Patrick Holford and How Super Water Reduces Acidity in the Blood

Visiting Professor Patrick Holford of Teesside University and Head of Science and Education at Biocare has an alternative reality (TM, Dr Aust) in which it is possible for a drink of water to alter the pH of your blood.

Deesside mineral water is supposedly famous for its healing power and particularly praised for its help with rheumatism, skin conditions and stomach complaints.

Two double-blind clinical studies suggest that this water can reduce painful symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. The first study, published in the British Journal of Rheumatology, found inflammation subsided noticeably in rheumatoid arthritis patients who drank the water. This finding was repeated in the second trial, led by Dr David Galloway at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It is believed that the water’s secret lies in the wide range of minerals, including calcium and magnesium, it contains.

Patrick Holford, nutritionist, author and founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, says: “Aside from strengthening bones, calcium and magnesium are alkaline, so help to reduce acidity in the blood, one of the contributing factors for arthritis and irritable skin conditions.”

Well, we’ve now contacted the Deesside water people twice since April 22 but have not received any response to our enquiry about the references. This is a shame because if people experienced measurable reductions in their symptoms for such a (presumably) modest intervention it is not difficult to imagine that it would be relatively straightforward to devise a water additive that would replicate the effects.^[1]

However, as for Holford’s words of disinformation, no, no, no. The pH of various bits of the body is remarkably robust and nicely maintained within its range. Plus, pH is measured on a logarithmic scale which makes it difficult to alter without a substantial intervention. In fact, if the pH of the blood or various tissues is deranged then that is a clear indicator that something is badly amiss because the respiratory and renal systems usually work with remarkable harmony to maintain it with the appropriate range. (The buffering system in the blood is a physiological marvel in its own right but this is not the place to wax lyrical about our ability to tolerate an extraordinary variety of environmental conditions and circumstances.)

How long do you think that we would survive if your body’s finely-honed systems could be disordered by the solutes in a ordinary drink of water (ceasing to breathe – yes – a different matter altogether)? Yet again, just what does Professor Holford teach the keen young minds that are brought before him at the University of Teesside? What do the well-credentialled scientists and researchers at Biocare say when he voices gubbins of this sort?

Update: We refer you to Dr Aust’s previous discussion of where you will discover many interesting things about the body’s buffer systems and delight in more links to a fine collection of water fallacies and what-nots.What could be so fine… as to be alkaline (Warning: Irony)

Notes

[1] Mineral water can contain 30-100 mg or more of calcium per litre of water. The RDA is between 500mg to 1000mg for most adults in the UK. There is some interesting work on the short-term influence of consuming calcium-rich water on the levels of intact parathyroid hormone and bone resorption in healthy young men but it would be good to know more about the effects of long-term consumption for people with disordered calcium metabolism, inflammatory disorders or musculo-skeletal conditions. (Hence our enquiry about the references.)
It isn’t a topic that we follow closely, but we are aware that there is some controversy about whether or not the form of calcium in sulphate-rich mineral water can lead to a greater loss of calcium in the urine with the usual caveats that this study involved healthy women and a calcium-adequate diet.

Related Reading

Ben Goldacre has some lively observations about calcium and magic water in general.
Orac of Respectful Insolence has addressed ‘acid-base woo’ on several occasions. Acid, base, or woo? More recently, Acid, base, or woo (revisited)
A favourite site for the technical exploration of acid-base physiology
The American Thoracic Society has reviewed online acid-base resources.