Is Alkaline Water Better for Hydration? | Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | [silence]
00:00:02.920 | If you go into the store or even a convenience store,
00:00:05.380 | you will see pH water.
00:00:08.200 | Now, every water has a pH, right?
00:00:10.280 | Lower numbers mean more acidic,
00:00:12.060 | higher numbers mean more alkaline or more basic.
00:00:14.620 | You'll see pH water that is 7.4, you'll see 7.8,
00:00:19.240 | you'll see 9.8, you'll see a huge range of these things,
00:00:22.120 | and there are many, many different claims
00:00:23.940 | about how the pH of water is important
00:00:26.720 | for regulating the pH of the body.
00:00:28.840 | Here's the real story.
00:00:31.180 | The pH of your body, that is the pH of the cells
00:00:35.560 | at different locations in your body,
00:00:37.240 | is strongly, strongly homeostatically regulated.
00:00:41.280 | What do I mean by that?
00:00:42.300 | It means it doesn't change that much,
00:00:45.080 | which means that you have
00:00:47.360 | very specific biological mechanisms
00:00:49.480 | that ensure the pH is maintained, for instance,
00:00:52.980 | in the skin cells of your skin,
00:00:55.320 | in the retinal cells of your eye, in your brain cells.
00:00:59.240 | Now, it is true that across the body,
00:01:02.620 | different cells and tissues have fairly widely varying pH.
00:01:07.200 | Now, it has been said that the pH of bodily tissues
00:01:10.240 | is generally between 7.2 and 7.4.
00:01:13.600 | However, if you were to look at the pH of your gut,
00:01:17.680 | and keep in mind that your gut is not just your stomach,
00:01:20.040 | your gut is the entire pathway
00:01:22.860 | ranging from your throat all the way down
00:01:26.200 | to where you excrete things out of your body,
00:01:29.440 | that entire pathway has different pH levels
00:01:32.940 | depending on where you are
00:01:34.120 | along the gut and intestinal pathway.
00:01:36.040 | And in fact, having much lower, that is more acidic pH
00:01:39.020 | at certain locations along your gut pathway
00:01:40.820 | is what allows those gut microbiota,
00:01:43.520 | those little microorganisms of which you have trillions
00:01:46.880 | that are important for regulating everything
00:01:48.520 | from neurotransmitter production to hormone production
00:01:50.920 | that allow them to flourish and do well.
00:01:53.080 | That said, except under conditions of hemorrhage
00:01:58.820 | or changes in blood volume that are of a dangerous level
00:02:02.660 | that can lead to seizure or even death,
00:02:04.820 | the pH of the rest of the cells of your body
00:02:07.660 | and also those gut cells doesn't change that much
00:02:11.780 | on a moment-to-moment basis.
00:02:13.440 | So if somebody tells you
00:02:15.080 | that you should drink alkaline water
00:02:17.100 | or alkalized water as it's sometimes called,
00:02:20.920 | in order to keep your body more alkaline and less acidic,
00:02:24.840 | there is essentially no basis for that
00:02:27.800 | at a macroscopic level or even at a local level.
00:02:31.880 | Now, what that does not mean
00:02:34.880 | is that the pH of the water that you drink is not important.
00:02:38.240 | In fact, if the pH of the water that you drink is too low,
00:02:42.920 | that is if the water that you consume is too acidic,
00:02:46.880 | it will not move as quickly from your gut
00:02:50.500 | into the other regions of your body,
00:02:53.180 | and therefore the other cells of your body
00:02:54.980 | that require that water
00:02:56.020 | will not be able to access it as readily.
00:02:58.740 | You've probably experienced this
00:03:00.260 | if you've consumed certain water
00:03:02.100 | and it feels like it's sloshing around in your stomach
00:03:04.360 | or it feels like it's just somehow staying there
00:03:08.060 | or you feel its presence more, not just as volume,
00:03:11.380 | but it's almost as if you can feel the little waves of water
00:03:14.060 | along the inside of your gut.
00:03:15.220 | Now, sometimes that can relate to temperature,
00:03:17.000 | but oftentimes that can relate to the pH of that water.
00:03:20.560 | And it turns out it is true that water
00:03:23.240 | that is more alkaline, that is pHs of 7.4 or higher,
00:03:28.240 | can move more readily across the aquaporin channel.
00:03:32.720 | And in terms of absorption of water
00:03:34.840 | from the endothelial lining
00:03:36.640 | and the other cell type lining of your gut
00:03:39.360 | into the rest of your body,
00:03:41.160 | it is true that higher pH water,
00:03:43.120 | provided that pH isn't too high,
00:03:45.460 | is going to be absorbed more quickly,
00:03:47.740 | which partially explains why some people have an affinity
00:03:50.900 | for this higher pH water.
00:03:52.320 | Now, this is not to say that you need to consume
00:03:54.140 | high pH water in order to hydrate your body properly.
00:03:57.300 | I want to be very clear about that.
00:03:58.720 | However, if you are interested
00:04:00.940 | in what the value of elevated pH water is,
00:04:05.140 | it largely has to do with this accelerated absorption.
00:04:08.820 | There is also growing evidence
00:04:10.900 | that it can adjust the function of certain cells
00:04:13.280 | that are within your immune system
00:04:15.460 | and thereby reduce certain inflammatory responses.
00:04:19.320 | So I realize as I'm saying this,
00:04:21.080 | some people out there are probably thinking,
00:04:22.500 | oh no, this guy's like a pH water proponent.
00:04:25.560 | He's saying we have to drink alkaline water
00:04:27.840 | or buy very fancy water.
00:04:29.680 | Now, I want to be clear, that is not what I'm saying.
00:04:31.720 | And I'm also not saying that you need
00:04:33.160 | to purchase very expensive water
00:04:34.680 | in order to derive the maximum benefits
00:04:37.900 | from the water that you drink.
00:04:38.960 | It turns out there are a few things that you can do,
00:04:40.880 | by way of temperature and by way of filtering water
00:04:44.240 | and a few other tricks
00:04:45.080 | that I'll tell you a little bit later,
00:04:46.360 | that will allow you to increase the absorption rate
00:04:49.120 | of water in the gut,
00:04:50.060 | which turns out to be a very interesting,
00:04:52.560 | but also potentially important thing to do
00:04:55.300 | for not just reducing inflammation,
00:04:57.120 | but also making sure that you're getting proper hydration
00:05:00.000 | of different cell types in your body,
00:05:01.680 | including rapid hydration of your brain cells,
00:05:04.480 | which can greatly enhance cognitive function.
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