YOU: ways to make yourself younger
YOU: The Most Important Choices
For Making Yourself Younger:
Making Your Water Safe
By Dr. Michael F. Roizen
Co-Author of 4 #1 NY Times Bestsellers including:
YOU Staying Young . The Owner’s Manual For Extending Your Warranty,
YOU: BEING Beautiful . The Owner’s Manual to Outer and Inner Beauty And
YOU: Having a Baby : The Owner’s Manual to a Happy and Healthy Pregnancy
Our basic premise is that your body is amazing: You get a do over: it doesn’t take that long, and isn’t that hard if you know what to do. In these notes we give you a short course in what to do so it becomes easy for you and then to teach others. We want you to know how much control you have over your quality and length of life.
Yes, there is water, water everywhere— but how do you ensure yours is safe for you and your child? The scary thing, water is not guaranteed to be safe, even the water in bottles you may pay a lot for. So, here is our four step plan:
1. If you are on a public water supply: Look at the yearly report from your municipal water company”"it is required”"it is called a C-C-R report”"or Consumer Confidence Report. It is usually mailed in July but you can contact your water company to get it at any time. Check the report for six things:
- Lead levels
- Nitrates (from fertilizers)
- Nitrites
- Germs, and bacteria (usually from animal or human waste)
- Chlorination disinfection byproducts such as chloroform and total trihalomethanes
- Dangerous other substances, such as arsenic cyanide mercury benzene or trichloroethylene
2. If this is okay (any detections are below the federal limit), get a test kit and test your water at home as water from your town may be okay but water in your house might pick up contaminates like lead from your pipes, or bacteria. The standard (costs about $20) test kit is a color changes kit. What you care about is
- Lead
- Bacterial contaminants — town water is most often chlorinated so bacterial levels shouldn’t be higher unless someone has a carbon filter that grows bacteria which is quite possible - we tell people to flush out the filter with extra volumes of cold water on a regular (daily) basis.
3. Public water supplies will usually have trace levels of chlorine byproducts (e.g., TTHMs, chloroform) and sometimes other contaminants. These can easily be filtered out with a granular activated carbon (GAC) filter. If there are other contaminants present on your C-C-R, such as arsenic or lead, you may need a more involved filter - reverse osmosis. If so, get professional consultation as soon afterward as possible. Five types of filters are easily available and are less than $200 (total house filters are much more expensive) and help you deal with minor problems in your C-C-R, or issues you care about:
- Carafe filters (like Brita style, but others) — good for drinking water, unless lead is an issue
- Faucet mounted water—these usually don’t have a lot of filtering capacity and are not generally recommended.
- Above sink filters with separate housing that taps off the faucet. These are often the most economical and convenient in terms of long-lasting and effective
- Under sink filters or whole house filters -these can come in multiple stages and can have greater filtering capacity needed for special hard water, sulfur or contamination issues. A whole house filter is also excellent if you want to keep the bath water free of contaminants. This is the most expensive option and usually requires a plumber.
- Shower or bathtub filters. These have limited capacity and need to be replaced more often but are helpful in cutting down on exposures when bathing.
And importantly, remember to change your filters and keep them clean.
No matter what, always run water for a few moments and let it go down the drain, before you drink from your tap water, or even bathe in or cook with any water. Running and dumping water for a few seconds gets rid of a lot of the toxins and bacteria stored in your pipes”"this may be the most important step everyone can do to have the cleanest water used in your house or wherever you drink or use water.
If you receive water from a private well -to test your water for everything that gets reported in the CCR since no one is testing this water if you don’t.
