The Importance of Health Water
Written by Keppy Arnoldsen
Clean water is absolutely fundamental to good health. The amount of water in the human body is amazing! Water makes up over 70% of our overall body and 75% of our brain, 80% of our blood, and 96% of our liver. It is involved in nearly every aspect of our health, and drinking adequate amounts of clean water each day is essential. Deficits can have serious effects. A 5% decrease in bodily fluids can cause a 25-30% loss of energy in the average person, and a 15% decrease in fluids can cause death.
Water helps to regulate many processes, including salt balance, absorption of nutrients, and detoxification. It is used by the nervous system to help transmit signals to every cell in the body. If the nerves thicken due to dehydration or contamination with toxic heavy metals like lead or synthetic chemicals, for example, vital nerve signals can get distorted. Some experts now believe that this may be the root cause of some degenerative diseases and neurological disorders like attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, and depression. Not only nerves are affected! The liver uses water to help flush toxins from our body. This detoxification system is a very important component of long-term health. Unfortunately, our bodies are exposed to toxins from an unbelievable amount of sources daily, including air, food, and products we contact that contain trace amounts of contaminants. The liver has the job of cleansing these particles from our body and the more (clean!) water we drink, the easier it is to detoxify. Water helps the body to purify itself.
It’s not just the water we drink that is important, but also water that we are exposed to through bathing, cooking, and recreational activities like swimming or fishing. These exposures too can affect our health. When the streams are polluted, fish and wildlife that rely on those water systems are also injured and this can negatively affect us in the long run. Can you remember when it was safe to eat the fish you caught? What about the days when the first “bottled water” came out on the market? In case you haven’t noticed, today things have changed. Across the globe, access to clean water has become a major health issue.
When problems are on such a grand scale, we often think “what can I possibly do to help?” So what can the average homeowner do to help the quality of their water and to prevent water pollution into nearby aquatic systems? Surprisingly, there are many small ways that we can help and, thankfully, for the environment, these become big ways when many of us participate.
First of all, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to have your drinking water tested. This is especially important if you have well water. Ground water can become contaminated from many surface pollution sources. If the problem is minor, the water can be treated or filtered, but this pollution can occasionally be severe and require professional assistance. If you are on a public system, the water is probably chlorinated to disinfect it. Chlorine is a transient additive that is easily dissipated when the water stands for some time. If your water smells like chlorine, let it settle first or buy bottled water instead. Eliminate sources of fecal contamination by making sure that household septic systems are functioning properly and not leaking into your water supply. If you suspect your water is bad, send away for a water test and get advice about methods to filter, distill, or cleanse your water. There are a lot of good products on the market.
Poison-proof your environment. Eliminate possible household pollution sources. Don’t use the toilet or sink to dispose of medicines, especially antibiotics or birth control pills. Use absorptive cleanup materials for all oil spills. Properly dispose of the following products at designated hazardous material collection sites, one of which occurs annually at the Huntingdon County Fairgrounds: old pesticides and herbicides, paints and thinners, refrigerators, air conditioners, batteries, petroleum products and antifreeze, and unused cleaning solutions.
Help buffer local waterways by planting along stream edges with native plants and by landscaping or seeding barren areas of your property that might be sediment sources in storms. Don’t use excessive amounts of fertilizers on your lawns or gardens. These add abnormal levels of nutrients to waterways that can ultimately kill the fish.
Support local cleanup organizations, especially those like PA Cleanways and the Juniata Clean Water Partnership (JCWP) that help rid our landscapes of dumps that represent a major source of pollution for waterways. When I asked Thomas Komir, the new Educational Outreach Coordinator at JCWP (AmeriCorps member), how he felt about the water resources in our area, he stated that our waterways represent a major source of recreation in Huntingdon and that people really want to help keep streams clean. Their annual sojourn via watercraft down one of the seven branches in the Juniata watershed, attracts between 40-80 people per day for six straight days! These waterways feed into the Susquehanna River at Duncannon and then into the Chesapeake Bay system. The serious Chesapeake Bay pollution cleanup over the past 20 years impressively demonstrates what people can do when they collectively care about something.
In summary, realize that water is important in your life and that clean water can make a positive difference for your health. Make clean water an important issue in your household and plan to target areas where you can improve the fluid quality of your “life blood”. Contribute to positive measures that can protect the watersheds in your neighborhood or community. And lastly, remember to drink lots of clean water daily. Once you train your body to enjoy lots of water, you will actually crave it. Let water hydrate and cleanse your body. The positive health results from this simple act can be quite astounding.
Keppy Arnoldsen is retired as an Environmental/Biology Educator from Penn State Altoona.