Alkaline Water Triples the Antioxidant Benefit of Vitamin C

Alkaline Water Triples the Antioxidant Benefit of Vitamin C by Life Water Ionizers

Alkaline water made by a water ionizer has something that plain water doesn’t – antioxidant potential. But to unleash this potential, you must combine alkaline water with an antioxidant like Vitamin C (ascorbic acid). When combined, alkaline water and vitamin C together form calcium ascorbate – an antioxidant that is three times more powerful than Vitamin C  alone. Ascorbate is also easier for the body to absorb than ascorbic acid.

So how do you combine alkaline water with Vitamin C? That depends on what you’re doing. If you’re just waking up in the morning, alkaline water with a twist of lemon, lime, grapefruit or orange is the way to go. If you’re headed to the gym, (or ride your bike to work like I do) mix your alkaline water such as Electro-Mix by Emergen-C (My favorite!) for a powerful blast of energy and endurance that you can feel!

Did you know? Life Ionizers exclusive Vitamin C Ceramic Block technology purifies your alkaline water with VItamin C! Our Vitamin C filtration technology serves as a catalyst for the antioxidant power of alkaline water.

How antioxidants fight free radical damage

How antioxidants work in the body is not well understood. The most well-known explanation given by doctors and scientists is that antioxidants neutralize free radicals by donating electrons to them. Alkaline water acts as an electron donor because it has a surplus of free electrons. Essentially, an antioxidant sacrifices itself to the free radical by giving up it’s electrons, which neutralizes the free radical, and destroys the antioxidant. By sacrificing themselves to free radicals, its believed that antioxidants prevent free radicals from stealing electrons from tissues and DNA, thereby reducing or preventing accelerated aging and disease.

Why do some people think alkaline water works as an antioxidant all by itself?

Alkaline water is capable of breaking down some Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide. People get confused because all free radicals are ROS substances, but not all ROS substances are free radicals. For a substance to be a free radical, it must have a unpaired electron. Hydrogen peroxide doesn’t have that unpaired electron, so while it isn’t a free radical, hydrogen peroxide is still harmful to DNA and tissues in the body. Alkaline water on its own breaks hydrogen peroxide down into hydrogen and water.

Oxidation and Reduction – The Chemistry

Free radicals are harmful because they steal electrons from tissues and DNA, which oxidizes them. Antioxidants are beneficial because they have spare electrons to donate to the free radicals, which spares your tissues and DNA from oxidation. To understand how antioxidants work,  you need to know some basic chemistry:

Protons – Positively charged subatomic particles

Electrons – Negatively charged subatomic particles

Oxidation – Happens when a substance loses electrons

Reduction– Happens when a substance gains electrons

Proton Donor – Gives protons to other substances (Acid)

Electron Donor – Gives electrons to other substances (Alkaline)

Protons are also known as hydrogen ions, because a hydrogen molecule contains only one proton. Hydrogen ions (also called ‘active hydrogen’)aren’t found on their own in nature because they combine with other substances almost instantaneously.

Electrons balance out the positive charge of protons. When a substance has an equal number of electrons and protons, it is chemically stable, and energetically neutral. When a substance has an unequal number of protons and electrons, that substance is an ion. Alkaline water made by an ionizer is known as ionized alkaline water because it contains excess electrons.

Oxidation – Happens when electrons are taken from a substance by oxygen atoms in another substance. When that happens, the substance that lost electrons is oxidized.

Reduction – When a substance gains electrons, it’s oxidation value is reduced. Oxidation value measures how much oxygen a substance has available to grab electrons. It sounds backwards to say that something that has gained electrons, and has been reduced, but chemists say that because they are measuring the substances oxidation value, not the number of electrons it gains.

Acids are proton donors because they have excess hydrogen ions available to donate to a chemical reaction. Acids are also known as electron acceptors, since they accept electrons from other substances. When your tissues and DNA donate their electrons to an acid, they become oxidized.

Alkaline substances like the minerals in alkaline water (Bases) are electron donors because they have excess electrons to donate to chemical reactions. Bases are also known as proton acceptors because they accept hydrogen ions from other substances. When a base donates electrons to an acid, that acid’s oxidation value is reduced.

Electrons – Where alkaline water gets its antioxidant potential

Water ionizers are able to make alkaline water with high antioxidant potential because the electrodialytic process used by water ionizers to make alkaline water puts an electrical charge in the water – just like an alkaline battery!

The electrical charge in alkaline water is called it’s Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP). You measure ORP with a meter which reads in millivolts. A negative charge means that the water has surplus electrons in it. For example, alkaline water made by a Life Ionizer can have an electrical charge as high as -860 millivolts. That means that the alkaline water is storing a negative electrical charge of over eight-tenths of a volt!

How Free Radicals Damage Your Body

Free radicals are a type of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) – a chemical that destroys DNA and tissue molecules by stripping them of electrons. They are called reactive oxygen species because they have an oxygen atom attached that needs electrons to be stable. ROS compounds like free radicals are very hungry for electrons! In your body, they steal electrons from tissues and DNA, which damages and destroys them. This is what free radicals do that causes science to believe they contribute to aging and disease.

A free radical is any molecule, which contains one or more unpaired electrons, and includes superoxide anions, singlet oxygen, hydroxyl radicals, hydroperoxyl radicals, and nitrogen monoxide radicals.

Why Alkaline Water and Vitamin C work so well together

This is where it gets weird: Vitamin C is considered to have both antioxidative and pro-oxidative effects in the body! On one hand, Vitamin C acts as a free radical scavenger – it donates electrons to free radicals. On the other hand, Vitamin C also forms ascorbyl radicals – which are free radicals! Vitamin C is an acid (proton donor) that works as an electron donor in the presence of free radicals. When mixed with alkaline water, ascorbic acid becomes calcium ascorbate.

Alkaline water increases Vitamin C’s antioxidant properties by reduction. Alkaline water reduces Vitamin C’s  oxidation value, which converts it to ascorbate. Ascorbate has more electrons than regular vitamin C available  to donate to free radicals, which lab testing suggests increases it’s protective benefit for tissues and DNA.

How Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant is not well understood by science. Studies of vitamin C’s effect in the body have been all over the place. Research on foods that contain Vitamin C is positive, foods with Vitamin C show antioxidant effects. Studies on Vitamin C taken all by itself however are mixed. There is currently no evidence that shows that Vitamin C taken on its own has any antioxidant effect.

Bottom Line: Laboratory studies show that alkaline water triples the antioxidant effect of Vitamin C, but the science of how it works in the body is not clear.

How to combine alkaline water with Vitamin C

Mornings/ Evenings: You can make delicious fruit flavored beverages to drink anytime by adding citrus fruit juices to alkaline water. Starting your day by adding a squeeze of lemon to alkaline water gives you a boost of antioxidants, and helps wake up your digestive system. Some examples of citrus fruits that pair well with alkaline water:

• • Lemons

• • Oranges

• • Grapefruits

• Limes

 

At the gym: Mix alkaline water with electrolyte drink mixes that have vitamin C in them for a double blast of health! You get two benefits from this: The antioxidant effect of Vitamin C and alkaline water together, plus alkaline water and electrolytes together can provide a huge boost of endurance, by decreasing muscle fatigue.

My favorite electrolyte drink mix to mix with alkaline water is Electro MIX, which is made by the makers of Emergen-C. Electro MIX is ideal as a performance catalyst for alkaline water because it supplies

• • Vitamin C

• • Potassium

• • Calcium

• • Chromium

• • Magnesium

• Manganese

I put this mix to the test every day because I ride my bike to work. It makes a big difference. If you plan to add electrolytes to your alkaline water, watch your sodium consumption, electrolytes like Gatorade add sodium.

 

Knowledge is power! Get the facts about alkaline water by calling us at: 877-959-7977 You can regain control of your health.

 

References

 

Ostolic, S.M. “Al. Drinks with alkaline negative oxidative reduction potential improve exercise

performance in physically active men and women: double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial of efficacy and safety..” Serbian Journal of Sports Sciences. 5.3 (2011): 83-89. Print.

 

Lee, MY, YK Kim, and et al. “Electrolyzed-reduced water protects against oxidative

damage to DNA, RNA, and protein.” Springer Link. Humana Press, 01 Nov 2006. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1385/ABAB:135:2:133>.

 

Hiraoka, A, M Takemoto, and et al. “Studies on the Properties and Real Existence of

Aqueous Solution Systems that are Assumed to Have Antioxidant Activities by the Action of “Active Hydrogen.”Journal of Health Science. Journal of Health Science, 09 Jun 2004. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <>.

 

Hanaoka, Kokichi, Sun Dongxu, and et al. “The mechanism of the enhanced antioxidant effects against superoxide anion radicals of reduced water produced by electrolysis.” Science Direct. Science Direct, 01 Jan 2004. Web. 5 Jul 2013. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301462203002497 

Hanaoka, Kokichi. “Antioxidant effects of reduced water produced by electrolysis of

sodium chloride solutions.” Springer Link. Journal of Applied Electrochemistry, n.d. Web. 5 Jul 2013. <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1013825009701>.

 

Bland, J. “The Pro-oxidant and Antioxidant Effects of Vitamin C” Chiro.org June, 1998 Web 3

Feb 2014 https://chiro.org/nutrition/ABSTRACTS/Pro_oxidant_and_Antioxidant_Effects.shtml