A lot of people claim that akaline water has helped them lose weight, reverse aging, increase energy, and even eliminate or reduce symptoms of disease. Indeed, many have called alkaline water filters "the fast track to health." But do such claims make any sense?

Truth is (and I speak from personal experience) you can do everything right and still feel pretty lousy. You can eat well, exercise and meditate, and still suffer from low energy, body aches and pains, or fall prey to cancer, diabetes, or Alzheimer's. Fact is, no matter how hard we try, almost all of us are slowly being poisoned by too much acid. And it doesn't only come from food. Stress, pollution in the environment, our modern over-industrialized life styles are as harmful as they are unavoidable.

So our bodies set up defenses to prevent all that acid from damaging our organs. Excessive body fat, for instance, is thought to be one such defense system-- it stores the acid and keeps it away from our organs. (That's why a lot of alkaline water drinkers experience fat loss as an added bonus.)

Many scientists now believe that acid build-up is the root cause of all disease. Conversely, if we wish to reverse and prevent disease, we must make choices that help maintain the alkaline design of the body. Ionized water is alkaline and thus helps balance the body's pH. To neutralize the acids, water should be at least 9.5 on the pH scale. Some experts recommend as high as 12.5 for more serious health conditions. Drinking such water helps neutralize and remove the accumulated acid from the tissues.

If you want to benefit from alkaline water, a home water ionizer is pretty much your only option. Alkaline water simply cannot be bottled. Oxygen rich water must be consumed fresh: by the time you buy it it has lost all of its healing properties. Buying various chemical additives that are supposed to alkalize your water simply doesn't work.

Alkaline water filters have been in use world wide for more than 20 years, in both residential and industrial settings. A few top products have even been listed as medical substance producers by the Japanese Ministry of Health as well as the Korean Ministry of Health.

Water ionizers produce water similar to that found in the glacial streams in the high Himalayas, which some of the healthiest peoples of the world like the Hunza have access to.

Alkaline water filters can be installed in minutes. (Make sure the filter you get also contain a charcoal filter, to first eliminate any harmful heavy metals or impurities found in your tap water.) Simply put, these machines use a high tech version of ionization to "split" your tap water into two streams. About 70% of the water ends up in the alkaline stream and the remainder in the acidic stream.

The alkaline water is, of course, used for drinking, while the acidic water can be utilized for sanitizing hands and surfaces. That smaller stream of acidic water is also a great natural astringent. Use it to treat all sorts of skin conditions, acne and rashes, naturally and inexpensively.

So are alkaline water filters a miracle cure for all that ails us? Most likely not. Can we add alkaline water to a stressed lifestyle and a diet based on red meat and dairy and expect to be healthy and energetic? Absolutely not.

However, is alkaline water that you can get from alkaline water filters absolutely crucial in helping us neutralize and eliminate illness-causing acids from our bodies? Yes, I firmly believe that drinking the right water could be the single most health-promoting thing anyone can do.