How to Get Sick: Part 4- Drink, Shower & Swim in Chlorinated Water

(Photo courtesy of Juhanson)









Ah, water. We can't live without it, and most of us don't get enough of it. Did you know that an average 150 lb adult is supposed to be drinking 96 oz. of water every day? (I need to work on that!) Water is so important for our health, but it is one of the primary sources for introducing toxins into our body, day in and day out. Here's what Jordan Rubin has to say about the dangers of drinking, showering in and swimming in chlorinated water.

# 4 Way to Get Sick:
A Modern Prescription for Illness: Swim in chlorinated pools (and drink and shower with chlorinated water.)

(From p. 85 of the Maker's Diet)

"Chlorine is an effective bacteria killer, although some strains of bacteria are developing a resistance to chlorine. Unfortunately, chlorine is an indiscriminate killer that kills both friendly and unfriendly bacteria. It also eats through lead pipes, corrodes most metals, and harms cells and DNA strands in virtually every living thing it touches.

Chlorine also introduces to our water supplies some highly carcinogenic chemicals called trihalomethanes. (THMs).

Studies show a strong link between chlorinated water supplies with elevated THM levels and cancers of the bladder, kidney, liver, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, urinary tract, colon, and brain.

It is risky enough to drink chlorinated tap water, but the mass exposure created by swimming in chlorinated pools or taking extended hot showers in heavily chlorinated water is much more dangerous. (The heat opens skin pores and increases the already high absorption rate of chlorine through the skin.)

Dogs exposed to chlorine (this is the ingredient used to bleach white bread) get the running fits, a disorder similar to many psychiatric disorders in humans."

Did you know that when you take a shower, you soak in as much chlorine as if you drank 7 or 8 glasses of tap water?

And did you know that it takes your body 7 years to fully detox these toxic chemicals?

But you're doing it day in and day out. One 7 year cycle of detoxing is just beginning when you take your shower the next day and add another 7 years to the process, and on and on every day!

No wonder our bodies are giving out and succumbing to cancer, Alzheimer's, and a host of other degenerative diseases. Jordan Rubin says our bodies are on "perpetual tilt!"

Translation: you MUST get water filters!!! :)

Start with a shower filter. Getting a shower filter is so easy and inexpensive. We use New Wave Enviro's shower and bath filter. For drinking, we buy spring water from Whole Foods (2.5 gal containers). You can also buy an inexpensive counter-top filter. If you're going to get a filter, the absolute best water filter I have seen is Dr. Mercola's. Check it out at his website.

Dr. Mercola and his staff perform incredible amounts of research in writing their articles and producing their products, and he is extraordinarily detailed-oriented. His products meet the highest standards out there! He also sells a shower filter, a garden hose filter, and a pool filter. I think I'll be getting his garden hose filter instead of the Pacific Sands one I recommended previously. (Don't forget to get a garden hose filter for your kids playing in kiddie pools, and for watering your plants!) And when my New Wave Enviro filter needs a replacement cartridge, I'll probably look into buying Dr. Mercola's! (His water filters are a recent addition to his products.)

Happy, and safe, drinking!