LET’S TAKE SOME STEPS FOR A HEALTHIER LIFE

Guys, I don’t want to be annoying and repeat whatever you already know about a healthy lifestyle. What I want to do is to give you some tips based on my information database on this topic and my personal experience.

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PART I: AIR AND WATER

Every man needs to sleep, breathe, drink water, and eat every day not to mention some physical and mental activities.

Let’s separate it the following way:

• Breathing fresh air vs. ventilated air in the room
• Drinking clean liquid vs. contaminated or unfiltered
• Eating healthy food vs. junk food
• Exercising regularly vs. ignoring physical activities
• Challenge your brain vs. letting it flow without any challenge
• Sleeping enough vs. sleep deprivation

AIR

Let’s talk about fresh air, first. If you are living in a village or suburban you have the luxury to breathe fresh, non-polluted air unless you are a heavy cigarettes smoker or rarely go out of your home. The picture will be different if you are living in a large city or near the factory that pollutes the air with the entire Mendeleev's table.

The level of pollution could be so significant that it will directly affect your health in a short time.

When I was in China, I went to Beijing – the capital city of China.  This is the first time I saw what pollution looks like and feels like. Many folks who walked on the street or drove bicycles had covered their mouth with a mask. The city was grey. The buildings were grey. The air was like a grayish fog. And the people were not friendly either, with the stone-like faces.
If you happen to live in those poor-quality air conditions, think about the long-term effect on your health. Perhaps, allocate as many days as possible to drive out of that area and spend the weekend on the nature.

Another bad experience was in Cuenca, Ecuador. The city is gorgeous. The people are friendly. However, the streets were narrow and the cars’ exhaust systems are still unregulated. Even while sleeping in the hotel room with completely closed windows you could feel the smell of a car’s exhaust. Ouch!

Try to ventilate your rooms as often as possible. Clean your air filters in a house and a car on time. Breath fresh air!

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WATER

It is paramount for your health to drink clean liquid (I mean not only water). It is even more critical for your long-term health. Some of the negative effects of drinking contaminated water can be immediate like gastrointestinal and stomach illnesses like nausea, vomiting, cramps, and diarrhea, while others may not be noticed for many years.

Many people are adamant about drinking plenty of water, but how many consider the potential long-term health effects of drinking unfiltered water?

Most public water systems collect water from the surface and ground for public consumption. This water is treated, of course, but neither source is completely free of contaminants. Yet more exposure to contaminants can happen as drinking water is treated, and even in the delivery process to homes. In all of these areas, there are many types of chemicals and contaminants to which drinking water is exposed. This can cause men acute and chronic health effects in some cases.

• How Water Can Become Contaminated

Water can be tainted with contaminants in multiple ways: stormwater and pesticide runoff, industrial waste, acid rain, and the water treatment process itself. Groundwater also can be exposed to pathogen contaminants that may produce disease in humans.

After the water is collected, it is then treated by a local water municipality to make the water safe for drinking. The last stage of the water treatment process is to disinfect it with chlorine, which is intended to kill any remaining water-borne bacteria.

However, the disinfectants using chlorine can interact with organic materials in water that can create dangerous byproducts. These include trihalomethanes (THMs) and halo acetic acids (HAAs). Excessive quantities of chlorine or other disinfectants also can have negative health effects, if the water is unfiltered at the tap. Chlorine in water also causes itchy skin and dry, brittle hair. Soft, filtered water, however, leads to suppler skin and smoother hair.

After treatment, the water is stored until distribution to communities. Even then, water can be contaminated, most commonly with Giardia or Cryptosporidium. These are protozoan parasites that can cause severe gastrointestinal problems.

Some of the potential problems during distribution include:

• Water main breaks
• Microorganism growth
• Pressure loss (leading to water boil alerts in some cases)
• Cross-contamination with sewage lines due to cracks in the water pipes

The chemical compounds are all around you. They’re on many fabrics, rugs, and carpets, cooking pots and pans, outdoor gear, shampoo, shaving cream, makeup, and even dental floss. Increasing numbers of states have found them seeping into water supplies.

While the media and some politicians are screaming about “global warming”, they completely ignore the real danger around us.

There’s growing evidence that long-term exposure to the perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS, can be dangerous, even in tiny amounts.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler laid out the agency’s action plan to address PFAS, a family of chemicals that includes PFOA and PFOS. PFOA and PFOS are toxic substances that have contaminated drinking water in several New York communities.

At hearings around the country last year, local and state officials asked the agency to set a maximum level for PFAS in drinking water nationwide to stop contamination and hold polluting parties responsible.

Recent scientific reports have estimated that nearly all people in the U.S. have some PFAS chemicals in their blood. Studies of workers exposed on the job and people who drank contaminated water, in addition to lab analyses of animals, have pointed to ties between some PFAS types and human illness.

EPA-mandated testing of about 5,000 of the roughly 150,000 public water systems in the U.S. that was completed in 2016 found dangerous levels of the same two PFAS compounds in 66 systems. Local and state testing since then has identified high levels in scores of additional systems.

Contaminated materials are disposed of in landfills and sewage treatment systems. Firefighting foams are sprayed on the ground. The chemicals seep into soils, waterways, sediments, and groundwater; some are incinerated, generating air pollution.

(click to zoom and read a note in the right corner)

Municipal water supplies in cities and towns are maintained and tested by the local authorities (do you trust them?); however, privately-owned water sources are the responsibility of the homeowner or landowner.

It is important that private well water is tested regularly – at least three times per year – and that the well is maintained at all times. Wells owners may also wish to install additional drinking water disinfection devices to ensure that the water supplied from their wells is safe to drink at all times.

I guess you have enough information to think twice before drinking unfiltered water. Here are choices of drinking water:

• At home
  • Unfiltered from the tap (from Municipal water system or local wells)
  • Barely filtered from the fridge (including ice). When did you change the fridge filter last time?
  • Bottled water
  • Filtered with reverse osmosis-type of the systems
  • Filtered with Brita-style filters
• At work
  • Unfiltered from the tap
  • Barely filtered from the fridge (including ice)
  • Bottled water
• In the restaurant
  • Unknown, including ice in the drinks
  • In the soups
• On vacation
  • Unknown, including ice in the drinks, especially in resorts and cruises
• In the friend’s house (mostly)
  • Unfiltered from the tap
  • Barely filtered from the fridge (including ice)
  • Bottled water
• On the street
  • Bottled water
  • Unfiltered from the tap

Should I mention that tap water is usually used for washing fruits and veggies? Do you think the restaurants use filtered water to do that?

OK, I did not try to scare you but rather raise your awareness.

You may see the answer to this problem in buying bottled water. After a simple calculation, you should agree that this is the most expensive solution.  Also, read more about the bottled water test. Did you know about the recent discovery that each bottle of water contains plenty of plastic particles? So, what are the alternatives?

A. Pitcher-type filters like Brita

B. Reverse Osmosis.

C. Complete water-filtering system installed at the main water pipe in the house (that one may cost you, too!).

My preferred choice? Reverse Osmosis. One of my friends has asked: "What?!  What the animal is it?"

If you are not familiar with it, read my post in the DIY category. If you are an apartment or a house owner, spending between $150 and $180 on reverse osmosis will be the best buck spent for yourself and the family.

Final Tips For Safer Water

In addition to the tips I’ve provided, here are a few more general steps you can take to safeguard your family’s water supply:

• If you live near an area where any of the above issues are a problem, test the water for the pollutants you are most concerned about.
• Remember that you can buy high-quality water filtration systems to install throughout your home. Although this can be a costly solution, it is an investment well worth saving for.  In the meantime, use a more cost-effective water filter system to start.
• If your area is placed under a water advisory for any reason, follow the directions from your community. Then, find out what the problem is, get educated on the situation, and take further steps to safeguard your family.
• Many companies source their bottled water with tap water, so you cannot simply replace your tap water with bottled water.
• Stay educated and active about what’s going on in your area’s wastewater, chemical plants, fracking facilities, and drinking water wells. Read any notifications and news from your water company as well.

Clean tap water in our homes is necessary for good health, but modern life has exposed our families to the dangers right in our tap water. Take these steps to protect yourself and your family from toxic tap water. It will protect your family against Arsenic, Pesticides, Lead, Fluoride, Harmful Bacteria, Pharmaceuticals' disposals, and even ingredients of Fracking that is using an enormous amount of local freshwater.

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