The Importance of Drinking Healthy Water

The Importance of Healthy Water Consumption Rising air temperatures make daily, regular and adequate water consumption essential for health. However, the water consumed must necessarily be healthy and safe. Medical Ecology and Hydroclimatology specialist Prof. Dr. Müfit Zeki Karagülle, who points out that preferring drinking water purified through treatment processes may cause more harm than benefit, explained the importance of conscious water consumption. According to experts, the significant increase in air temperature makes both adequate water consumption and access to healthy water more important. The choice of unreliable sources for daily water consumption, in particular, leads to health problems related to drinking water, especially on hot summer days. Emphasizing that adequate and regular water consumption is among the indispensable conditions for a healthy life, Professor Dr. Karagülle stated, "However, access to safe and healthy drinking water is equally important as consuming an adequate amount of water." Prof. Dr. Karagülle said, "Water used for drinking purposes must comply with health and hygiene conditions that are valid nationally and internationally. The consumption of water treated using different methods may not be as safe and healthy as thought. It can even lead to certain health problems, particularly mineral deficiency." Noting that tap water, packaged natural mineral water and natural spring water are among the different drinking water options both worldwide and in Turkey, Prof. Dr. Karagülle stated: "In recent years, in our country, advanced water treatment technologies, for example treatment technologies based on reverse osmosis, are becoming prominent in treating tap water in homes or workplaces for use as drinking water. Through this method, drinking water that is 'purified' from chemical pollution and 'easy to drink' but at the same time has had its minerals removed, becoming 'demineralized' (mineral-free), is obtained. However, a drinking water not posing a health risk, in other words not causing harm to human health, depends on it possessing two fundamental qualities. The first of these is that the water is bacteriologically clean, that is, hygienic, and the second is that it is chemically healthy and risk-free."

"Purified pure water contains no minerals"

While the technologies in domestic water treatment devices attempt to make tap water microbiologically and chemically safe, Prof. Dr. Karagülle noted that it becomes completely demineralized and sometimes even more contaminated microbiologically, providing the following information: "For this reason, the condition for such treated water to be healthy is not met. The type of water obtained after treatment is nearly pure or distilled water in quality. Pure water does not mean healthy and natural. Pure water is widely used in cooling systems, pharmaceutical production, and vehicle batteries, but it is not suitable as drinking water. No living organism in nature consumes pure water.

Pure water consumption is also an unhealthy choice for humans."

Prof. Dr. Karagülle stated, "In our research, city tap water was subjected to treatment using a domestic water treatment device operating on reverse osmosis, and the results of physicochemical and bacteriological analysis of water samples before and after treatment were compared. It was observed that such a treatment process did not result in improvements in the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of tap water, but rather led to negative results. Additionally, the process removed all minerals beneficial to human health from the water, particularly calcium and magnesium, making the water exiting the device mineral-free, nearly pure water," he said. Reminding that treated water does not contain magnesium and calcium, while these minerals play a vital role in human health, Prof. Dr. Karagülle continued: "Calcium and magnesium are minerals with many fundamental physiological functions in our bodies. Calcium is the building block of our bones and teeth and is responsible for bone and dental health. It plays an important role in heart and blood vessel muscle and skeletal muscle contraction, blood clotting and nerve transmission. The most common disease resulting from calcium deficiency is osteoporosis. It has been reported that calcium deficiency combined with magnesium deficiency causes hypertension. Magnesium deficiency increases the risk of developing various pathological conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, arterial stiffness and diabetes."

"Healthy water is of critical importance for the elderly and children"

Emphasizing that various disease risks come into play in those who continuously consume demineralized treated water, Prof. Dr. Karagülle concluded his remarks: "Scientific research shows that consumption of treated water produces certain health problems in both short and long term. Particularly, when treated water is the only water a person drinks and uses in their meals throughout their life, health risks become inevitable. As a result, over the medium and long term, health problems develop in people of all ages, primarily related to mineral deficiency, especially calcium and magnesium deficiency. The elderly and children are particularly at greater risk in this regard. While drinking water lacking both magnesium and calcium has been observed to lead to growth retardation and increased tooth decay in school-age children, it is suggested that in the adult population it can cause certain types of cancer. There is also evidence showing it leads to increased bone fracture risk in children, certain neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in advanced age, and complications such as premature birth and low birth weight in pregnant women. Whereas water supplied for consumption without treatment with these devices, particularly natural spring and natural mineral waters, are waters containing minerals at certain levels. Furthermore, due to the legal monitoring and criteria they are subject to, they are waters with healthy and safe qualities. Therefore, drinking water should preferably be selected from natural underground water sources that naturally contain minerals at certain levels, are protected from all types of pollutants in nature, and are controlled to be safe and healthy."