Alkaline Water — What is it exactly?
Have you ever heard of alkaline water? What is it exactly? Is it safe for drinking? Is it healthy? These must be the questions popping up in your mind.
To understand what alkaline water is, let’s first understand the nature of water or food or any substance for that matter. Ranging from the pH scale of 0 to 14 the substances are either classified as acidic, neutral or alkaline (or also called as ‘basic’) in nature. 7 is considered as being neutral while less than 7, the substance starts becoming acidic in nature; while above 7, it becomes alkaline in nature.
For example: regular drinking water is considered to be neutral in nature i.e. its pH is around 7; while the pH of lemon juice is 2, thus acidic in nature. Soda bi carbonate on the other hand is alkaline in nature with pH around 8–9.
Water which has too high or too low a pH is not fit for drinking, rather such water may cause certain health ailments. If the pH of water is too high it may even corrode metal.
Alkaline water is nothing but water with more amount of alkaline minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, silicone and other alkalized compounds for instance bi carbonates added to the regular water. Thus generally its pH is above 7, say around 8–9.
Difference between Alkaline Water and Alkaline Ionized Water/Electrochemically Reduced Water
Alkaline water is the one which contains added minerals and alkaline compounds, it can be either naturally available such as water from springs or can be made at home or manufactured. Alkaline ionized water or alkaline reduced water is the one produced by machines called ‘ionizers’ wherein the regular water is made alkaline by passing it through an electric current and hydrogen ions are added to it. This process is called electrolysis. By this process the alkalinity of water is increased and thus pH is increased to above 7.
Probable Health Benefits
It was reported in some studies that consumption of alkaline ionized water has various positive effects such as removal of reactive oxygen species, help relieving constipation, decreased body fats accumulation, reduction in skin damage induced by ultraviolet radiation, improving diabetes, increase longevity and modulating resistant power (immune response of the body).
In spite of this research work, it still can’t be decided that alkaline reduced water will be beneficial to humans. Reason for this being, almost all of these studies are carried out on animals and not humans. Using such studies as a base, alkaline water cannot be directly recommended to humans for disease treatment or prevention. There still needs to be extensive amount of work that should be done on humans to reach to any conclusion related to its health advantages or disadvantages as compared to the regular (neutral) drinking water.
Alkaline water hydrates sportsmen/women or people doing strenuous physical activity better.
Evidence suggests that mineral based alkaline water helps in hydrating the dehydrated sportsmen and those doing regular strenuous physical activity better than the regular drinking water.
Marketing Gimmick or a Reality — Still a question! Some marketing advertisements suggest that alkaline water helps to change the pH of the body from acidic to more alkaline and thus may help to reduce acidity. According to some experts, such a claim has no scientific base. They say that the body’s pH cannot be changed so easily by alkaline water. Body has its own mechanisms and regulatory techniques to balance its pH level. Hence with respect to acidity, alkaline water consumption shows no added benefit as such is the opinion of these experts.
While other group of experts/scientists believe that alkaline water helps in maintaining the acid-base balance of the body and are pro-alkaline water consumption.
More Research Required
Though there are new researches on going in this field and the results are awaited, currently it can be concluded that the use of alkaline water for drinking on regular basis or in a particular condition is contradictory. It may help in certain conditions, but we need to wait and watch for more research proving its benefits in humans.
So until we learn more about alkaline water, it would be a good idea to stick to (regular) purified drinking water on daily basis.
Please Note
For any blood tests or various health checkups in Mumbai, please visit www.healthdekho.com
Disclaimer: Consult your physician and a registered dietician/nutritionist to know whether the alkaline water will be suitable for you to consume and amount to be consumed, if yes.
References
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-berardi-phd/alkaline-water_b_7762588.html
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/313681.php
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/alkaline-water-dont-believe-the-marketing-hype/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906185/
https://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/drink/is-alkaline-water-healthy/
http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010438
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-016-0153-8#Declarations
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224411002408
https://www.fda.gov.tw/upload/189/Content/2014012910285936813.pdf
