For millions of years, Mankind had to hunt, eat, congregate, and live, within walking distance of water – maybe 20 to 30 miles, but more likely within a mile or less. He had no sanitary way to transport water for any distance that mattered. We have no way of knowing when the first wooden, carved cups and bowls might have appeared, but they weren’t widespread or more would be found near old fire-pits and graves – not all of them would have rotted away.

At some point, only about 10,000 years ago, the art/science of making pottery made its debut in a few places – not as just personal or religious totems and figurines, but as drinking vessels, bowls, and gourds – in China, Russia, Japan Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and the near-East.

The science of shaping metals follows a similar time frame.

It wasn’t until less than 10,000 years ago that any Human had a container in which he could boil water.

It makes one wonder if our ancestors had different tolerance levels for giardia and other water borne diseases, or if they were just very careful in their choice of water sources, based on experience.

 

Even as late as a few thousand years ago, everyone still had to live near water. And very few people possessed the ability, or the tools, to carry it around, or purify it.

 

Only a few hundred years ago, sewer systems begin to appear in larger cities. Most systems didn’t really purify anything, but they did try to separate the clean water coming in, from the “used” water headed out.

Good, clean, clear drinking water has always been a basic quest of Humans. And in the last hundred years, technology has brought to every one of us, at least in “Western” societies, the ability to receive better quality water than 99% of all the Kings and Rulers who ever lived. Water treatment and cleanliness became a primary goal of municipal governments, and everyone reaped the benefits.

So why, and when did we stop just cleaning it, and start adding chemicals to it?

 

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluoridate its drinking water. An abundance of evidence, even then, suggested that fluoride is very helpful in preventing tooth decay, since fluoride occurs naturally in many water sources, but in varying levels. I was found that a certain level, .7 milligrams per liter (the amount now recommended by the US Center for Disease Control), was optimal for the prevention of tooth decay in children.

But let’s talk about Fluoride, on its own, as a chemical. One fifth of all pharmaceutical drugs on the market today contain at least one fluorine compound. It seems the fluoride atom has wonderful binding properties – even better than its partners on the Periodic Chart: chlorine, bromine, and iodine.

The big debate swirls around the other abilities of Fluoride. It is a major component of the anti-depressant drugs Prozac, Luvox, and Paxil, also many appetite suppressants, anti-anxiety medications, and anti-psychotic drugs.     A large number of researchers point to Fluoride as a mind-compliance or ‘quieting’ type drug. It supposedly makes people a little more submissive.

I don’t think that it was anyone’s intent to pump “soma” into our tap water, but Brave New World does come to mind.

However, something that even the governments notes, is regardless of its good qualities, and whether it belongs in ALL water or not, we now get more than enough of it in toothpaste, where it actually belongs.

There are a lot of books to read on the matter, for both sides. These are excellent articles:

http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v199/n7s/full/4812863a.html

http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/

 

Either way, the mandatory addition of it to the municipal water supply seems like overkill. Especially when most municipal water systems are still incapable of filtering out the millions of pharmaceutical drugs flushed down the toilet each day. These include birth control hormones, hair growth hormones, and other untold chemical mixes. There are a lot of reasons to consider drinking bottled water.

 

But enough about water itself, how much should we drink? After all, it is a basic component of life.

 

This is from the CBCNews (Canadian) 6/10/12:

The common advice to drink eight glasses of water a day doesn’t hold water, say nutrition and kidney specialists who want to dispel the myth.

“What drove us to drink two litres of water a day?” asks an editorial in this week’s issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

The recommendation was driven by vested interests rather than health, suggests author Speros Tsindos of the department of dietetics and human nutrition at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia. “Humans need to maintain fluid balance and need to drink water when required, but should also consider fluid in unprocessed fruits and vegetables and juices. There is further evidence that water and a well-balanced diet does far more than water alone,” Tsindos wrote. “Water is important for health; however, the recommendation of eight glasses of pure water per day appears an overestimation of requirements.” Even a baked potato is 75 per cent water, said nutrition Prof. Susan Barr of the University of British Columbia, who sat on a Canadian-U.S. committee that looked at fluid intake.

“There’s nothing magical about water from a glass of water as opposed to water from a food or any other beverage,” Barr said.

Also, drinking caffeinated beverages such as tea and coffee do not lead to dehydration, said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a nephrologist at the University of Pennsylvania who reviewed research claims on drinking eight glasses of water and studied how the kidneys handle it.    Let thirst guide you.

“Drinking coffee will count towards your total water intake for the day,” Goldfarb said.

Goldfarb said despite the common idea that it’s important to “drink eight glasses of eight ounces of water” a day, “There’s no evidence that benefits health in any real way and it really represents an urban myth.”

There’s no evidence you need to drink more water than what thirst dictates, Goldfarb added.

Studies on desert nomads showed people can consume minimal amounts of water in harsh environments. The military has also looked at how much water soldiers need to take with them when patrolling in hot climates without harming their performance.

“If one is just playing a game of tennis in an indoor facility, for example, or having a short run on a treadmill in an air-conditioned gym, the need to maintain hydration during that is just non-existent,” Goldfarb advised.

People have died of dehydration and from drinking too much water too quickly.

A good guide to tell if the body’s finely tuned fluid balance is to check the colour of your urine. If it’s very dark, you’re on the dry side; if it’s very light or translucent, then you need to drink a bit less water, said Dr. David Price, head of family medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.

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In general, dehydration starts to occur when 2% of your water volume is lost, and becomes noticeable at about a 5% loss – usually because of disorientation or headaches. For me, at 140 lbs., I would need to sweat out a little over 2.5 pounds (!) of water to start the process, and almost 7 pounds of water to really notice the effects. That’s a lot of water. Maybe that’s why people can go up to four days without water (not very well, but it’s been done often – with physical activity!).

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And as to ‘Sports Drinks’. Very few people ever need them, especially children. This is a very good report:

        FROM THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS

Clinical Report—Sports Drinks and Energy Drinks for Children and Adolescents: Are They Appropriate?

 

COMMITTEE ON NUTRITION AND THE COUNCIL ON SPORTS MEDICINE AND FITNESS

Sports and energy drinks are being marketed to children and adolescents for a wide variety of inappropriate uses. Sports drinks and energy drinks are significantly different products, and the terms should not be used interchangeably. The primary objectives of this clinical report are to define the ingredients of sports and energy drinks, categorize the similarities and differences between the products, and discuss misuses and abuses. Secondary objectives are to encourage screening during annual physical examinations for sports and energy drink use, to understand the reasons why youth consumption is widespread, and to improve education aimed at decreasing or eliminating the inappropriate use of these beverages by children and adolescents. Rigorous review and analysis of the literature reveal that caffeine and other stimulant substances contained in energy drinks have no place in the diet of children and adolescents. Furthermore, frequent or excessive intake of caloric sports drinks can substantially increase the risk for overweight or obesity in children and adolescents. Discussion regarding the appropriate use of sports drinks in the youth athlete who participates regularly in endurance or high-intensity sports and vigorous physical activity is beyond the scope of this report.

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And this regarding marketing vs. reality:

Performance-Enhancing Placebos.  Tuesday, June 6, 2006 by John Briley, the Washington Post

Sometimes you need extra kick — for a workout, a race, to fight embezzlement charges — and you might be tempted to try a performance-enhancing product. A new study suggests that you save your money; if anything, order a shot of self-deception instead.

The study, led by Jennifer Otto, a clinical exercise physiology graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, showed that runners clocked faster 5-K times after drinking what they thought was super-oxygenated water, but in fact was tap water.

Thirty-two healthy volunteers, aged 18 to 55, each ran three non-paced 5-Ks: the first to get familiar with the indoor track and the other two to compare times after drinking 16 ounces of regular bottled water vs. 16 ounces of supposedly super-oxygenated water. The runs were completed at least three days apart; the study was commissioned by the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

Before running, each participant watched a video promoting super-oxygenated water, including statements that the products pack up to 10 times more oxygen than tap water and thus improve performance. Participants were competitive or recreational runners who ran at least 7.3 miles weekly.

Some additional background: In 2001, an ACE-sponsored study found that drinking super-oxygenated waters — brands like Aqua Rush, Athletic Super Water and AquOforce — before exercise had no measurable effect on heart rate, blood pressure or blood lactate values, which fluctuate based on oxygen demands of muscles.

The new study, which ACE published last month, was designed to determine whether a person’s belief that he had used one of the new products might have a placebo effect. Sure enough, 27 of the 32 people ran faster — an average of 83 seconds quicker — after downing the phony pint than after drinking the regular bottled water.

Interestingly, those who ran the familiarization 5-K in under 20 minutes improved on their bottled-water time by about 28 seconds during the placebo run vs. 142 seconds for those who took longer than 20 minutes. This suggests less-experienced (or at least less-skilled) runners are easier to fool into performing better. Runners with more miles behind them may be more in tune with their bodies and able to distinguish between a real and an imagined benefit.

Otto says the message might apply to other products purported to improve physical performance: “All the aids that are out there — the shoe implants, special water, etc. — maybe it’s because you’re expecting them to work that they seem to have an effect.” And don’t even get us started on dietary supplements.

Also noteworthy: Even though people scampered faster during the tap-water run, their heart rates, perceived exertion and blood lactate levels did not differ meaningfully from their scores during the bottled-water trial. So the body can make real biological adjustments — in this case, increasing exercise tolerance — based on signals from the brain, even those based on a lie.

Our lessons? Your brain is more capable of boosting your performance than a potion, pill or device. If you want to perform better, positive thinking can help. But healthy eating, proper training and sufficient rest are more important than anything you might find online or on the shelf.

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So, maybe we should just drink water, when we feel the need. And, as to fluoride, we have tried reducing our intake – without our hygienist noting any adverse dental effects yet.