I’m grateful to find this amazing report on all of the scientific studies – pro and anti on alkaline (hard water) carried out over the last century. Why? Because at last i have something to show people ready to toss it off as a fad. Here’s the link.
Spread it around.
A Hundred Years of Alkaline Water Science
Bioavailability of Drinking Water Calcium and Magnesium
I wish I had a dollar for the times I have heard the theory that we aren’t capable of absorbing in ‘inorganic’ minerals in our water. So I was very happy to read these comments on an amazing scientific paper on the effects of magnesium and calcium in drinking water.
“Some non-professionals are of opinion, supported and spread mainly by the manufacturers of
devices for production of distilled and demineralized water (Bragg et al, 1998), that the
human body is not able to use the essential minerals from drinking water, which in contrast
clog up the body (similarly as happens to the pipes) and cause harm to it. Nevertheless, no
study is available to support such idea. On the other hand, multiple studies have shown that
intestinal absorption of calcium from drinking or mineral water is as effective or even more
effective as compared with that from dairy products (e.g. Halpern et al, 1991; Heaney et al,
1994; Couzy et al, 1995; Van Dokkum et al, 1996; Wynckel et al, 1997; Guillemant et al,
1997). Meta-analysis of the studies published in 1966 – 1998 even evidenced that calcium
absorption from mineral water is statistically significantly higher than that from dairy
products (Böhmer et al, 2000). Based on this evidence, it was recommended to use waters
richer in calcium as an important additional source of calcium in menopausal women, lactose
intolerant people or those avoiding dairy products because of their taste or high fat content.Not only absorbability is in question. Many studies have documented that water calcium can
be easily used by the body: intake of drinking water rich in calcium correlated with higher
bone density in elderly women in France (Aptel et al, 1999); similar results were obtained in
an experiment with mineral water in menopausal women in Italy (Gennari, 1996; Cepollaro et
al, 1999); lower bone resorption and osteoporosis were observed in women after drinking
calcium rich water (Costi et al, 1999; Guillemant, 2000). The already mentioned Spanish
study (Verd Vallespir et al, 1992) found a lower incidence of fractures in small school
children of the areas supplied with harder water.
Bioavailability of water magnesium was documented by the studies of the 1960’s and 1970’s
that found a positive correlation between the drinking water magnesium level and the
magnesium content of the heart muscle (Crawford et al, 1967; Neri et al, 1975); among more
recent papers we can quote e.g. a Swedish study (Rubenowitz et al, 1998). Three-week
drinking of magnesium rich water (120 mg/l) resulted in 79 patients in lower pain intensity
and frequency of migraine (Thomas et al, 1992). Similar results were obtained in a more
recent study by the same authors (Thomas et al, 2000) with 29 migraine patients and 18
controls. Two-week drinking of water containing 110 mg Mg /l confirmed good usability of
water magnesium leading to higher levels of intracellular magnesium and conservation of the
serum magnesium level.”
Evolution and Calcium
Calcium: Just how much do we understand about it?
I’m referencing this study about how we obtained calcium in paleolithic times for a reason quite unrelated to the article itself.
Last friday night Cassie and I enjoyed a lovely night with good friends. It was a general cook-up of fish, chicken wings, with a wonderful healthy salad.
We all dived into preparation.. with the exception of our two vegan friends who produced two frozen patties of indeterminate origin and asked pointedly if they could be cooked in a way that assured them that no ‘cross-contamination’ from non-vegan foods occurred. We did it, cooking the gray coloured patties on a separate hotplate, and once everything was ready, we sat down by the swimming pool and began our feast by candle light. Amid the chatter, I heard our vegan friends ask for sauce. It seemed their grey patties were too much (or too little) to bear. A bottle of sauce was located, and the two vegans then tried as best they could to decipher the ingredients by the light of a single candle.
As an ex vegetarian (12 years) I respect people’s choices, and if veganism satisfies a moral need, God be with ‘em. But they looked like you could blow them over with a feather. And my local doctor begins muttering in his beard if I remind him of his vegan patients because they refuse to acknowledge that their diet is affecting the way their bodies and minds are functioning.
B12 isn’t the only problem vegans have. K2, sourced from grassfed beef and dairy, is a essential element in the distribution and elimination of calcium. And let’s not go into the amino acids (taurine and lysine) we get in abundance from meat. Other vegan longterm problems include thyroid and teeth.
Calcium is available to vegans if they go big on dark leafy greens like our alka-partner Brett Hayes, whom Cassie interviewed last week. To look at Brett you would believe that veganism is the ideal diet, but he’s also a green food fanatic and very learned in diet related topics. (Brett has consented to join our advisory panel of health professionals.. more on this soon)
Denise Minger, that ex-raw, paleo amazing researcher gives a very good list of points she thinks vegans need to know.
The list is here, and below you’ll find her expanded comments on each point.
Coming back to my original point.. (It is Easter Monday – that’s my excuse for the wandering rave) The study is an overview of what our ancestors ate to maintain better bones and less bone decay than what we can achive today. It shows where they got their calcium It’s a fascinating read; I was amazed to learn that we actually shrunk in height once we began eating grains, and the study pinpoints the poisons we accept as tolerable in a grain-based diet.
“Phytate-rich fiber sources tend to show the greatest effects on mineral absorption (30), but before the Mesolithic Period (which generally began no earlier than ,ı1 5 000 y ago) humans, like other primates, made limited if any use ofcereal grains and hence had little exposure to phytate.
Whether or not nongrain fiber sources have an adverse effect on mineral absorption has not yet been conclusively established but if such an effect is present it appears likely to be less extensive than that of fiber from grains (30).”
and..
“Purified proteins such as casein, lactalbumin, and wheat gluten added to a basal diet typically produce hypercalciuria (36, 37); however, long-term calcium balance studies during a high-protein (2 g/kg) diet with the protein provided as meat have shown no hypercalciuria and no indication ofcalcium loss (38).”
The study also pointed out that our daily bread habit ‘avidly’ binds calcium in vitro, which may prevent its absorption. (perhaps that’s why some bread vendors add calcium!). Age related bone loss is an accepted part of life today, but the report shows that our paleo ancestors had very little loss as they aged, but this changes when we began to eat grains.
Green vegetables, of course, have some ten times the calcium of grains.
Here’s the report; I’ve talked enough. Please take your time and absorb its many important findings. I hope my lean and keen vegan friends read it too; they really do look bad.
You Asked For It. The SOB on Video. Goodbye skateboard, Hello Osteoporosis.
SOB? Silly old Bugger. I’m lying on the couch with a broken leg. I’ve been here since December 26 when Neil, our son and website manager, invited me to ‘have a go’ on his new electric skateboard. Now.. should a 65 year old take up the offer, and if he does, why does he? Ego? Pride? idiocy? All of the above. Here’s the video.
However, there is a ‘positive side’. It may not seem positive but I’m all about seeing the positive.
First, the negative. It hurt, it’s a nuisance, I’m confined to the couch on the best days of the year.. and in a bone density test I asked for I found that I have…
very bad osteoporosis.
Now for an alkaline philosophy guru that’s a pretty ‘out there’ announcement. But on more careful investigation it seems that I was born that way. Yes, it happens, and losing my teeth as a teen was a sure sign of the condition very early in life. And given my previous profession of hang glider test pilot I can thank my lucky stars that I didn’t break more bones.
I ‘m also extremely lucky that I know so much about alkalizing. In retrospect I’m guessing that my 12 years as a vegetarian didn’t help, but well, I did it. I am paying. But I’m also lucky that I have the best medical researcher on the planet in my beloved Cassie. My Doc directed me to www.osteporosis.org.au which said the same old thing: calcium, Vitamin D, exercise, eat dairy and salmon with bones in it, and up the testosterone levels.
In the meantime Cassie is pounding the pavements of cyberhealth land – and finds something FAR more interesting. She discovers a good strontium supplement and 150 testimonials from more than satisfied users, many of whom have been back for a 12-month bone scan and discovered bone density increases of 12%! She researched strontium for side effects and health risk.. and apart from radioactivity if you overdose…. it’s actually very similar to calcium in the way it works in the body.
Here’s Cassie’s link to the strontium she’s ordered me
Calcium, Milk, Alkalizing.. and colorectal cancer
The net allows me quite a different impression of information.
Information is no longer the preserve of the powerful, drip fed to the masses. It is now the opposite. It’s something that is now so available that we get it within minutes of its release and in my case, I’ve been able to watch it ‘mutate’ as it spreads across the web. Such is the case of this article on the role of calcium in colorectal cancer. The article originally came from the Archives of Internal medicine but I found it on the site of a vitamin company, NutraIngredients.com in Europe.
However within 24 hours the milk lobby had grabbed the main chance and converted or -shall we say – utilised it – to sell people on drinking more milk. What will it ‘morph’ into next?
And here am I looking at the article and wondering what relevance it has to alkaline water, which provides a ready source of ionised calcium. Yes, I’m part of the problem – and the solution.
W are all on the same information highway,. Some of us are careful drivers, some reckless and some lane hogs.
Anyway, the article is still rather good, and especially relevant for Boomers. Here it is.
Calcium and Cancer: a pretty convincing study.
Right on the heels of Dr Simoncini’s video about bicarbonate of soda and cancer, we have this report about calcium and cancer. No brownie points for spotting the link: both substances alkaline of course.
This is no small study. It is based on a study of 492,000people. It was just released a few days ago, and it comes from the Archives of Internal Medicine. It suggests that the more calcium you have, especially as you age, the less likely you are to develop some forms of cancer.
The seven year study of almost half a million people showed that around 10% – 50,000 – contracted cancer, mostly prostate, breast, lung and colorectal. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that the more calcium people consumed, the less chance they had of being in the 50,000.
Regular calcium food eaters had the lowest risk of all of colorectal cancer,
(males took 1530mg a day, females 1,881mg a day)
Men who got regular calcium (mainly from food) were around 16% safer than men who had low calcium uptake.
Women, in the same scenario, were 28% safer.
There have been some studies actually linking calcium intake in men with cancer, but no such risk was found in this study. As usual, just to be ‘safe’, researchers said more studies are needed to confirm the findings.
Here‘s the study
