Redox potential, not pH, is the crucial factor
Traditionally we have judged the properties of water from the standpoint of pH, in other words whether water is acidic or alkaline. According to Dr. Yoshiaki Matsuo PhD., the inventor of the Ionized Water unit, "In my opinion, redox potential is more important than pH. The importance of pH is over emphasized. For example, the average pH of blood is 7.4 and acidosis or alkalosis are defined according to deviation within the range of 7.4 +- 0.005. But nothing has been discussed about ORP, or oxidation-reduction potential."

The pH of tap water is about pH 7, or neutral. When tap water is electrolyzed into Ionized Water, its reduced water has a pH of about 9 and the oxidized water a pH of about 4. Even if you make alkaline water of pH 9 by adding sodium hydroxide or make acidic water of pH 3 by adding hydrogen chloride, you will find very little change in the ORP values of the two waters. On the other hand, when you divide tap water with electrolysis you can see the ORP fluctuate by as much as +- 1,000 mV. By electrolysis we can obtain reduced water with negative potential that is good for the body.

USING IONIZED WATER
What IONIZED WATER Does

The Ionized Water unit produces two kinds of water with different redox potentials, one with a high reduction potential and the other with a high oxidation potential.

Reduced Water
When taken internally, the reduced Ionized Water with its redox potential of -250 to -350 mV readily donates its electrons to oddball oxygen radicals and blocks the interaction of the active oxygen with normal molecules.

A biological molecule (BM) remains intact and undamaged.

Undamaged biological molecules are less susceptible to infection and disease. Ionized Water gives up an extra electron and reduces the active oxygen (AO), thus rendering it harmless. The AO is reduced without damaging surrounding biological molecules. Substances which have the ability to counteract active oxygen by supplying electrons are called scavengers. Reduced water, therefore, can be called scavenging water.

When taken internally, the effects of reduced water are immediate. Ionized Water inhibits excessive fermentation in the digestive tract by reducing indirectly metabolites such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, histamines, indoles, phenols and scatoles, resulting in a cleaner stool within days after reduced water is taken on a regular basis. In 1965, the Ministry of Welfare of Japan announced that reduced water obtained from electrolysis can prevent abnormal fermentation of intestinal microbes.

Oxidized Water
Oxidized water with its redox potential of +700 to +800 mV is an oxidizing agent that can withdraw electrons from bacteria and kill them. The oxidized water from the Ionized Water unit can be used to clean hands, kitchen utensils, fresh vegetables and fruits, and to sterilize cutting boards and minor wounds. Tests have shown that oxidized water can be used effectively to treat athlete's foot, minor burns, insect bites, scratches, and so on.

Dr. Yoshiaki Matsuo, Vice Director of the Water Institute of Japan, has developed another apparatus capable of producing hyperoxidized water with a redox potential of +1,050 mV or more, and a pH lower than 2.7. Tests have shown that this hyper oxidized water can quickly destroy MRSA (Methecillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus).

Although hyperoxidized water is a powerful sterilizing agent, it won't harm the skin. In fact, it can be used to heal. Hyperoxidized water has proven effective in Japanese hospitals in the treatment of bedsores and operative wounds with complicated infections.

But perhaps the most exciting future application of hyperoxidized water is in the field of agriculture where it has been used effectively on plants to kill fungi and other plant diseases. Hyperoxidized water is non-toxic, so agricultural workers can apply it without wearing special protective equipment because there is no danger of skin or respiratory damage. An added benefit of using hyperoxidized water to spray plants is that there is no danger to the environment caused by the accumulation of toxic chemicals in the ground.

Ionized Water superior to antioxidant diet
Today we read much about correct dieting principles and paying attention to what we eat in order to stay healthy. This is a sensible practice, but it is surprising that many of us don't realize that the bulk of what eat is composed of water. Vegetables and fruits are 90% water; fish and meat are about 70% water as well.

Even advocates of the importance of vitamin C in diet staples have to admit that its potency, namely, the redox potential of this important vitamin, rapidly diminishes with age and preparation for the dining table. Carbohydrates, the main consistent of vegetables and fruit, has a molecular weight of 180 whereas water has a much lower molecular weight of 18.

Ionized Water, with its low molecular weight and high reduction potential, makes it a superior scavenging agent of active oxygen. But electrolysis inside the Ionized Water unit not only charges the reduced water with electrons, it also reduces the size of reduced water molecule clusters.

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) analysis reveals that tap water and well water consists of clusters of 10 to 13 H2 0 molecules. Electrolysis of water in the Ionized Water unit reduces these clusters to about half their normal size -- 5 to 6 water molecules per cluster.

As the graph above shows, the NMR signal that measures cluster size by line width at half-amplitude shows 65 Hz for reduced water and 133 Hz for tap water, revealing that the reduced water clusters are approximately half the size of tap water clusters.

This is why Ionized Water is more readily absorbed by the body than untreated tap water. Ionized Water quickly permeates the body and blocks the oxidation of biological molecules by donating its abundant electrons to active oxygen, enabling biological molecules to replace themselves naturally without damage caused by oxidation that can cause diseases.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Upstream and downstream theory
Prevent disease at the source
According to Dr. Hidemitsu Hayashi, Director of the Water Institute of Japan, "To eliminate the pollutants in a large stream that is contaminated at its source, we must work on the problems upstream at the headwaters -- the source of the pollution -- not downstream where we can only try to treat the evidence of damage caused by the pollution. Ionized Water's contribution to preventive medicine is essentially upstream treatment."

Upstream
According to our model, we consider the digestive tract upstream where we intake water and food. Although many people today in developed countries are growing more skeptical about what they eat, they tend to concentrate more on what the food contains rather than the metabolized products of foods in the digestive tract.

For example, consider the typical balanced diet of meat and vegetables. Meat protein is metabolized into amines while nitrates from fertilizers used to grow vegetables metabolize into nitrites in the digestive tract. These amines and nitrites combine to form nitrosamine, a recognized carcinogen.

We've already discussed that odoriferous feces are evidence of excessive fermentation in the digestive tract, so reduced water performs a very important function upstream in the digestive tract by reducing this excessive fermentation as evidenced by cleaner stools within days of starting a steady regimen of reduced water.

Downstream

Downstream from the digestive tract, starting at the liver, reduced water quickly enters the liver and other organs due to, first, its lower molecular weight, and, secondly, the size of its clusters. At tissue sites throughout the body, reduced water with its safe, yet potent reduction potential readily donates its passenger electrons freely to active oxygen and neutralizes them so they cannot damage the molecules of healthy cells. Normal cells are protected from the electron thievery of active oxygen and allowed to grow, mature, function and regenerate without interference from rogue, oddball oxygen radicals which tend to steal the electrons from the molecules of normal, healthy biological molecules.

The water boom
We are now in the midst of a water boom. In Japan and other countries consumers are buying various kinds of bottled and canned water even though water is one of our most abundant vital resources. Research data reveals that mineral waters have an ORP of +200 mV, slightly lower than the +400 mV measured for ordinary tap water. We can say that at least mineral water is marginally better than tap water from the viewpoint of ORP. Compared to any processed water for sale, however, Ionized Water with its reduction potential of -250 to -300 mV is beyond comparison due to its ability to scavenge active oxygen radicals.