How to "make" healthy water: filters, minerals and energy

[ThePythonicCow]

.
I've made the mistake of bragging about how many steps I go through to get good drinking water, so some other members have asked me to describe what I do.

Ok - here goes.

There are three major phases:

Remove all the crud from my typical municipal water.
Remineralize with a wide variety of water soluable minerals.
Reenergize with music, magnets, light and vortices.

===

Removing the crud, the first phase, itself has three sub-phases:

A whole house carbon filter (http://www.purewaterproducts.com/chloramine-catcher) using activated charcoal to remove some of the chloramine, a mix of chlorine and ammonia (by the way, I heartily recommend PureWaterProducts.com, of Denton, where I got this, and the next item.)
An under the sink reverse osmosis unit (http://www.purewaterproducts.com/black-and-white-ro), using a reverse osmosis membrane and a couple of carbon filters, to remove more crud.
A Megahome Countertop Water Distiller (http://a.co/9DDULGx), to get almost everything remaining out of the water, including whatever unhealthy "structure" it might have acquired, on its journey through the City of Denton Water Utilities (https://www.cityofdenton.com/government/departments/water-utilities) pipes and processing.

===

Then remineralizing has several sub-phases and sub-sub-phases.

The two main remineralizing sub-phases involve

a quart jar containing a "sole" (water saturated with soluble minerals) and
a larger two gallon "sun tea jar (http://thepythoniccow.us/sun_tea_jar.jpg)" that holds the final remineralized, re-energized, concentrate (at a concentration of about 50% of saturated.)


I mix most of the soluble minerals, plus distilled water, in the quart jar, and let it sit on the shelf. I put in more minerals than the water can hold, so the excess settles to the bottom of the jar, and the rather murky looking liquid is about 100% saturated. This article explains in more detail how a typical sole is made: How To Make Sole (https://wellnessmama.com/12158/make-sole).

The minerals that I include in my quart of sole (pronounced "solay") are:

2 Tbsp Redmond RealSalt (http://www.realsalt.com/) (similar to Himalayan salt)
1 1/2 Tbsp potassium bicarbonate (from nuts.com (https://nuts.com/cookingbaking/leavenerthickener/potassium-bicarbonate.html))
1 Tbsp Methyl-Sulfonyl-Methane (MSM)
1/2 Tbsp sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
1/2 Tbsp Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate)
1/2 tsp "The Gift" fulvic and humic concentrate from MotherEarthLabs.com
1/8 1/2 tsp Borax (for its boron) (Cf Post #38, below. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96793-How-to-make-healthy-water-filters-minerals-and-energy&p=1143436&viewfull=1#post1143436))
1/8 tsp J.C.Crow's Lugol's 5% iodine solution (Cf Post #37, below. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96793-How-to-make-healthy-water-filters-minerals-and-energy&p=1143339&viewfull=1#post1143339))

(1 tablespoon (Tbsp) == 3 teaspoons (tsp) == 15 milliliters (ml).)

The quart Mason jar holding this sole has four strong magnets taped to the outside, in alternating polarity, equally spaced, and the initial mix of the above ingredients, plus distilled water to full, is stirred in a vortex for a few hours using a Jeio Tech model MS-12TB (http://www.laboratorywholesale.com/item/4369458/) magnetic stirrer, before going on the shelf to await being used in the next batch.

Whenever the concentrate in the sun tea jar is more than a couple quarts down from being full, I replenish it in the second main sub-phase of remineralizing the water. I add into the sun tea jar the following ingredients:

one quart of above 100% saturated sole water (leaving behind any sediment)
a few ounces of Willard Water concentrate (https://www.willardswater.com/willard-s-water/4-clear-concentrate-1-gallon.html)
a few ounces of Magnesium BiCarbonate Water (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?86797-Magnesium-BiCarbonate-Water-a-guide-to-make&highlight=magnesium), made using GoodSense Milk of Magnesia (http://a.co/9Q7RKHG) and a SodaStream carbonator (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/sodastream-power-source-carbonator/)
a quart of 5 to 10 ppm colloidal silver water, made using the fine Silver Puppy (https://silverpuppy.com/product/products/silver-9-cs-generator)

===

Then the third and final sub-phrase begins, restoring the water's energy and structure.

The above two gallon sun tea jar has six strong neodymium magnets taped around the outside of its midsection, in alternating polarity, equally spaced. I put the above ingredients into it whenever it's getting a bit low, and set it on the Jeio Tech magnetic stirrer (http://www.laboratorywholesale.com/item/4369458/), running with a nice strong vortex. I put a set of headphones outside the jar, playing classical music from a little "ipod" style music player, and I put a strong red LED plant grow light on top of it, facing down into the whirling water, in place of the usual glass lid. I let that run for several hours, at least.

===

The result is pure (no crud), remineralized, reenergized water, at about half (50%) of the maximum possible concentration of these soluble minerals in water. This is (very approximately) ten times what would be a good concentration for drinking water.

Both the 100% concentrate in the quart sole jar, and the 50% concentrate in the sun tea jar, are too salty for anything to grow in them, so can be left at room temperature.

===

[Update - one more added step - see Post #46 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96793-How-to-make-healthy-water-filters-minerals-and-energy&p=1226650&viewfull=1#post1226650), below.]

Then whenever I want some good water, I mix about 1 part of the 50% concentrate from the sun tea jar with about 10 parts fresh distilled water from my Megahome distiller. I also keep a quart of this mixed drinking water in a glass pitcher in the refrigerator -- yummy. This final drinking water is "perishable" ... if I put it in the cat's drinking bowl, I have to throw it out and clean the bowl in a few days, because "stuff" likes to grow in it. So I keep my drinking water in the refrigerator.

===

The above still doesn't get all the minerals my body seems to enjoy. I also apply transdermal magnesium to my forearms now and then (when an old leg injury starts twitching), and take the occassional Epsom Salt foot soak. I take additional supplemental iodine, copper, zinc, selenium and lithium, in modest amounts (except for the iodine, of which I am taking more than what's typically recommended.) My "multivitamin" (actually the Life Extension Mix Powder, added to my smoothies) contains nine minerals, and lots of other stuff.

===

I start off the day with a big, chilled, glass of this drinking water. It's not the sort of water you want to drink much of with meals, as it's quite basic (alkaline), and your stomach wants to be quite acidic to digest food. Then through the day, between meals, I will make teas and such, using the still warm distilled water with one part in ten of the sun tea jar concentrate added.

[dynamo]

Fantastic detail, thank you Paul x 1000!!!

[Scorpio Girl]

How long does it take from start to the finished product and how much does it cost? How long have you been doing it? and what benefits body and mind wise have you derived from it so far?

[ThePythonicCow]

How long does it take from start to the finished product and how much does it cost? How long have you been doing it? and what benefits body and mind wise have you derived from it so far?

There are lots of small, separate steps, that can be done at different times, on different days. Since I "work" from home, I can move between my computer and my kitchen, as the spirit moves me. I might spend on average a half hour or an hour per day, doing some part of this.

Once the equipment listed above is purchased, or equivalents obtained that suit one's circumstances, and bulk quantities of the ingredients are obtained, the ongoing costs are nearly zero ... perhaps $10/month for the municipal water bill (that mostly goes for washing and toilet flushing, not drinking), and perhaps $5/month for the electricity to run the distiller (a gallon is needed every day or two.) I've not calculated the rate at which I should fund replenishig the bulk supplies. As a rough and wild guess, add another $5/month for that.

The major equipment expense up front is the whole house chloramine filter and the under the sink reverse osmosis unit. One can easily spend $1000 or $2000 on such, and most water purification companies are quite skilled at upselling you to something that benefits their profits more than it benefits you. Gene Franks, the owner and primary operator of PureWaterProducts.com, is an exception - an honest and capable man. I actually chose Denton, Texas to move to, when I left Silicon Valley back in 2007, because I had been a customer of Gene over the Web when I was living in California, and I figured that a town that he'd be comfortable living in and doing business in might be a better than average town to live in.

I've been trying different things with water filtering for a long time - several decades at least. Most of the supplies and equipment that I use today were purchased sometime perhaps two to nine years ago.

The benefits are never known, as I continue to change things in my diet and life, as well as in my water. The sum total is working well for me. As I am fond of observing, life is not a controlled, double bind, statistically significant, experiment. You get one shot at this life, and it's all happening in parallel.

I made a decision, back in 2005, to cease having anything to do with conventional medicine, except for (if needed) emergency trauma care (not needed so far - good), and dental work to remove the extensive toxic dental remedies that my good money had enabled me to purchase up until then. I chose to live and die, from that point forward, being my own doctor, for better or worse. My health is now far better, as I continue, one step at a time, to find ways in which I can take better care of myself.

[ThePythonicCow]

Ah - one detail I forgot to mention: The big two gallon "sun tea jar" also has several quartz crystals inside it, which perhaps help with the re-energizing and structuring of the water, in addition to the magnets, music, vortex, and light.

[Bill Ryan]

Great information. :star: Good water is really important.

This below (what I do in Ecuador) is noted as an add-on. Not a substitute for Paul's highest-quality process!

I have year-round spring water, right out of the mountain, so I'm blessed. It passes through a Berkey filter — and then I alkalize and mineralize it (or mineralize it more) using Santevia mineral stones, placed permanently in the lower container.

The advantage is that they're cheap ($34) and take zero work or time. They just sit there and do their thing 24/7 to all the water that passes through.


https://amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666


https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51K606rWWsL.jpg

[Bubu]

Thanks Paul this thread has come timely for me.
most of my life I have consumed spring or well water. when in doubt of well water quality I used biosand filter http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/229. only to remove unwanted bio contaminants not chemicals.

right now we have no spring or well source so I am actually doing some studies on how to make the best quality water I can from the city water system. I am planning to make pure water first through carbon filtering and reverse osmosis. Then simply add some sea salt. I might include magnetic and/or vortex as suggested in this thread. I believe that uncontaminated river water on its way to the sea is the ripe water for drinking. so to make such a river water is simply dilute mineral concentrastion of sea water. The above mentioned process will do the trick for me minus the contaminants

http://oceanplasma.org/documents/substitute.html

Diluted seawater contains almost the same concentration of minerals and trace elements as blood plasma, and its sodium content matches that of blood. It has been used successfully in animal tests as a blood transfusion substitute, but human trials are long overdue.


Seawater in its original and primal state had only one-third the saline content it has now, and this fact is still mirrored in the saline content of blood and tears. The oceans have become more concentrated through the ages, and their waters are now far too salty to drink in large amounts. To use ocean water as blood plasma, it must be diluted with ultra-pure water to the same concentration as blood plasma: namely, nine grams of salts per litre. As the perfect mineral supplement, it can be consumed orally in dilute form or full strength by those with no sodium sensitivities—but only in small amounts, like an ounce [0.03 litres] at a time, several times a day if necessary.

[hohoemi]

.
How To Make Sole (https://wellnessmama.com/12158/make-sole/).

(link didn't work because of a new line - feel free to delete this post if you correct it in your original!)




From Bill: Many thanks. Link fixed, in Paul's absence. :thumbsup:

[Bubu]

If water responds to the vibrations then a best structured water will immediately turn bad when consumed by a person with a negative vibe so I decided to simple sing after drinking water :)

[RunningDeer]

Great information. :star: Good water is really important.

This below (what I do in Ecuador) is noted as an add-on. Not a substitute for Paul's highest-quality process!

I have year-round spring water, right out of the mountain, so I'm blessed. It passes through a Berkey filter — and then I alkalize and mineralize it (or mineralize it more) using Santevia mineral stones, placed permanently in the lower container.

The advantage is that they're cheap ($34) and take zero work or time. They just sit there and do their thing 24/7 to all the water that passes through.


https://amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666



https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51K606rWWsL.jpg

Bill, a heads up from an Amazon review of those stones with respect to aluminum amounts (and given what you shared about your Father (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?78069-Caring-for-relatives-with-Alzheimer-s-the-modern-curse-of-the-elderly&p=913134&viewfull=1#post913134)...)

A particle quote from an article on aluminum.

Link between Aluminum and the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease: The Integration of the Aluminum and Amyloid Cascade Hypotheses (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056430/)




“Whilst being environmentally abundant, aluminum is not essential for life. On the contrary, aluminum is a widely recognized neurotoxin that inhibits more than 200 biologically important functions and causes various adverse effects in plants, animals, and humans. The relationship between aluminum exposure and neurodegenerative diseases, including dialysis encephalopathy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinsonism dementia in the Kii Peninsula and Guam, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been suggested. In particular, the link between aluminum and Alzheimer's disease has been the subject of scientific debate for several decades. “


*****

Amazon Customer's Review (https://www.amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666#customerReviews):

I have been reading reviews of people saying they really enjoy these stones and that they make their water taste better and so on and so forth. So I decided to buy it and test the product myself.

I have a berkey imperial filter which produce's great tasting water and this is my Base line water.

I boiled the rocks as stated in their instructions before my test.

I had 4 glasses of water all from the same batch of Berkey filtration and all sat over night about 8 Hours of saturation.
1 with nothing so i could use for my base line sample.
1 with the white balls. I saw no change in PH level.
1 with the mineral rock. I saw a slight increase in PH maybe by 0.5-1 PH
1 with both. I saw increase of 0.5 PH.

After I had done this Test I took the Rocks and the white balls to work and we have a Highly sophisticated XRF Gun by Thermo Scientific. This is a $30,000 xray gun. This is an X-ray Gun that shoots Xrays at Metals and or rocks depending on the model you buy and it will give you the elements of the material you shot.

Our Gun is for metals but has Most of the elements on the periodic chart with an exception of a few elements.
The gun has two sets of filters 1 heavy and 1 light. the heavy filter finds heavy elements light finds lighter elements.
Heavy is found in the first 5 seconds of shooting and the light filter turns on after that for as long as you hold the trigger.
I held each mineral for about 35 second each to get a good and fairly accurate reading. with a +/- of 2%.
Here are my findings

The white ball results (36 seconds trigger hold):
Al: 21% - Aluminium
Si: 75%
Fe: 0.5%
Zn: 0.1%
Zr: 1.2%
Nb: 0.05%
Bi: 1.1%

No traces of copper, magnesium and manganese. Extremely low contents of Zinc, and Iron. I cannot read calcium, sodium and Potassium. So this does not mean they are not present but from what the Gun reads for what it can see I do not feel comfortable putting these elements into my body. They may raise the PH of the water but what our XRF gun can see is not beneficial minerals.

The mineral rock results (35 seconds trigger hold):
Al: 14% - Aluminium
Si: 81%
Fe: 4%
Zr: 0.09%

Again, no copper, magnesium, manganese and zinc. Cannot read calcium, potassium and sodium.

If you add up the percentages you will see that it does not equal 100%. That is because the gun cannot read all the Elements in the rocks. So there may be calcium potassium and sodium in this mineral rock but I can guarantee there are no traces of copper, magnesium and manganese.

Conclusion. These rocks are a fake and do not work. This is a scam.

They work relative to raising PH level but I would not consider that it is raising the level with healthy beneficial minerals. Ever so slight traces possibly of healthy minerals as my gun did pick up zinc and Iron.

I would personally recommend that anyone using these rocks stop using them. I do not think they are sanitary and safe for consumption. I will not be using them in my Berkey filter or any filtration system for that matter.

Hope this review helps and that you guys make the right decision for your health and stay away from this.

I am not a doctor or a scientist. I love science and health and am lucky enough to have access to some amazing equipment. These results are from my personal experience with the santevia mineral stones that I have purchased.

Thanks for reading and God bless.


*****

From Education glossary (http://education.jlab.org/glossary/abund_ele.html)

http://avalonlibrary.net/paula/General/elements_zpsmqnqtamn.JPG

[yelik]

Be careful about trying to alter the acid balance of the body which will interfere with digestion - our body knows best! Natural Spring Water is all you need to drink, second best is carbon filters. There's structured water which is created by turbulence when water flows and rolls down a waterfall. There are expensive machines that create structured water.

[conk]

Be careful about trying to alter the acid balance of the body which will interfere with digestion - our body knows best! Natural Spring Water is all you need to drink, second best is carbon filters. There's structured water which is created by turbulence when water flows down a waterfall. There are expensive machines that create structured water.

http://www.findaspring.com/ Find a spring near you.

[ThePythonicCow]

Be careful about trying to alter the acid balance of the body which will interfere with digestion - our body knows best! Natural Spring Water is all you need to drink, second best is carbon filters. There's structured water which is created by turbulence when water flows down a waterfall.

Yup - that's why I don't drink water with, or soon after, eating any non-trivial amounts of fats or proteins. My tummy feels like it's got lumpy stuff in it if I drink alkaline water with my food.

(Though saying this might be "trying to alter the acid balance of the body" is a bit overly generalizing in my view. Various parts of the body have various pH (acid/alkaline balance) at various times. The body naturally makes extensive and varied use of the raw materials you provide it, water and various minerals, to keep the symphony of life playing its music.)

[yelik]

Yes, don't drink whilst eating and always wait 15 minutes after eating befotre having a drink otherwise your digestion is all over the place - hence the bloating people often get.

Our bodies are a finely balanced and delicate piece of evolution and we should only feed it what it needs - unfortunately in the interest of commerce most of what people eat is poisoning them because of lack of knowledge and education.

[yelik]

Also

The acidity required in the stomach for proper digestion gets problematic by adding a base in there.

As soon as food goes into the small and large intestines other enzymatic processes are activated which will provide the alkalinity that's required in that step of digestion in addition to bile from the liver.

Also the body knows what it needs to do and when to produce base or acid as required.

The immune system produces it's own peroxide to destroy invaders, etc...

Actually we need to wait an hour after eating before drinking and 15 mins before a meal

[ThePythonicCow]

Seawater in its original and primal state had only one-third the saline content it has now, and this fact is still mirrored in the saline content of blood and tears. The oceans have become more concentrated through the ages, and their waters are now far too salty to drink in large amounts. To use ocean water as blood plasma, it must be diluted with ultra-pure water to the same concentration as blood plasma: namely, nine grams of salts per litre. As the perfect mineral supplement, it can be consumed orally in dilute form or full strength by those with no sodium sensitivities—but only in small amounts, like an ounce [0.03 litres] at a time, several times a day if necessary.[/I]

Yes - an excellent explanation of what concentration of dissolved minerals works best.

Sea water has about 3.5% percent dissolved minerals, which would be about 35,000 parts per million. Apparently blood plasma is around 10,000 parts per million of the major mineral ions. I tend towards having my drinking water around 2,000 to 4,000 parts per million dissolved mineral solids, and I additionally drink other fluids (from fruits and veggies) with lower mineral concentrations.

The body does an excellent job of fine tuning the proportions. So long as you provide sufficient variety and quantity of minerals in one's diet, it's fine and good, actually desirable, for the water to be more dilute than blood plasma. The kidneys will happily use the extra water (that it extracts while concentrating that water up to blood plasma levels) for "cleaning", to flush away toxins. Notice that the best drinking water seems to be less salty than blood plasma -- this leaves some "pure" water left over for the kidneys to dissolve and excrete toxins. If however the average daily variety and quantity of minerals in one's diet is less than the body would like to use, then the body will start either pulling minerals out of its stores in the body, such as from one's bones, or start using less optimum biochemical reactions to get done what it needs to get done, or in the worst case, just be unable to get done some (or all - oops) of what it needs to get done.

Of course, anything injected or intravenously fed directly into the blood stream (such as vaccines <hah!>) needs to be more pure, much closer to blood plasma in mineral concentration, and much freer of toxins, because injected or intravenous liquids don't get to go through the body's natural filtering, concentration and dilution processes before being sent all around the body.

Drinking just distilled, or very low mineral content, water will start to deplete the body's stores of minerals. On the other hand, drinking water that is " too salty", with mineral concentrations at or above blood plasma levels, will make the body use its stores of water to dilute it down to blood plasma levels, which is why sailors stranded at sea will die of thirst if they start drinking much sea water. Also, drinking only "too salty" water will tax the kidneys, as they will suffer from a shortage of "pure" water for use in dissolving and excreting whatever they find in the blood that they decide isn't worth keeping.

This article provides more detail on sea water, and mineral concentrations in blood plasma: http://oceanplasma.org/documents/chemistry.html (though if your brain is suffering from years of inadequate minerals in your diet, you might find the article difficult reading <grin>.)

I noticed when reading the article that my fancy drinking water has relatively less "salt" (sodium and chloride ions) than sea water, but more of the other major minerals such as magnesium and sulfates. I then remembered that I have another major source of minerals in my diet: I add salt (Redmond RealSalt (http://www.realsalt.com/)) liberally to some of the foods I eat.

This further might explain the appeal of "sea salt" (from modern oceans) or Himalayan or RealSalt (from ancient deposits of sea salts) ... they naturally have about the right balance of the major minerals that the body finds optimal.

[ThePythonicCow]

Actually we need to wait an hour after eating before drinking and 15 mins before a meal
The times will vary, depending on how vigorous one's production of stomach acid and corresponding bile is, and depending on the quantities and composition of the food and water.

The tummy will let you know if you push it too hard, with that heavy feeling of food it's struggling to process.

[ThePythonicCow]

Notice that there is one major mineral that is missing from my water - phosphorous, which one might expect to be in the phosphate form, just as sulfur, a similar mineral, is often in the sulfate form.

Adding phosphates to this drinking water causes an immediate bubbling off of CO2 gas and a preciptation of some insoluble white powder. This is a variant of the chemistry used in leavening breads. I have an almost full, now apparently useless, 15 pound sack of phosphates that I bought to include in my water, before I realized this.

Fortunately, phosphates and other forms of phorphorous are abundant in plants, even when grown in mineral deficient industrialized farm soils.

[Bubu]

Be careful about trying to alter the acid balance of the body which will interfere with digestion - our body knows best! Natural Spring Water is all you need to drink, second best is carbon filters. There's structured water which is created by turbulence when water flows and rolls down a waterfall. There are expensive machines that create structured water.

I definitely agree with you that is why I am careful to make the least alteration and stay away from water filtration process that brag of 21 stages or more. especially because I dont have access to expensive machines to prove the validity of claims Another thing that I am considering is to make and only use a huge carbon filter since I have access to free coconut shell charcoal and replacing the carbon elements will only entail labor cost.
I was invited by a friend to try kangen alkali water. Due to many positive accounts I did try it and the persistent pain on my toes disappear after only few days of consuming alkali water. Since I am aware to consume only naturals I considered it a cure and stop consuming the said water after two weeks.

[ThePythonicCow]

Be careful about trying to alter the acid balance of the body which will interfere with digestion - our body knows best! Natural Spring Water is all you need to drink, second best is carbon filters.
So ... there's a good natural spring that I know of, perhaps 40 miles away. Should I make a weekly roundtrip of 80 miles (cost about $50 for gas, maintenance and depreciation of car) for several gallons of water, or should I work out, over a long time, how to replicate that spring water, using what's available to me?

As I've noted above, the "acid balance of the body" is not one constant ... it varies widely over parts of the body, and circumstances. Not putting too much alkaline into a stomach that is trying to digest a big Thanksgiving dinner is easy - the tummy will tell you that you're making it difficult for it to do its job. At other times of the day, when not digesting food in the stomach, a refreshing glass of water rich in minerals and energy (whether spring water or "home made") is delicious and a quite ordinary task for the stomach to handle.

When dealing with municipal water that has chorines, flourines, bromines, glyphosphate, pharmaceuticals, lead, mercury, other heavy metals, petroleum distillates, fertilizers, and lord knows what else, a carbon filter is not enough, not even close.

It's fine by me if you are in a situation with a couple of nice sounding simple rules of thumb are sufficient to guide you in your choice of water.

But I would not agree that any such rules of thumb apply generally or that they refute more complex solutions for other situations (which is how I read some of your post.)

[Bill Ryan]

Bill, a heads up from an Amazon review of those stones with respect to aluminum amounts
[ ... ]
Amazon Customer's Review (https://www.amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666#customerReviews):

Thanks! Very much appreciated. Interesting, too. (There were 19 comments to that review, and not every one was in agreement. But it gave a lot of pause for thought.)

One obvious question is that there may be a difference between the mineral content of the stones, and the mineral content of the water: for instance, some minerals may be dissolved in the water much more easily/quickly than others. But I'm sufficiently interested (and motivated!) to take a sample of the mineralized water to a local lab for analysis. (Here in Ecuador, the labs are very inexpensive, but with state-of-the-art equipment and really pretty good.)

My apologies for derailing Paul's thread here! :) But I did appreciate this info.

:focus:

[Bubu]

When dealing with municipal water that has chorines, flourines, bromines, glyphosphate, pharmaceuticals, lead, mercury, other heavy metals, petroleum distillates, fertilizers, and lord knows what else, a carbon filter is not enough, not even close.

Paul, from what I understand carbon filters are the best option for water filtering. here is a quate from Dr Mercola site.

Granular Carbon and Carbon Block Filters
These are the most common types of counter top and under counter water filters.

Granular carbon filters and carbon block systems perform the same process of contaminant removal, adsorption, which is the chemical or physical bond of a contaminant to the surface of the filter media.

Granular activated carbon is recognized by the EPA as the best available technology for the removal of organic chemicals like herbicides, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. However, one of the downfalls of granular carbon filters is that the loose material inside can channel--the water creates pathways through the carbon material, escaping filtering.

Carbon block filters offer the same superior filtering ability but are compressed with the carbon medium in a solid form. This eliminates channeling and gives the ability to precisely combine multiple media in a sub-micron filter cartridge. By combining different media, the ability to selectively remove a wide range of contaminants can be achieved.

A sub-micron pore structure gives the added benefit of cyst reduction. By creating a sub-micron physical barrier, the filter can eliminate dangerous organisms like Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

Ideally, you want a filtration system that offers a variety of methods to remove different contaminants. Most systems do not address a combination of organic, inorganic, cyst, sediment and metals.


http://waterfilters.mercola.com/drinking-water-filter.aspx

Since you claim otherwise may I know what makes you think so. I am new to water filtering I really wanted to hear what you and others will say before I decide. Thanks in advance.

[ThePythonicCow]

Paul, from what I understand carbon filters are the best option for water filtering.
Carbon blocks are excellent water filters. I have two of them in my system, as part of the reverse osmosis system under my kitchen sink.

Carbon blocks won't remove some smaller molecules or atoms very well, however. On the other hand, distillation won't remove some volatile organic compounds if they have boiling points near or below the boiling point of water. Carbon blocks handle such volatiles easily.

One can remove everything but the kitchen sink (but the actual H2O) using multiple filters of various kinds, in a row, like I'm doing, or one can determine just what one is trying to remove and go after just that.

For example, if one chooses to drink some unknown river or spring water in the wilderness, one should at least use some water purification, such as iodine, ultraviolet light, bleach, chlorine dioxide, or a ceramic filter, to avoid getting sick on the abundant bacteria and other small things that might be living in that water, but one might well decide to let whatever else is in the the water remain there.

Or if one is in a life raft, stranded at sea, needing to drink sea water, then one will need to find a way to reduce its salt concentration, but otherwise the water may be just fine.

[ThePythonicCow]

Ha - here's a blast from the past. I posted the following back in May of 2013. My water system has continued to get more complicated since then.

Copper deficiency (Dr Joel Wallach) -- Post #10 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?59194-Copper-deficiency--Dr-Joel-Wallach-&p=67511#post675116):

The main way that I ensure I get enough, in quantity and variety, of minerals is by adding them to my drinking water. I first remove all the extra stuff that comes for "free" in my municipal supplied water (chlorine, fluoride, chlorine by-products, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, heavy metals, fracking by-products, ...) with a series of various filters, then I add back in:

Willard water (http://drwillard.com/dr-willards-water/what-is-dr-willards-water/) (good source of sulfates)
potassium bicarbonate (from nuts.com (http://nuts.com/cookingbaking/leavenerthickener/potassium-bicarbonate.html))
Redmond "real salt" (http://www.realsalt.com/) (alternatively Himalayan pink salt)

In addition to Willards water, potassium bicarbonate and a good salt, I also include in my drinking water a few drops of "Optimally Organic Fulvic Ionic Minerals Concentrated X350"

I also take a multi-mineral supplement: Swanson Ultra Albion Chelated Multi-Mineral Glycinate (https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-ultra-albion-chelated-multi-mineral-glycinate-120-caps). I also take transdermal magnesium now and then (whenever the muscle in an old leg wound starts to twitch, which is the first sign that I'm getting low on magnesium.)

The following article, which I have previously referenced several times on this forum, discusses potassium bicarbonate: Diet, evolution and aging -- The pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet, by Frassetto L, Morris RC Jr, Sellmeyer DE, Todd K, Sebastian A. (pdf) (www.ionizers.org/pdf/3-scientific-articles/Diet_Evolution_and_Aging.pdf)

[RunningDeer]

Ha - here's a blast from the past. I posted the following back in May of 2013. My water system has continued to get more complicated since then.

Willard water (http://drwillard.com/dr-willards-water/what-is-dr-willards-water/) (good source of sulfates)

In addition to Willards water, potassium bicarbonate and a good salt, I also include in my drinking water a few drops of "Optimally Organic Fulvic Ionic Minerals Concentrated X350"
Thanks, Paul. I just put an order in for Dr. Willard’s Water® ULTIMATE Concentrate (http://drwillard.com/buy-products/). :thumbsup: on free shipping (over $30).




Dr. Willard’s Water® ULTIMATE is the best Willard Water® product available for nutritional supplement use.  It has the same dose of Dr. Willard’s micelle catalyst as that found in the Willard Water® CLEAR and aides in nutrient assimilation, removing toxins from the body, and serves as a free radical scavenger. 

Willard Water® ULTIMATE also has same concentration of the 19 trace minerals found in the Willard Water® DARK XXX.  These trace minerals such as iron, manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, calcium, potassium, and selenium and many others found in the Willard Water® ULTIMATE are essential to maintaining optimum balance. 

They play a vital role in many of the body’s functions such as aiding in the formation of bones and teeth, regulating the release and use of body energy, acting as a natural antioxidant, and assisting in nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction.

Dr. Willard’s Water® ULTIMATE also contains the same amount of fossilized organics (activated carbon, amino acids, readily available trace minerals and other desirable ingredients obtained from lignite. Lignite is the fossil remains of plants grown 50 million years ago.) as the DARK XXX®.

[KiwiElf]

If I could (shamelessly) recommend a product which was designed for this from the get-go (along with many other benefits):

CELLFOOD

All the info is at the link below and I've been using it for years - good stuff! (Can also be ordered online, and is usually available at health shops). Depending on your locale, it can be ordered directly from the local representative. Like colloidal silver, many more benefits than can be "legally" advertised and due to certain regulations in specific countries, is marketed as a "supplement". ;)

For "clean" water, if you go through the history of the product (a detailed PDF is available for download), potable water was one of its first uses until it was discovered it was capable of so much more. Can also be used topically. 72 trace minerals, trace enzymes, and trace amino acids. Very similar product/claims to Willard’s Water® (above)

http://www.cellfood.com/

[ThePythonicCow]

Very similar product/claims to Willard’s Water® (above)
This clear description of yours reminds me of something else, also related to this topic.

Someone asked earlier in this thread what were the benefits that I had observed, as a result of drinking this water. My answer to them wasn't very useful; I rather side stepped the question, saying that I kept changing other things in my life at the same time. "Life is not a controlled experiment".

Let me now comment on that, from a different angle.

The connection between what we eat (or drink, or breath, or otherwise put in our bodies), and what that does for our body, is complicated.

Our body, including our own cells, our gut bacteria, and the mitochondria inside each of our cells, makes use of an amazing variety of biochemical, electromagnetic, sound, light, and other processes. These half dozen things make use of these dozen other things to regulate, produce, consume, intake and excrete these half dozen other things ... over and over and over ... with a myriad of feedback loops.

It's an amazing maze.

One can almost never say that "taking nutrient x fixes this problem or provides that benefit" for everyone that takes it.

Let me take a (far simpler) analogy. Imagine that I was married to someone with very little mechanical inclination (that's easy for me to imagine.) Imagine that she calls me up on her cell phone and says her car won't run. If I then recalled back to the time when my car had run out of gas, and I call up the road service to bring her a few gallons of gas, that might help, but probably not. The problem could be any of a number of things. Perhaps the battery died or perhaps some computer thing on the engine lost its tiny little mind, or perhaps the radiator failed and the engine overheated and cracked its block, or perhaps the transmission gave up the ghost due to an oil luck draining its lubricant, or perhaps ... perhaps many things.

Usually (not always) there is one particular thing that's missing, or that's broken, or that's not right, and fixing that one thing will make for an immediate improvement. But just because my car needed some gas one time years ago doesn't mean that my wife's (back when I was married) car needs gas now.

===

This effects how I continue to refine what I eat and drink.

I will notice something that's "not right" with my body. This was altogether too easy for me to do over the past decade, but fortunately is getting harder to do now. Then I will try to figure out what might be causing that symptom of sub-optimum health. Eventually I'd find one or two things that made a big improvement, and perhaps incorporate those into my life, such as by eating or drinking more of one thing, or less of another.

For example, my blood pressure has gone from about 150/90, to 110/60 (a good change, in my view.) Probably the biggest change that did that was my going from a high-carb diet to a nearly ketogenic diet. But that doesn't mean that's the solution for everyone who wants to lower their blood pressure. For others, the difference might be balancing their sodium/potassium and their calcium/magnesium mineral intake; that mineral intake wasn't what I needed to do, because I had already done that.

My basic strategy is:

Notice something about my health that I'd like to improve, or some symptom of poor health I'd like to lessen.
Investigate what might be causing that, learn more about my body, and try possible changes.
Notice which changes make helpful improvements and adopt one or a few of them.
Repeat, until I die in near perfect health at a ripe old age.


===

In short, the claims for many foods, nutrients and practices that say "this fixes all the chronic ills in this long list" are misleading.

There are many changes that will improve life for many people, depending on what's causing the problems they notice.

Good health depends on doing many things more or less right, and nothing too much wrong.

There are many recommended dietary changes that have long lists of "benefits", because most chronic illnesses have many possible partial causes. These long lists of
"benefits" are rather similar for most of the potentially health nutrients we might consume, or toxins we might avoid.

It depends on the individual case what will be of significant benefit. (Back to my above analogy): some cars need gas, some cars need a battery charge.

[sheme]

Recommended by Leuren Moret -Scroll down the page. http://www.leurenmoret.info/lifestyle/index.html

[Bubu]

Paul, from what I understand carbon filters are the best option for water filtering.
Carbon blocks are excellent water filters. I have two of them in my system, as part of the reverse osmosis system under my kitchen sink.

Carbon blocks won't remove some smaller molecules or atoms very well, however. On the other hand, distillation won't remove some volatile organic compounds if they have boiling points near or below the boiling point of water. Carbon blocks handle such volatiles easily.

.

Thanks and I agree with this I just hope those smaller molecules is not volatile at the same time, otherwise no filter battery can handle them efficiently.

[onawah]

I don't think there is a practical, affordable way to remove fluoride from showers, which is something I would love to be able to do.
I go to a local spring once a month to fill bottles for drinking and cooking, and I keep it in glass bottles on my front porch for a few days before using to be charged by the sun, so my drinking water is pretty good.
But our water in Arkansas is fluoridated now and I can't afford a reverse osmosis system for my home.
But they don't remove fluoride for bathing, and there is no shower filter I have been able to find that removes fluoride.
The toxins in fluoridation can be absorbed when bathing and washing dishes through the pores and the breath.
Rubber gloves can be worn while washing dishes, but nothing to be done about bathing and showering in it, apparently.
I guess my next step would be to buy a Berkey and get the fluoride filters, and heat the filtered water for dishes and bathing. (sigh)
Meanwhile, I am on the local anti-fluoridation committee trying to get state legislators to rescind the fluoridation mandate, or at least give us local control, but no success so far, thanks to their very greasy palms.
(Just as an aside, I'm amazed at how many people think that devices like Brita pitchers get out fluoride! )

[ThePythonicCow]

I don't think there is a practical, affordable way to remove fluoride from showers, which is something I would love to be able to do.
Agreed. I also don't know of an economical and practical way to remove fluoride from larger quantities of water. I can only afford to remove fluorides from my drinking water.

I like to imagine that (unlike the chlorines) the fluoride compounds are not so well absorbed through the skin. I have no real idea if this is true, but it makes me feel better to hope so.

Meanwhile, I take a rather high amount of iodine, in the form of Lugol's solution, which contains both forms, potassium iodide and elemental iodine.

The main problem with the halides, fluorine, chlorine and bromine, is that they displace iodine. The iodine is essential to several critical biochemical processes in the body, and is the largest, weakest binding, of the commonly available halides. The other halides, fluorine, chlorine and bromine are smaller atoms, so bond more tightly. They can bind to iodine receptive sites and then not let go. Fluorine is the worst offender here, being the smallest, most energetically binding of the halides.

So I do what I can to keep my body "saturated" with iodine, in both forms, to improve the chance that iodine will end up binding to a receptor, not one of the toxic halides.

[onawah]

I'm taking kelp and iodine drops too, also juicing a lot, taking spirulina, fresh aloe vera gel and other stuff.
I did some investigating, and heard from what seemed a reliable source that we do absorb fluoride through our pores.
Of course, what is labeled as fluoride now is not naturally occurring fluoride, but fluorosilicic acid from industrial waste, mixed with arsenic, lead, aluminum and God knows what else, as most of it is now being imported from China.
If Trump doesn't get on that problem along with vaccines, I will be very disappointed.

[ThePythonicCow]

I'm taking kelp and iodine drops too, also juicing a lot, taking spirulina, fresh aloe vera gel and other stuff.
Excellent :)


If Trump doesn't get on that problem along with vaccines, I will be very disappointed.
I doubt that Trump has the power to stop something that deeply motivated.

[onawah]

He could help expose the lies, at least.
That would make it pretty difficult for the poisoners and their minions.

[ThePythonicCow]

He could help expose the lies, at least.
Yes - I too hope he will do at least that.

[ThePythonicCow]

Here's strong evidence for high sulfate, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and selenomethionine (a particular form of selenium) intake:
8fnfa48mjL8
These nutrients work together to dramatically lower one's sensitivity to toxic heavy metals and to detox existing stores of heavy metals, such as mercury.

This video is of a 2011 speech by Dr. Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD to the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT).

In this speech, Jaffe also recommends 3 (if you're really healthy) to 100 (if you're rather sickly) grams (not mg) per day of vitamin C (in some mineral salt, aka ascorbate, aka "buffered" form, rather than in the ascorbic acid form) intake, 3 or more quarts of good water, and other nutrients including probiotics and prebiotics in regular, ample, supply. He describes a simple test (using a pH strip on morning urine) for healthy alkaline mineral levels, another simple test (skin fold test) for water levels, and another simple test (the vitamin C flush (http://www.fxmedicine.com.au/blog-post/naturopathic-vitamin-c-flush)) for healthy levels of Vitamin C.

His nutrient and supplement recommendations end up matching almost to a tee what I am currently doing, after decades of experimenting with different nutrients and supplements.

He also explains how these are involved in the body's biochemistry - why they work the way they do and are valuable to our health.

He does not cover most of the essential amino acids. He does not discuss optimum fatty acid (such as Omega 3 and 6 fats and saturated fats) intake. He also does not discuss the advantages of a ketogenic (or nearly so) very low carb diet.

[ThePythonicCow]

Oopsie - I just made a change in the formula. I removed the iodine.

Something I was watching earlier today brought to my realization that iodine is a strong acid - its outer electron shell is just one electron short of being complete (as in the noble gas Xenon). This means that it just loves to bond tightly with alkaline minerals that have just one electron in their outer shell, such as sodium, potassium, and silver. This is not a problem in an acqueous solution for sodium and potassium, as both sodium iodide and potassium iodide are easily soluble in water.

However silver iodide is quite insoluble in water. That means that the combination of silver and iodine in my drinking water mix was likely self-defeating. Until one of the two was exhausted, it's likely that one positive ion of silver was combining with one negative ion of iodine to form an insoluble and biologically inert molecule of silver iodine, of no further use to my body, wasting both ingredients.

Since iodine is the "odd man out here", the one acidic (from the right side of the periodic table), amongst many alkaline minerals (mostly from the left side of the table), it is now removed from my water recipe. I will have to get my iodine in other ways (as I was already doing anyway.)

This is yet another example of the desirability of keeping the more alkaline parts of one's diet, such as this mineral rich water, from the more acidic parts of one's diet, including the parts that will require strong stomach acid to digest, such as the fats and proteins.

In plain English, don't drink a lot of minerally rich water with one's meals ... and don't put iodine in one's minerally rich drinking water.

I have updated my water recipe in the opening post of this thread to reflect that change.

===

P.S. -- So ... how come I didn't have a couple dozen members pointing out how foolish I was to put iodine in this recipe? :ROFL:

[ThePythonicCow]

.
Another change:
Based on the excellent article about boron linked in Bubu's the borax conspiracy -- Post #9 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?63939-The-borax-conspiracy....&p=1143408&viewfull=1#post1143408), I have increased the borax (for its boron) in the sole ingredients (in this thread's opening post) from 1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon.

[PurpleLama]

Hey Paul, Edgar Cayce recommended taking nascent electrified iodine in a glass of water first thing in the morning. The idea is that it absorbs very rapidly when taken this way, and you might not have it combining with other elements rendering them inert. Just throwing that out there....

[ThePythonicCow]

Hey Paul, Edgar Cayce recommended taking nascent electrified iodine in a glass of water first thing in the morning. The idea is that it absorbs very rapidly when taken this way, and you might not have it combining with other elements rendering them inert. Just throwing that out there....

Yes - that could work - thanks. In my particular situation, I expect to add the iodine to a few other (non-alkaline) supplements that I take later in the day. There are ways ...

[ThePythonicCow]

.
I've made the mistake of bragging about how many steps I go through to get good drinking water, so some other members have asked me to describe what I do.

Ok - here goes.

There are three major phases:

Remove all the crud from my typical municipal water.
Remineralize with a wide variety of water soluable minerals.
Reenergize with music, magnets, light and vortices.

I have re-discovered what was a key source for several of the ideas behind this process, and I have extended the third phase, reenergizing my water.

===

MJ Pangman and Melanie Evans wrote a book a few years ago called "Dancing with Water" which I rediscovered in my collection last week. My basic strategy of (1) remove the gunk, (2) remineralize, and (3) reenergize came from this book, as did various other details of my process.

They have a new edition of this book out, with "40% New Content", published just a couple of months ago (Feb 2017). I just got my copy of this book a couple of days ago, and expect to read it soon. You can find more details on their website: http://www.dancingwithwater.com/about-the-book/

MJ Pangman has a few Youtube videos out, mostly from 2 to 5 years ago discussing the first edition of Dancing with Water. She's quite articulate on the subject, though on some of the videos, she didn't have a good microphone, resulting in mediocre audio. Adam Abraham, who has been investigating structured water for several years now, interviewed MJ in a Youtube video that has good audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abo11oqv2Qs

One of the new items in this 2nd edition of Dancing with Water is a strong recommendation for a mineral called shungite, which is a carbon and silica mineral, with (in the higher quality so called "Elite" rocks) a high concentration of carbon structured as fullerenes (Bucky balls).

===

I just received today 100 grams of shungite, as 9 rough cut stones that look like shiny pieces of coal.

I have added two of the stones to my cat's water bowl, and I have started a new quart container of drinkable water on my kitchen counter (room temperature.)

The cat's bowl has had a problem of accumulating scum, as little living things like to live in that water, so I have been putting mostly distilled and ionic silver water in it, rather than my fine remineralized and reenergized water, to reduce the scum. This new shungite supposedly has some anti-bacterial and water cleaning abilities, so now I am trying the shungite stones with my fine remineralized and reenergized water, in hopes that the shungite will help hold back the scum (or it might encourage the scum even more so ... I'll soon see.)

Until now I have been able to keep my remineralized and reenergized water in its concentrated form, nearly saturated with minerals in nearly a sole, at room temperature on my counter, as that water is salty enough to stay free of scum. But once I dilute that water (about 10% concentrate to 90% distilled water) down to my preferred drinking portions, I have only kept it in the refrigerator, as something that is perishable. Now with these shungite stones, I am trying a quart jar of the drinkable, diluted, water on the counter, as both one more way to restore structured energy to the water, and hopefully as a way to keep the water clear of overgrowth until I drink it (or pour it into the cat's bowl, when that gets low.)

After looking about the web, the shungite stones on Amazon seemed like a fair deal for some good "elite" stones, as noted in the review I just posted there: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3T3T5QJH9HYM5/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01AXT7P32

[onawah]

Sounds good! I've been wearing a bracelet of shungite balls at work to help me withstand wifi and cell phones there. It does seem to help.

[ThePythonicCow]

The cat's bowl has had a problem of accumulating scum, as little living things like to live in that water, so I have been putting mostly distilled and ionic silver water in it, rather than my fine remineralized and reenergized water, to reduce the scum. This new shungite supposedly has some anti-bacterial and water cleaning abilities, so now I am trying the shungite stones with my fine remineralized and reenergized water, in hopes that the shungite will help hold back the scum (or it might encourage the scum even more so ... I'll soon see.)

Until now I have been able to keep my remineralized and reenergized water in its concentrated form, nearly saturated with minerals in nearly a sole, at room temperature on my counter, as that water is salty enough to stay free of scum. But once I dilute that water (about 10% concentrate to 90% distilled water) down to my preferred drinking portions, I have only kept it in the refrigerator, as something that is perishable. Now with these shungite stones, I am trying a quart jar of the drinkable, diluted, water on the counter, as both one more way to restore structured energy to the water, and hopefully as a way to keep the water clear of overgrowth until I drink it (or pour it into the cat's bowl, when that gets low.)
So far, three weeks later, my shungite experiment is a success. Both the warm, ready to drink water on the counter, and the water in the cat's bowl, remain fresh looking and tasty. The cat, and my taste buds, both approve.

[Saracatt]

At least until I see more to the contrary that changes my mind, I will for now continue to focus on keeping my water mineral rich (plenty of soluble forms of various minerals) and electrically energized and structured, rather than on dissolving additional hydrogen gas in my water. I reserve the right to change my mind on this hydrogen water and endorse it more enthusiastically, of course, in the light of more evidence that comes to my attention.

Hi Paul - Do you have any information on how to effectively structure water? I agree that minerals make all the difference. I have been trying to find an easy way to do this without spending a ton on a machine that may or may not work.

Thanks.

[Saracatt]

It looks like Bill found the right thread and moved my post. Thanks, Bill!

That is more information than I could have hoped for! This is good - I already have the Mother Earth Labs fulvic minerals and someone gave me some shungite a while back, but I haven't known what to do with it.

[ThePythonicCow]

Almost a year ago, I added yet one more step to this "recipe". I now keep a pitcher full of the ready to drink water in an unglazed clay water jug.

This is the next to the last step. The last step is still a glass pitcher of the water in my refrigerator, as I prefer the taste of chilled water.

Whenever I take some water from that chilled glass pitcher, I refill it from the clay water jug, and whenever the water starts to get low in the jug, I refill that with perhaps 1 part concentrate and 9 parts distilled water.

My "theory", from some reading that I no longer recall, is that water, once cleaned up, remineralized and reenergized, then likes to sit quietly in a dark, earthen, environment for a while.

Here's the jug I use, handmade in the Ukraine:


http://thepythoniccow.us//water_jug.jpg
Decorative Handmade Pitcher With Handle And Lid Molded Of White Clay (http://a.co/boiyrK0)

[Foxie Loxie]

What a beautiful pitcher!! I took a picture of it on my phone; simply gorgeous!! :star: Loved the white flower!

[Kryztian]

Paul, just want to thank you and everyone else who contributed for this amazing thread. I am moving to a new locale and determined to improve the quality of the water I drink so this gives me a lot to think about.

[Bill Ryan]

Great information. :star: Good water is really important.

This below (what I do in Ecuador) is noted as an add-on. Not a substitute for Paul's highest-quality process!

I have year-round spring water, right out of the mountain, so I'm blessed. It passes through a Berkey filter — and then I alkalize and mineralize it (or mineralize it more) using Santevia mineral stones, placed permanently in the lower container.

The advantage is that they're cheap ($34) and take zero work or time. They just sit there and do their thing 24/7 to all the water that passes through.


https://amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51K606rWWsL.jpg



Bill, a heads up from an Amazon review of those stones with respect to aluminum amounts
[ ... ]
Amazon Customer's Review (https://www.amazon.com/Santevia-Water-Systems-Mineral-Stones/dp/B003T46666#customerReviews):

Thanks! Very much appreciated. Interesting, too. (There were 19 comments to that review, and not every one was in agreement. But it gave a lot of pause for thought.)

One obvious question is that there may be a difference between the mineral content of the stones, and the mineral content of the water: for instance, some minerals may be dissolved in the water much more easily/quickly than others. But I'm sufficiently interested (and motivated!) to take a sample of the mineralized water to a local lab for analysis. (Here in Ecuador, the labs are very inexpensive, but with state-of-the-art equipment and really pretty good.)



Well. I now tell this story against myself. :facepalm:

I'll post a standalone thread about this, specifically so that Google will pick it up.

My thanks to RunningDeer/Paula (see her quoted post above). Santevia Mineral Stones are TOXIC.

I did follow up with the company. They assured me that tests had been done, and the stones were healthy and safe. I asked for the test results, but I didn't get a reply.

Time passed, and I never figured out how I could do an analysis here. I couldn't find anyone locally who could test the water. I even thought of having a blood test, but the blood test lab here (a good one) didn't have heavy metals on their menu of tests they could do.

Finally, I got very bright and asked them if they COULD do heavy metals testing, even though it wasn't listed. They said they indeed could, but would send my blood to Colombia (next door to Ecuador) where they have a better lab. It'd just take a bit of time.

So, at last I had a test. That was 6 weeks ago.

The test came in HIGH. The level was semi-toxic: 27.59 μg/L.

That's NOT NOT good. It was so unusually high, they had to run the analysis twice, to make sure they'd not made a mistake.

I threw the stones out immediately, did a whole bunch of stuff to get the aluminum out FAST, and then did another test 3 weeks later.

The results have just come back: "Less than 5 μg/L." That's now way LESS than the maximum safe level. :star:

The lab had to run THAT analysis twice, as well, because they couldn't believe the difference. :)

~~~

If anyone reading this, member or guest, is using these stones, THROW THEM OUT NOW. They're HEAVILY toxic.

Too much aluminum over a prolonged period inhibits and interferes with brain function, and can bring on irreversible dementia and worse. I'm completely clear, and no damage was done. But, OMG. Serious stuff.

My public thanks to RunningDeer/Paula here, for her smart alert. I was late to take action, but all's well. Meanwhile, one wonders how many people all over the world using this product have no idea about this.

[Bill Ryan]

Here are the test results. I threw out the Santevia mineral stones on 12 July, the moment I got the first test back. My second test was 19 days later.

I'd done a bunch of natural chelation, with a multi-day water fast (with good water!), coffee enemas which I did myself (100% easy and painless, by the way), eating a ton of cilantro/coriander, which is a natural chelator, and drinking gallons of water every day. :)

The body naturally chelates all the time (i.e. always tries 24/7 to get rid of heavy metals if it can). But of course, it's sometimes necessary to support it.

I talked to my body throughout. I knew the level had dropped a lot (my body told me!), but I never knew the exact numbers till I got the second test back. I'm still rather amazed.

http://projectavalon.net/Bill_Ryan_aluminum_blood_test_comparison.gif

[Billy]

Doctor Chris Exley from Striling University had a PHD in ecotoxicology of Aluminium Bill.

8r9fv1mUaro
Some interesting comments under the video.

[Bob]

This is an important thread - our newest members may enjoy reading this one :)

:bump2:

[Kryztian]

Once you've made the healthy water, here on some tips on how to drink it for the best health benefits. Good yogic advice. (10 minutes)
sWTbqJfZzXM