Alkaline Water - Is It Better For You?
Q. Are there benefits of drinking alkaline water, or is what I’m reading just a bunch of hooey?
A. Despite the claims, there’s no evidence what-so-ever that water marketed as alkaline is better for your health than tap water.
The pH scale indicates whether a liquid is more acidic (lower pH) or alkaline (higher pH). Pure water has a neutral pH of 7, while tap water has some natural variation depending on its mineral content. Most bottled waters are slightly acidic, and sodas and juices are even more so.
Bottled waters marketed as being alkaline typically claim to have a pH between 8 and 10. Some are from springs or artesian wells and are naturally alkaline because of dissolved minerals. Others are made with an ionizing process, and water ionizing machines are also marketed for home use.
But there’s no evidence that drinking water with a higher pH can change the pH of your body, or even that this outcome would provide benefits.
Blood is tightly regulated at around pH 7.4, while the stomach, which secretes hydrochloric acid to digest proteins and kill food-borne pathogens, is very acidic, with a pH of 1.5 to 3.5. If you drink water that is slightly alkaline, the hydrochloric acid in the stomach quickly neutralizes it before it’s absorbed into the blood.
Several small studies funded by companies that sell alkaline water suggest that it could improve hydration in athletes, but any potential benefits were modest, and an easier way to improve hydration is just to drink more water. And a 2016 review of research found no evidence that alkaline water or an alkaline diet could treat or prevent cancer.
A study published last year found that adopting a plant-based diet and drinking alkaline water worked as well as medications to alleviate their symptoms of laryngopharyngeal reflux, a severe form of acid reflux in which stomach acid travels all the way up to the throat. “I think that it can be a helpful tool for patients to help with their symptoms while they’re transitioning to a more plant-based diet,” says Dr. Craig Zalvan, the study’s lead author and a laryngologist at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. But he believes that most of the improvement in his patients comes from dietary changes rather than alkaline water. Once symptoms improve, he says there’s no need to keep drinking alkaline water.
There are also hints of potential risks from alkaline water. Rat pups given alkaline water showed impaired growth and damage to cardiac muscle. In a 2015 report, when a municipal water plant in a town in Germany accidentally increased the water’s pH to 12, skin burns ensued. While such a high pH is unlikely in bottled alkaline water, it’s a reminder that a higher pH isn’t necessarily better. The only health effects that we know of are danger signs, so for people to continue to market alkaline water - they’re really as bad as the snake oil salesmen of yesteryear.
Bottom Line: It’s all about marketing and there is no science to back it up.