
direct result of the accumulation of acid waste products in the body. There is a
great deal of scientific documentation that supports such a theory.
I am agnostic on this statement (I would appreciate supportive references),
but I do not see how that ties into the distilled water discussion, unless there
is clear evidence (as described above) that:
a) distilled water is actually significantly more acidic that "regular" water
and
b) that drinking water with dissolved carbon dioxide is somehow harmful to
health by contributing to "the
accumulation of acid waste products in the body."
F) There is a
correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely
soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease...
There have indeed been some epidemiological studies that suggest drinking
hard water is beneficial and soft water is not. The evidence is far from
conclusive, there is no consensus on what might be the cause of any observed
differences, and there are many studies that show no difference. Even if there
were a difference in health between drinking hard and soft water, this argument
has no application to the distilled water discussion, since it is dealing with
hard vs. soft water coming into a home---soft water is not distilled water.
G) The longer one
drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies
and an acid state. I have done well over 3000 mineral evaluations using a
combination of blood, urine and hair tests in my practice. Almost without
exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop
multiple mineral deficiencies. Those who supplement their distilled water intake
with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished
in minerals as their non-distilled water drinking counterparts even after
several years of mineral supplementation.
That is an impressive number of evaluations, but again, to the best of my
understanding and reading of the literature, there are no published studies to
support your claims that:
a) The longer one
drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies
and an acid state.
b)
...people
who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop multiple mineral
deficiencies.
c) Those who
supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient
but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water
drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation.
Have any of these claims been tested in randomized, double-blinded clinical
trials - and the results published? If so, I would be extremely interested in
references so I can read the papers.
H) The ideal water for
the human body should be slightly alkaline…
Again, I have not found any randomized, double-blinded studies that support
this statement. What evidence exists to support the notion that slightly
alkaline water would survive the stomach and produce more than a nao-flicker of
change to the pH regulation processes of the body?
I) Water filtered
through reverse osmosis tends to be neutral and is acceptable for regular use
provided minerals are supplemented.
a) pH of the incoming water impacts the effectiveness of reverse osmosis
for certain substances like hydrogen sulfide, but I have not read where reverse
osmosis causes water to have a neutral pH, nor do I understand why water from a
reverse osmosis system with nearly all of the ions removed would be expected to
have any different effect in the body than distilled water.
b) Why would water from a reverse osmosis system not absorb carbon
dioxide from the air and become acidic just like distilled water?
c) Why will mineral supplementation make everything ok for people
drinking reverse osmosis but not distilled water?
d) It seems from this statement that your entire argument against
distilled water is really based on the alleged acidity of distilled water and
really has nothing to do with the mineral content.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/civil_eng/dept/research/water-quality-research-group/sulfate.htm
http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1490/build/g1490.pdf
J) Longevity is
associated with the regular consumption of hard water (high in minerals).
This is part of the hard vs. soft water discussion (not hard water vs.
distilled water). Any differences in health/longevity that might be found for
hard water drinkers could be the result of some factor (not necessarily the
water) in the soft water populations that causes health problems. These studies
seem to be very inconclusive.
K) Disease and early
death is more likely to be seen with the long term drinking of distilled water.
Are there randomized, blinded clinical trials or
epidemiological studies to support this statement?
From the reply on the paper published on your site to a letter you received:
L) I do not dispute
any positive results you or your relatives have had as a result of drinking
distilled water. For short term detoxification purposes, the use of distilled
water can be beneficial. Beyond this, any benefits of drinking distilled water
are due to the placebo effect. For long term, regular drinking purposes, the
scientific literature as well as my own clinical observations do not support the
consumption of distilled/soft water.
I agree with your statement, "...Beyond
this, any benefits of drinking distilled water are due to the placebo effect
I will require a list of the specific scientific literature you refer to
which provides good supportive evidence for your claim to be able to agree with
this next statement, "For
long term, regular drinking purposes, the scientific literature as well as my
own clinical observations do not support the consumption of distilled/soft
water."
M)
For example, a 1991 study of 27
municipalities in Sweden showed an inverse relationship between water hardness
(mineral content) and mortality from cardiovascular disease (Rylander et al.
Magnesium and calcium in drinking water and cardiovascular mortality.
Scand. J. Work Environ.
Health 17:91- 4, 1991)…
To the end of the reply….
In the rest of this discussion you argue that drinking hard water is
healthier than drinking soft water. As pointed out above, the evidence for this
observation is not conclusive and there are plenty of papers that report no
differences. As you are no doubt aware, these are all epidemiological studies,
and there is no consensus about what might be the cause for any of these
reported effects. Even if there is a correlation between water type and health,
study design issues, differences in the populations, and a variety of other
confounders, makes it very difficult to assign a cause and effect relationship
and conclude that it is the presence of minerals in hard water or a lack of them
in soft water that caused the observed health effects. And, soft water is not
distilled water! Consequently, this argument, whether true or not, is not
applicable to the distilled water discussion.
I applaud your decision to provide references to specific hard water vs. soft
water studies that support your argument.
If you had provided similar references to support your claim that drinking
distilled water is harmful to health (or alkaline water was healthy), I would
have had more specific information to evaluate, and my website might support the
claims you have made.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my request for a list of research
papers that provides supportive evidence for your claims that drinking distilled
water is harmful to health.
Until convinced otherwise, my position remains that distilled water is
neither more harmful nor more beneficial than regular water that is free of
harmful contaminants - assuming that a person is eating a reasonably normal,
healthy diet.
Best wishes.
Randy
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