Drinking Water, Calcium & Non-Native Halogens
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?
___________
Bob Niland
[disclosures]
[topics]