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Did
you know?
Reverse osmosis is the finest water filtration method known. This process will
allow the removal of particles as small as ions from a solution. It is used
to purify water and remove salts and other impurities in order to improve the
color, taste or properties of the fluid. R.O. uses a membrane that is semi-permeable,
allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting
other ions and contaminants from passing.
This technology uses a process
known as crossflow to allow the r.o. membrane to continually clean itself. This
is the reason of why an r.o. element can last many years before clogging or
need replacement. This
water purification process requires a driving force to push the fluid through
the membrane, and the most common force is household water pressure or pressure
from a booster pump. The higher the pressure, the larger the driving force and
efficiency.
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Water
Can Heal
Did
You Know?
Water can prevent and alleviate many of our symptoms
Water
Hardness and kidney stones.
The key role
of water in urinary stone formation is generally accepted by the public;
nevertheless, only the quantitative facet of this idea is justified -
insufficient intake of water and other liquids, i.e. permanent dehydration,
even if slight, surely increases the risk for urolithiasis of all types.
On the other hand, qualitative assessment shows that the content of water
minerals, more precisely of magnesium and calcium, plays a less important
role. Urinary stone formation is a process involving multiple factors,
i.e. not only intake of liquids, but also genetic predisposition, eating
habits, climatic and social conditions, gender, etc.
Several studies
documented that higher water hardness is associated with higher incidence
of urolithiasis among the population supplied with such water; in contrast,
more studies found softer water to be associated with higher risk for
urolithiasis. Nevertheless, most recent epidemiological studies explain
those controversial results by differences in the study designs and say
that water hardness ranging between the values commonly reported for drinking
water is not a significant factor in urolithiasis (Singh et al, 1993;
Ripa et al, 1995; Kohri et al, 1993;Kohri et al, 1989).
Any correlation
between water hardness, or the drinking water calcium or 14 magnesium level,
and the incidence of urolithiasis was not found in the last vast USA epidemiological
study with 3270 patients (Schwartz et al, 2002). The quoted Japanese studies
did not found that the water calcium or magnesium levels alone had an
effect on the incidence of urolithiasis but did found that the Mg to Ca
ratio had: one study reported the lower Mg to Ca ratio to be associated
with a higher risk for urolithiasis regardless of type and the incidence
of urolithiase to correlate with the type of geological subsoil (Kohri
et al, 1989) and another study found correlation between the higher Mg
to Ca ratio and higher incidence of infectious phosphate urolithiasis
(Kohri et al, 1993).
Many experimental
studies document that higher water hardness does not pose any risk for
urolithiasis (which is not true of extreme water hardness beyond the range
to be considered for drinking water - see below) and confirm concordantly
that intake of calcium rich water (or magnesium rich water) reduces risk
for calcium oxalate urolithiasis (Rodgers, 1997; Rodgers, 1998; Caudarella
et al, 1998; Marangella et al, 1996; Gutenbrunner et al, 1989; Ackermann
et al, 1988; Sommariva et al, 1987). Intake of such water is associated
with higher urinary calcium elimination and at the same time with lower
urinary oxalate elimination probably due to oxalate bond to calcium in
the intestine with subsequent prevention of oxalate absorption and enhanced
oxalate elimination through feces.
Nevertheless,
these conclusions do not apply to patients after urinary stone removal.
Isolated experiments suggested that intake of softer drinking water resulted
in a lower rate of recurrent urolithiasis (Bellizzi et al, 1999; Coen
et al, 2001; Di Silverio et al, 2000) but admitted at the same time that
the results could not be generalized and depended on multiple factors,
e.g. whether water was given between meals as in one of the studies above
or during meals when, in contrast, harder water intake may have been associated
with a lower rate of recurrences (Bellizzi et al, 1999). Genetic predispositions
and eating habits may play a relevant role in this regard. High hardness
(>5 mmol/l), which is not typical of drinking water, may be associated
with higher risk for urinary and salivary stone formation as documented
by a Russian epidemiological study (Mudryi, 1999).
The author
says that a long-term intake of drinking water harder than 5 mmol/l results
in a higher local blood supply in the kidneys and subsequent adaptation
of the filtration and resorption processes in the kidney. This is believed
to be protective reaction of the human body, which may lead, if the conditions
persist, to alteration of the body's regulatory system with possible subsequent
development of urolithiasis and hypertension. Risk for urolithiasis was
also associated with intake of water of a hardness of 10.5 mmol/l (Ca
370 mg/l) as documented by the already quoted Italian study (Coen et al,
2001). Harmful effects of hard water No evidence is available to document
harm to human health from harder drinking water.
Perhaps only
a high magnesium content (hundreds of mg/l) coupled with a high sulphate
content may cause diarrhoea. Nevertheless, such cases are rather rare;
other harmful health 15 effects due to high water hardness (e.g. the effects
on the eliminatory system as mentioned above) were observed in waters
rich in dissolved solids (above 1000 mg/l) showing mineral levels, which
are not typical of most drinking waters. In the areas of the Tula region
supplied with drinking water harder than 5 mmol/l, higher incidence rates
of cholelithiasis, urolithiasis, arthrosis and arthropathies as compared
with those supplied with softer water were reported (Muzalevskaya et al,
1993). Another epidemiological study carried out in the Tambov region
found hard water (more than 4-5 mmol/l) to be possible cause of higher
incidence rates of some diseases including cancer (Golubev et al, 1994).
The results of the studies concerning the relationship between water hardness
and tumors are discordant, but most of them are supportive of protective
effect of harder water.
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