Inflammation, Your Health and How Water Ionizers May Help

How Inflammation is Related to Diseases in the Body

To understand inflammation, you have to know a little bit about something called oxidative stress. 

Oxidative stress is when there are excessive amounts of free radicals in the body. These free radicals cause damage to cells, DNA, and fats, which may lead to the death of cells. Oxidative stress may also provoke inflammatory responses in the body, and these in turn can further enhance oxidative stress.  

A Water Ionizer Could Help

Did you know a water ionizer can provide you with the anti-oxidants you need to fight free radicals? Life Ionizers have alkaline water machines that create the most concentrated -ORP or antioxidant potential than any other water ionizer.

Why Does the Body Need Inflammation?

Inflammation is good when there’s something going on in the body that needs immediate attention such as an infection. The inflammation causes an immune response in the body, which brings extra cells to the area to attack the infection so the body can quickly recover. 

During an infection, there’s a high level of oxidative stress but it’s only for a short period of time. Then the oxidative stress goes down to a ‘normal’ level that helps the body continue its daily functions.

Don’t Let The Body Stay in a State of Inflammation for Too Long

When oxidative stress continues at a high level for too long, it can cause chronic inflammation and may trigger cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, neurological, and lung diseases, and worse. 

With all this in mind, technically you can’t say that inflammation is a root cause of diseases, but it does contribute greatly to the progression of a disease. 

The Role of Habits in Our Lifestyle and Inflammation

One of the main problems with chronic inflammation is that it may be occurring in your body even if you feel like you are healthy. For example, if you are obese, those extra layers of fat are not just sitting there on your body frame; they are producing inflammatory compounds. You may feel good and have no diagnosed health disorders but if medical tests were done, they might find chronic inflammation is occurring.

Over the last few decades, scientists have discovered that our daily habits make even more of a difference in our health than what was realized in the past. 

How Can you Decrease Inflammation?

Harvard scientists combed the medical research studies to find out what other scientists had discovered on lifestyle habits and inflammation and found there was a connection. In one of their free download reports on inflammation, the Harvard experts recommend a list of seven different habits to align with, which may help suppress inflammation. 

Here’s a list of them:

1. Eat functional foods that lower inflammation levels.
2. Exercise correctly – not too much and you’ll lower your levels of inflammatory compounds circulating in your body and causing havoc with your health. 
3. Get your weight right. Reduce that abdominal fat.
4. Get enough sleep. 
5. Stop smoking.
6. Limit your consumption of alcohol.
7. Do something about the stress you have in your life.

And although these habits are certainly a good place to start, the scientists kept the list very basic so that most people could comply. But they didn’t look any deeper – and by going deeper, you often find better answers. 

Water ionizers also create high amounts of hydrogen in the water. When it comes to inflammation-busting in the body, hydrogen-rich water has been shown to help. You’re already drinking water each day – and it’s part of good daily habits – so why not consider that water could somehow be related to inflammation? After all, what’s in the water could include some nasty chemicals that are triggers for inflammation, or they may be chemicals that zap your antioxidants, leaving you with no armor against oxidative stress.

Hydrogen-Rich Water is a Type of Water That Lowers Inflammation

In a 2020 study reported in the journal called Scientific Reports, Korean scientists at Seoul University wanted to see if drinking hydrogen-rich water made a difference in oxidative stress and immune function in healthy adults. And as you know, oxidative stress is directly related to inflammation, as is immune function.

You may not know it but the Food and Drug Administration has acknowledged that when hydrogen gas is used in drinking water or beverages, as in hydrogen-rich water, it is considered a food additive. However, there’s nothing to worry about, as these experts declare the hydrogen to be generally recognized as safe. They say this because hydrogen gas, written as H2, acts as an antioxidant. It neutralizes the -OH free radical, which is a strong free radical. 

In animal studies, H2 prevents damage to tissues when oxygen and blood flow to them is deprived. In other studies of animals with Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, the H2 slowed the progression of the diseases and improved memory.  Studies with humans have also shown positive effects for Parkinson’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and chronic hepatitis B.

People who have these three health disorders also have high levels of inflammation. 

In the Korean study mentioned above, 20 healthy adults consumed 1.5 liters per day of hydrogen water for four weeks while 18 adults consumed the same amount of water during that time span. 

There were clear differences in those who were 30 years old or older if they drank the hydrogen-rich water. The measurement for antioxidant potential was significantly higher in them but not in those drinking plain water. However, if the volunteer was younger than 30 years old, their antioxidant potential did not rise as much, although it still did rise.

When there’s a high level of antioxidant stress, cell damage can be seen by testing the number of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, called PBMCs. These cells include lymphocytes, monocytes, natural killer cells, or dendritic cells. If the number of live PBMCs is high, the cells have not been killed. In the study, those consuming the hydrogen-rich water had higher numbers of live PBMCs. 

And when the PBMCs had an RNA-sequencing analysis done, there was a difference in the results between the two groups. The scientists found that the inflammatory responses in the genes were down-regulated in those that drank the hydrogen-rich water. 

This means that the hydrogen-rich water turned off the expression of excess inflammation in the body. They concluded that hydrogen-rich water increases antioxidant capacity and thereby decreases the inflammation response of the body in healthy adults. 

This gives us a good reason to really give consideration to the choice of water we are drinking. If we don’t know whether or not we have chronic inflammation but can feel the extra tire around the middle, it may be time to get a water filtration device that also makes water hydrogen-rich. 

Now What?

You can find out more about the types of water filters that are available from Life Ionizers. Their in-home water filters and whole-house filters add hydrogen to the water but they also remove harmful chemicals lurking in the tap water as well. The company is a manufacturer so you don’t pay middle-man costs, and they work with every new client to customize the filter to exactly what you need based on the water flowing into your faucets and bathtub. 

References

Sim M, Kim C, Shon W, et al. Hydrogen-rich water reduces inflammatory responses and prevents apoptosis of peripheral blood cells in healthy adults: a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial. Sci Rep 2020 Jul 22;19(1):12130. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32699287/

Reuter S, Gupta SC, et al. Oxidative stress, inflammation, and cancer: how are they linked? Free Radic Biol Med. 2010 Dec 1;49(11):1603-16. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20840865/

Harvard Medical School. Inflammation: A unifying theory of disease? May 8, 2020. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/inflammation-a-unifying-theory-of-disease 

Godman, Heidi. Chronic inflammation and your joints. July 1, 2021. Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/chronic-inflammation-and-your-joints