Dr. Lowrey,
What is the purpose of taking in vinegar on the cleansing/detoxing diet?
Also, I have a reverse osmosis water purifier.
Does this remove toxins well?
Also, does it remove fluoride?
Thanks…Kristy B.
Hi Kristy,
There is a process called Acetolysis by which some toxic wastes are broken down, aiding in their removal and eliminating some of the symptoms of detoxification. Apple Cider Vinegar is an acetolysis agent. Also, the potassium in ACV helps to cleanse the arteries of plaque and other debris. One of the stumbling blocks to many people attempting a cleanse is weakness, headache, muscle ache and irritability caused by released toxins re-absorbing, sometimes several times as they progress toward elimination. By using the Apple Cider Vinegar, many of these toxins are made harmless and the opportunity for a successful cleanse is improved. It is important however that only “real”, “live” ACV is used. Distilled Vinegar, Malt Vinegar and Synthetic Vinegar (made from coal tar) are the three types of commercial vinegar sold at the grocery. None of them have any health value at all. Only a “live” vinegar “with the mother” will benefit the body. I recommend Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar. If you keep a bit of the mother from the bottle, you can add it to your own pure, unpasturized apple juice and make your own live vinegar. It is good to use this tonic every day even after your detox. Remember to sip and not chug it.
I have owned two reverse osmosis units. The last one cost me over $700 and even though I got several years use out of it, I am still bothered to have it sitting unused. Not only am I unwilling to use it, I am constrained by my ethics to not even give it away. RO units have some problems. They will remove up to and sometimes exceeding 80% of contaminants, but they will not remove molecules smaller than the water molecule. Many viruses’ can virtually fly right through latex and the membrane is subject to tears, allowing bacteria to colonize on both sides of the membrane. Back flushing is not a complete process and contaminants build up constantly in the filter where bacteria and virus’s thrive creating a toxic soup that each new batch of water contributes to and must be filtered through. It seems quite dangerous to me. These microbes are not killed; they are simply collected and then dumped right back into the groundwater. It is reported that up to 8 gallons of water are used in the production of one gallon of RO water, making RO a fairly wasteful process. Water has memory, which is the basis for homeopathic medicines (if I may use that term). In the filtering process, even though many or even most substances may be filtered out, the memory of those substances remains with the water molecules. As homeopathy has proven, the memory of a substance can be even stronger than the substance itself. For example, say you wanted to make a homeopathic remedy for headache. Perhaps you would take one aspirin and grind it up into a gallon of distilled water. Then you would dilute that solution 1,000 times to the point that not one single grain of the aspirin could be found in any of the solution. It had been diluted essentially right out of existence. But experiment and experience has proved that with every dilution, as there gets to be less and less of the actual substance in the solution, the potency actually increases exponentially! This is amazing, but studies with infants and animals have conclusively shown the effectiveness of these preparations. It is simply the memory of the substance infused in the pure water that does the work. Likewise, the memory of toxic wastes will continue to make your body ill even if the toxins themselves have been successfully removed. Steam distillation by vaporizing the water molecule into its component parts, Hydrogen and Oxygen, breaks the memory while it leaves all attached toxins behind and then re-condenses a new and pure water molecule which is free from memory and magnetically potentized.
While almost all RO sellers declare RO removes all metals and fluoride, available research from actual use and not sales literature shows that a reverse Osmosis filter does not totally take away all. A reverse Osmosis filter takes away perhaps 60 - 90 % of all Fluoride.
This report from a Florida High Tech RO plant shows that water leaving the plant after treatment still contained fluoride. This RO process is much more sophisticated than any home RO unit.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Results of Toxicity Bioassays
Discharger: Town of Jupiter Reverse Osmosis Plant, Jupiter
County: Palm Beach
NPDES Number: FL0042358
Date Tests Performed: 4 to 6 October, 1994
Introduction
This facility is located at 17403 Central Boulevard in Jupiter. The facility utilizes a two-stage reverse osmosis process for the production of potable water for the Town of Jupiter. Daily production of approximately 6 MGD of treated potable water results in an average of 1.5 MGD of process reject water. The reject water is treated with chlorine to remove hydrogen sulfide. Discharge of reject water is to the C-18 canal near the southwest fork of the Loxahatchee River.
The permittee is authorized a mixing zone for fluoride and combined radium 226+228. The mixing zone extends 1,000 feet above and below the discharge pipe in the C-18 canal.
The toxicity tests discussed in this report were performed in accordance with methods described by Weber, 1993, Methods for Measuring the Acute Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to Freshwater and Marine Organisms, 4th Edition,
EPA/600/4-90/027F.
Results and Discussion
The FDEP Biology Section performed two 48-hour static acute toxicity bioassays on a sample of effluent from this facility having a salinity of approximately 20 ppt.
A definitive bioassay was performed using the mysid shrimp, Mysidopsis bahia, and
a screening bioassay performed using the inland silverside, Menidia beryllina. The salinity of the control waters was adjusted to approxi-mately 20 ppt using artificial sea salts to match the salinity of the effluent.
The test results indicated the sample was acutely toxic to M. bahia, producing a 48-hour LC50 of 97% whole effluent. The sample produced 30% mortality in the M. beryllina bioassay.
Total residual chlorine was 0.04 mg/L in the laboratory. Total and unionized ammonia concentrations were 5.50 mg/L and 0.21 mg/L, respectively. Further chemical analysis identified several metals, but no organics were detected (Table 1). The calcium concentration was measured at 507 mg/L at 20 ppt salinity. This is approximately two times the normal background concentration for calcium in seawater of this salinity and is one probable source of toxicity. Additionally, the reject brine had a fluoride concentration of 9.8 mg/L. Fluoride is typically elevated above ambient seawater levels
(1-2 mg/L) in the RO process, and concentrations within a factor of 2 or 3 of this range
are acutely toxic to M. bahia. The calcium, fluoride, and ammonia levels individually, were not high enough to account for the mortality in the M. beryllina test. This mortality may be due to the combined effects of these toxicants or due to an unidentified toxicant.
Conclusion
The sample of effluent collected from this facility on 3 October, 1994, was acutely toxic to M. bahia and M. beryllina. Suspected sources of toxicity in the sample include calcium, fluoride, and ammonia. Calcium and fluoride levels in the sample were elevated approximately two and five times the normal back-ground levels for seawater, respectively. The combined effects of these toxicants or an unidentified source of toxicity may account for the M. beryllina mortality
Reference
Bastain, M., et al. 1992. Identification of Fluoride as a Dominant Toxicant in a Refinery Wastewater. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry.
Table 1. Results of chemical analyses on the effluent from the Town of Jupiter Reverse Osmosis Plant, sampled on 3 October, 1994.
Fluoride 9.8 mg/L
Metals
Calcium 507 mg/LA
Magnesium 766 mg/LA
Base-Neutral & Acid Extractables
none detected
A Value reported is the mean of two or more determinations.
I hope this has answered your questions. If not please write back and I will try to elaborate. “Steam” distillation is the only way to achieve nearly (99.95%) pure water, free of all toxins and other contaminants.
Best wishes,
Dr. Lowrey
