Clean water has always been a “biggie” for Kevin and I and we have spent big bucks to make sure we have the best water possible. The first step we took towards better water was right after Kevin and I got married and about 1 month before the cancer diagnosis. He came to me about this new “shower water filter” he heard about. To me it just sounded like another unnecessary expense. I brought up the argument of “UGH! What next? We’re going to be bubble people soon. We can’t protect ourselves from everything!”
The water filter he found filtered out 91% of the chlorine in our water along with reducing other chemicals and raising the pH level. You can check prices and filter replacement information HERE. We bought ours for $70. The replacement filters run us about $50 every 9 months or so. We can tell when the filter is ready to be replaced when our skin starts to feel drier, my hair isn’t as soft, and you can start smelling the chlorine while you’re showering. When the filter is newly replaced it is amazing how much of a difference you feel. I’m also now keener to the chlorine smell when showering at other people’s houses.
There are also whole house water filtration systems which will filter all of the water in your house including your sinks, washing machine water supply, and dishwasher water supply. I have no recommendations since we don’t have one yet, but if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
Drinking Water
It is becoming well known that drinking tap water can be detrimental to your health. Chemicals and bacteria can contaminate our water supply along with remnants of prescription drugs and other toxins. A good drinking water filter is essential. A reverse osmosis water filtration system is the best for removing most of chemicals, bacteria, and other toxins that are not supposed to be in your water supply. We do not own a reverse osmosis system, but if we had to replace our current system, I would look into getting one of these.
During my cancer treatment my husband Kevin began to read about Alkaline Water Ionizers. The purpose of these very expensive machines is to create electrically charged water with a high pH or alkalinity. He ended up purchasing the KYK Genesis Water Ionizer since some doctors agree that water with a high pH DOES have a positive effect on overall health of cancer patients. I drank water with a pH of 10.0 for months while treating my cancer holistically.
Since then we have read some varying reviews on Water Ionizers. The most convincing arguments AGAINST water ionizers for me were presented by Dr. Joseph Mercola, a well respected holistic doctor. You can see his concerns HERE. His main arguments were:
- Water ionizers are sold through a Multi-level marketing plan.
- Alkaline water does not exist with such a high pH in nature.
- Ionized water is essentially “man-made” water.
- There are very few studies on the effects of pH in humans.
I want to point out that Dr. Mercola does agree that alkaline water does have its place during the detoxification process, hence why I wanted to cover this topic during DETOX week! I continue to drink alkaline water but at a lower pH than when I had cancer. If I could rewind time, I would have taken the money we spent on buying an alkaline water ionizer and invested it in a good reverse osmosis water system and a bunch of organic veggies. Then, using our amazing Breville juicer I would have juiced the crap out of those veggies or made them into a green smoothie!
If these water systems I mentioned above are not in your budget, I recommend purchasing a Brita or Pur water filter at your local store rather than drinking tap water or even bottled water. I would avoid all bottled water packaged in plastic, as I mentioned in “The Plastics” a few weeks ago.
Please join me later this week for my final post for DETOX week when I will discuss the health benefits of Rebounding!
I should consider how large my home is before choosing a water filtration system! This is a great post for water filters. I have learned further about water filters. Awesome!
How about simply using baking soda (1-3 tspns a day) in filtered water? Many are extolling the healthful effects of baking soda.
YES! That is great. With lemon it is yummy. 🙂
Hi, i had Primary Peritoneal cancer stage 3C (late stage 3 or near stage 4 )
4 years ago. Can use ACV (organic apple cider vinegar) instead of lemon & I also juiced alot for all these years with Samson 6 in 1 Juicer / grinder and juice al emon with skin and freeze it i ice cube tray , good and refreshing for hot days its all for Ph level . But long 4 years and now i got carpal tunel syndrom from juicing as i use to cat small carrots for the juicer but now i need new juicer to avoid catting , but centrifugal is not good .
I use t take apricot kernels a lot (50 a day => 5×10) with my chemo and juicing with that i have never felt sick or ill , ever lie in a bed, nver felt sleepy when on chemo 5.5 hours back then …. just never stop (im 52 now)
Hi Landra, thanks for the tip. My belief is that the best juicer is the one you use. 🙂 But of course masticating is best if doing Gerson or a juicing based protocol.
Two teaspoons of baking soda in 10 oz water once in the morning and at night on an empty stomach will raise PH safely + many other benefits to the body.
Hi,
I was just diagnosed with ER+/PR+ and HER2 Neg. breast cancer…they don’t know the complete “stage” yet, although my doc thinks it is between Stage 2 and Stage 3 because of the size of the tumor, and that it does have axillary lymph-node involvement. So, I was going to try and go the alternative route because I am scared to death of chemo/rad/surgery! Anyhow, I have read about “r.o.” water AND alkaline water being the best/healthiest water to drink, period, and I’m just wondering how you feel about this now…because you’re post was all the way back in 2011 (5 yrs. ago), maybe you have come across different research on this now? I would love it if you would update your posts, because I was so excited when I came across your website, but then disappointed when I saw that these posts are so old! Thank you and I hope you’re still cancer-free!
Hi Luisa, Yes- still cancer free. Alkaline water is great….just the machines are expensive. Diet and emotions with detox matter much more! A good water filter with fluoride filter such as Berkey would be just fine and a lot more affordable!
Reverse Osmosis may change the water PH so it is more acidic (PH < 7) which is not what you want. The amount of acidity added to the water depends on where you live. You may have to add remineralization to the water to make the water alkaline again. To test the water you will need something more accurate than PH strips.
Cortney, the reference you gave for the one you bought is a shower head. Is that what you use on your kitchen sink?
Hi Maly- I replied toy our email, but to go ahead and answer you on here also: we have Aquasana filters on our showers, and on our sink we have an Alkaline water machine. I don’t think that is necessary for you though. A good reverse osmosis machine and a Brita filer on your sink for basic filtering for rinsing veggies should be fine and much cheaper IMO!
What about fluoride? Some people still have public water supply companies that introduce fluoride into their drinking water, which cannot be filtered out by Brita, Pur, or other carbon based filters. Reverse osmosis is the WAY TO GO! And fluoride is evil, evil, evil. I try my best to avoid things that were used in making the first atomic bombs. But what do I know?!?!?!
Ha! Good point Brian! How could I have missed the obvious??? Yes, fluoride in our water is definitely unnecessary and definitely toxic. It’s difficult to take the unpopular stance, but you are absolutely right.