Is drinking distilled water or using Rev. Osmosis filt. dangerous?

Question

...since it is free of minerals. Some scientist says that people that drink distilled water in the long-term are likely to die early and/or catch a disease.

check the source: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Comp/Application%20Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/s2fqb7l4.default/ScrapBook/data/20070201121923/index.html

scroll down to the Reverse Osmosis Systems to the end of that paragraph.

here is the correct link for the source: http://www.ionizers.org/water-filters.html

Answer 1

My wife is a chemist and has told me that it is dangerous because drinking the distilled water will start to rob your body of the minerals and salts in your system that was taken from the water in the first place. Over time, these salts will be eliminated from your body and you will not have the essential ions, salts and minerals necessary for body function. As a result, your immunity goes down, your body craves interesting foods, you may lose your appetite, and eventually your organs start to die off. You will eventually die.

Answer 2

There is no problem with drinking water without minerals or de-ionized water. The natural process is called osmosis. It moves water (not minerals) from a lower salt concentration to the higher salt concentration. If you drink water with no minerals then the only direction water can move is into the cells of the body. Moving water into the cells for use in the body is why you drink water in the first place. Minerals do not pass through the cell membranes only water. Once the salt levels in the cell get too high then the cells die off and are replaced with new ones (hopefully). The dead salty cell exits the body in the urine. Drinking water reduces the concentration of the salts in the cells thereby increasing the life of the cell. Drinking de-ionized or water without minerals only helps this process.

Yes the body can absorb minerals from the water, however, this represents a very small portion of the daily mineral intake.

Think about the opposite of drinking mineral free water. That would be drinking water that is high in minerals. Seawater is very high in minerals but you can not drink it because the osmotic direction of water flow is from the lower concentration (cells) to the higher concentration (seawater). The seawater leaches water from the cells. This destroys the cells for lack of water.

The thing to remember is that the minerals do not move only the water.

Answer 3

No, is it not dangerous. This is bad science being used to scare people and market a product. There is nothing at all dangerous with distilled water or any water lacking minerals - although the lack of minerals will affect taste. It's used all over the world - in particular being the main souurce of water in navy, subs, and cruise ships. The one negative is that, should you distill all your water, you will eliminate flouride from it.

The warning originates from people confusing distilled water and deionized water. Deionized water is often used in cleaning electronic components and often carried hazard warnings on the tanks - because of the material that ended up in the water. Also, there's a belief that drinking large amounts of deionized water will leech minerals from your bones. There is no hard science that I've ever been able to find to back up this tale either, although it's true the water will attach more easily to minerals. It's also frequently used to provide food and drink to animals during scientific studies because of it's purity.

Answer 4

You can't take seriously everything you read. People need to apply thought and common sense. If you consume minerals that your body needs in sufficient quantity from other sources, you will be FINE. In the strictest sense, if you managed to rinse out all the minerals in your body, your cells would lyse and you'd die. As normal people operate, this is far from realistic.

I used to say "the next thing ya hear, drinking clean water will kill ya". Well, here it is.

Answer 5

i heard somewhere that you are only supposed to drink bottled water. something about the chemicals in tap water even if it is filtered.???

Answer 6

Interesting read. Thank you for providing it.