There are inherent dangers to drinking alkaline water that the informed consumer will want to be aware of. Drinking alkaline water is not all it’s cracked up to be.  There’s was a lot of talk a few years back about alkaline water and in particular a variety of water treatment systems known as alkaline ionizers, some quite expensive, that make your water – and your body – alkaline.  There are inherent dangers to this fad that the wise consumer will want to be aware of.

Here’s the premise – some natural health practitioners suggest that maintaining an alkaline body is the key to good health.  Some go even farther, suggesting that cancer cannot survive in an alkaline body.  Different parts of your body have different levels of pH – your blood maintains a constant pH of 7.4 while your stomach is acidic with a pH of about 4 in order to digest food.  People measuring their pH use test strips obtained from health food stores which measure the pH of either their saliva or urine.

As with all topics of relative scientific complexity, opinion on this topic varies widely.  A number of health practitioners endorse these ‘alkaline ionizers’ while just as many endorse drinking filtered water or distilled water.  And the sales people presenting this equipment to you are only going to tell you one side of that story.  When I see discrepancies in endorsements that vary this widely among health professionals I conclude that no one really knows and what we’re looking at is a matter of opinion.  So I’ll share my opinion with you in this document.

From what I am able to discern by reading the literature and speaking with health professionals there appears to be validity to the fact that pH is an important element of good health.  And I would suggest to you that the pH of your water is a factor in your health regimen. Here’s an article from the New York Times that agrees that alkaline ionizers are mostly a scam with one or two health benefits for a small segment of people, mostly with acid reflux. Alkaline Ionizers are dangerous because they raise the pH too high. While the water will immediately be neutralized by the acids in your stomach over time you may harm your ability to produce these acids. Drinking alkaline water with meals can also interfere with digestion.

It is my opinion that we humans evolved drinking the water that was around us.  This would of course vary in mineral content and pH.  In most circumstances though natural surface waters will contain low levels of minerals and be moderately above neutral with a pH range above 7 and below 8.  Since water will reflect the land that it moves through, the content of water will depend on the local landscape. There are the occasional springs that are highly acidic and those that are highly alkaline. 

In my opinion the ideal water to drink has a pH range of 7.4 to 7.6.  One key to good health is to drink plenty of ‘appropriately filtered water‘ and water with a pH in this range will do you good and certainly do you no harm.  By filtered water I include a wide array of treatments from simple sediment filters to carbon filters to reverse osmosis.

The system you need depends entirely on the contaminants in your water. You learn what’s in your water by reviewing your local water report, or if you have well water by buying the correct water test.