When we began in 2000, we discovered the electric water ionizer. It was made in Korea and we were told that the amazing health benefits people reported were due to the effects of the alkalinity and a mysterious ‘micro-clustering’ of the water. We believed it.. mainly because we saw so many people experience great health effect when they received their water ionizer. Hydrogen water was never even mentioned.
We were so excited about the whole concept of alkaline water that like the hundreds of thousands of water ionizer users around the world, the success of users made it easy to believe what we had been told. But… we were wrong!”
There’s an important point here that we need to clarify. There was and is nothing ‘wrong’ with an electric water ionizer. So many people have reported significant improvements in their health. What had happened was a classic case of commerce over-ruling science. It’s no point apportioning blame: while the message was wrong, the ‘messengers’ knew no better. Hydrogen water is a fairly new idea, even amongst the ionized water scientists. The bottom line is that the electric ionizers DO create good molecular hydrogen water and have helped many many people… and will continue to occupy a place in the market along with many other alternatives that allow us access to hydrogen.
A New Industry
Since 2000 a whole marketing industry has developed as new manufacturers and vendors or water ionizers entered the scene, repeating the same claims about the water that our supplier told us. Books have been written about the benefits of alkaline ionized water, videos made, and highly successful marketing campaigns launched.
Now, 15 years on, nothing has changed about the water except new ways to create the same water. Natural methods are now used as products like the UltraStream enter the marketplace.
The water is basically the same. It is incredible. We have a drawerful of stories from people reporting benefits for the last 15 years.
Our conclusion is that the industry succeeded despite the lack of any large-scale studies of the water’s properties or effects. It survived and prospered because of the immediate effects so many people had from the water.
Even without the science backing it up, it ‘sold itself’. The obvious conclusion is that the water works! But… why?
The Hydrogen-Rich Water Revolution
In 2015, the year the industry should have taken notice of 27-year-old Molecular Hydrogen Water Research Scientist, Tyler LeBaron.
At the age of 21, he purchased his own electric water ionizer but quickly realised that the answers about the water’s properties given to him by his vendor were not scientifically strong.
Tyler decided to seek his own answers by studying the scientific literature and seeing how that compared to the claims made by the company that sold the water ionizer. Once he found the truth about the false nature of many of the claims and the intriguing science behind hydrogen gas, he created a Facebook group that was… and is… dedicated to spreading the truth…
The first claim of alkalizing the water seemed right!
A pH meter easily shows high pH levels so most people conclude that this equated to high alkalinity.
What was not spoken of was the fact that the high pH comes from the electrolysis process rather than any actual significant increase in alkaline minerals in the output water. Given that the basis of the claims was that by adding alkaline minerals to an acid body we could be healthier, the fact that you received no more alkaline minerals than what was in the source water disturbed Tyler.
MINERALS FROM AN ELECTRIC WATER IONIZER’S OUTPUT SIMPLY CANNOT COME ANYWHERE REMOTELY NEAR TO DAILY DOSE.
As the water raised in pH, the calcium in the water would change state from ‘in solution’ to precipitation, and adhere to any surface it touched.
Today most companies will not guarantee an electric water ionizer in a hard water area (most of the US).
But something else was also happening.. and NO-ONE realized it!
Once a hydrogen water test kit became available, water ionizer owners began to test their machines. And suddenly there were many, many unhappy people.
Tyler discovered that the ‘active ingredient’ in the water was molecular hydrogen. Once users understood this, they wanted to know if their expensive water ionizer was delivering it. One new unit purchaser had Tyler’s test kit, and was amazed to see that the H2 in the water disappeared in a matter of a few days’ use!
Why? Because her water contained minerals which, through the electrolysis process, deposited minerals on the electrolysis plates. Once this happened, Hydrogen water was not made. Only with very regular and time and water consuming cleaning could the plates be kept clean enough to create Hydrogen water.
Suddenly a mystery was solved. people would buy their ionizer and experience a real health breakthrough. Then they would revert. The answer? The H2 had affected the breakthrough but the lack of hydrogen water allowed the negative health condition to reappear.
The second claim of negatively charging the water also proved spurious
Tyler LeBaron pointed out, water is H2O as a molecule. It is not an ion – a charged atom. It just doesn’t happen. It is not physically possible to ionize water itself because it is already in a covalent bond. Water consists of Hydrogen and Oxygen in a strong bond. It is stably balanced ionically.
The third claim of micro-clustering has also suffered a serious credibility loss
Vendors commonly claimed that groups of molecules of water reduced to a lesser number, thus ‘micro-clustering’ the water to create improved hydration. Recently a group of dedicated water ionizer users tried their best to find a scientific study supporting the theory – to no avail. As Tyler LeBaron said, the hydrogen bond network changes on the order of a femtosecond, so how could water ‘structure’ itself?
Here is the conclusion reached by the Coordinator of the working group of water ionizer researchers.
“The concept of stable microclusters in water is an interesting one, and various research studies attempting to identify and measure these can be found. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any definitive evidence to take this from theory to fact. I honestly searched a wide variety of physics and chemistry journals for any studies to support the microcluster theory, but I could not. The currently favored model of water is one of a loosely-connected network which could actually be described as “one big cluster” with internal bonds constantly being formed and broken (on the pico to femto time scale). Even if these clusters were proven to exist, it is not clear how they might be beneficial, because water molecules travel through aquaporins in a single-file.” Randy Sharpe, Coordinator of the working group of water ioniser researchers.
Changing the Rules: Molecular hydrogen is ‘Discovered’
Cassie Bond, CoFounder, Alkaway |Tyler LeBaron, Founder, MHI |
Ian Blair Hamilton, Founder, AlkaWay
Tyler LeBaron changed the rules of what was the truth about the water.
In his first Facebook group, Tyler faced down numerous ionized water machine marketers who did not want his science-based conclusions to become mainstream. They argued in part that because the water was so good for people, we shouldn’t ‘over-complicate’ how it was sold. Tyler responded by sticking to his guns of ‘if there’s no science to what we say, we can’t claim it’.
The battle raged for months. A nucleus of ionizer marketers saw and accepted the truth of what he was saying and began to work with him to reframe their method of selling water ionizers by only telling the truth based on known science – that they are, in truth, Hydrogen water generators.
This group is still working through the many legends of ionized water built up and expanded upon on the internet. However after Tyler had the opportunity to work with a group of hydrogen researchers at the prestigious Nagoya University in Japan, he upped the ante for the ‘luddite’ sellers clinging to the old theories of alkalizing, micro-clustering and negative ions.
On Tyler’s return, it became difficult for his detractors to claim he did not have the authority to change the rules of the game. He immediately became an important authority on infused hydrogen water therapies.
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Would it mean they couldn’t use the special little demonstrations that apparently proved micro-clustering?
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How could they demonstrate hydrogen, an invisible gas?
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Wouldn’t they lose sales?
