With countless new products available in the market, many times you are confused about making the right choice. This includes choices on drinking water. So many types of drinking water with different processes and salesmen tricks can only make it more overwhelming. Below is some information to help you choose the right drinking water for you.

Reverse Osmosis (R.O.)
Reverse osmosis refers to a process of water purification that has been used primarily for the desalination of seawater. It involves applying pressure to reverse the natural flow of water, forcing the water to move from the more concentrated solution to the weaker. The semi-permeable membrane is porous, allowing water to pass through, but blocking the passage of the bulkier salt molecules. The end result is water sans salt on one side of the membrane.

Reverse osmosis is effective at desalinating water and providing mineral-free water for use in photo or print shops. It is also effective at providing pathogen-free water. Still, even though the small pores in the membrane block particles of large molecular structure like salt, more dangerous chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine are molecularly smaller than water. These chemicals can freely pass through the porous membrane.

Another downside to reverse osmosis as a method of purifying drinking water is the removal of healthy, naturally occurring minerals in water. The membrane of a reverse osmosis system is impermeable to natural trace minerals. These minerals not only provide a good taste to water, but they also serve a vital function in the body’s system. Water, when stripped of these trace minerals, can actually be unhealthy for the body.

Distillation
The distillation process utilizes a heat source to vaporize water. The object of distillation is to separate pure water molecules from contaminants with a higher boiling point than water. Distillation, similarly to reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water to be used in science laboratories or for printing purposes, as both functions require mineral-free water. It removes heavy metal materials like lead, arsenic, and mercury from water and hardening agents like calcium and phosphorous.

Although distillation processes remove mineral and bacterial drinking water contaminants, they do not remove chlorine, chlorine byproducts, or VOCs. These chemicals, which have a lower boiling point than water, are the major contaminants of municipally treated water.

Distillation, like reverse osmosis, provides mineral-free water that can be quite dangerous to the body’s system when ingested, due to its acidity. Acidic drinking water strips bones and teeth of valuable and essential mineral constituents.

About water refill station
Usually water refill station uses distillation or R.O. process to take out all the healthy minerals that can benefit your body. Even worse, some refill stations use tap water as their so-called “cheap healthy water.” Please pay more attention to your health.

Drinkable Oxygen?
Super oxygenated waters boast up to ten times more O2 content than normal tap water. And more is better, right? Advertisements say the body absorbs the extra O2, resulting in improved stamina and athletic performance, reduced recovery time, and better mental clarity. So ACE enlisted the Human Performance Research Lab at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse to test those claims and compare the physical performance effects of super oxygenated water.

The Study
Led by John Porcari, Ph.D., the research team recruited 12 healthy, college-aged women and men to participate in the study. Separated into two groups of six, subjects were randomly assigned to drink either 16 ounces of super oxygenated water or regular tap water. After drinking the assigned type of water, subjects sat quietly in a chair for five minutes while researchers measured heart rate, blood pressure, blood lactate and oxygen consumption. Next, each subject performed a multi-stage VoO2max test on a treadmill. At the end of each stage (and at maximal exertion), heart rate, blood pressure, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and oxygen consumption (VoO2) were recorded. Blood lactate was also measured at key times throughout the test. One week later, subjects returned to the laboratory and completed the same protocol using the opposite condition (i.e., drinking the other type of water).

The Results
Researchers found that drinking super oxygenated water had no measurable effect on the subjects' resting heart rate, blood pressure or blood lactate values. Similarly, there was no effect on heart rate, blood pressure or blood lactate values during either the sub-maximal or maximal exercise tests. A second maximal test was conducted immediately following the first test to investigate the effects of super oxygenated water on exercise recovery. If additional oxygen had, in fact, been absorbed in the blood stream and delivered to the tissues, there should have been measurable reductions in sub-maximal exercise heart rates and blood lactate values, and increases in maximal oxygen consumption during the second test. Apparently, the blood oxygenation levels were either not elevated at all or not elevated sufficiently to affect oxygen delivery to the tissues or tissue metabolism.

The bottom line
At this time, there is no scientific evidence or logical rationale to suggest that drinking super oxygenated water can in any way increase the amount of oxygen in the blood stream. Therefore, any potential benefits of super oxygenated water would undoubtedly be attributed to the placebo effect. "The bottom line is that this stuff is no more beneficial than regular tap water," says lead researcher John Porcari, Ph.D. "The physiological mechanism is not there to get any potential benefit from the extra oxygen. There's just no physical way this product can improve blood oxygenation."
Porcari says the results of the study were not a surprise to the researchers. There are only two possible ways to carry oxygen in the blood: Oxygen is either bound to hemoglobin or dissolved in the plasma. "In normal healthy exercisers, hemoglobin is already 97 to 98 percent saturated with oxygen," explains Porcari. "Obviously, there is very little room to improve upon this factor." And the only known way to increase the amount of oxygen dissolved in the blood is to increase the partial pressure of oxygen in the lungs by breathing either hyperoxic (higher percentages of oxygen) or hyperbaric (greater pressure than found within the body) oxygen mixtures during exercise. Both techniques have shown increases of dissolved oxygen in the plasma and have resulted in lower exercise heart rates, lower blood lactate values and higher maximal oxygen consumption values. However, this technique is only valuable during exercise and not beneficial if done pre-exercise or during recovery.
In addition, Porcari notes that the super oxygenated water must first be ingested and absorbed in the gut. Even if the oxygen is absorbed, he explained, it would have to be absorbed into venous blood. As soon as it passes through the lungs for the first time, the blood would either release the oxygen at the alveolar membrane or, more likely, not pick up as much additional oxygen.
Although the researchers studied and analyzed only two different brands of water, Porcari is confident all of the super oxygenated waters on the market would provide similar results. "I don't think it makes much difference how much oxygen the water contains," says Porcari. "They could pump a thousand milliliters of oxygen into the water but there's still no physiologic mechanism to get that oxygen in the blood stream where it can be used."

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