Most of the water ionizers manufactured today were made in Japan or Korea, as those countries have been researching and specializing in this technology for generations. But before investing in a water ionizer, you should investigate the various models and the features offered by each.
All water ionizers alkalize and ionize using the scientific process of electrolysis – but like everything else in life, you really do get what you pay for. When it comes to your health and that of your loved ones, it is important that you get it right.
There are solid reasons for the more costly ionizers because of their higher quality parts and engineering features, advanced circuitry plus the greater degrees of alkalization, sanitation as well as power output such water generators provide. The additional few hundred – even a thousand dollars more is worth the investment as what you are really buying is quality parts, guaranteed full service warranties with the added assurance your machine will operate at peak efficiency while lasting a decade or more *(far longer than cheaper models are capable).
These are primary factors to consider:
Plate Size – The single most important aspect. The longer the water remains in contact with the plate’s surface area, the greater the effect the plate has on the water source. For highest quality water (fortified with maximum alkaline content, essential minerals and oxygenation – plus vital sanitizing properties) the ionizer you select should have the larger plate size.
Plate Quantity – The more plates there are, the greater (more powerful) their output will be. The NUMBER (and size) of the plates equals their combined surface area. Ergo, the larger the plates’ surface area, the better.
Design – Electrode plates are the most effective.
Plate Material – To be considered a quality water ionizer, it must contain plates that are made with titanium and platinum materials. Platinum-coated TITANIUM plates are SAFER, operate more efficiently and last at least two to three TIMES longer than imitations!
CONSUMER ALERT: BEWARE of deceptive marketing phrases: such as PLATONIZED TITANIUM (Platonized is not the same as PLATINUM). Just as diamonette is NOT a diamond. Such terms are utilized to IMPLY quality where there is none. Many unsuspecting consumers are deceived by such practices. But ideally, plates must be DOUBLE-DIPPED in real platinum (NOT merely “spray coated” which, like paint, is easily chipped). Be certain your ionizer is constructed of DOUBLE-DIPPED PLATINUM-coated TITANIUM plates.
ORP Ratings – ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential) measures each machine s ability to create anti-oxidant properties (or its effectiveness in oxidizing (removing) contaminants. The LOWER the negative number, the BETTER its oxidizing/sanitizing properties.
pH (alkaline-acidic balance) Ratings – The recommended pH level for drinking water is approximately 9.5.
Power (the core of every ionizer) – No machine responds well to heat, which is why transformers are used to prevent ionizers’ over-heating. NOTE: the HIGHER the voltage used during the electrolysis process, the more powerful (beneficial) the water generated will be.
Active Carbon – Active carbon is the long time standard for removing chlorine.
Filter Life – This refers to the amount of use that you should be able to expect from a set of filters.
Cleaning Filters – Does the water ionizer come with a cleaning filter that can be used before changing filters?
Flow Control – How quickly or – slowly, water flows across the plates within your machine.
Flow Rate – How quickly – or slowly, water comes out of the ionizer. Flow rates typically range from 3/4 of a gallon per minute to over a gallon per minute.
Ease of Use – Absolutely/positively get a USER-FRIENDLY water ionizer. Everything about the water you will be drinking is determined by each machine’s proper settings. If you can’t understand all its functions or operate it easily, you are effectively taking “pot luck.”
Warranty – Your water ionizer should have a warranty (PARTS & LABOR) from a reputable manufacturer of AT LEAST three years. FIVE years – or more is even better.
Types of Water Produced – Your water ionizer should generate several TYPES of water – including strong alkaline and strong acidic water, as the alkaline and acidic properties have many different – VALUABLE uses that directly affect the health and well being of you and your family!
Please visit our comparison grids to learn more about the various water ionizers.
Antioxidants
ANTI-OXIDANTS relationship to alkalization-acidic (pH balance) and free radical destruction
Free radicals are destructive organic molecules responsible for aging, tissue damage and degenerative disease. Being highly unstable, free radicals have to bond with other molecules, thus damaging these other molecules as life is literally leached out of them. Anti-oxidants are protective molecules that prevent free radicals from harming (sucking the life out of) healthy tissue.
Unstable molecules (free radicals) not having an even number of electrons, continuously “seek out” extra electrons that they can “steal” to help stabilize themselves. In the human body, this process of free radicals robbing “the life” from your cells results in untold damage.
Free radicals are labeled “free” because they float around (freely) until becoming stabilized by bonding with other molecules. The “radical” term applies to the wide variety of molecules from which they can steal an electron. However, the damage doesn t end here, as the new molecule formed from (as an example: a piece of a cell wall) thus deprived of its electron becomes another free radical. This “snowball effect” wreaks havoc on healthy tissue and begins the degradation that destroys immune systems.
Anti-oxidants are the antidote to voracious electrons feeding the free radicals. Anti-oxidants generated by ionized alkaline water act like giant boulders blocking the oncoming snowballs – stopping the free radicals from causing untold damage. Due to the ionizer alkalization, tap water molecules are micro-clustered (reduced to half-size) in order to more easily and efficiently penetrate the body’s cellular structure. And the faster healing anti-oxidants are absorbed into the body, the more effectively they work.
Some degenerative processes caused by free radicals may be inevitable (such as aging) but others can be prevented (DNA destruction, arteries being clogged).
Free radicals are caused by the body s absorption of environmental pollutants, heavy metals, fertilizer and acid rain run-off, tobacco smoking-chewing and other toxic substances. Free radicals play a significant role in the generation of cancer, strokes and heart disease (to mention but a few of their negative aspects).
Oxidation occurs when O2 (oxygen gas) or free radicals remove electrons (or protons) from bio-molecules one-after-another, which attack the immune system and encourage the onset of illness.
This simple example illustrates the delicate configuration of individual water molecules that enables them to break relatively stronger bonds by converging on them. This is why water is called “the universal solvent” a natural solution that breaks the bonds of larger, more complex molecules. This is the chemistry of life on earth, in water and on land.
Oxidation-reduction reactions
Basically, reduction means the addition of an electron (e-), and its converse, oxidation means the removal of an electron. The addition of an electron, reduction, stores energy in the reduced compound. The removal of an electron, oxidation, liberates energy from the oxidized compound. Whenever one substance is reduced, another is oxidized.
To clarify this, consider any two molecules – A and B. When molecules A and B come into contact, here is what happens:
- B grabs an electron from molecule A.
- Molecule A has been oxidized because it has lost an electron.
- The net charge of B has been reduced because it has gained a negative electron (e-).
In biological systems, removal or addition of an electron constitutes the most frequent mechanism of oxidation-reduction reactions.
Acids and Bases
An acid is a substance that increases the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) in water. A base is a substance that decreases concentration of hydrogen ions (i.e. increasing concentration of hydroxide ions OH-).
The degree of acidity or alkalinity of a solution is measured in terms of a value known as pH, which is the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions:
pH = 1/log[H+] = -log[H+]
What is pH?
On the pH scale, the ranges of acid-alkaline balance are:
0 on the acidic end to
14 on the alkaline end
A solution is neutral when it is pH 7.
At pH 7, water contains equal concentrations of H+ and OH- ions.
Substances less than pH 7 are acidic because they contain a higher concentration of H+ ions.
Substances higher than pH 7 are alkaline because they contain a higher concentration of OH- than H+.
The importance of balancing pH
Living things are extremely sensitive to pH and generally function at optimum levels when nearly neutral. There are certain exceptions, such as portions of the digestive tract.
Most interior living matter (excluding cell nucleus) has a 6.8 pH.
Blood plasma and other fluids that surround the cells in the body have a pH of 7.2 to 7.3.
Special mechanisms (buffers) help stabilize fluids so cells do not suffer appreciable pH fluctuations. Buffers bond ions and remove them from solution whenever their concentration begins to rise.
Conversely, buffers release ions when their concentration starts falling. This is an important function because many biochemical reactions in living organisms either “release” or “use-up” ions.
OXYGEN is TOO MUCH of a good thing – WHY illness begins
Oxygen is essential to survival. It is relatively stable in the air but when too much is absorbed into the body, it becomes active, unstable and has a tendency to attach itself to any biological molecule, including molecules of healthy cells.
The chemical activity of these free radicals is due to one or more pairs of unpaired electrons.
About 2% of the oxygen we breathe becomes active oxygen –increasing to 20% during aerobic exercise.
FREE RADICALS with unpaired electrons are unstable as well as having high oxidation potential. Meaning: they are capable of stealing electrons from other cells.
This chemical mechanism is useful in disinfectants (hydrogen peroxide and ozone) used to sterilize wounds and medical instruments. Inside the body these free radicals are of great benefit due to their ability to attack and eliminate bacteria, viruses and other waste products.
Active Oxygen in the body
Problems arise, however, when too many of these free radicals are loose in the body where they damage normal tissue.
Putrefaction starts as microbes in the air invade proteins, peptides and amino acids (eggs, fish, meat) resulting in many unpleasant substances:
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Ammonia
- Histamines
- Indoles
- Phenols
- Scatoles
These substances are naturally produced in the digestive tract as food is digested. Food spoiled (putrefaction) from microbes in the air is duplicated in the digestive tract by intestinal microbes. All such digestive wastes are pathogenic. Meaning: they cause disease in the body.
Hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are liver damaging tissue toxins.
Histamines contribute to allergic disorders such as dermatitis, hives and asthma. Indoles and phenols are considered carcinogenic.
Because all the waste products mentioned above are toxic and produce active oxygen, the body tries eliminating them by releasing white corpuscles. Problems arise as too many active oxygen molecules (FREE radicals) are produced in the body. They are extremely reactive and attach themselves to healthy cells, thus damaging them genetically. This electron “theft” created by active oxygen oxidizes tissue – and causes disease.
Anti-oxidants block dangerous oxidation
One way to protect healthy tissue from the ravages of oxidation caused by active oxygen is to provide free electrons to active oxygen radicals, thus neutralizing their high oxidation potential and preventing them from reacting with healthy tissue.
Much of the damage caused by carcinogenic substances in food comes from an oxidation reaction in the cell. In this process, an oddball oxygen molecule may damage the cell s genetic code. Researchers believe substances preventing oxidation (ANTI-OXIDANTS) block the damage.
The intake of natural anti-oxidants is vital to the body s defense against cancer.
Water treated by electrolysis has increased reduction potential – and the ANTI-OXIDANTS produced by electrolysis is the best solution to the problem of providing a safe source of free electrons to block the oxidation of normal tissue by free oxygen radicals.
Ionized alkaline water (or reduced water) with an excess of free electrons to donate to active oxygen is the best solution because:
- The reduction potential of water can be dramatically increased over other antioxidants in food or vitamin supplements.
- The molecule weight of reduced water is low, making it fast acting and able to reach all tissues of the body in a very short time.
Anti-oxidants are a vital component of health care; even western medical minds have (finally) come around to acknowledging anti-oxidants are key in prolonging and sustaining a healthy mind and body. Anti-oxidants also actively eliminate free radicals (excess acidity) in the human body that are blamed for most illnesses, disease and cancer.
Anti-oxidants produced by water ionizers work more efficiently in the body, have greater potency that significantly enhances alkaline water’s extraordinary healing properties. WHY IS THIS SO?
Water ionizers produce negative hydrogen (H-) ions: powerful life-sustaining anti-oxidants that are a vital part of all life forms.
These “original” anti-oxidant (H-) ions (also called hydride ions) are responsible for life forming here on earth and beyond – as well as for the very sustainment of life itself. This healing H- ion anti-oxidant is found in raw organic foods and ancient water sources (glacial water run off, fresh springs and pristine unpolluted lakes).
The alkaline anti-oxidant water produced by water ionizers equals the source of natural ionization itself:
Water gushing down glaciers and mountains, high-altitude waterfalls … through velocity, gravity, atmosphere and violent impact form an interaction of life forces, ionization. Simultaneously elemental reactions produce essential life minerals that immediately bond with ionized water.
Incredibly powerful anti-oxidants produced by ionization micro clusters alkaline water molecules, condensing their form into evenly shaped hexagonal structures, reducing their size (by half) allowing the micro-clustered bursts to more rapidly and efficiently penetrate the body’s cells. The curative properties of alkalinity combine with potent anti-oxidants, boosted by the increased rate at which they are absorbed by the body, are the perfect formula for healing and wellness,
Using a scientific method called NMR spectroscopy, researchers proved that electrolysis changes and condenses water clusters, resulting in alkaline water that is more easily absorbable as well as fortified by essential minerals.
The scientific process of electrolysis also destroys artery-blocking contaminants, thus increasing blood flow. Anti-oxidants’ higher pH levels help bring an overly acidic body back into balance.
The anti-oxidant properties of ionized water are enhanced by its concentration of alkalized minerals (magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium) made even more effective by the ionizer converting these minerals into colloidal form.
Inorganic minerals are converted into colloidal form by water ionizers, making them more readily absorbable with a higher degree of efficacy.
NOTE: While milk producers claim you get all the calcium you need from milk, this is not true because calcium in THIS FORM is not easily digestible. In liquids like milk, the inorganic minerals they contain are not much use because the body cannot easily absorb them.
Tests have also shown ionized alkaline water increases anti-oxidant effects of vitamin C (as compared to tap or bottle water). Anti-oxidant alkaline water also cleanses the blood of toxins (cholesterol, heavy metals, inorganic substances) to create a healthier inner environment in which the blood moves more freely throughout the body.
These anti-oxidants also cleanse the body’s own natural filters (liver, kidneys, lymphatic system* etc) boosting their efficacy in removing deadly acidic toxins.
*About the LYMPHATIC SYSTEM: It is the body’s US Postal Service
The importance of anti-oxidant healing & flushing mechanisms: The lymphatic system (organs, ducts, nodes) transports a watery fluid (lymph) that delivers immune cells and other elements throughout the body. Interacting with the blood circulatory system, the system drains fluid from cells/tissues. Its immune cells (lymphocytes) prevent antigens (viruses, bacteria, toxins) from invading the body. The lymph system functions are to:
- COLLECT/return interstitial fluid (& plasma protein) to the blood to help maintain fluid balance
- DEFEND against disease by producing lymphocytes
- ABSORB lipids from the intestine and transport them to the blood
SUMMARY: Once again, the importance of increasing circulation throughout the body cannot be overstated. Ionizer water’s anti-oxidants greatly increase circulatory functions and healing aspects of alkaline water.
NEW YORK – Male factory workers in China who got very high doses of a chemical that’s been widely used in hard plastic bottles had high rates of sexual problems, researchers reported Wednesday.
Heavy exposure to BPA, or bisphenol A, on the job was linked to impotence and lower sexual desire and satisfaction, according to the study, which adds to concerns about BPA’s effects on most consumers.
The men in the study experienced BPA levels about 50 times higher than those faced by typical American men, said researcher Dr. De-Kun Li. “We don’t know” whether more typical doses have similar effects, he said. Read more…
In Poisoned Waters, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith examines the growing hazards to human health and the ecosystem.
“The ’70s were a lot about, ‘We’re the good guys; we’re the environmentalists; we’re going to go after the polluters,’ and it’s not really about that anymore,” Jay Manning, director of ecology for Washington state, tells FRONTLINE. “It’s about the way we all live. And unfortunately, we are all polluters. I am; you are; all of us are.”
Through interviews with scientists, environmental activists, corporate executives and average citizens impacted by the burgeoning pollution problem, Smith reveals startling new evidence that today’s growing environmental threat comes not from the giant industrial polluters of old, but from chemicals in consumers’ face creams, deodorants, prescription medicines and household cleaners that find their way into sewers, storm drains, and eventually into America’s waterways and drinking water.
“The endocrine system of fish is very similar to the endocrine system of humans,” USGS fish pathologist Vicki Blazer says. “They pretty much have all the same hormone systems as humans, which is why we use them as sort of indicator species. … We can’t help but make that jump to ask the question, ‘How are these things influencing people?’”
“The long-term, slow-motion risk is already being spelled out in epidemiologic data, studies — large population studies,” says Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “There are 5 million people being exposed to endocrine disruptors just in the Mid-Atlantic region, and yet we don’t know precisely how many of them are going to develop premature breast cancer, going to have problems with reproduction, going to have all kinds of congenital anomalies of the male genitalia, things that are happening at a broad low level so that they don’t raise the alarm in the general public.”
In addition to assessing the scope of America’s polluted-water problem, Poisoned Waters highlights several cases in which grassroots citizens’ groups succeeded in effecting environmental change: In South Park, Wash., incensed residents pushed for better cleanup of PCB contamination that remained from an old asphalt plant. In Loudon County, Va., residents prevented a large-scale housing development that would have overwhelmed already-strained stormwater systems believed to contribute to the contamination in Chesapeake Bay.
Reversing decades of pollution and preventing the irreversible annihilation of the nation’s waterways, however, will require a seismic shift in the way Americans live their lives and use natural resources, experts say.
“You have to change the way you live in the ecosystem and the place that you share with other living things,” says William Ruckelshaus, founding director of the Environmental Protection Agency. “You’ve got to learn to live in such a way that it doesn’t destroy other living things. It’s got to become part of our culture.”
Environmentalist efforts, a sagging economy and major cities outlawing the sales of bottle water, have contributed to a drop in sales.
- Bottled water costs up to 4,000 times more than tap water
- Bottled water is essentially tap water
- Bottled water does not fall under FDA guidelines, and is often has more mercury and other pollutants in it than public utility water
- 80% of water bottles end up in landfills, streams and the environment
- It takes 5 bottles of water to create the plastic for 1 water bottle
- Pepsi, Coca-Cola (owners of Dasani and Aquafina) and Nestle have all been accused of over pumping streams, taking water from farmers, and in some cases, capping public wells in third world countries, claiming ownership of aquifers and making it illegal for people to collect rainwater. (forcing villagers to go to the river and drink polluted water)
The popularity of bottled water soared in the 1990s and the early 2000s, but that is changing, according to figures from market research company TNS. Last year the on-going year-on-year increase in sales was halted and sales actually fell by 9%.
The United States is one of the few countries in the word that has clean, publicly available drinking water at a low cost. There is no reason for us to be buying a product that is not only almost free, but pollutes our environment.
You’ve heard the old saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” I’d like to say, “buy a bottle of water and you quench your thirst for a day. Buy a reusable water bottle and you quench your thirst for a lifetime.”
Keep up the good fight, and alter the eco!
We have so many choices when it comes to water. And, one can wonder…is water just water? We certainly don’t think so.
We do know that water has a pH value which indicates potential health benefit or damage to our health. We also know that we can measure the oxidation reduction potential of water…that is, its ability to decrease oxidation in our body.
For optimal health, we strive to neutralize acidity and reduce oxidation, thereby slowing the aging process. Alkaline ionized water is a healthier form of water, with significant and beneficial anti-oxidant properties. We offer proven technology through our water ionizer, filtering and purifying ordinary tap water and passing it through an electrolysis chamber, producing alkaline water for drinking and acidic water for skin care.
This alkaline, ionized water has been used for health care in hospitals in Japan for the past 35 years and is now available in the United States. In nature, we have alkaline water for drinking whereas the acidic hot spring waters are for skin cleansing.
Sadly, our tap water can no longer be consumed without worry. If we learned that the water we are drinking is increasing our risk for disease and speeding up the aging process, would we continue to drink it? The human body can maintain optimal health with a balanced, alkaline diet.
Ingesting too many acidic foods and beverages, most notably carbonated soft drinks, can lower the body’s natural pH levels to dangerously acidic levels, which can be a breeding ground for disease. By consuming alkaline, ionized water, a person may restore his or her body’s proper pH balance and perhaps even become more alkaline, which would be great for anyone’s health.
Dr. Hiromi Shinya, developer of the Shinya method to remove polyps during a colonoscopy, and Chief of the Endoscopy Unit of Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, drinks and recommends alkaline, ionized water. Well-known author of The Enzyme Factor, Dr. Shinya provides dietary guidelines on how to avoid disease. Invest in the future of your health. Test the pH and ORP values of your drinking water. Never buy bottled water again.
It’s surprising how the most basic bond between two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen can at once be taken for granted and then be so contentious, especially on the subject of illnesses and cures. What am I talking about?
In a word? Water.
Despite how necessary water is to sustain life, we aren’t drinking enough of it.
Take, for example, the philosophy of Doctor Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, who carries around the mantra, “You are not sick, you are thirsty. Don’t treat thirst with medication.” He believes the underlying cause of many diseases is dehydration.
Batmanghelidj is the author of “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water,” which has been translated into 15 languages. He has been described in watercure.com as one who has devoted the last 20 years of his life promoting public awareness of the healing powers of water.
The New York Times in 1983 related how Batmanghelidj, a prisoner of Evin from November 1979 to May 1982, found relief from the pain of peptic ulcers by just simply drinking several glasses of water at regular intervals.
Thirst
During his interview with Mike Adams at naturalnews.com, he said he had created an organization called National Association for Honesty in Medicine. He was quoted as saying: “Because I think it’s totally dishonest, in fact, criminal, to treat a person who is just thirsty, and give them toxic medication so that he gets sick and dies earlier than normal.”
Such attacks on conventional modes of medicine, of course, would not go unnoticed. Thus, Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch, has taken him to task for his pronouncements:
“Even if his prison experience were considered research, nothing I have seen indicated that he has done any research since his release from prison in 1982. The 1992 edition of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water states that he had done ‘12 years of clinical and scientific research,’ and he updates this figure as the years go by. But as far as I can tell, he has not described any data acquired since he emigrated to the United States in 1982,” Barrett said.
Among Batmanghelidj’s controversial treatment courses, for instance, is for arthritis patients to take a glass of water half an hour before meals, then taking at least two glasses two hours after eating and more water just before sleeping.
Not reliable indicator
He said that dry mouth is not a reliable indicator of dehydration, and that dehydration actually produces pain and many degenerative diseases, including asthma, arthritis, hypertension, angina, adult-onset diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, back pain and constipation.
Stress, he stressed, causes more dehydration and results in a vicious cycle.
Though Batmanghelidj’s nearly fanatic cure-all prescription involving water and only water raises many doctors’ eyebrows, it still wouldn’t hurt to drink at least eight 200-ml glasses of the good stuff a day, a practice universally recommended by health and wellness experts.
“Natural Health, Natural Medicine” author Dr. Andrew Weil relates that one of the questions he asks when learning of the lifestyle history of a patient is “Do you drink water?”
“So many people answer ‘Not as much as I should,”’ he related.
“I do not know a better drink than good quality water,” Weil said
Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, former health secretary, said he has always preached “what you eat and drink is what you are.”
But water itself is now marketed in just so many “forms,” Tan observed.
“With the proliferation of so many varieties of water, the consumers are more confused than ever—from tap to distilled to alkaline to ionized and purified to so-called rehydration fluids,” he said.
Tan advises people to drink water as soon as they wake up and then every hour on the hour until only 6 or 7 p.m. (Drinking just before bedtime) “makes people wake up in their sleep just to pee, and this is unhealthy,” he said.
Big Gary is big. He is a man with presence, an awe-inspiring energy, and a story to tell. He is tall, strong, and healthy. But it wasn’t always that way.
In fact, just a short time ago, Big Gary was not so big, and certainly not so healthy.
He had undergone a series of operations, had lost 70 pounds, and was lying in a hospital bed, close to death.
Gary Derrett is a well-known figure in the Lower Mainland. Up until three years ago, he owned and ran Big Gary’s, a chain of vacuum stores throughout the Lower Mainland, including Richmond. He did this for more than 40 years. His son Steve still runs the local franchise, now known as First Choice Vacuums.
Gary was not a healthy man. He had suffered 20 years of colitis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). He had learned to live with, and tolerate, the illnesses, as many people do.
And then one day, three and a half years ago, he was rushed to emergency with severe swelling to his stomach. He was on the operating table for six hours, after his colon burst and he almost died.
After the operation, his stomach became infected, a staph infection so bad that he underwent five further surgeries over the course of three months. The infection went on for half a year.
“They used a vise and staples to keep me together,” says Gary. “And—ironically—a vacuum to clean me out. I don’t think it was one of mine though.”
The household-appliance entrepreneur can joke about it now, but at the time, the pain was so intense that Gary says he had never known what real pain was until that time. Nurses have since told him they had never seen a patient administered so much morphine.
Before the fifth operation, hospital staff advised Gary’s family to gather around him, with doctors suggesting it was unlikely he would come out of the surgery alive.
Against the odds, he did come out alive, but that was just the beginning. There was a long and painful road ahead.
“Basically, they sent Gary home to die,” says wife Suzie.
Once home, Gary started to suffer depression, anxiety, headaches, nausea, chronic fatigue, major arthritis, sleep apnea and lung congestion He had post traumatic stress and had to walk with the aide of a walker. Neighbours have since told him that they gave him a nickname in those days: “Dead Man Walking.”
It got worse.
In April 2008, Gary was driving home one day and started to suffer heart palpitations. After tests, his doctor told him his heart was damaged and enlarged, and he had developed heart arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), sometimes so bad that Gary thought he was having a heart attack.
Some time after that, Suzie received a newsletter from a wellness centre in Newport Beach, Calif.
In it, they talked about heart arrhythmia and how they could cure it with magnesium.
“Suzie had me on a plane down there the very next day—in a wheelchair,” says Gary.
The wellness centre treated Gary with a series of natural remedies. Two weeks—and $25,000—later, Gary says the heart arrhythmia subsided and he felt “a little better,” even though the centre had diagnosed yet another problem: neuropathy (numbness) in his feet and legs.
“I was waiting for some kind of magic, but it never came. Basically, I felt like I was on my way out. I felt like it was the end. I even contacted my life insurance provider, just to make sure that everything was in order…”
And then, on the flight back home, Suzie read a book. The book was about balancing the PH in the body, and talked about how disease thrives in an acidic body; something most of us, unfortunately, possess.
Due to bad eating habits, smoking, lifestyle and environmental toxins, the level of PH in most of our bodies is unbalanced. This is making us sick, fat and tired. It claimed that by increasing the alkalinity in the body, simply by drinking alkaline water, disease will no longer be able to flourish.
“I read this book and it made so much sense,” Suzie says. “I felt that it was the missing link in Gary’s health.”
Suzie knew she had to find a way to make Gary’s body more alkaline. Unfortunately, alkaline water machines are not exactly common here. Widely used in Japanese hospitals for decades, the technology has only recently come to North America, and there is still a certain skepticism surrounding their effectiveness.
But when you are the proactive, forward-thinking wife of a depressed, dying man to whom you have been married for 43 years, you will ignore skepticism and employ your own judgement. Suzie was willing to try anything to help her beloved Gary.
And here is where fate stepped in.
As Suzie and Gary were flying back from Newport Beach, Suzie’s brother Michael was on a plane flying back from Calgary. He sat next to a man on the flight, whose business happened to be alkaline water machines.
Despite Gary’s doubts, they bought a machine. Gary started to drink alkaline water. Six glasses a day at first, gradually building up until Gary says his body was craving it.
Fast forward three and a half weeks. Father’s Day 2008. Gary’s four daughters wanted to take a family portrait on the beach, complete with 11 grandchildren.
“My girls thought it was my last Father’s Day,” says Gary, tearfully. “On the day before the photo shoot, Suzie had asked me to make sure it was a good day; in other words that I fake it. I still didn’t have that sense of wellbeing and she knew I could be difficult sometimes.
“But that morning, I noticed when I woke up that I didn’t have the usual nausea, or aches. Instead of taking an hour to get out of bed, get dressed and go downstairs, as I had done for the past three years, it took me five minutes. I felt good, but I kept thinking it wouldn’t last.
“Later that day, after lunch, I got up from the table and went to each of my daughters and grandchildren, kissed them and told them I loved them. It was like I was reborn. I had that sense of wellbeing back that was robbed from me for over three years.
“Later, back home, Suzie said to me, ‘Thank you for making an effort today.’ And I looked at her and said ‘I got news for you—I feel good!’ All day I had been expecting the walls to come crashing down, but they never did.”
And they still haven’t. Ten months later, Gary feels more alive, more energized, and more healthy than ever.
He is back playing golf. He walks. (“I walk like I’m on a marathon,” he says). He is full of life. His energy is contagious. His neuropathy has totally vanished, as has his heart arrhythmia. Doctors had told him that he would have both these conditions for the rest of his life.
There is, however, one condition his family has noticed with all this improved health.
“He didn’t really talk for three years,” Suzie says. “Now he won’t shut up!”
Big Gary is a man with a mission, and a story to tell.
