Alkaline Water Facts



Some Very Fundamental Chemistry Concepts Even You Can Understand

Published January 15th, 2009 in Terms & Definitions | No Comments »

When it comes to alkaline water, there are some fundamental things you need to know before you are able to make an informed decision about what machine or device is best for you.

We all hate lengthy, overly technical discussions (well, most of us), so I will briefly go over each of the key terms so that you will be able to easily understand them in an everyday way.

Water – Water is a molecule made of two parts oxygen and one part hydrogen. Hence H2O

pH – This scale basically measures the presence of OH- (hydroxide) ions versus H+ (hydrogen) ions in a solution. When more OH- ions are present in the solution than the H+ ions, the solution is alkaline, or basic. When more H+ ions are present in the solution than the OH- ions, the solution is acidic.

pH is a scale between 0-14, with 7 being neutral. 0 would be 100% acidic and 14 would be 100% alkaline. With every PH number upwards, it is an increase of 10 times of the previous pH number in terms of OH- ion content. In pure neutral water, there is an equal number of H+ ions and OH- ions.

Tap water – As a reference, most tap water is engineered to be near neutral, and perhaps slightly alkaline. Most bottled water and just about any commercial drinks you can buy at the market, are acidic.

Distilled water – Distilled water is technically pure, with no minerals or anything else in it, but immediately after it is made it starts to react with the air around it will start to change its PH level either way. Most likely it will become oxidized and resulting to a lower PH number.

Alkaline water – Any water with a pH of over 7.

Acidic water – Any water with a pH of under 7.

Good, now that you have a basic grasp of the basic science behind water, we are ready to move forward. Stay tuned for more stuff coming soon!

Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) And Your Health

Published February 11th, 2009 in Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) | 3 Comments »

Besides the pH of water, there’s another concept you should be familiar with in order to understand what kind of water to drink. While alkalized water is what people call this type of water, the real benefits come from the ORP of the water.

ORP stands for oxidation reduction potential. This is a number measurable by an ORP meter in the unit of mv (milli-volt), either a positive or negative number. We all know that anti-oxidants are good for the body, and essentially water with negative ORP are anti-oxidizing by nature. Negative ORP water that is ingested will be absorbed in the human body and act as natural anti-oxidants and hunt down free-radicals that tend to cause harm to the body. Knowing this, the more negative the ORP of the water, the better it is for you in most cases.

Most of the time, when the PH is higher (more alkaline), the more negative the ORP will be. You can say that the pH and ORP are inversely proportional. Usually water of 9.5 pH would possibly have an ORP of around -200 to -300 mV or so. Of course this number can vary and all depends on how the alkaline water is made.

Most tap water and regular bottled water has a low to medium positive ORP number in the 100 to 300 range (positive). Soft drinks typically have a very high positive ORP number, sometimes in the range of 500 to 600! And we all know how bad soft drinks are to the body, namely because they are highly acidic. And now we know that it’s bad also because it has a terribly high positive ORP number. Drinking soft drinks is like encouraging the free radicals in the body to flourish and attack our healthy cells. Who wants that? No wonder kids that drink soda/soft drinks all day long are so messed up health-wise.

Alkaline water,  either naturally occuring or made by either electrolysis, will usually have a high pH and the decently negative ORP. This is good for the body! Many studies have shown health benefits from alkaline, negative ORP water. Afterall, you are drinking anti-oxidizing fluids when you drink this kind of water.

Are you drinking alkaline water with negative ORP daily? You should.