By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben
Drinking water contaminants which include disinfection by-products, brain numbing fluoride, and cancer causing trihalomethanes are never pleasant to think about. But perhaps the most disgusting and dangerous, and unfortunately wide-spread, of all tap water pollutants is the deadly cryptosporidium bacteria which moves into its new digs in the water supply post-departing it’s old home in human and animal fecal material. That’s right, it’s a short hop for the excrement loving microbe from elimination from man and animal intestines, to the water supply, then to your tap, and then to you and your family’s drinking water. How delicious!
Up until recently, chlorination was the most effective way to deal with cryptosporidium contamination, but recently it has come to light that many of the parasites of poop are learning to adjust. So-called chlorine resistant cryptosporidium are responsible for one of the more common of the water borne diseases and can be the source of serious intestinal distress that can last for weeks. Because it takes 7-10 days for the symptoms of cryptosporidiosis to show up, you may not realize what caused your diarrhea, abdominal pain and low grade fever. All are associated with the parasitic infection. According Jack Barber of Water Wise Purification Systems, up to 63 percent of all water borne illnesses may be directly caused by chlorine resistant cryptosporidium cysts which are super hard “eggs” just waiting for the right opportunity to hatch or sprout, or otherwise come to life.
The best way to avoid crap-tosporidium is to stay away from human waste, the most likely source of infection, and be very careful of tap water. Basically water has to be pasteurized to assure that it is cryptosporidium free. Distilled water works, too. In fact distilled water is pretty much the safest source of water going. Not only does it free the water of parasites like cryptosporidium, but a good steam distiller is the most effective of all water purification systems. It can eliminate heavy metals, solid materials of all kinds, as well as the prescription medications that are showing up increasingly in tap water. A good distiller can get rid of fluoride, too. Pretty much all of the 85,000 different chemicals that are listed in the Federal registry, and that can show up in tap water, are removed by steam distillation.
And don’t believe the silly stories about distilled water leaching minerals out of your bones. While it’s true distilled water is empty water and “hungry” for minerals, it can’t steal them from your skeleton which guards its precious bone hardening substances very carefully. Distilled water may however help solubilize calcium deposits that can harden soft tissues of the body. And distilled water is a circulatory system purifier too. It can help improve elimination of toxic substances that may be in blood and lymphatic fluids.
