Next to oxygen, water is the most essential substance for human life. This should not be surprising since over 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, and near the same percentage of the human body is comprised of it.
How much water do you drink per day? Not coffee or juice, but plain water. Ideally, that number should be close to a gallon. Depending on your activity level, climate in which you live and body weight, that number may be higher.
If you live in the Arizona desert like us, where it’s extremely dry and hot much of the year, those requirements will go up. If you partake in vigorous exercise daily or your job requires physical labor, you should likely consume a bit more. If you weigh over 250 pounds, again, your water intake should be higher.
In our experience, most people do not drink nearly enough of this essential nutrient, and if they do, it’s not the proper type of water, so it’s no wonder why so many have adrenal and thyroid problems.
Reasons To Drink Water
- Fluid Balance – As mentioned above, your body is about 60% water. One of the most important reasons to drink water is to help maintain your body’s fluid balance. Those fluids perform an uncountable number of functions, some of which include digestion and the formation of saliva, nutrient transport and absorption, body temperature regulation and circulation.
- Detoxification – Water is essential to help remove toxins from the body, through the liver, kidneys, intestines and skin. Without enough water, and the right type of water, your body’s detoxification process will be slowed or halted. Unfortunately, the water most people drink adds toxins to the body, adding a chemical burden to the liver and thyroid. We’ll discuss this later.
- Muscle Function – If you’re an athlete, you know the benefits proper hydration has on performance. By maintaining a proper electrolyte balance, your muscles will function better. Poor balance can result in muscle fatigue, cramping, etc. We’re not just talking about your biceps and quads, but the muscles of your organs like your heart, stomach, intestines, and others. Without enough water, those organs will cease to function properly.
- Bowel Function – Sufficient hydration allows things to properly flow through your gastrointestinal tract. Without enough water, your colon will draw fluid from your stool in an effort to maintain hydration, resulting in constipation. If you’re not eliminating waste properly, there’s more toxicity issues.
- Relief Of Common Symptoms – Do you suffer from headaches or migraines, back pain, joint pain, muscle cramps, fatigue, depression and as mentioned above, constipation? If so, this might be a sign of dehydration. Not to say that all of these symptoms can be relived by drinking more water, but in many cases they can.
- Skin, hair & nails – Adequate water intake can help to hydrate your skin, hair and nails, keeping your skin and hair soft, smooth and glowing, and your nails from becoming brittle.
You can survive up to a few weeks without food, though it won’t be pleasant, but you can only survive a few days without water. Without the proper water, however, even though you may survive, you won’t thrive.
Finding pure drinking water has been an issue for human kind for quite some time. The more polluted the earth has become, the more of an issue we have. It’s not coincidence that rates of all disease, thyroid disease in particular, has increased drastically over the past several decades. The water you’re drinking may be part of the problem.
Water To Avoid
All water is not created equal. Well, actually, it is created equal, it’s just what man does to it that makes it unfit for consumption. Below are water sources we recommend avoiding. Some you’ may be aware of, some, due to really good marketing, may contradict what you’ve been told.
- Municipal Tap Water – Though tap water has some advantages, like convenience, ability to hydrate, content of vital trace minerals, cheap and convenient, and in some cases, is not overly contaminated with hazardous bacteria, viruses and parasites, I wouldn’t recommend drinking it, or even bathing in it.
Tap water is contaminated with extremely toxic metals and chemicals, some of which our government voluntarily adds in an effort to “sanitize” it. Toxic metals like arsenic and lead used in pesticides and herbicides find their way into the water you’re drinking.
As mentioned, most cities add chemicals to the water you’re drinking and bathing in. Some of those chemicals are extremely toxic to the thyroid gland.
- Chlorine, part of the halogen family, is added to help kill harmful microorganisms. Unfortunately, some microorganisms are resistant to chlorine, but worse yet, chlorine not only disrupts gut flora, but is also an iodine antagonist, meaning that it competes for absorption with iodine at binding sites within the thyroid gland. Iodine is not only needed to produce thyroid hormones, but also plays an important role in the function of the adrenal glands, ovaries, and the entire endocrine system.
- Fluoride, another iodine antagonist is also added to water. Ironically, it’s not added for sanitation, but rather as an “essential” mineral to prevent tooth decay. Ironically because more and more studies are coming out showing that fluoride not only doesn’t prevent tooth decay, but may increase risk of tooth decay. Fluoride not only contributes to thyroid disease, but also reproduction issues, CNS disorders, heart disease, arthritis, and bone fractures as displaces calcium, leading to decreased bone density. Yet it’s supposedly good for your teeth, which are comprised of bone.
- Bromide, yet another halogen, is added too, which also inhibits iodine, leading to thyroid disorders. In fact, several decades ago, our government thought it would be a good idea to pass a law requiring bread companies to begin using bromide/bromine in lieu of iodine to help yeast rise, as they worried that our population would become iodine toxic. Well, that backfired, which is indicated by the increase in thyroid disorders since that insane law.
- Aluminum is often added to your municipal tap water to make solid components in the water clump together and sink to the bottom of the holding tanks. Unfortunately, aluminum makes its way into the water you’re drinking, and is linked to memory issues, brain fog, dementia and other neurological disorders. I’ve yet to work with a client that doesn’t have elevated aluminum levels.
- Medical Drugs, like birth control, anti-depressants, antibiotics and many others are in your tap water. All of these over-prescribed toxic drugs are excreted through urine, and make their way into the water you’re drinking. It’s no wonder why rates in infertility and antibiotic resistant bacteria are so high.
- Well Water – Long, long ago, it may have been a good option, and likely the only option. Today, however, it’s not. It is easily contaminated not only with parasites and bacteria that can be very harmful to the digestive and immune systems, both of which have a huge effect on thyroid function, but also contain many harmful chemicals due to industrial waste and agricultural spraying.
- Reverse Osmosis filtered water I don’t recommend drinking for several reasons. Though most harmful minerals and chemicals are filtered out through the process, so are many essential minerals like calcium, magnesium and others, making the water much too acidic, and may have a chelating effect on other essential minerals within the body. Some of the residue from the plastic membrane finds its way back into the water, adding another level of toxicity to your body. Also, RO systems can easily become contaminated with harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites, leading to GI and immune disorders. Lastly, reverse osmosis wastes about 2 gallons of water for every 1 gallon it produces.
- Alkaline Water, which you may see marketed in health food and sports nutrition stores, are a complete hoax. Most alkaline water machines use platinum and titanium plates, which can be toxic to the kidneys and liver. Some may add poor quality forms of calcium and other minerals to help “alkalinize” the water, which can correlate to mineral imbalances within the body.
What Water Should I Drink?
We’ve discussed types of drinking water to avoid. Now let us focus the types of water you should drink and why.
- Spring Water hydrates the body very well and is low in toxic metals, chemicals and pathogens like bacteria, viruses, parasites and other harmful micro-organisms. Most of it has been filtered the way God intended it to be, through rocks and soil found in nature. It also contains many of the trace minerals needed by the body, especially since our food is so depleted in today’s world.
Some worry about the plastic bottles leeching toxins into the water. The benefits of the quality of the water greatly outweigh the potential leeching of toxins from the packaging. Unfortunately, constantly buying bottled spring water can be cost prohibitive for some.
There are a couple brands of spring water I’d recommend avoiding though. Arrowhead being one, as there have been reports of this water containing added lithium, which is not healthful. The other is Deer Park, as it’s recently been shown to be contaminated.
- Steam Distilled Water is another great drinking water. When you think about it, steam distillation is common in nature. Water evaporates into the air, then is dropped back down to the earth’s surface via rain, what’s more natural than that? Distilled water is free of chemicals, metals, pathogens, and other toxic compounds, which make it very safe to drink.
Distilled water can also be very detoxifying as it is a natural chelator, helping to remove toxic components from the body. I wouldn’t recommend drinking it for prolonged periods of time, more than 60-90 days, as it can begin to remove essential minerals as well, creating nutritional imbalances.
- Quality Drinking Water Filters can also be very helpful. Be careful when choosing them though, as some like RO systems mentioned above can be very depleting to the body. The right filter, however, can remove not only the chlorines and chloramines, but also pathogens, toxic metals, and most toxic chemicals like pharmaceuticals and fluoride.
To make it easy, we’ve added a couple drinking water filters to our website that we recommend to our e3 Energy Evolved Private e3 Restore clients, and use in our home as well.
Drinking Tips
We mentioned which types of water to drink and which to avoid, as well as how much water to drink. Here are some other tips you find helpful to your restoration process.
- Drink room temperature or drink it warm. Never add ice to it, or any beverage, as it can not only cause cramping of the stomach, impeding digestion, but can be somewhat disruptive to thyroid health.
- Drink about a quart as soon as you wake up in the morning, about 30-45 minutes before breakfast. This can not only start you on the right path for the day in regards to your quantity requirements, but can also help to induce a bowel movement. If you suffer from constipation, definitely give this a try.
- Do not drink during meals. Drinking during meals dilutes your digestive juices, thus compromising your ability to breakdown and utilize what you’re eating. Stop drinking about 10 minutes before your meal until at least 30 minutes after your meal. Only drink what is needed to swallow your supplements.
- Set yourself some water goals throughout the day. Consume close to a quart by breakfast, another quart by lunch, another quart by mid day, and another quart by the time you go to bed.
- Reduce your consumption as you approach bed time, as the need to urinate can interfere with you getting a restful night sleep.
- Add a little lemon to it, especially in the early morning. It can provide a nice flavor as well as improve detoxification.
Other Considerations
We’ve discussed extensively the need for quality drinking water, but what is all too often disregarded is the need for quality shower water. Even though we’re not regularly drinking from the shower head, everything discussed above about drinking water holds true for shower water.
There are basically three modes these toxic chemicals and pathogens can enter our bodies while showering, the skin/mucous membranes, mouth and lungs.
Our skin not only allows for the removal of toxins through our sweat, but also absorbs toxins as well. The chlorine/choramines, fluoride and other chemicals are absorbed through our skin, thus lending to toxicity within the body.
If the shower water enters your mouth, you may be at risk of swallowing not only some those chemicals, but also toxic metals and pathogens as well.
More importantly, are the chemical vapors you’re inhaling through your lungs while showering. Those chlorine and fluoride vapors may actually be more harmful than those absorbed through your skin or mouth.
For these reasons, if you’re looking to restore your thyroid function or improve your immune system, it’s essential to use a quality shower filter as well, one that not only removes the chemicals like pharmaceuticals and chlorine, but also fluoride.
Again, for your convenience, we’ve added a couple shower filters to our website as well, filters that we not only recommend to our e3 Restore members, but use in our own home as well.
You Don’t Have To Live In a Bubble
We’re exposed to toxins constantly in today’s world. In order to avoid them all, you’d have to live like Bubble Boy from Seinfeld, provided that bubble was not made from toxic materials. To eliminate them all would be impossible.
Fortunately, our bodies are designed with certain mechanisms to process and eliminate many of those toxins. Unfortunately, however, these organs like the liver were not designed to deal with the constant onslaught it’s faced with daily. The more overwhelmed and congested the liver gets, the more out of balance the thyroid becomes.
So, the solution isn’t to live in that bubble, but to avoid as many of those unnecessary toxins as possible, while adding in the things that will allow our bodies to process those we can’t avoid at a better rate. A great place to start is with your water.
Our free guide is full of helpful information (and recipes!) that can get you started with healing your thyroid naturally. Download the guide here.
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Comments 7
Would you consider sparkling natural mineral water (such as Pelligrino or Mountain Valley Water) a healthy drinking water?
Thanks, Kelly – no, we would not.
is there any whole house filter you recommend? any suggestions for showers in a hotel room?
Hi Robbie, we offer our suggested filtration systems in our shopping cart. Thanks!
Hi friends, nice piece of writing and nice arguments commented here, I am actually enjoying by these.
Thanks, Derick – have a great day.
Make sure everything is smoke-free and help to ban all smoking everywhere, indoors and out!
Smoke-free is the WAY TO BE!
Help ban the tobacco drug, too.