Get your pseudoscience glossary at the ready!
Will structured, hexagonal water help me live longer and look younger?
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Welcome back to Get-Fit Guy, Coach Kevin Don here. This week I am going to take a look at another fitness fad and see if I can either unearth some usefulness in it or see if the only usefulness will come from telling y’all to give it a body swerve.
We are going to deep dive into structured water, also known as hexagonal water. As always, let's start with a definition of what this is. For that, we’ll turn to a manufacturer of a device that claims to help you create structured water. Get your pseudoscience glossary at the ready! “Structured water is vibrationally repaired water—back to its natural frequency state. This is where all the water molecules are arranged in a vibrating hexagonal grid. It combines 3 atoms of hydrogen with 2 of oxygen, creating H3O2.”
Here are the supposed benefits of structured water:
That’s a lot of vibrating. In order to get the benefits of structured water, you can either follow a DIY method or buy a water-structuring device.
The DIY method is simple: take gemstones (it doesn't say which kind) and place them in your water container.
It's here that I needed to take a break from writing this week’s episode to have a lie down to recover from how hard I just laughed. Luckily, I think the structured water can help with my recovery time.
Ok, now I gathered myself, let's move on to the water structuring device. Apparently, the $1300 device (or $2700 if you want one that plugs directly into your home water supply) will vortex your water into a double helix (no doubt this will help my DNA). It will create a high energy field with phi ratio geometric construction and healing pyramid energies.
Now, if you didn’t already think the use of words like vibration, frequency, pyramid, and geometric were red flags, let's have a look at what the information says from sources that DO NOT sell water structuring devices or from personal trainers that do not have a discount code for such devices.
Well, the American Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration have both warned against consumers being persuaded by scientific-sounding terms being used to essentially hoodwink people. And that’s exactly what’s going on here: none of this is based on any science whatsoever.
Now, my research does tell me that vortex induction can align water molecules into water clusters. However, the hydrogen bonds formed are very weak and last only a very short period of time. How short? Well less than 200 femtoseconds. For context, a femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. So the idea that water would still be structured in any way by the time it reaches your cells is… well, it's flat-out wrong.
Next, I want to have a look at the claim that this vortex (or dropping a few quartz crystals into a water jug) will somehow turn H2O into H3O2. Well, I actually spoke with a very close friend of mine, a Cambridge University chemistry graduate, and read a study on this. No evidence has been found for the existence of the stable compound H3O2 in an aqueous solution. According to my Cambridge friend: “You can’t make that because oxygen is divalent (makes 2 bonds) and hydrogen is monovalent so it doesn't work. Sounds like they are confused with the structure water takes when ice forms. You have weak polar bonding to a hydrogen atom in another molecule. It’s not H3O2 though.”
Often when I look into things like this, it is just a jumble of words that sound reasonable if you don't understand the core principles. It’s like someone who doesn't understand sports being told, “Hey, did you see the game last night where the Eagles scored a home run touchdown just before a hole in one to love at the play offs world cup?” All of these words are indeed relevant to sport and sound to someone with no sports knowledge like they missed a great game. Unfortunately, it's just a jumble of words. The same as structured water. HARD PASS.
And after this week's shock revelation that people with a discount code might be recommending interventions that do absolutely nothing of benefit for you, let's move on to a listener email!
“Love the show.
I’ve always heard the slogan ‘muscle weighs more than fat,’ but I have a question about that. I’m pushing 70, spent most of my life overweight. A few years ago I decided I didn’t want to be old and fat, so I started by drastically changing/studying my eating habits (don’t worry, no fad diets involved) & did very light exercise & began losing weight. After I’d gotten my weight down some, I began folding tougher and longer exercise into my schedule while doing it more often, and eventually dropped some 70-odd pounds, bringing my weight down about 148, where it stayed for some time. I exercise between 30-60 minutes per day, alternating between resistance (freeweights) and cardio (usually boxing) exercise programs, with usually one day per week off where I go take care of chores like shopping instead, to rest up a little.
Here's my question: over the last several months, my weight has slowly crept up to 152-153, fluctuating daily. Things seem to have leveled out here for now, and it’s not enough to get me greatly concerned, but I had a certain amount of pride in getting down to 148 (and periodically briefly lower) and would love to stabilize at that again, but this new weight seems very reluctant to come off, regardless of what I do.
How do I know if the weight I’m adding is muscle or flab? I’ve noticed some changes in my body over time, particularly improvements in my chest and shoulders, but I haven’t experienced a lot of impressive muscle growth (which I’ve presumed to be partly a product of the decline of testosterone at my age) so it’s hard to draw any conclusions. Should I simply keep up what I’m doing & not be concerned with my weight as long as there’s no steady or rapid increase?
Thank you.
Steven
Henderson NV”
Hi Steven from Henderson, NV. A beautiful part of the world—I have passed through Henderson a few times on my way to one of my favorite places… Boulder City, NV. There is a great little breakfast cafe there and of course all the antique stores and the Hoover Dam really needs no justification to visit. Awe-inspiring.
So, first of all, I wouldn’t weigh yourself every day. If you were my client, I’d come get your scale and throw it into Lake Mead. If you really want to weigh yourself, knock it back to once a week. Everyone’s weight fluctuates daily. Water intake, hot weather, colder weather, salt intake, and so on. Forget about that.
It’s really, really great to hear that you lost 70 pounds. That is not an easy task! So well done! But definitely try not to frame 148 as your ultimate achievement. It’s just an arbitrary number. It may have been the lowest number, but this doesn’t mean that 147 is any better from a health perspective. We can 100% say losing 70 lbs was good for your health and longevity, but now that you have, we need to have other markers.
Blood work can show you some interesting metrics, which, if you decide to do, an endocrinologist will explain better than me. And a DEXA scan, for example, will give you metrics that your bathroom scale cannot, such as bone and muscle mass and how much fat is around the organs and under the skin. Sadly, a scan is the only real way to know if you are gaining muscle or fat, aside from the eyeball test if changes are obvious. You said you haven’t noticed any impressive muscle growth, but pushing 70, I would say that any muscle growth is, in itself, impressive.
My advice: go have a scan to see what your body composition really is, then go train as normal, forget all about it, and go have another one in 6 months.
You sound like you are self-aware enough around training since you have done a great job losing so much weight. It’s quite normal for individuals who have lost a lot to develop a fear around gaining it all back or being “fat” again. That's not going to happen and your email to me is evidence enough. You are on top of things.
If you have a training question, are looking for individual training program design, or just want to say hi, head over to the Get-Fit Guy Facebook page or send me an email at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com.