Buy water, drink bacteria

Jadeskirt

Great information Lotus Blossom.
Thank you!

lotus blossom

quite welcome Jadeskirt.

Off the subject and out of curiosity, what sort of video project will you be working on in india?

__________________
Not all who wander are lost

vistet

Random, and in this case irrational : there is no way this is possible. I work with people in different forms of respiratory distress ; the levels mentioned here means turning blue, probably unconcious and requiring intensive care.

For trekkers the same differences would mean that a Coke on for example the Annapurna Circuit could be lethal - talk about nature striking back..

snowcrab

Perhaps a drop of whatever people use to purify water, used to be iodine don't know what they use now, in a bottle if you are worried, or maybe a little lime to make it too acid for the germs to thrive.

It's still a lot safer than drinking that stuff with God knows what stewing in the bottom of those big black roof tanks, coming out of sand wells with God knows what seeping down from the surface.

No guarantees issued with life, I just hope the long acquaintance I had with barnyard stuff living out in the country here stands me in good stead in India.

dzibead

Amen, vistet.

The quotes previosuly cited were from various holisitic health/nutrition websites sites, but somehow the "Ask Emma" column from The Guardian, "The Center for Unhindered Living," and Susun Weed's website with the little fairy sprinking fairy dust just don't inspire the same sense of confidence in me as would information from, say, the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins. But maybe that just me ...

I recall that lotus blossom previously got upset on another forum where people were discussing innoculations when she thought other people were attacking her "belief system" because they took issue with the scientific validity of her claims, so I'm kind of anticipating a similar reaction here. If you are a "believer", fine, whatever floats your boat, but please don't be surprised if others question the validity of such claims, or act personally affronted if they do so. We "rationalists" have our belief systems, too, you know.

For a contrasting view, see, e.g., questions and answers like the following, which is typical of information found on more mainstream medical and nutritional sites:

"Can carbonated beverages cause osteoporosis?"

"The myth that carbonated beverages can cause osteoporosis came from a series of observational studies that found a link between the consumption of carbonated beverages and increased risk of fractures. Although caffeine (found in many carbonated beverages) may play a role in reducing calcium absorption, the most significant factor is likely the fact that people reach for a carbonated beverage instead of a glass of milk. This reduces overall calcium consumption. As long as patients have an adequate calcium intake (and other osteoporosis risk factors such as glucocorticoid use are managed), they don't need to worry about drinking carbonated beverages.

References:

1. Am J Clin Nutr 2001;74:343.
2. Food Chem Toxicol 2002;40:1263"

This is from: http://www.ratiopharm.ca/e/Pharmacis...ist.asp?id=271

GoanCanuck

>> Let's start with carbonated water. As you know, our bodies require oxygen to remain healthy. For every can of carbonated soda ingested, the amount of oxygen in the blood is decreased by 25% for up to three hours." <<

That is really really hard to believe. On my recent trip to India on many occasions I drank several cans of coke continuously. If one can of coke decreased my oxygen level by 25% then after drinking 3 cans of coke I would have been unconscious!

mira4bai4

It doesn't pay to see things in extremes as the body works with subtleties. My Indian Ayurvedic doctor once gave me explicit instructions, "do not drink carbonated water, CO2 is a poisonious gas to the body, ingesting it will cause damage to your health. If you breath to much CO2 you die, ingesting it has its own reactions also. You are warned." Yes Murkish Mind you as his back is turned Tonic Water and Limca do slide down.

daveashcroftuk

This just shows what happens when non-scientists try and understand scientific papers. Carbonated water was used as a CONTROL.

And....any scientist who says:

"Carbonated water contains carbon dioxide (a waste product) which with the water forms carbonic acid. It can cause indigestion, bloating, arthritis, osteoporosis, and urinary problems"

is clearly undereducated. Carbon dioxide is a waste product? Only in the same way that oxygen is to plants. So i suggest that those "internationally renowned herbalists" do the world a favour and avoid oxygen at all costs. There is a huge market built up by pseudo-nutritionists etc who rake in lots of money through the naivety of others.

vistet

Exactly, things needs to be in balance. We spend a lot of time regulating carbon dioxide and oxygen levels where I work , knowing that too little CO2 can be equally harmful as too high O2 in the body.

daveashcroftuk

I would also reccomend people watch out for oxygen dihydride, you wont believe the extent to which water is polluted with it. It can kill you if you drink to much of it, or indeed inhale it. Be warned!

mira4bai4

There was a trend or still might be to consume Peroxide, to increase the level of oxygen within the body, never thought that Peroxide was a good idea on the skin, though it cleaned wounds pretty 'smartly' let alone consuming it. In either case CO2 and H2O2 are best kept out side of our bodies and at arms length.

When people sleep with their mouth open and breath in to much oxygen the brain switches off the breathing to increase the CO2 in the blood and then when the level is right we splutter back into life again if your partner has not shaken you to breathing again; then with this splutter we take in to much oxygen again and the brain goes into the rebalancing mode again until either we breath through the nose or we get smothered by a pillow. Anyway the point is that the CO2 and O2 balance has to be right and putting something alien in seems pretty stupid when the brain works so hard to maintain the correct atmosphere for life.

daveashcroftuk

mira4bai4:

So maybe you should stop eating alltogether. After all, you wouldnt want to have too much methane or CO2 in your system, and they are both byproducts of digestion. The point is that drinking carbonated water will do you absolutely no harm whatsoever. Thats why you belch when drinking carbonated water, as the CO2 is released. Anyone saying anything otherwise is talking from their big wrinkly a-hole.

Your body doesnt absorb everything you put into it.

(edit: unless you consider belching / farting as harmful - in which case you would be correct. Also, what you say about peroxide is correct, although you will find that peroxide is actually produced naturally in your body as a side-product of various enzymatic biosynthetic processes........and in that case is necessary and harmless................drinki ng a bleaching material is obviously a bad thing)

vistet

Right in principle ( homeostasis is achieved by apnea ) but the problem , is not too much oxygen but to little carbon dioxide. I have never seen it in sleeping patients, normally it is associated with fear reactions - which are worsened when they realise that they have stopped breathing. It is also associated ( no personal experience) with high altitude reactions.

Breathing is primarily regulated not, , for people without chronic lung disease, by the carbon dioxide levels in the blood and not O2 levels.

mira4bai4

Well my wife suffers from sleep apnea so I am kind of familiar with the process and as she spends all of her working life in the medical world and I am not unfamiliar with it myself while I don't get into being technical the knowledge is none the less pretty firm. Breathing is the mechanism that is used to increase or decrease the levels of O2 and too much O2 in the blood supply does encourage the brain to switch off the breathing to increase the CO2 balance in sleeping. One might say that when the body is active it requires greater levels O2 to stimulate the nerves into action for higher level of functionality, however in sleep mode the increased levels of CO2 are required to maintain a subdued functionality, minimising the O2 levels just to maintain the various functions that require it.

Something to consider in regards to this is the nature of night leg restlessness and night cramps, which by consuming a glass of Indian Tonic Water settles it all down, now is this due to the Quinine or the CO2 as I have high 'electrical' activity in my legs and medically this is considered to be good for circulation but at night time can be to much activity.

I kind of think daveashcroftuk the throw away comments are pretty lame and while ones body does not absorb absolutely everything a level of contamination none the less occurs and depending on the duration of the contact, the actual state of the organ that it is passing through and the various other variables that can occur, reactions to toxicity levels that may present as belching or farting or reflux can also be symptomatic of other underlying problems or aggravations which such waste by-products either irritate or further contaminate and in some situations exasperate and result in putrefaction within the digestive system. So the aspect of their big wrinkly hole may be a point of concern.

vistet

I would put it this way (and after working some twenty years in a intensive care unit I´m pretty firm , too )

*Breathing is the process to maintain adeqate oxygen levels and regulating acidity thru carbon dioxide levels.

* Breathing is normally regulated primarily from carbon dioxide sensors . This is the reason why it is dangerous to hyperventilate before diving : the impulse that tells you to start breathing/return to surface has no chance to kick in while the carbon dioxide reaches normal levels after the hyperventilation.. and suddenly you pass out from hypoxia.Hypoxic stimulation of breathing requires really low O2 levels in the blood : you can see it on the person before running the arterial blood analysis.

*Persons with chronic lung diseases have have adapted themselves to higher levels of carbon dioxide and a lower pH ; they have also switched their regulation of the breathing to the O2-sensors. Uncontrolled artificial delivery of O2 can cause serious apnea in these patients.

*People with severe hypoxia and normal CO2 will start hyperventilating , the body isn´t that stupid : punctured lung, again altitude etc. If they manage to drop carbon dioxide/PH drastically the CO2-sensors will have their say again and stop the breathing.

.. and at the end of the day , I really enjoy Indian Tonic with lime , or Limca .

Mmmm...Limca