A water ionizer (also known as an alkaline ionizer) is a
home appliance
A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation.
Appliances are divided into three ...
which claims to raise the
pH of drinking water by using
electrolysis to separate the incoming water stream into
acidic
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a ...
and alkaline components.
The alkaline stream of the treated water is called alkaline water. Proponents claim that consumption of alkaline water results in a variety of health benefits, making it similar to the
alternative health practice of
alkaline diets. Such claims violate basic principles of
chemistry and
physiology
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
. There is no
medical evidence for any health benefits of alkaline water. Extensive scientific evidence has completely debunked these claims.
The machines originally became popular in
Japan and other East Asian countries before becoming available in the U.S. and Europe.
Health claims
Water ionizers are often marketed on the basis of
health claims which are normally focused on their putative ability to make water more alkaline. A wide variety of benefits have been claimed, including the ability to slow
aging,
prevent
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
, give the body more energy, and offset alleged effects of acidic foods.
There is no empirical evidence to support these claims, nor the claims that drinking ionized water will have a noticeable effect on the body.
Drinking ionized water or alkaline water does not alter the body's
pH due to
acid-base homeostasis.
Additionally, marketers have inaccurately claimed that the process of electrolysis changes the structure of water from large non-bioavailable water clusters to small bioavailable water clusters, called "micro clusters".
Some proponents of alkaline water and the alkaline diet as a whole claim a link between alkaline intake and
cancer prevention
Cancer prevention is the practice of taking active measures to decrease the incidence of cancer and mortality. The practice of prevention is dependent upon both individual efforts to improve lifestyle and seek preventive screening, and socioeconomi ...
;
no scientific evidence exists for such a connection,
and as such, several cancer societies have denounced this claim.
See also
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Alkaline diet
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Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...
*
Quackery
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, ...
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Electrodeionization
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Magnetic water treatment
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Negative air ionization therapy
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Self-ionization of water
The self-ionization of water (also autoionization of water, and autodissociation of water) is an ionization reaction in pure water or in an aqueous solution, in which a water molecule, H2O, deprotonates (loses the nucleus of one of its hydrogen ...
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Ultrafiltration
Ultrafiltration (UF) is a variety of membrane filtration in which forces such as pressure or concentration gradients lead to a separation through a semipermeable membrane. Suspended solids and solutes of high molecular weight are retained in the ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Water Ionizer
Drinking water
Pseudoscience
Alternative medical treatments
Fad diets