I always get asked about water – specifically, drinking water and what is considered safe to consume. Everyone needs quality, pure water, but children with autism absolutely must have this. They have an overabundance of toxins and pathogens in their bodies, making it very challenging to regain health. They cannot handle any further toxic burden, especially while in a detoxification protocol.

In this episode of the Naturally Recovering Autism Podcast, we dive into the critical topic of exploring the safest and healthiest water and minerals for children on the spectrum with renowned International Water Scientist Robert Slovak.

In this episode, Robert and I discuss:

• The challenges families face in providing safe and healthy water.
• Debunking common myths about water treatment.
• Practical advice on selecting the best water treatment solutions.
• The significance of understanding water contaminants, proper hydration and detoxification.
• How to navigate the complex landscape of water treatment options.

Robert Slovak, with over 50 years of experience in the water industry, offers valuable insights into why 80-90% of families end up with inadequate water systems and how you can make informed decisions to ensure the health and well-being of your loved ones.

Robert’s is offering exclusive product bundles to my community here for a limited time.

Take advantage of some serious savings on AquaTru, Quinton, top-shelf molecular hydrogen, and a Free unit of Active pH Restore alkalizing powder.

Plus, unlock an exclusive 10% off a la cart Quicksilver Scientific products that I recommend at Water and Wellness with code KTHOMAS.

The following article from Robert will provide more in-depth insight into water wellness, allowing you to make informed decisions for your family.

Overcoming Confusion and Misinformation in Meeting the Needs of Children on the Spectrum

While I’m used to guiding health-minded audiences deep into the Rabbit Hole of water topics, today’s discussion with Karen will be light on science and heavy on practicality. It aims to explain the challenging path for families intent on providing the safest and healthiest water for children on the Autism Spectrum and other Special Needs.

Choosing water for consumption (drinking, beverages, and food preparation) and bathing for your family can be daunting because of the minefield of misinformation and hype associated with suppliers of water treatment for consumers.

You cannot trust the Internet, your local water dealer, big-box stores or persuasive TV promotions.

It is unconscionable and embarrassing to me—someone who has spent the past 50+ years in the water industry—that it has not kept up with the current state of water contaminants AND the growing assaults on humanity’s declining health.

Based on decades of observing homeowners’ selection of water treatment technology, I conclude that more than 80-90% of homeowners purchase and install inadequate systems for their family’s health needs.

Introduction

There are two primary compartments in the body: The Extracellular Fluid and the Intracellular Fluid.

So, our 50+ trillion cells are floating in the Extracellular Fluid (the Terrain) and contained within them is the Intracellular Fluid where all the action is. It is the biochemical quality of the Terrain that governs overall health. Virtually all the great physiologists over the past 2 centuries agree on one central concept – “The Terrain Is Everything”.

Understanding Healthy Hydration And How To Maintain It

Maintaining proper hydration is not only about consuming enough water.

In fact, consuming an excessive amount of water can interfere with optimal hydration. Many factors can jeopardize the body’s ability to maintain healthy hydration (illness, diarrhea, excessive work or exercise in hot climates, an imbalance in the quantity and variety of electrolytes).

Key indicators of dehydration are varied and can include:

• Lightheadedness or dizzy feeling
• Dry mouth and tongue and cracked lips
• Less frequent need to urinate
• Muscle cramps
• Thirst
• Frequent headaches
• Fatigue or drowsiness
• Urine has a darker color
• Eyes more sunken than usual

The key physiological measure in achieving proper hydration is having sufficient water inside our cells – referred to as intracellular water.

Sufficient pure water with the proper quantity and mix of electrolytes is key to achieving optimal hydration.

A very rough daily guideline for those in good health is to consume – as water or sugar-free beverages (e.g. coffee, tea, vegetable juices, etc.):

Half of your body weight (pounds) in fluid ounces of water.

Therefore, a 150 pound male adult should consume (as drinking water or sugar-free beverages) approximately 75 ounces – a little more than two quarts. Additionally, watery fruits and vegetables contribute to overall hydration.

Children of each age group have different criteria for the intake of water, this is outlined in the www.healthychildren.org document “Choose Water for Healthy Hydration”.

How Much Water Do Children Need?

According to Janine Rethy, MD,MPH,FAAP, Division Chief of Community Pediatrics at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine:

“At around 6 months, babies can be introduced to water. They only need about 4-8 ounces per day until they are a year old because the rest of their liquids are coming from breastmilk or formula.

To stay well hydrated, children ages 1-3 years need approximately 4 cups of beverages per day, including water or milk. This increases for older kids to around 5 cups for 4-8 year olds, and 7-8 cups for older children.

It should be noted that these amounts vary by individual and may need to be adjusted depending on activity levels and environmental conditions like heat and humidity.

When exercising vigorously or sweating, children from 9-12 years of age generally need to drink about 3–8 ounces of water every 20 minutes to stay hydrated.

Teens need to drink about 34–50 ounces per hour. It is helpful to stay well hydrated in the days and hours before activity begins.

While playing at the park may not bring the same level of intensity, if your child is sweating, make sure they are adequately replacing fluids.

If vigorous exercise extends beyond 1 hour in a day or your child is sweating a lot, electrolyte-supplemented beverages may be necessary.”

The Importance Of Monitoring And Tracking The Ph Of Your Child’s Urine.

When the body contains an ample amount of hydrating circulating water, it can regulate the acidity resulting from normal metabolism to maintain the ideal alkaline blood pH of 7.35 – 7.45.

One method to indirectly monitor the state of hydration is to measure the pH of urine on a regular basis throughout the day. There are numerous documents available that offer detailed guidelines.

NOTE: If you are using popular HYDRION pH paper in a roll (available on Amazon) it is important to select the 5.5 to 8.5 pH measurement range.

To address excess acidity in body fluids, specific alkalizing mineral compounds are available to restore a normal alkaline pH. These include alkaline compounds of calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium.

Fundamental Water Topics And Facts You Need To Be Familiar With:

Contaminants you and you family are exposed to from municipal (tap) water and private well water.

It’s essential to have some familiarity with contaminants present in the municipal tap water you are being supplied before choosing and investing in water treatment for consumption and bathing.

You must do this first BEFORE investigating POU and/or POE (whole house) water treatment systems!

Every public water provider in the US is obligated to provide an EPA Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. This is the ONLY drinking water report you should consider because there are misleading municipal water reports (EWG) that are intended to steer unwary consumers to specific water treatment systems and products. Caveat Emptor!

NOTE: for private well water, you should use the nationwide independent water analysis lab: National Testing Laboratories (www.watercheck.com).

To access the EPA Annual Water Report for your location simply access the Internet and search: EPA Annual Drinking Water Report for “your city, town or municipality”. Then choose the most recent water report.

NOTE: Many municipalities may use other search terms for thew EPA Annual Water Report such as: 2024 Drinking Water Consumer Confidence Report for “your city, town or municipality”.

Unfortunately, most consumers will be unable to evaluate the significance of the EPA water report. Water and Wellness is looking into providing a solution to this impasse.

More than 320 health-related contaminants, in total, have been detected in US water supplies. These include microorganisms & parasites, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts (DBPs), heavy metals, organic chemicals, radionuclides, microplastics.

Of these 320 health-related contaminants only about 80 “Primary” contaminants are officially regulated by the EPA and Congress using “Maximum allowable contaminant levels” (MCL’s) that must be achieved by public water suppliers.

Contaminant category overview:

Microbes, Heavy Metals, Synthetic Organics, Volatile Organics, Disinfectants, Disinfection Byproducts, Radionuclides, Endocrine Disrupters, Personal Care Products, Microplastics…

Top contaminant concerns in public tap water:

• Chlorine, Chloramines, Chlorine Dioxide (disinfectants)
• TTHM’s, Haloacetic Acid (disinfection byproducts – DBP’s)
• Fluoride (as hexafluorosilisic acid and sodium fluoride)
• Aluminum (from aluminum sulfate flocculation)
• SOC’s (pesticides and synthetic chemicals of all types)
• VOC’s (Bezene MTBE, solvents, petroleum products, plastics)
• EDCs (plastics, drugs, pharmaceuticals of all types)
• PPCP’s (ingredients used in personal care products)
• Glyphosate (Monsanto RoundUp herbicide) – endocrine disrupter
• PFAS (Per & PolyFluorinated Substances). These “Forever Chemicals” expect to be regulated by the end of 2024.
• Bacteria, Virus, Protozoa, Helminths

There is also a list of “Secondary” list of non-enforceable “nuisance & aesthetic” contaminants that are not related to health, per se, but that affect bathing and showering (soap interference), laundry, dishwashing and household maintenance (deposits on fixtures). These primarily include Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), hardness, pH, taste & odor, color, iron & manganese and others.

Categories Of Water Treatment Systems For Homes, Condominiums And Apartments – Terminology

Point of Use, POU, water treatment – Specifically for treating water for consumption, drinking, beverages & food preparation. This water treatment category is typically located at a convenient location in the home (typically the kitchen) and can be placed on a countertop or permanently installed under a sink having a cold-water supply and drain. POU water treatment systems are the mainstay of pure water for your family.

Point of Entry, POE (Whole-House) water treatment – Intended to treat all the water entering the home. Be advised that there are NO practical, industry certified POE (Whole-House) water treatment systems on the market that can remove the long list of health-related contaminants – a requirement for children on the Spectrum!

NOTE: A comment worth making at this point is that if you could only make ONE choice between treating water for consumption or water for safe bathing, the focus should be on water your family consumes.

How to choose the most effective and affordable source of drinking and food & beverage preparation water. Drinking water choices include bottled water and a wide variety of basic filters (carafes, countertop, undersink) or more sophisticated higher-performing water purifiers that use a combination of treatment technologies.

Consumers (individuals & families), including health professionals continue to purchase water products and systems that do not performed as claimed. There is little to no regulation of the performance. I estimate that at least 80% of consumers, including health professionals, are not getting the performance they expected.

IMPORTANT BASIC RULES:

1. For families dealing with children on the Spectrum, the requirement to effectively remove all Primary health-related contaminants should be very strict and reasonably researched. You must educate yourself with a minimum level of technical information before purchasing POU & POE water treatment systems. We’re only focusing on treating water for consumption…drinking and food & beverage preparation.

2. The requirement of water purity for children on the Spectrum (and other immune-related health conditions) can ONLY be achieved by multi-technology POU drinking water systems (purifiers) that are CERTIFIED by one of the following testing laboratories:

• NSF International – Ann Arbor, MI
• IAPMO – Ontario, CA
• WQA Gold Seal – Lisle, IL

3. Reverse Osmosis (RO) followed by Activated Carbon (AC) OR Vented Distillation followed by Activated Carbon stand alone in their ability to remove a high degree of every category of health contaminant ASD demands.

Popular (and more economical) Activated Carbon filter systems (carafes, countertop and undersink-installed) begin to lose their efficacy for contaminant reduction with the first liter of water that is filtered because most of the contaminants removed remain in the pores of the activated carbon media, gradually reducing its capacity for more contaminants.

NOTE: Experts within the water industry have recently become suspicious of several well-known Activated Carbon filter products that claim what seems to be unrealistic contaminant-removal performance as determined by a laboratory using NSF Standards. We and others are investing in these claims to verify their published results.

In contrast, RO-AC and Distillation-AC provide more absolute and broad-spectrum performance that is not capacity-limited and influenced by other water impurities.

NOTE: Despite my endorsement of RO-AC systems, I do not extend this approval to most conventional undersink-installed RO-AC systems with sealed storage tanks that cannot easily be sanitized by homeowners. The underlying reason is that conventional RO water storage tanks support and encourage the growth of high levels of heterotrophic bacteria. They must be regularly sanitized using procedures that exceed the ability of most homeowners.

Assuming there are homeowners in this audience with undersink-installed RO-AC systems, there are recommendations we can discuss to minimize the microbial problems associated with this design.

In the interest of time and lessening the burden of all this detailed information, my preferred selection of a POU water treatment system (i.e., purifier) is the AquaTru RO-AC Countertop Drinking Water Appliance.

• The highest proven performance since 2016 in removing all regulated health-related contaminants.
• NSF Certified (IAPMO) for more than 80 health-related contaminants, the only RO-AC countertop purifier to hold this distinction.
• Economical, compact, attractive and fully automatic.
• Easy to change filter & RO cartridges (4) – the display tells you when.
• Ability to clean and sanitize the water storage containers.
• Ease of adding minerals & trace elements (electrolytes) and other drinking water enhancements.

Enhancing the health benefits of RO-AC purified water – Key characteristics of pure & healthful drinking water.

• The absence of health-related chemical, microbial and radiological contaminants that exceed EPA – determined levels.
• The addition of Minerals & Trace Elements in specific proportions that balance and restore the body fluids. Ideally, this includes 78 elements of the Periodic Table which are found in seawater. QUINTON Hypertonic is an ideal source that meets this requirement.
• As needed to periodically alkalize the body fluids, Actve pH Restore should be added to purified water in recommended amounts to neutralize acidity resulting from our metabolic design.
• Infusing Molecular Hydrogen into a small amount and drinking water has multiple benefits to children on the Spectrum, especially the reduction of Oxidative Stress and the regulation of Glutathione antioxidant response.
• Activating water with structure and energy. This is a somewhat controversial aspect of water enhancement with growing validity. There are several methods for establishing these properties in purified water including Vortexing, Analemma Quantum Coherence activation, Sunlight and Red /NIR light exposure.

Water modifications that should be disregarded and avoided as ineffective and a waste of money.

• Alkaline pH water (pH 8.5 – 10.5) for consumption. Contrary to the misleading promoters of Alkaline water, it does not alkalize the body fluids. Alkaline water in bottles, water dispensing machines and from popular Alkaline ionizers do not contain sufficient alkalinity to neutralize excess metabolic acid in the body.

An important comment on shower filters.

• Popular shower filters do little-to-nothing in reducing health-related contaminants – except chlorine.
• The combination of a small volume of active filter media, and a high flow of warm water make most shower filter useless for health-seeking individuals or those whose health condition requires the effective reduction of many health-related contaminants in tap water.
• Regardless of how a shower filter is promoted and hyped with claims of contaminant reduction, the information is typically a lie.

Whole-House (POE) water treatment. This is the most difficult pursuit of consumers seeking safe contaminant-free water for bathing and showering.

Whole-House water treatment is never a substitute for advanced RO-AC POU purifiers specifically designed for drinking water and food preparation water.

The ONLY Authentic Certifying Organizations for Water Treatment Products & Systems

• NSF International – Ann Arbor, MI
• IAPMO – Ontario, CA
• Water Quality Association Gold Seal – Lisle, IL

Important caveat…

The “Standards” for testing water products & systems were developed several decades ago by a group of water experts under the direction of NSF International and ANSI (American National Standards Institute).

The certifying requirements are very rigorous (and costly) and some manufacturers succeed in “beating the system” and falsify their claims by manipulating the details of in their promotional material and advertising.

Consumers are not capable of detecting such falsifications and must rely on a water specialist to interpret this information. This situation further challenges consumers wanting to choose water treatment products & systems that meet the needs of their family.

The claim “NSF Certified” alone in promotional and sales literature is not sufficient to assure the water product or system will perform as claimed.

~ Robert Slovak

Naturally Recovering Autism is proud to be in partnership with Water and Wellness.

• Shop here for ALL: the Aquatru water filtration system, Quinton minerals, Active pH Restore, and molecular hydrogen, and get 10% off of your order with code KTHOMAS.
• Watercheck.com: National Water Testing Lab
• This website has all of the standards, http://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/what-is-nsf-certification/water-filters-treatment-certification/selecting-a-water-treatment-system
• You can go to the Water Quality Association website, www.wqa.org, and get your free download, “Water Treatment for Dummies”._Podcast interview on glyphosate with Dr. Stephanie Seneff.
• Additional Podcast Episodes Related to water:
  • Water Resources and Autism Sensitivities [Podcast #87]
  • How To Create Healthy Water Resources [Podcast #3]
  • Swimming Pool Health Challenges [Podcast #92]

Robert Slovak’s Biography:   

Robert Slovak is a degreed Mechanical and Astronautical engineer, best known as the co-founder, with his brother Jack, of Water Factory Systems in the early 1970’s. He is recognized as one of the key developers of Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology and its numerous applications.

After the sale of his company to a multi-national leader in water technology in 1990, Robert went on to bring his knowledge and experience to Brazil and other underdeveloped nations. During this period Robert maintained his presence in the American water industry as a consultant and regular speaker at water technology conferences.

Since 2006 Robert masterminded and promoted a new paradigm he refers to as “Water & Wellness” in which pure, contaminant-free water is combined with highly effective nutraceutical additives to support the health needs of a wide diversity of the population including prenatal, developing, aging, health-compromised and special-needs.

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