What is Alkaline, Ionized Water? EVER SEEN A GLACIAL STREAM OR AN ICEBERG? It's blue with minerals. It tastes totally different. It seems to enter the body lightly. It presents no resistance. You don't 'bloat' like you may do with tap water or even filtered water. And the minerals are there not just to offer you those elements your system lacks, but also to 'hold' the real secret of glacial water; its antioxidant power. Strong, pure hydroxyl ions, negatively charged hydrogen atoms that actively seeks out positively charged oxygen free radicals already wrecking havoc on our bodies at a cellular level. This is naturally occurring ionized water, and just for once, technology has delivered a 'clean' answer to us in the form of the Jupiter Science and Pure Porte Ionizer, which emulates the same conversion of glacial H20 into pure alkaline, ionized, oxygenated drinking water, by 'splitting' H20 (Two Hydrogen atoms, one oxygen atom) into two separate streams of water; 1. OH- One atom of Oxygen and one atom of hydrogen negatively charged - the Hydroxyl ion. This is the prized Alkaline water that we drink and love. 2. HO One atom of Hydrogen and one of oxygen. This is the acid water we use externally and for germicidal cleaning. This 'splitting' of the H20 Molecule happens in a sealed ionization chamber within your filter for ionized water, under exact control of a dedicated microcomputer, to ensure the exact result time after time. As filtered tap water passes across 5 specially designed Titanium electrodes, it separates into the two components above. We drink the alkaline ionized water and we apply the acid water. How simple and how wonderful! And in our own case, how healing! So WHAT"S ALL THIS ABOUT "pH"? Fact: Almost all of us are slowly dying of excess acid. Fact: This need not be. Help is at hand. The pH scale ranges from 0 on the acidic side to 14 on the alkaline, and a solution is neutral if its pH is 7. At pH 7, water contains equal concentrations of H+ and OH- ions. Substances with a pH less than 7 are acidic because they contain a higher concentration of H+ ions. Higher concentration of OH- than H+. The pH scale is a logarithmic scale, so a change of one pH unit implies a tenfold shift in the concentration of hydrogen ions . pH 6 means you are ten times more acid than pH 7. pH 5 means you are a hundred times more acid than pH 7 The Importance of Balancing pH Living things, including humans, are extremely sensitive to pH and function best (with certain exceptions, such as different portions of the digestive tract) when solutions are nearly neutral. Most interior living matter (excluding the cell nucleus) has a pH of about 6.8. Blood plasma and other fluids that surround the cells in the body have a pH of 7.2 to 7.45. A blood pH of 6.9 can induce coma and death. That is why all bodily systems are secondary in importance to the system of pH balancing. Your body will willingly shut down digestion, alter temperature, rob your bones of calcium, deprive your pancreas, just to maintain adequate fluid buffers of alkalinity to balance the 'acid tide' we inflict upon ourselves through diet and stress. However your body possesses numerous special mechanisms to aid in stabilizing these fluids so that cells will not be subject to appreciable fluctuations in pH. Substances which serve as mechanisms to stabilize pH are called BUFFERS. Buffers have the capacity to bond ions and remove them from solution whenever their concentration begins to rise. Conversely, buffers can release ions whenever their concentration begins to fall, thus helping to minimize the fluctuations in pH. This is an important function because many biochemical reactions normally occurring in living organisms either release or use up ions. Imagine now what a load is taken off your body if its primary safety system of pH balancing can be 'stood down' from a continual 'full alert' because you now have a plentiful supply of alkaline water! Tap Water - What It Is and Isn't On the pH scale of 0 to 14, normal tap water measures out an approximately neutral 7, or slightly either side; acid in the case of rainwater, alkaline in the case of chemically altered municipal supplies. This water can be measured with an ORP meter, and its redox (oxidation reduction potential) is +400 to +500 mV. Because it has a positive redox potential, it is apt to acquire electrons and oxidize other molecules, and then rob your body of electrons in the form of energy.. Reduced Ionized Water, on the other hand, has a negative redox potential of approximately -250 to -250 mV. This means it has a large mass of electrons ready to donate to electron-thieving active oxygen in the form of free radicals. It is 'Live Water', similar in atomic structure to the waters that the Hunzakuts drank directly from glacial streams in the high Himalayas. (Note: some salespeople will attempt to convince you that ORP measurement is not important. It is, and it can be easily measured.) How Your Water Ionizer Unit Works The water ionizer unit, about the size of a bread maker, is an electronic water filter connected to your kitchen water supply to perform controlled low voltage electrolysis on tap water before you drink it or use it in the kitchen for cooking or cleaning. A special attachment redirects tap water out of the faucet through a plastic hose into the water ionizer unit. Inside the unit, the water is first filtered through activated charcoal, removing common pollutants found in city water. Then this filtered water passes into a chamber equipped with platinum-coated titanium electrodes. Here is where the electrolysis takes place. Cations, positive ions, gather at the negative electrodes creating cathodic or reduced water. Anions, negatively charged ions, gather at the positive electrode to make anodic or oxidized water. By this electrolysis process the reduced water not only gains an excess amount of electrons (e-), but the H2O clusters are reduced in size from about 10 to 13 molecules per cluster to 5 to 6 molecules per cluster. The reduced ionized water comes out of the faucet, and the oxidized water comes out of a separate hose leading into the sink. You can use the reduced water for drinking or cooking. The oxidation potential of the oxidized water makes it a good sterilizing agent, ideal for washing your hands, cleaning food or kitchen utensils, and treating minor wounds and eczema.