WHY DISTILLED
WATER?




WHY DISTILLED WATER?


by Dr. John R. Christopher

"All the drugs in the Pharmacopoeia cannot do as much for the life
forces in your body as you can do for yourself with the simplest and
greatest of all nature's remedies-water." This statement was made by
Frederick M. Rositer M.D.

The principle of using water in healing and renewing the body has
been well known from early history. It has been used and recommended
by doctors from the times before Hippocrates and ever since. John
Wesley, the famous evangelist and founder of the Methodist Church,
wrote a book early in the 18th Century, treating among other things,
the virtues of water as a healing remedy. Prusnitz, Father Knupp,
Dr. Winternitz, Dr. Kellogg and many many more intellectuals advised
the use of water in healings. Today we have many advocates of water
therapy such as Alen E. Banik, O.D.; Paul C. Bragg, N.D.; N.W.
Walker, Doctor of Science; Yogi Ramacharaka, etc. etc.

For the internal use of the body-the most perfectly designed form of
animation on this earth--we should use only the purest liquid we can
find. Pure fruit and vegetable juices, as a liquid food, is a pure
liquid and very beneficial. We need now to think of a non-
nutritional liquid for cleansing the circulatory system of the body,
and that liquid is pure water.

I like the way Dr. N.W. Walker explains water and the use of
minerals in the body. In his book "Water Can Undermine Your Health"
(Norwalk Press, Publishers, Phoenix, Arizona, 1974), he
quotes, "What happens to the minerals in the water?"

Once the liquid, whatever it happens to be, reaches the liver it is
completely divested and cleared of everything whatever that was a
component part of the liquid, except only the hydrogen and oxygen
which, together, form the water molecule.

Water containing nothing but hydrogen and oxygen is pure water, and
this is the only kind of water which the blood and lymph can use in
their work. Both the blood and the lymph require pure water to
assist them in their functions.

Distilled water is the purest water you can have. Whatever mineral
and chemical elements were present in the water when it first
reaches the liver, are segregated by the anatomizing processes in
the liver and either passed on into the blood stream or are filed
away as reserve material. The liver has no selective ability to
determine whether the item which comes to it is "alive" or inactive,
whether it is constructive or detrimental.

Natural water, by which we will classify all waters that come from
springs, wells, rivers and lakes, and from the faucet, is replete
with mineral elements which it has collected from being in contact
with earth, soil and rocks. Dust thou art, to dust shalt thou
return, was not spoken of the soul.

All the minerals in the human body--and the body is composed of
minerals--are the same as the minerals of which the earth is
composed. Man's body was created from the dust of the Earth. But
there is a vast difference between the minerals in the human body
and those in the earth, not in kind or quality, but in the vitality
of those which compose the human anatomy, vitality or life--which is
lacking in the earth minerals.

The tiny microscopic cells of the body are each a collection of
mineral atoms, of live, vital atoms. The kind, quality and variety
of the mineral elements vary with each group of cells, in accordance
with the functions and activities called for in the cell's allotted
tasks.

Your cells need food they can swallow--without choking to death!

These cells must be furnished the mineral nourishment they need, in
order to accomplish their work. Minerals which a cell or a group of
cells cannot use, will only interfere with the cells' function.
Minerals which are larger than in colloidal particles would,
figuratively speaking, choke the cells to death!

The minerals in Natural Waters are gross and lifeless, a kind and
quality which are incompatible with the cells' needs. The cells
therefore reject them. In due course this rejection leaves a
surprising accumulation of discarded minerals which is nothing more
or less than debris.

Distilled water leaches out only unusable lime, etc.

Distilled water has something inherent in it in the nature of a
magnet, so to speak, whereby it can pick up these rejected and
discarded minerals and, with the assistance of the blood and the
lymph, transport them to the kidneys for elimination from the
system. This cleaning-up function is not constant.

It is this kind of mineral elimination that is erroneously referred
to as leaching. The expression that distilled water leaches minerals
from the body is entirely inaccurate. It does not leach out body
minerals, it collects and removes minerals which have been rejected
by the cells of the body and are therefore nothing more nor less
than debris, obstructing the normal functions of the system.

As a matter of fact, try drinking nothing but distilled water for
two or three weeks. Have a urinalysis made before you start and see
if you will not be astonished at the mineral sediments in the urine
after a mere three weeks! There is no substitute for experience.

The accumulation of minerals in the body, from drinking natural
waters, and the elimination of rejected minerals as a result of
drinking distilled water is conclusive evidence of the use and value
of distilled water for drinking and for food preparation purposes.

What Minerals Does The Body Need?

It is not intended that we should furnish the body with the minerals
it must have for regeneration and replenishment, by means of the
natural waters. The minerals which the cells of the body will use
for constructive purposes must come from the raw food we eat. The
only live food, food replete with enzymes, which is intended for the
nourishment of man is obtained from fresh raw vegetables, fruits,
herbs, nuts and seeds.

We have just received information from a man who practices what he
preaches. Dr. N.W. Walker is now well over the hundred and ten year
mark, still writing and tilling his own garden.

I have met Paul C. Bragg and want to say that here was another great
man (although now deceased) that did a lot for mankind, in teaching
the use of distilled water for better health. As a teenager, Paul
Bragg had tuberculosis and his doctors had told him there was no
cure, that he was "not going to make it."

The little Swiss nurse was angry with the doctors and after they
left she told him he could be cured in Switzerland. She took him
back to Dr. August Rollier, and there in Switzerland he had
a "rebirth" with just natural healing methods, no drugs of any kind-
just distilled water, good nutrition, sunshine and fresh air (deep
breathing) and exercise.

He became well and, as he put it, "strong as a young stallion." He
studied two years in Switzerland and then he moved to London to
study and prepare for his life's work. His landlord and his wife
were very sick, so he started them on the use of distilled water and
other simple aids, i.e., pure foods, etc., and performed a
miraculous healing. At first these two had great difficulty in
climbing the stairs but after a "cleaning out" could climb up and
down the stairs within three weeks, something his landlord had not
done in seven years.

From one of Paul Bragg's books "The Shocking Truth about Water"
(Burbank, CA 91303, Health Science, 1970), I would like to pass on
to you the following:

Take my own life, for instance. I was born on a farm in Virginia,
along the Potomac River. We got our drinking water from a well-
crystalline, fresh, sparkling water. But it was very hard water,
containing in solution-calcium carbonate and other inorganic
minerals from limestone.

When we boiled this water, incrustations of these inorganic minerals
formed in large slabs inside the kettles, and in time produced holes
in the bottoms. Kettle after kettle had to be thrown away and
replaced by another, with the same thing happening to the new one in
time.

The hard water made dish washing, laundering and cleaning difficult.
The soaps used for these purposes simply would not make suds.

But the greatest damage done by this hard water was to the humans
who drank it.

My grandfather was a man in his mid-sixties. He was a big, strong
six-footer, about 200 pounds of solid muscle. He was an expert
horseman, a finished hunter and a hardworking farmer.

I can remember when he had his first stroke. There was a large
family of Braggs, and we were all seated at the dinner table.
Suddenly there was a crash of dishes, and my grandfather slumped
over the table. When the country doctor arrived, he stated sadly
that grandfather had lost all control of his left side due to brain
damage.

From now on this poor old man needed constant attention. With a
completely paralyzed left side, he could not walk without the aid of
someone to steady him. He had absolutely no control of his
eliminative system. This, helpless, sick man went into rages of
anger. There was great difficulty getting food into his body because
he had lost the ability to chew it. Only very soft bland food could
be fed him.

This fine man we knew and loved was, as far as real living was
concerned, dead. You have no idea what a great burden he was on my
parents and family. The poor, helpless man dragged on this way for
three years and then the second and final stroke came and he was
actually dead.

His body went to the John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where the
doctors who performed the autopsy stated that his arteries were like
stone. My grandfather was born and reared on that farm and drank
that hard water all his life.

It was many years before my questions were answered. In the
meantime, I witnessed what the hard water was doing to my family and
our relatives and friends.

Here we were living on a big, fine farm, with an abundance of foods
of all kinds. We had a good, comfortable home. It was a beautiful
farm on a majestic river. But there was suffering among the adults.
These pains were bulked into one word, and that was "misery." Each
day I would hear my mother ask different people, "How is your misery
today?" And the sufferer would give a doleful answer to my mother's
questions.

Allen E. Banik, O.D., with Carlson Wade in the book "Your Water and
Your Health" (Keats Publishing Co., Connecticut 06840, 1974) gives
us a listing of the ten basic kinds of water;

Hard Water. This is saturated with calcium, iron, magnesium, and
many other inorganic minerals. All water in lakes, rivers, on the
ground, in deep wells, is classified as hard water. (Many city
systems take water from rivers or lakes, or reservoirs supplied with
mountain water; they erroneously call their supplies "soft water"
but it is soft only in comparison with water which is harder.)

Boiled Water. Boiling helps remove some of the germs, but
concentrates the inorganic minerals. Other germs are carried into a
fertile element for rapid and lusty propagation of germs and viruses
already in the body.

Raw Water. This has not been boiled. Raw water may be hard (as
calcium hardened water) or soft as rain water. It contains millions
of germs and viruses. In every densely inhabited drop. Some of these
viruses and bacteria may adversely affect the thyroid gland, the
liver and other vital body organs.

Rain Water. This has been condensed from the clouds. The first drop
is distilled water. But when it falls as rain, it picks up germs,
dust, smoke, minerals, strontium 90, lead and many other atmospheric
chemicals. By the time rain water reaches the earth it is so
saturated with dust and pollutants it may be yellowish in color.
Water is supposed to act as an atmosphere purifier. If we had no air
pollution, we would have far less pollution in our drinking water.

Snow Water. This is frozen rain. Freezing does not eliminate any
germs. All snowflakes have hardened mineral deposits. Melt the
cleanest snow and you will find it saturated with dirt, inorganic
minerals, germs and viruses.

Filtered Water. This water has passed through a fine strainer,
called a filter. Some calcium and other solid substances are kept in
the filter; there is no filter made which can prevent germs from
passing through its fine meshes. Each pore of the finest filter is
large enough for a million viruses to seep through in a few moments.
A home filter usually only picks up suspended solids and is
effective for the time, maybe only for hours, until it is filled up.
Then it is ineffective even for removing suspended solids, and at
the same time becomes a breeding ground for bacteria.

Soft Water. This water is soft in comparison with water which is
harder. It may contain many trace minerals and chemicals, viruses
and bacteria. It is not to be confused with "softened water." Soft
water may be classified as water which is harder than distilled
water.

Reverse Osmosis. This is a system of water purification which allows
pre-filtered water to be forced through a semi-permeable membrane to
separate impurities from our drinking water. However, this membrane
allows only certain molecules to pass through providing the water
pressure is exactly constant. The matter of water pressure is a
problem still to be solved. Furthermore, the membrane also allows
some iron and nitrate molecules to pass through. Another problem to
be solved.

But it now seems promising that we can look forward to tremendous
strides in this system of water purification. Gulf Oil, Culligan and
Eastman Kodak are sponsoring vast research in this area. High purity
water between 90 and 97 percent of the dissolved mineral (and
organic solutions), and over 99 percent of the suspended and
colloidal particles are rejected by, the special membrane which has
been developed for this process by these companies in their
research. The product water, from this new research, is ultra-clear,
low in dissolved solids, practically free from hardness components
and essentially sterile as produced. This makes a close second to
distilled water.

De- Ionized Water . A process of exchanging "hard" ions for "soft."
The total ions are still present. The end result is the same. But
the water has the appearance of being distilled. (Nature recognizes
transformation but not extinction!) Since water leaving the sodium-
cation exchanger has little hardness, it contains sodium salts.

Distilled Water. This is water that has first been turned into steam
so that all of its impurities are left behind. Then through
condensation, it is turned back into pure water. It is the only pure
water. The only water free from all contamination. Distilled water
may well be considered the only pure water on earth.

Writing in Food, Yearbook of the U.S., Department of Agriculture,
1959, Dr. Oaf Michelsen of the National Institute of Health, tells
us:

Next to oxygen, water is the most important factor for survival of
man and animals. A person can do without food for five weeks or
more, but without water he can survive for only a few days. The
longer an individual goes without water, the greater the number and
severity of symptoms he shows.

Weakness, lassitude, thirst and dryness of the mouth are the first
signs of dehydration. Loss of weight and mental confusion set in
later. The individual becomes uncooperative and sullen. The cheeks
become pale and the lips are dry and bluish. The skin loses its
elasticity. The eyeballs have a sunken appearance. The volume of
urine decreases, and its specific gravity rises. At the end, the
respiration ceases, even though the pulse and general circulation
may be well maintained. The volume of blood is maintained at the
expense of the water within the body cells. The central nervous
system undergoes the same dehydration as the cells in the remainder
of the body and is the first area to show functional changes.

How Water Acts as the "Lubrication" of Your Body

Rose's Foundation of Nutrition (5th Edition, pps. 118-120) explains
that water is an essential constituent of living protoplasm. No cell
functions when it is absolutely dry, and most cells must be
constantly bathed in fluid in order to do their work.

Furthermore, human cells depend on having their food transported to
them over a fluid route--the blood--a demand which alone requires
about 10 pounds of water to be in circulation constantly. Waste-
bearing water (urine) is necessary to flush away the end products of
metabolism. And without water to moisten the surface of the lungs
there can be no intake of oxygen or expulsion of carbon dioxide.

Dr. W. B. Cannon, the famous physiologist, author of "Wisdom of the
Body," explains it in a nutshell:

Water is the vehicle for food materials absorbed from the digestive
canal; it is the medium in which chemical changes take place that
underlie most of our obvious activities; it is essential in the
regulation of body temperature and it plays an important part in
mechanical services such as lubrication of joint surfaces.

In addition to this, water aids in the digestive process, in the
waste elimination in the circulation, temperature regulation and to
protect your body as a lubricant against friction, etc.

Water is so valuable to the entire system of the human body that it
is wise to use only the Best. Use pure steam distilled water for
health and well being.

I personally did not know anything about distilled water until just
a few years ago. My knowledge of it came in a rather odd way. I had
been sitting in a wheelchair (and occasionally up on crutches) for
approximately nine months-with both Arthritis and also from an
accident I had been in a few years before when I had received a
concussion on my skull. Build-up of a calcification condition from
the former fractured area had put pressure on the brain area causing
a paralyzed condition on the right side of my body. I had lost my
health-food store (the original "The Herb Shop") in Orem, Utah, and
was broke, so a friend offered me free rent to open another one in
Salt Lake City.

Here was a ridiculous situations "health" doctor opening a health-
food store in a wheel chair. The business started to grow slowly and
one day as I sat there, a young fellow came in to do business with
me and as he left he dropped a copy of "The Choice Is Clear", by Dr.
Banik, saying, "I'll bet this will help you!" As I read the booklet
through, I was completely sold on distilled water, so called up a
company and had some delivered to me. I started using it faithfully
and was out of the wheelchair in a very short time. Over the years I
had helped patients leave their wheelchairs and had used the same
procedure on myself that had cured them. It worked for them but not
for me, until I combined my procedure with "pure" water.

In order to keep up my rigid schedule of traveling to well over a
hundred cities a year, and to various countries, I see to it that I
have steam distilled water available wherever I go. For this I am
indeed grateful, to be able to travel continually without the use of
a wheelchair, crutches, or canes.

Some of us have to learn the hard way-I hope you are much brighter
than I was, to suffer as long as I did before seeing the light.


Used by permission. Dr. Christopher Newsletter: Volume 1 Number 10