Drinking Water, Calcium & Non-Native Halogens

Edition: 2016-12-11

On another thread, the question was raised of: I suppose I'm asking how important is it to take the chlorine out (read somewhere on here that we should…)

Halogens are highly reactive group 17 gasses including astatine (At), bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), fluorine (F) and iodine (I). Astatine, being radioactive, is uncommon. The same cannot be said for novel compounds of bromine, chlorine and fluorine, which are increasingly pervasive in our personal environments, in food-like substances and on many raw foods. All halogens can compete with iodine at the thyroid. All can compete with iodine elsewhere in the body.

What humans drank ancestrally was raw stream water, pond water, collected rain water or spring water, transitioning to well (ground) water. The ground waters would have contained regional minerals, some of which are naturally occurring chlorides and fluorides. We are adapted to this. Trace halogens in stream/spring water are both different compounds and dramatically lower in concentration than as found in modern water treatment halogens.

The ancestral surface waters would also have contained various micro-organisms, not all necessarily beneficial, plus various other contaminants. That's also what we may be adapted to, but other than those few still on ancestral wells or springs in remote regions, is not what we drink today. You personally may be specifically adapted to such waters from your ancestral lands, but there's good chance that's not where you live. If you have mixed ancestry, you are definitely not there anymore.

Other than spring water at the source (maybe), the ancestral sources today have all the risks they used to have, plus new ones. Drinking raw stream water today, for example, is just asking for giardia.

Those on well water may not be getting an ideal mix of minerals. Hard water in particular may present a calcium risk, as it's usually calcium carbonate, and not the hydroxyappatite form from animal bones. Some communities are on well water, as are many rural homes.

Many commercial “spring” waters are in fact just well water, from varying depths, and not necessarily associated with an actual surface spring.

There are a number of potential issues with municipal water today, pretty much everywhere (and not just in Flint):

• the native minerals are filtered out
• disinfectant residues are present (chlorides being the ones of interest)
• fluorides are often deliberately added
• pipes can contribute heavy metals and asbestos
• meeting EPA standards for quality isn't terribly meaningful

Packaged water presents:

• plastics are a concern (BPA, BPS)
• with bulk bottled water, detergent residues are a concern with the recycled jugs
• commercial canned and bottled beverages are often based on municipal water

Well water may not have those risks, but has its own of:

• unfavorable mineral profile (esp. Ca)
• legacy chemicals from farming, industry or military bases

In some communities around here, a glass of water served at a restaurant has a pronounced chlorine odor, in addition to the known fluoridation. Given the pervasive mis-testing, mis-diagnosis and mis-treatment of thyroid, would consensus public health officials even know how to test for thyroid effects?

Are the treatment residues and fluoridation also a gut biome hazard? Given the nascent state of knowledge about human microbiome, there is no way to know today, even if anyone was looking, which they aren't.

What are the thyroid and gut hazards posed by the non-native halogen compounds in municipal water?

Cureality members can take note of Dr. Davis' remark in a reply below about how water treated with chlorine cannot be used for fermenting vegetables. Also, water treated with chloramine is specifically troubling because this agent cannot even be boiled off. Ponder the implications.

Personally, I'm thinking that the precautionary principle suggests taking available steps to minimize exposure to the risk factors above. What this might look like is:

• Avoid using municipal tap water for drinking or as a food ingredient, until and unless you know it is free of residual anti-microbial agents.
  Use instead:
• credible spring water from a single-use glass bottle (credible: no certified analysis means no sale)
• credible spring water from a single-use polyethylene HDPE /2\ or LDPE /4\ bottle
• distilled water with trace minerals added by you (no endorsement implied, and mind the calcium and the iron)
• water from a home filter (activated charcoal and/or reverse osmosis) that credibly removes halides (trace minerals again added by you)
• if you're on a well, get it tested, and then take whatever steps are necessary

And yes, this implies that there's a huge issue for dining outside the home. Restaurant drinking water, coffee, tea, ice, soup, and some mixed drinks are quite likely to have been made with tap water. Heating the water, and filtering it through coffee grounds likely does nothing to reduce chloramine.

My practice is now to ask for bottled water at restaurants, or carry some with me, if I know in advance that they don't offer it.

One exception to this might be Starbucks coffee and tea at a Starbucks coffee house. They have very strict standards for water filtering, and it appears to suffice to remove all halides. They do it to provide a consistent taste experience, but it serendipitously makes the beverage much more gut- and thyroid-friendly. Anywhere else, you'll need to ask the head barista some pointed questions.

On spring water, take some steps to discover just how the water is collected and processed. Water Quality reports are available for most brands, and need to be studied.

Is calcium in hard water a factor in the variation of success seen in reversing calcium scores? Do available home water treatment devices, such as reverse osmosis, safely and effectively remove calcium?

We probably need Br in trace amounts, but this trend line is not encouraging:

Bromine World Production Trend - so where does it all end up?

Non-native halogens also lurk in a variety of other places (and of course in processed food-like substances), including but not limited to:

• Pesticide uptake on crops - go for organic
• Various agents in swimming pool water - even a correct concentration of pool disinfectant may be a serious metabolic and microbiome mistake
• Brominated flame retardants in fabrics, esp. infants and children - at the very least launder this stuff before placing it in service
• Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in pop such as Mountain Dew and Gatorade in some markets - as if we needed another reason to avoid pop
• Anti-fungal agents in grain storage and transport, not to mention as bleaching agents in flours

On the incendiary issue of fluoridation, I suspect that the supposed dental benefits evaporate when people are eating grain-free and very low net carb - so even if the claimed benefit is true, you don't need it on the Cureality or Wheat Belly lifestyle. The thyroid and microbiome issues might or might not be substantial, but nobody really knows. Are either of these even talking points in the long-standing fluoridation debate?

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Bob Niland [disclosures] [topics]