Bottled Water - Is It KILLING YOU?
In an article entitled "Is Your Bottled Water KILLING YOU?", William Davis, MD presents for your consideration, the importance of the special ingredients you are removing and claiming as "contaminants."
As a subscriber to "LIFE EXTENSION", I receive the latest in research information from credible sources. This article is from the February 2007 issue and simply adds more credibility to my position on the importance of magnesium.
Based on the poor quality of what comes out of the municipal tap, health-conscious people often rely on bottled home-filtered water for their drinking needs. While most filtered and bottled waters are free of cancer-causing-contaminants, they provide little or no magnesium. Even most tap water is devoid of this critical mineral.
The implications of this widespread magnesium deficiency are frightening, in as much as communities with low magnesium content in drinking water show increased rates of sudden death.
Magnesium plays hundreds of crucial roles in the body, including suppressing unstable heart rhythms, controlling blood pressure, maintaining insulin sensitivity, and regulating over 300 enzymes. Attaining optimal magnesium levels is an absolute requirement for good health.
Dr. Davis examines the importance of magnesium to human health, and how changes in the way we obtain our drinking water have contributed to widespread magnesium deficiencies, and strategies you can use to optimize your magnesium intake through dietary sources, better bottled waters, and nutritional supplementation.
Our human ancestors evolved in a world in which healthy drinking-water came directly from streams, rivers, and lakes, rich in mineral content. The human body became reliant on obtaining a considerable proportion of its daily mineral needs from natural water sources.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century we obtain drinking water from a spigot or plastic bottle. Pesticides and other chemicals seeping into the water supply have made everyone suspicious of water quality. As a result, municipal-purification facilities have intensified their efforts to remove contaminants like lead, pesticide residues and nitrates from drinking water. However, these modern water-treatment methods also deplete drinking water of desirable minerals like calcium and magnesium. Exacerbating this problem is that many Americans, distrustful of the purity and safety of municipally treated water, have added home water filters and purifiers that efficiently extract any remaining minerals from the water, thus converting "hard" into "soft" water. In fact, the manufacturers of these devices boast of their power to yield water free of "contaminants"—including minerals like magnesium. Thus the magnesium content of the water that passes through most commercial filters is zero.
The present-day enthusiasm for bottled water has further compounded the problem. Americans consumed nearly 8 billion gallons of bottled water last year. The mineral content of these products varies widely. While some mineral waters, particularly those from Europe, contain a moderate amount of magnesium, other brands of bottled water contain little or none.
The importance of all this is that we cannot rely on drinking water to provide adequate magnesium. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for magnesium — that is, the amount required to prevent severe deficiency—is 420mg a day for men and 320mg a day for women. In cities with the highest magnesium water content, only 30% of the RDA can be obtained by drinking two liters of tap water a day. In most cities, only a meager 10 - 20% of the daily requirement can be obtained. That leaves 70 - 90% of the daily magnesium requirement that must be obtained from other sources. Since many people’s diets are also low in magnesium, the average American ingests substantially less magnesium than the RDA.
The problem may be even worse than it appears. Many authorities believe that higher levels of magnesium are needed to avoid serious illnesses such as heart disease. Others argue that "normal" magnesium blood levels reported by laboratories, originally derived from populations symptomatic with magnesium deficiency, are also too low and that higher blood levels are necessary for optimal health.
Low Magnesium Tied to Risk of Sudden Death:
"Results from the early epidemiological studies suggest that sudden-death rates in soft-water areas are at least 10% greater than sudden-death rates in hard-water areas. If magnesium supplementation causes even a modest decrease in sudden-death rates, a substantial number of lives might be saved." This statement from Mark J. Eisenberg, MD, MPH, McGill University, further strengthens the case for increasing our daily intake of foods rich in magnesium.
Almonds (10z. 24 nuts) 78mg
Artichokes (1cup) 101mg
Barley 1 cup uncooked) 158mg.
Beans, black (1 c. uncooked) 120mg
Beans, lima (1 c. cooked) 101 mg
Brazil nuts (1 oz, 6-8 nuts) 107 mg
Halibut (½ filet) 170 mg
Filberts, hazelnuts (1 oz.) 46 mg
Oat bran (1 c. raw) 221 mg
Oatmeal (1 c. cooked) 56 mg
Pumpkin seeds (1 oz.142 seeds.) 151 mg
Rice, brown (1 cup cooked) 84 mg
Soybeans (1 cup, cooked) 148 mg
Spinach (1 cup cooked) 163 mg
Trail mix (1 cup) 235 mg
Walnuts (1 oz. 14 halves) 45 mg
Wheat flour, whole grain 1 c) 166 mg
Source: USDA National Nutrient database for Standard Reference.
Life Extension February 2007 is the ultimate source for New Health and Medical Findings from around the world.
As a subscriber to "LIFE EXTENSION", I receive the latest in research information from credible sources. This article is from the February 2007 issue and simply adds more credibility to my position on the importance of magnesium.
Based on the poor quality of what comes out of the municipal tap, health-conscious people often rely on bottled home-filtered water for their drinking needs. While most filtered and bottled waters are free of cancer-causing-contaminants, they provide little or no magnesium. Even most tap water is devoid of this critical mineral.
The implications of this widespread magnesium deficiency are frightening, in as much as communities with low magnesium content in drinking water show increased rates of sudden death.
Magnesium plays hundreds of crucial roles in the body, including suppressing unstable heart rhythms, controlling blood pressure, maintaining insulin sensitivity, and regulating over 300 enzymes. Attaining optimal magnesium levels is an absolute requirement for good health.
Dr. Davis examines the importance of magnesium to human health, and how changes in the way we obtain our drinking water have contributed to widespread magnesium deficiencies, and strategies you can use to optimize your magnesium intake through dietary sources, better bottled waters, and nutritional supplementation.
Our human ancestors evolved in a world in which healthy drinking-water came directly from streams, rivers, and lakes, rich in mineral content. The human body became reliant on obtaining a considerable proportion of its daily mineral needs from natural water sources.
Unfortunately, in the 21st century we obtain drinking water from a spigot or plastic bottle. Pesticides and other chemicals seeping into the water supply have made everyone suspicious of water quality. As a result, municipal-purification facilities have intensified their efforts to remove contaminants like lead, pesticide residues and nitrates from drinking water. However, these modern water-treatment methods also deplete drinking water of desirable minerals like calcium and magnesium. Exacerbating this problem is that many Americans, distrustful of the purity and safety of municipally treated water, have added home water filters and purifiers that efficiently extract any remaining minerals from the water, thus converting "hard" into "soft" water. In fact, the manufacturers of these devices boast of their power to yield water free of "contaminants"—including minerals like magnesium. Thus the magnesium content of the water that passes through most commercial filters is zero.
The present-day enthusiasm for bottled water has further compounded the problem. Americans consumed nearly 8 billion gallons of bottled water last year. The mineral content of these products varies widely. While some mineral waters, particularly those from Europe, contain a moderate amount of magnesium, other brands of bottled water contain little or none.
The importance of all this is that we cannot rely on drinking water to provide adequate magnesium. The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for magnesium — that is, the amount required to prevent severe deficiency—is 420mg a day for men and 320mg a day for women. In cities with the highest magnesium water content, only 30% of the RDA can be obtained by drinking two liters of tap water a day. In most cities, only a meager 10 - 20% of the daily requirement can be obtained. That leaves 70 - 90% of the daily magnesium requirement that must be obtained from other sources. Since many people’s diets are also low in magnesium, the average American ingests substantially less magnesium than the RDA.
The problem may be even worse than it appears. Many authorities believe that higher levels of magnesium are needed to avoid serious illnesses such as heart disease. Others argue that "normal" magnesium blood levels reported by laboratories, originally derived from populations symptomatic with magnesium deficiency, are also too low and that higher blood levels are necessary for optimal health.
Low Magnesium Tied to Risk of Sudden Death:
"Results from the early epidemiological studies suggest that sudden-death rates in soft-water areas are at least 10% greater than sudden-death rates in hard-water areas. If magnesium supplementation causes even a modest decrease in sudden-death rates, a substantial number of lives might be saved." This statement from Mark J. Eisenberg, MD, MPH, McGill University, further strengthens the case for increasing our daily intake of foods rich in magnesium.
Almonds (10z. 24 nuts) 78mg
Artichokes (1cup) 101mg
Barley 1 cup uncooked) 158mg.
Beans, black (1 c. uncooked) 120mg
Beans, lima (1 c. cooked) 101 mg
Brazil nuts (1 oz, 6-8 nuts) 107 mg
Halibut (½ filet) 170 mg
Filberts, hazelnuts (1 oz.) 46 mg
Oat bran (1 c. raw) 221 mg
Oatmeal (1 c. cooked) 56 mg
Pumpkin seeds (1 oz.142 seeds.) 151 mg
Rice, brown (1 cup cooked) 84 mg
Soybeans (1 cup, cooked) 148 mg
Spinach (1 cup cooked) 163 mg
Trail mix (1 cup) 235 mg
Walnuts (1 oz. 14 halves) 45 mg
Wheat flour, whole grain 1 c) 166 mg
Source: USDA National Nutrient database for Standard Reference.
Life Extension February 2007 is the ultimate source for New Health and Medical Findings from around the world.
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