Next to air, water is the single most important ingredient you need for life.

As Dr. Batmangheldij discusses in "Your body's many cries for water" and "Water and Salt - your healers from within" a vast number of health issues may stem from dehydration. Not the kind of dehydration one might experience under scorching desert sun, but the kind of chronic, long-term dehydration found in most western people who remain unaware that...

... fluids like juices, coffee, tea (incl. herbals), alcohol etc actually dehydrate the body...

This is because our body will use its water resources to to either extract nutrients from the consumed fluids or remove toxins ingested with them (for instance chemicals if the product is non-organic; fluoride, chlorine and other substances from the tea or coffee ingested; acids created during efforts to deal with the sudden inrush of sugar etc).

... consuming water may not actually hydrate...

This is to do with surface tension - the amount of pressure needed to penetrate the surface of a body of water. If waters surface tension is too high then it cannot easily pass through our cell walls. This is because cell walls are mostly fatty acids (oils) which have a much lower surface tension than water. The effect of this is that those who consume plenty of water may be doing little more than bathing their cells in it. Very little of what they consume may be getting directly into the cell to bring nutrients in and carry toxins out - the net result of which is that their cells still remain less than ideally hydrated while they themselves spend considerable time going to and from the loo!

... not all waters are created equal...

Those who have woken up to the need to consume plenty of water quickly become aware of the fact that every water tastes different - to which there are two main contributing factors. Firstly, there's the amount of dissolved minerals which (sulphur and iron aside) generally make water taste better. Then there are contaminants that might have leached in from pipes, filters or containers which are not only undesireable from a health point of view, but also contribute to an uninviting taste.

... or remain equal!

Even the very best of water, once it comes under the jurisdiction of a water treatment company or local authority is going to have contaminants (sorry, 'water treatment agents'!) like Chlorine or Aluminum deliberately added to it to ensure water quality*. However, few involved realise that the reason water quality deteriorates so much is that it looses life energy when forced through straight pipes, fast spinning blades, has chemicals added, is stored in less-than-ideal conditions etc. In other words our treatment and delivery methods sap the life out of it. And once deprived of natural life-force, water looses the subtle tastes and textures that awaken our body's natural interest in it. [More on this phenomenon in future articles]

To ensure the best possible drinking water for yourself, and maximise your hydration levels, consider using the Crystal Energy supplement in your drinking water. Whether that water comes from a bottle, well, filter or public supply, it's surface tension will be reduced to a level compatible with your cells. The increasing cellular hydration will aid nutrient absorption, toxin removal and - according to it's creator Dr. G. Patrick Flanagan - can even help render both chlorine and fluoride in that water harmless to the body. 

* Some people (esp. in fluoridated countries like Ireland) assume that fluoride also contributes to the poor taste of public water. This is not directly the case.  However, indirectly it may be so. Because, being a harsh acid whose Material Safety Data Sheet cautions that those handling it wear full chemical protective apparatus (incl. breathing apparatus), the Hydrofluosilicic Acid added to water  contributes to the corrosion of pipes within the water treatment plant and en-route to consumers taps.

It might also be opportune at this juncture to clarify another common misconception regarding water fluoridation: fluoride is NOT a water treatment agent. It is added to water (ostensibly) to prevent a disease which occurs in the consumers of the water due to their life choices. This makes it a preventative medicine which is being delivered without reference to people's body weight, personal need or monitoring of side-effects. This site will make more comment on the problem of fluoridation in the near future. In the meantime, readers are encouraged to explore www.fluoridealert.org