Does alkaline water really prevent sickness? If yes, how does it work?
Recently, there have been many differing opinions on whether drinking alkaline water is beneficial or harmful to our bodies. This controversy largely stems from certain MLM brands of ionizers in the market that oversell, overclaim, and overprice their products. Consequently, various individuals—including competitors who do not sell water ionizers, medical students, and even some doctors—have begun to express their personal opinions.
On the other hand, ionizer sellers continue to convince their customers with writings from ionizer researchers and testimonials. With everyone sharing their views, this has led to endless debates, creating confusion among readers and end-users.
I’m not a doctor, a medical practitioner, or a researcher in ionization. I’m just someone who sells all types of water filtration systems. However, with my 16 years of experience in this industry and the information I’ve gathered, I will use layman's terms to explain how alkaline water may help in disease prevention.
Our Body’s pH
As we know, different parts of our body have specific and constant pH levels. When our pH deviates from these required levels, the consequences can be serious. To maintain the specific pH, our bodies have feedback mechanisms that monitor changes.
Our blood pH ranges from 7.34 to 7.45. If our pH falls outside this range, our body will automatically adjust it by extracting necessary minerals from other parts. For instance, if our blood becomes too acidic (a condition known as acidosis), our body will extract alkaline minerals such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium from other areas to neutralize the acidity and return to the required pH.
This extraction can lead to deficiencies in certain minerals elsewhere in the body (e.g., calcium from bones may result in osteoporosis). Cumulatively, deficiencies in specific minerals may contribute to various illnesses, including degenerative diseases.
Thus, by providing our bodies with sufficient minerals and nutrients, we can prevent sickness. This principle applies throughout our entire system.
Is Our Body Acidic or Alkaline?
We all understand that excess of anything can be harmful, whether acidic or alkaline. So how do we know if our body can become too alkaline?
The answer is simple: it won’t. We know this because we constantly exhale carbon dioxide (which is acidic) and inhale oxygen (which is alkaline). This natural process indicates that our bodies require alkalinity to counteract acidity. The same applies to plants and vegetables; they require carbon dioxide (acidic) to thrive and produce oxygen (alkaline).
This is our natural state. If our cells thrived in an acidic environment like plants do, they would be considered mutated, specifically as cancer cells.
How Can Alkaline Water Help Prevent Illness?
Our stomach pH must remain highly acidic, between 1.5 and 4.0, to effectively digest food and kill harmful bacteria and viruses. When we consume alkaline water, the pH level rises. In response, a feedback mechanism in our stomach detects this increase and instructs the stomach wall to secrete more hydrochloric acid, bringing the pH back below 4.
Hydrochloric acid is only produced when needed because our bodies cannot store it; it must be created as required. The ingredients in the stomach that produce hydrochloric acid (HCl) are carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and sodium chloride (NaCl) or potassium chloride (KCl).
The formulas for this process are as follows:
Sodium Chloride:NaCl + H2O + CO2 = HCl + NaHCO3
Potassium Chloride:KCl + H2O + CO2 = HCl + KHCO3
The by-products of hydrochloric acid production are sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) or potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), both of which are alkaline and enter the bloodstream. These bicarbonates act as alkaline buffers that neutralize excess acids in the blood, preventing our bodies from extracting alkaline minerals from other areas and reducing the overall burden on our systems, leading to a healthier life.
As we know, “prevention is better than cure,” which is my perspective on disease prevention.
In order to produce acid, our bodies must also produce alkaline, and vice versa. Here’s another example: after food is digested in the stomach, it must move to the small intestine. At this point, the food is highly acidic, which can damage the intestinal wall. To mitigate this, the pancreas produces alkaline juice (known as pancreatic juice), which contains sodium bicarbonate mixed with the acidic food leaving the stomach.
The pancreas must create hydrochloric acid to produce bicarbonates, which then enter the bloodstream as waste.
After a large meal, we often feel sleepy—not during the meal itself, but when the digested food is leaving the stomach; this is when hydrochloric acid enters our blood. Hydrochloric acid is a key ingredient in antihistamines, which can cause drowsiness.
Both acids and alkaline produced by the body must have an equal and opposite counterpart; therefore, there is no net gain. However, alkalinity supplied externally, such as through drinking alkaline water, results in a net gain of alkalinity in our bodies.
Conclusion
I highly recommend drinking alkaline water, whether ionized or filtered with bio-alkaline methods. Ionized water offers additional benefits, such as antioxidants with ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potentials), but that’s a topic for another day.
