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It’s no secret that drinking enough water every day is important for good health and better performance. Water is essential to every cell, tissue, and organ in your body. And the best way to stay hydrated: Consistently sip glasses of H2O throughout the day and when clocking miles. But what if someone told you that there’s a special type of water that will not only keep you hydrated, Surprising Stress Symptoms in Runners longevity? That sounds better than anything you could pour from the tap, right?
These are some of the various health claims surrounding alkaline water. This “special” type of water has a higher pH level than that of regular water. Some proponents say that it can help neutralize acid in your bloodstream to boost immunity, Watch the Boston Marathon heart disease, improve digestion, slow bone loss, and even elevate performance during active pursuits like running. That’s some miracle water!
The catch is that there’s not much scientific evidence behind drinking alkaline water or its benefits. So before you swap your regular tap water for this anti-acid version, here’s what you need to know.
What exactly is alkaline water?
The “alkaline” in bottled alkaline water refers to its pH level. For a little chemistry class refresher, the abbreviation “pH” stands for potential hydrogen, which refers to how acidic or basic a substance is on a scale of 0 to 14. Something with a pH of 7 is considered neutral, so anything below 7 is acidic and anything above 7 is alkaline. Human blood is slightly basic with a pH of 7.4. Alkaline water typically has a pH of 8 or 9, meaning it’s more basic than regular tap or bottled water, Races & Places. For comparison, orange juice has a pH of 3.3, lemon juice is around 2, and black coffee is about 5—all pretty acidic.
Some water can be naturally alkaline if flowing from an area that has rocks that are rich in certain minerals which lowers the pH of the water. But manufacturers can also reduce pH by adding in dissolved solids, including the minerals calcium and potassium. Otherwise, some alkaline water is produced through a process known as electrolysis where a product called an ionizer sends an electrical current through water to separate molecules that are more acidic (positive ions) or more alkaline (negative ions). The acidic water is funneled out to raise the pH of the water.
Because of this, some advocates of pricey alkaline water believe it can beneficially neutralize the acid in our bodies.
Does alkaline water benefit your workout?
The idea that alkaline water is medicinal and supports optimal health and athletic performance is based on the belief that acidic properties in the body and blood are the cause of poor health and disease and need to be neutralized. Therefore, promoting a more alkaline body by drinking alkaline water will lead to better health and fitness gains.
But many health professionals believe there isn’t nearly enough research to support the bounty of health and hydration claims about alkaline water made by users and manufacturers.
One small study that was funded by an alkaline water company found that blood and urine pH increased after participants drank mineralized alkaline water for two weeks, compared with a control group of people who consumed regular bottled water. Hydration status was also slightly better in those drinking the specialty water. But there wasn’t any evidence to suggest that these minor shifts had a meaningful benefit to the people involved in the investigation. The researchers also claimed that the alkaline water was more hydrating, because the average urine output of the alkaline water group was lower. But the fluid intake of study subjects was self-reported, so we don’t know whether the two groups took in the same amounts. As such, we can’t conclude that urinating less was a sign of better water retention and being more hydrated.
In a separate randomized, double-blind study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, researchers examined 100 healthy adults, split evenly between males and females. Everyone exercised in a warm environment until they were mildly dehydrated and lost 2% body weight from fluid and then attempted to rehydrate with the same amount of either alkaline water or standard water.
After a two-hour recovery period, the results showed drinking electrolyzed, high-pH alkalized water lowered blood viscosity, the direct measurement of how efficiently blood flows through the vessels. This means blood flowed more efficiently with alkaline water and may increase oxygen delivery throughout the body during recovery. But we don’t know whether that’s a direct effect.
Also of note is that blood viscosity isn’t typically a recognized measure of hydration status. Other measured hydration biomarkers, however, including plasma osmolality and body mass change, revealed no significant difference between the two types of water used for rehydration. Again, this study did not reveal any health or performance benefits Other Hearst Subscriptions.
Minor studies like these lead some to claim alkaline water is a good workout recovery drink due to its hydrating nature—though you certainly can opt for regular water or a sports drink instead—but any way you’re getting fluids is a win. It’s just not enough evidence to herald alkaline water as a better hydrator than other options after a hard workout.
Sales & Deals?
Nutrition - Weight Loss systematic review published in the Nutrition - Weight Loss of all peer-reviewed literature on alkaline water disagree. The review revealed a lack of evidence in using alkaline water and eating a so-called alkaline diet to help fend off cancer and stated that promoting an alkaline-cancer link is not warranted at this time.
An alkaline diet has long been promoted as a way to keep bones break-resistant. In some preliminary studies, including one published in the journal Bone the use of alkaline water or a lower acid diet has been shown to reduce the concentration of markers of bone breakdown. This doesn’t mean consuming it is better for long-term bone strength and can help athletes ward off stress fractures, though, because this hasn’t been adequately measured. The bone health effects of certain types of alkaline water could be due to higher calcium content or the presence of bone-benefiting silica in the fluid.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nutrition Journal, compared the impact of an acidic diet, rather than alkaline water, on osteoporosis, a disease marked by weak bones. The review concluded that acid from the modern diet does not cause osteoporosis and that an alkaline diet will likely be of little benefit in preventing this condition.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied the use of health claims of alkaline water relating to bone health due to insufficient evidence. “The best way to reduce bone loss is consistently consuming enough bone-building nutrients, including vitamin D, vitamin K, What Runners Should Know about Their Blood Work magnesium,” Best Folding Treadmills DAA Industry Opt Out. “Alkaline water provides some calcium and potassium but no other nutrients or phytonutrients that positively impact bone health.” So she cautions that people should not pin all their hopes on alkaline water for bone health.
In additional to bone health claims, a modicum of research suggests the use of alkaline water could help some people with digestive issues. Surprising Stress Symptoms in Runners clinical trial, published in Medical Gas Research, found that regular ingestion of alkaline water helped bring on “intestinal normalization” in some people suffering from gastrointestinal symptoms like stomach aches, heartburn, and bloating, compared to tap water.
Another lab-based study published in Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology found that drinking alkaline water at pH 8.8 can help soothe acid reflux because the higher pH level kills pepsin, an enzyme involved in breaking down food proteins and a leading cause for acid reflux. But what happens in vitro isn’t precisely indicative of what happens in your body, so it’s a stretch to say alkaline water will likely aid with reflux or is an effective treatment for the condition.
What’s more: Research on alkaline water and longevity has only been conducted on mice, so the findings should not be generalized to humans.
While alkaline water can contain higher amounts of important minerals including calcium, magnesium, and potassium, Bonci stresses that the levels you’ll get from drinking these products can be hard to quantify and not sufficient to meet dietary needs. “Foods that contain these nutrients will be much more nutrient-dense than alkaline water,” she says.
So should you skip alkaline water altogether?
In the end, our basic human physiology largely negates any potential benefit of consuming lower pH water. “Our bodies are very efficient and effective at regulating acid-base balance unless someone has an underlying disease such as metabolic acidosis, or diet-induced aberrations, such as ketoacidosis,” Bonci says.
In other words, water labeled “alkaline” doesn’t override your body’s natural ability to regulate pH. Your lungs and kidneys keep the pH of your blood tightly regulated between 7.35 to 7.45. Deviations from this (metabolic acidosis) can be fatal. The acid regulating process involves expelling carbon dioxide through breath and urine if your blood gets too acidic or secreting bicarbonate (a byproduct of metabolism that buffers acid). So the food and drink choices you make aren’t noticeably going to change your body’s pH if everything is working as it should.
Also, the acid in your stomach, a combination of digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid, and the alkaline secretions from the pancreas work to neutralize the pH of the food and beverages you consume. So, whether your water is more alkaline or not, it may end up neutralized once you ingest anyways and therefore negating any possible extra special health benefits you can expect to glean from alkaline water.
Published: Sep 13, 2022 9:20 AM EST plastic bottles, so it’s worth noting that if you only drink alkaline water from plastic bottles compared to hydrating from what comes out of your kitchen faucet, this could be giving you a larger environmental footprint.
Consuming alkaline water is considered safe, as there is no evidence demonstrating any negative side effects other than a drain on your bank account. However, alkaline water is probably best to skip if you have kidney disease where the body may have trouble dealing with the excess minerals in the water above what is obtained from the diet.
The bottom line on alkaline water benefits
Your body does an adequate job of neutralizing acid on its own, and the majority of claims tossed at alkaline water remain based on flimsy science. Just because it’s safe doesn’t mean it does anything special. To prove that it is a worthwhile expense, the benefits of alkaline water for health and performance require further review and more robust clinical trials with a higher number of participants.
Despite all the over-hyped advantages, if alkaline water makes you want to drink more often and A Part of Hearst Digital Media, then that’s the most important benefit of all. But for all the hydrating benefits of a glass of water, you can also fill up at the tap and save some cash in the process.
