Fact of the day #1
Drinking absolutely pure water can kill you. All the water we normally drink – from taps, from bottles, from the garden hose – contains impurities which affect a property of water called tonicity. This is the ability of a solution to draw or repel water from ajacent solutions when separated by a membrane. Solutions that are hypertonic gain water, while hypotonic solutions lose water. Drinking water, which we usually think of as pure, really contains a whole mess of salts and sugars which make it slightly hypertonic. They also give water its taste. The cytoplasm in the cells of your body also have a tonicity. So, when they are exposed to hypertonic solutions, the cells themselves lose water and shrivel up. When they are in hypotonic solutions, they gain water, swelling up and bursting like a balloon. Absolutely pure water -with no impurities at all – is the most hypotonic solution. So, if you drink enough of it, your cells will start absorbing water. This disturbs the balance of electrolytes (electrically conductive ions) in your body. This is most seriously a problem in the brain, where water poisoning can lead to brain damage, coma and even death.
I always had a feeling I shouldn’t drink the deionised water in the lab despite the fact it’s completely sterile! Surely drinking too much tap (‘ionised’) water does this to you too? (but you’d need to drink more I guess).. like some of those poor people who take ecstasy and then think they’re insanely thirsty and end up drinking tonnes and bursting their neurons..
From the moment water touches ones mouth it is not pure any more, definitely not pure in your guts and It will be absorbed by guts to the blood stream and Your kidneys urinate everything out reabsorbing good staff back. and bad stuff with excess of water you pie out from your body any fluid has lethal dose. Water is nutrient and purity increase waters function to absorb water soluble nutrients from your gut. In human guts live billions bacterias and some of them tap water kills. I definitely would choose H2O vs tap water. What is wrong with you people? Good stuff from your body does not drops out because you drink pure water. bacteria colony in your gut effects your mental process I get suspicious that some peoples cleverness are influenced by tap water =O) and tap water have no useful stuff in it. Just look what will left after distillation and if you want you can eat it. Ones in life you can eat anything ha ha ha ;OD
This article is absolute nonsense and poorly explained. I’ve been drinking pure water (TDS of 1 ppm) for 28 years and have no illness whatsoever more to the point I’m never I’ll – the same goes for my family friends and thousands of customers all of whom drink pure water. Our natural source of water is rain not contaminated water from municipal treatment plants. If there were an ounce of truth in your article then we’d have had mass deaths everywhere north of Manchester where water measures 10-20 ppm TDS. My guess is that you are talking about 18meg water for lab use in which case you should explain your theory more precisely instead of scaremongering. The fact are different to how to describe them 12-15 meg water is perfectly safe to drink. If it isn’t why have millions of people who’ve drunk it for 35 years avoided illness? The answer is because it’s actually the safest water to drink and what we evolved in ( rain ) get you facts right before making stupid comments on the net
We’re talking about a purity much higher than a TDS meter can detect.
Yo Roger…. I agree
Talking about water that used in labs to make. Vaccine and medication.. Rain water is not pure it still has millions of bacteria.. Our body needs bacteria to live
TDS is a solid filtering measure you are drinking clean water not PURE H2O.
rain water it’s not pure at all, were talking of just pure H2O with no impurities such as even plastic particles, such small things like the bacteria of your treatment plants and below 1 PPM of TDS
Dude, rain water is contaminated by atmospheric elements.
The article is talking about absolutely pure water, which does NOT occur naturally.
Roger, funny you tell others to get their facts straight before publishing stupid comments….
When this author discusses pure water, he is not talking about its source (rain versus tap), but rather its chemical composition. Rain water is certainly not harmful for you! But Roger, that is because it is just like the water you get from the tap; impure. From the level of intelligence you expressed in your comment, I know this may be a little hard for you to understand, but even though you can’t SEE things in your water, that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. There are (like the author expresses) a whole host of salts and minerals and even some bacteria in there. Who’d have thought! I should know, I worked in a water testing lab for a pharmaceutical company…
What this article is talking about is WFI (water for injection) or RODI (Reverse-osmosis de-ionized) water. These types of water have been highly filtered to make them chemically pure (~100% H2O molecules) in order to be used in labs for pure chemical reactions and to make safe medicines. They are certainly NOTHING CLOSE to the chemical composition of rainwater, which has many, many more impurities.
Does this help Roger?
I am a proponent of water by reverse osmosis or Hydrogen water and I strongly believe it is the healthiest and best for you.
@Science Teacher…your message certainly helped me. So my question is, what would be good water to consume daily for anti-aging purposes?
dear Science teacher – do you have a name?
In reply to your comments, what it demonstrates is that you still don’t understand that RODI water is perfectly safe to drink. Water purified to circa 12-14Megohm is acceptable for WFI purposes and easily produced by a good RODI system and since I’ve drunk this water for 25 years it somewhat disproves your theory doesn’t it ?
What you are in fact talking about 18.2Meg water or UPW that is produced using further levels of filtration over RODI including GTM ( gas separation membranes or contactors ) using nitrogen and a vacuum to pull out the gases that may certainly be in water naturally in the feed water.
Incidentally rain isn’t naturally contaminated – all it holds naturally is small amounts of dust around which the rain droplet forms. Sure, Purity of rain is not absolute but it measures well under 20 ms. Forgive me correcting your comments about rain but it is only ever polluted by man made industrial output or air traffic and a small level of other gases present in the environment in which it falls. The difference from rain water to RODI is so small in fact that it would need to be measured in Megohm, further more if you start with rain water you don’t need all the pretreatment required up front if RODI.
And yes I know because I build UPW plants that provide the water you used when you worked in a testing lab.
So, given I am fully qualified to take about water purity and more importantly have drunk RODI water for 25 years and have no illness whatsoever but also have extensive evidence that RODI water does in fact reduce illness ( evidenced through a sample base exceeding 10000) and has cured many people of diseases including Crohn’s I think that the advice for people asking what to drink is that purified water using the RODI process is in fact one of the best pieces of advice we can give. It’s also benefits the environment because RODI has a 95% lower carbon footprint than bottled water.
Just so you know, snowflakes wouldnt occur were it not for impurities in the water. Though rain water is much more pure than something you might pull out of a pond, it is by absolutely no means a 100% pure solution, manmade contaminants or otherwise. Pure means 100%, not 99.999% repeating or anything else. I’m not saying the article is correct or incorrect, but your argument is similar to if I said that heavy metals arent toxic because you eat trace amounts in your food
Also, while it may be good for helping some people with diseases, that doesnt mean it is good for everybody. I could see how exceptionally pure water might be good for someone prone to Jaundice. Similarly, people with trouble breathing and astronauts in orbit will likely breathe nearly pure oxygen, but for a normal person under normal conditions, it can be very dangerous to do so.
Many people don’t reveal their identity completely, it can be unsafe, especially in an online place where many people see what you say.
Honestly, Roger, the only “demonstration” that I see is that of your stupidity. One nice person comes along, nice enough not to 100% dis you, and you show them shocking disrespect. Plus, this is coming from real scientists. Oh, I’m sorry, are you a real scientist? I should have known, your bad grammar confirms it.
Roger, you might want to read ST’s reply again. And also realise that telling us you only drink ‘pure’ water is absolutely meaningless without a full description of what else you consume – you may well get those necessary salts/minerals from elsewhere.
To quote your incredulity, GEEZ, whatsamatter with them freshwater fish that can’t live in saltwater, and vice versa, right???
Research ‘osmosis’ and how it affects human biology too…
came here from the far flung future of 2020 just to say that Roger, no one has to believe anything you’ve said. I don’t believe your credentials. I don’t believe your anecdotal “…and since I’ve drunk this water for 25 years it somewhat disproves your theory doesn’t it ?” statement. Honestly, it’s mind boggling that you think that that statement alone disproves it. You refer to all kinds of things but literally explain none if it. You want to act smarter than everyone else? Prove it by educating us. And not with a stupid “go do your own research” excuse. No, if you want to prove us wrong I need you to go step by and and fully show why each and every one of your points are valid. With actual research and conclusions not “Well my neighbor and I have been doing it and we’re fine” reasons.
Rain gets contaminated when it reaches the atmosphere and gets exposed to carbon dioxide.
This forum is just people arguing about something they probably had to research for their Environmental Science class lmao
This article is nonsense. Water is not a significant source of electrolytes or minerals.
Of you eat food and drink water the Bolus of water and food in your stomach will not be significantly different in terms of dissolved minerals and salts.
Tap water is very close to pure. The salts and minerals in your gut are not changed in any significant way by water, rather by food.
Correct. But if you were locked in a store-room that only contained distilled/deionised water…..
😀
I am no chemist. I have never gotten an answer to my question which is” In electrolysis, when separating H2O, why does the water change color AND is it safe to drink it?
Can anyone please help me by answering these question?i
I’m no chemist either, but I used to do a lot of experimenting with HHO. In electrolysis the solution is generally not pure because it would not conduct enough current if it were pure. Also even when using stainless steel electrodes there is some corrosion. Chromium is used in the SS alloy and it does in fact leach into the solution so I would say the solution is not safe to drink.
Yes, its a fact that pure water can kill you. But, its still important to get the key impurities removed. Please share your thoughts.
wtf u ppl have an iq of 1 m8. He is talking about 100 percent pure water and u idiots talk about rainwater? get ur head in the right place before making nasty and dumb comments
ily ur rad af also ily
again
no hate plz im drunk af
This was really posted by FoodBabe or David Avocado Wolf wasn’t it?
Be careful of pure bore water. Many deep aquifers in some areas can actually contain water that approach ultra pure concentrations. The bores are sourced from rain water and are notorious for lacking in any type of mineral salt or nitrate concentration. Some articles also link this water to hyponatremic shock.
If you have lived comfortably in the city on its water supply for many decades and move to the country and drink the bore water , you may think you are getting the benefit of purity, but after about 5 hours of drinking it you will suddenly
start to feel really tired. (Your body is functionally dependent on city water)
I would describe the feeling of drinking this type of water for weeks on end as a lethargic, groggy, sedated trance like, altered state of consciousness, often delirious in nature. Its really quite bizarre what this water can do you.
I later had the bore water tested and it had no detectable levels of minerals, nitrates or trace elements, it was highly corrosive, very soft. I would generally avoid pure bore water unless you are washing your car with it. And while I had an adverse reaction to it, my neighbors were ok
drinking it from similar locations and have had no adverse effects, even for decades. My reaction may be occurring because of the extreme physical exertion during the day, working outdoors, I was constantly replacing fluids and those fluids were dangerously pure.
“They also give water its taste”
Huh, I always knew water had a taste even though it’s supposed to be tasteless. Now you’ve got me wondering what truly pure water would taste like (or you know, not taste like).
I do not have a degree in biology but I can tell you that your body does not just purify water and throw it in the blood. It is kept at a certain level so your cells do not burst from too much water being absorbed. Your blood is meant to be as isotonic as possible and water poisoning is a real thing, look it up. If you drink enough water fats enough, you could die from it. You could drink even less of lab quality pure water. We are not talking about the Aquafina water you buy at Walmart. There is my rant for the day. But do correct me if I’m wrong, like I said I’m no college professor.
David Rees tried some on camera… his response was that it tasted like absolutely nothing – completely devoid of any taste in an uncomfortable way – your mouth tells you there is liquid in your mouth, but your taste buds say no, there’s nothing.
OK this is nonsense. This article is garbage. I’m 14 and I know that even if the water is pure or not, it’s still going to be pure in the body when absorbed into the bloodstream, after getting filtered to the max. In fact, the point when you put in your mouth, its impure, due to saliva. Dumbass, are you smarter than an 8th grader? As shown in the article, of coarse not. You should go and *** yourself for such a stupid claim and for releasing false information.
as said for a comment above you “I do not have a degree in biology but I can tell you that your body does not just purify water and throw it in the blood. It is kept at a certain level so your cells do not burst from too much water being absorbed. Your blood is meant to be as isotonic as possible and water poisoning is a real thing, look it up. If you drink enough water fats enough, you could die from it. You could drink even less of lab quality pure water. We are not talking about the Aquafina water you buy at Walmart. There is my rant for the day. But do correct me if I’m wrong, like I said I’m no college professor.”
it’s not 100% pure in blood and even being filtered to the max in the kidneys, there always will be this little minerals and bacteria they can’t filter…
It is usually best to avoid extremes of diet. We evolved to drink impure water to a degree… so if in doubt err on the side of caution and drink ordinary water not ultra pure. Minerals in water play an important part in our health.
A lot of stupid people in these comments who just assume they know it all.
But, but, how can one drink pure water if it’s not going to be pure once it hits my saliva.
The title may be misleading since lots of us are drinking water from anywhere. The water itself is no longer consider pure once it comes in contact with something. As water is from nature itself, there will always be impurities in it.
Through research from internet, there’s this thing called “ultrapure water” the purest of all which is never safe for drinking as it’s corrosive and very soft( not gonna explain more since some post says about it).
Water does not have any taste.
Bitterness and other taste may have been aftertaste or something.
By water poisoning, it only happens if you drink a large amount of water in a short period of time. It can cause the level of salt, or sodium, in your blood to drop too low. It’s a condition called Hyponatremia. It’s very serious, and can be fatal.
As what others said about the article being poorly explained and some of it may have been false info. The title itself is already false which lead to people explaining from their experience in drinking water.
With the article itself was not being elaborate clearly which leads to misunderstanding.
This article is pure nonsense. If it was true, you could not drink rain water either, because it’s “corrosive and very soft”.
What happens in your stomach, if you drink UPW, is that it’s mixed with a LOT of different electrolytes and the result is pretty identical to what happens if you drink any kind of drinkable water water.
If you drink enough UPW, you will die, but it happens to be tha fact also for any other kinds of water, too.
Hahahaha –
Oh wait, you’re serious?
HA! Drinking pure water is fine. You can electrolyse pure H2O and drink it without any adverse effects at all. This is exactly how astronauts get water to drink.
If I had a BS meter, it would be broken.
Seriously, where do you people come up with this stuff? If it’s not flat-earthers, it’s anti-vaxxers. If it’s not anti-vaxxers, it’s people like this…
Just so you guys in the comments know, this article is about PURE water. As in, 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part oxygen, and ONLY that. No ions or anything. It’s not about PURIFIED water, which is distilled water with minerals put back in, nor is it distilled water, which is mostly pure but not necessarily completely pure. I’m not declaring anyone right or wrong, but some of you are posting irrelevant arguments.
Stop teaching people this garbage. This is how pseudoscientific conspiracies get started. I’m in the science field as well and am currently a PhD candidate, I’m not pulling this out of my rear. You could drink pure water just like “regular” water, because it’s not pure anymore the moment it touches your mouth. The only difference is that if you were to chug too much water (as in the AMOUNT), the purified water would probably kill your cells quicker. This is obviously nothing to worry about unless you’re planning on drinking a lethal dose of water.
what is a lethal dose of water?
this article is the most nonsensical thing I have ever read. Let me tell you a FACT. The astronauts who spend weeks and months on the space station drink water that is directly synthesized from hydrogen and oxygen, not impure in any way. Salt and sugar amounts are tiny in most forms of water and do not account for its taste generally. You are extremely off based on all of your tonicity assertions and this is not experimentally supported. Please stop spreading nonsense to gullible internet consumers.
This is rubbish. Your cells have active mechanisms to maintain tonicity. Pure water will not harm you; that’s a silly superstition. Astronauts on the Space Shuttle and the lunar missions drank absolutely pure water straight from the fuel cells and suffered no ill effects.
I love this conversation. Many machines that re-organize water have components that introduce poisons (perhaps) which does render the water impure, unhealthy in elementary terms.
We like to energize our carbon filtered tap water with stones. Natural as rain. Shungite from Russia and Tourmaline (black or green) from Brazil. These stones will cleanse and energize any water Dead or alive. If dead, it can be living in hours or days. Must allow the impurities to gas out.
We drink it off the stones.
Cowboy from Oklahoma
I believe the term “pure water” may be a bit misleading. Deionized water isn’t “pure” H2O and though you could drink DI water in emergency situations it is highly ill advised to drink much of it. There really is no such thing as pure drinking water they all have trace levels of minerals, sodium, ect… Distilled water is perfectly safe to drink, as well as filtered, tap, and rain water (as long as there has been no contaminations). Pick your fav and drink up no more than half your body weight in oz is needed per day.
http://thehigherlearning.com/2014/08/16/why-ultra-pure-water-is-actually-bad-for-your-health-video/
Hopefully this helps with the arguments!
To elaborate, a guy drinks ultra-purified (lab) water. More like a shot to see what it tastes like. But you get the point.
no…he did not die, but it is NOT SAFE to drink large quantities of water. Drinking enough of it will cause your electrolytes to leach out of your cells, causing an imbalance in your body that can be fatal. You’re not going to die the same way you would if you drank a shot of cyanide, but it’s still not safe to drink it in general. I know drinking a Tablespoon of insecticide won’t kill me, but I sure as hell will not try it.
***Btw I work in a lab and we use 18Mega Ohm ultra-pure H20 on a daily basis 🙂
not safe to drink large quantities of “ultra pure water”. typo oops
Mr Roger Wiltshire
I cannot express how right you are that quality water so effects your health…what a simple but so profound influence it has just recently had on my life and the life of my handicapped son!! In my quest to narrow my water (healing) supply, could you please share your opinion where to purchase a unit that produces a quality RODI close to the TDS 01 ppm) that you have been blessed to have for so many years. Thanking you in advance.
Roger Tatman
Roger, my man. They’re not talking about RODI. Water that is 100% pure (UPW) can’t be purchased at a store. 500 ml of it cost 💲40. Drinking it will have a similar effect on your body as cyanide. If you put a goldfish in it, it would dissolve the goldfish. RODI is great water. I’m glad to hear about the great effects you’ve had from it. Ultra pure water will kill you. It’s not the same thing.
Please tell me how to get 100% pure water
This author has made up his own pseudo-science article after googling a few dubious websites. What a load of rubbish and totally dicredits anything other content on this website.
Anything can kill you. Pure water can dissolve rock and makes a very poor breathing medium for creatures without gills. Depending on how it’s applied it can peel flesh from bone.
This is why we need to ban it right now!
The easiest way to explain this phenomenon is that water always tries to equalize itself in its mineral content and other ingredients. So, when you drink pure pure pure water… (water with absolutely no minerals, salts or other ingredients) when the pure water you drink meets the water in your body already at the cell barrier,,, the pure pure pure water will begin to pull the minerals, salts and other ingredients that the body MUST have (in order to survive/exist/live) out of the cell across the barrier (I do not know the name of this barrier) when the body is completely depleted (or highly depleted) you begin to die. If you drink too much pure pure pure water there will a hard time trying to replace the missing minerals, salts and other ingredients. At this point you will probably need to call the priest and family in to say your last goodbyes….
Thank you John! I read through every one of these comments and was absolutely shocked that the majority of these arguments did not understand the article apparently. Drinking 100% chemically pure water is very unhealthy. As you said your body needs the minerals and electrolytes found in every water you can think of (aside from PURE water). If you drink PURE water – your cells will draw what it normally gets from unpure water out of your body which in time will slowly kill you. That being said you’d have to drink nothing but PURE water for quite some time.
These arguments about that water being unpure as soon as it hits your mouth is complete nonsense – while yes that’s true. Your body still isn’t getting what is normally present in tap water ect….from PURE water so your body will still be lacking those essential minerals and electrolytes.
Anyways – what do I know I’m just some dude from somewhere and I’m done with my late reply rant.
Very Important Article Thank You
Wow, this comment’s section if full of BS, and potentially dangerous BS at that. Yes, if you drink a little UPW it will no longer be pure because of what is already in your saliva and stomach. But the logic hasn’t been teased out fully…while the UPW is no longer UPW in your mouth, the volume of water in your body has increased but the mass of electrolytes has not and that’s why drinking some UPW won’t hurt you. However, if you drink it regularly and happen to not get enough electrolytes from the rest of your diet then you’re body will be running an electrolyte deficit. Still, who doesn’t get enough electrolytes? You’d guess it would be nobody but there is no shortage of people out there who think they can purge the poisons out of their body by drinking gangloads of water to flush their systems and their reasoning is also going to include thinking that since UPW is so pure, what could be better to flush out the “poisons.” If such a person doesn’t consume adequate electrolytes during their flushing, tada…serious problem. So for all of you who are adamant about the absolute safety of drinking UPW, I challenge you to fast for a day and consume a few liters of UPW during that day…you just might win a darwin award!
Thanks for the valuable information. Your site is very helpful and contains complete details regarding the importance of water and water quality testing methods.
It is perfectly safe to drink. The process the author describes can also occur drinking normal tap water. You have to dink a ton of it, I remember years ago a woman died of drinking to much water on a dumb radio show stunt, i believe the game was wee for a wii. Point is, yes 18.2Mohm water would do this too, but it would take only slightly less water than regular tap water to kill you in the manner described by the author.
Charlie Harvey presents a theory as if fact then doesn’t provide ANY references to his claims nor does he stick around to provide a little feeback to his readers’ questions. Whoever believes that he or his claims are credible really needs their head examined.
Ok just a quick question if the theory is correct on drinking pure water that it can kill you because it lacks the materials salt etc…. that’s good for the body. But there are alot of other very bad chemicals inside the water used when cleaning it and used for pushing the water threw the pipes that is not great for the body either. So if you were to use the pure pure water but adding minerals, salts and all the goods the body needs that you got in a health shop would this then be good enough to drink . As of then when purified all the bad chemicals would be gone and then you are only adding the good . Would this be good for human consumption. Could someone enlighting me on this question??
I believe what you are referring to is distilled water. And yes, if that is indeed what you are referring to, it is perfectly fine for your body.
I don’t want to sound dumb, but is the bottled “purified water” ok to drink?
I’m not sure about whether this is the cause of death when you drink pure water. However, I know that 100% pure water will suck out all the nutrients from inside your body, due to osmosis. This is provided you drink enough of it. So , while it might not kill you, it can give severe nutrition, mineral and salt deficiency.
Roger thank you for your advice! A scientist gets their information, qualification from books. According to the Water Quality Association – Dr’s Lee T Rozelle and Ronald L Wathen MD – there’s no evidence ever, that pure water removes minerals from your body. I have the whole report. I drink pure water for 20 years and I am very healthy. USA navy drank it for many, many years and they couldn’t find any health problems. Google , Coca Cola and millions of people are using it around the world. There’s not enough minerals in water, if there was enough minerals in water, you could go on a water diet, you will die. There’s more minerals in 4 liters of milk, than there’s in a bath full of water. You get two different types of minerals- organic and inorganic. Organic is what we get in food, inorganic is rock, soil, etc. A plant can take inorganic minerals and turn it into organic by photosynthesis. The same with a tree, a qtree can turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, also by photosynthesis . A body cant do photosynthesis. You can’t lick unto a stone, to get minerals. Why dont you scrape loose the built up in your kettle and throw it over your porridge? That’s minerals from water. I have a lot of information / research regarding minerals and minerals in water. You need h2o and that’s all. All that other minerals your body can not use, will just be built up in your body .
Drinking a small amount shouldn’t be a problem as your body has systems in place to regulate this. However, consumption of large amount may potentially lead to problems such as electrolyte loss but is not lightly to lead to cytolysis
While in the Navy my ship created it’s own fresh drinking water from salt water. After it went from salt water to fresh water it was pure/distilled fresh water but if you drank it before it got sent through the brominator/ clorinator making it DRINKING Water, it would make you sick if you drank it i.e. give you the run’s, stomach ache, bed ridden etc. So can you drink PURE FRESH WATER: YES but I wouldn’t advise it
From the comments above I see that “Pure” water needs to be defined. Pure water does not come out of a bottle. I had a friend who worked for a local lab who was charged with making “pure” water. Making “pure” water is extremely difficult. Pure water has no minerals, chemicals or ions in it. It is pure H2O. Water has a great affinity for ions. When you take out all of the ions I would be concerned that “pure” water could give your skin a chemical burn pulling the ions out of your skin. I would be very careful handling real “pure” water. But none of the users commenting are likely to run across genuine “pure” water.
Thanks for the valuable information. Your website is very helpful and contains complete details regarding the importance of water and water quality testing methods. I love to share this articles to my friend…
It might be easier to just say that pure H2O… nothing else… is what the cells in the body can not handle. H2O+ (the “+” indicating any level of impurities) increases the viability of the water on the human system. Pure H2O is very difficult to get and does not exist in nature (that I am aware of anyway). Please… try to be respectful of each other. We all have valuable knowledge and experiences to share.