wellness tips

It is common knowledge that are body is 75+ percent water, and yet we don’t really know what the purpose of all that water is, except for being the solvent for all the solutes (proteins, fatty acids, hormones, neurotransmitters, nutrients, minerals etc.)

Research by Gerald Pollack from the University of Washington in Seattle is now suggesting that water is far more complex than we have ever believed, and may be providing our bodies with another energy system – another driving force that moves fluids through our bodies.

I think this topic is fascinating, and has implications for a big change in our understanding of our basic physiology, as well as provides opportunities for technical applications in daily life.

Watch Gerald Pollack explain his science here. For those that prefer to read, I will summarize below.

When you are out in a boat, have you sometimes you noticed droplets of water sitting on top of the surface of the lake? How does that happen? Why don’t those drops immediately merge with the lake? Have you ever tried floating a coin or paperclip on the surface of some water? Possible, and somewhat amazing, no?

“Oh, that is just surface tension”, one would say. Right? Well, actually we now know there is more to it than that. We all know that water has 3 phases – solid (ice), liquid, and gas (steam). According to Pollack, there is a 4th phase of water – a gel phase between the liquid and the solid, and this is the phase of water that explains a lot of phenomena that has been largely a mystery.

When water contacts a water-loving surface (hydrophilic), the water molecules split, with the negative ions lining up next to the hydrophilic material, and the positive ions being pushed further away from the material. The negative ions rearrange themselves in such a way as to create a gel-like honeycomb lattice changing their molecular structure from H2O to H3O2.

The interesting thing about this negatively charged water is that it pushes everything else out into the positive water. The negatively charged lattice excludes everything including particles, contaminants, bacteria, even salt. Pollack calls this negatively-charged water, exclusion zone water, or EZ water for short.

Because the water is now divided into a negative zone and a positive zone, we essentially have a battery. If you put an electrode into each zone of the water, you can run an electrical device.

But what charges the water? Light. Pollack found that the more light was shining on the water, the more EZ water layers were created. He found that infrared light was particularly effective at increasing the layers of the negative-ion lattice.

This concept may explain how some biological processes in our bodies work. For example, red blood cells are commonly thicker than the capillaries (smallest blood vessels) that they have to go through. Is the pumping action of our heart really strong enough to squish these cells through the narrow tubes? Seems unlikely. So how is this possible?.

Pollack found that when he put a hydrophilic straw in the water and shone light onto the water, there was a constant non-ending flow of water and the particles it carried, through the tube. The charged water in our vessels may provide the energy to propel the red blood cells through the capillaries.

According to Pollack, the water inside the cells are negatively charged due to the many proteins they contain having hydrophilic walls, which creates EZ water, forcing the positively charged water outside the cells (extracellular fluid).

Mitochondrial cells are known as the powerhouses of the muscles as they provide energy for muscle contraction. Their structure contains many membranes, which would create a significant amount of EZ water, possibly increasing the energy production within the cells.

When we consider any biological process that involves a molecule sitting in water, we perhaps should now look at it with the understanding of all of the components involved: the molecule, the negatively charged EZ water, the positively charged water, and the effect of light. As Pollack says, perhaps we now need to reconsider many biological processes with this new understanding.

The take-away is that we are solar beings. Like plants, we are able to convert light into energy, and we also use this energy system to run some of the biochemical processes of the body.

It does make sense to me that if we can improve the body’s ability to use this energy system, we might feel much better. So, what might we do?

Certainly if we are dehydrated, EZ water would be depleted, and generally we don’t feel as good as we could. So drink up! There is anecdotal evidence that infrared light / saunas greatly increase people’s energy levels. Juicing raw greens like wheat grass is thought to be very healthy. Is it that we are consuming the plant’s EZ water that is also contributing to the health benefits?

At the very least, I think I will shine a light on my Britta pitcher – can’t hurt, might help …

Enjoy your Sunday!

Related tips
How much water should we drink?
Water, our critical solvent
Remineralize your water

Pollack, Gerald H. The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor Ebner & Sons, Seattle, 2013

Pollack, Gerald H. Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life: A New Unifying Approach to Cell Function Ebner & Sons, Seattle, 2001.

Copyright 2017 Vreni Gurd

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