structured water
Water is not merely a collection of individual H2O molecules. Instead, water in the liquid state is characterized by a specific structure, (H2O)n, where “n” equals the number of H2O molecules that are joined together. How are these water molecules joined? And, what is the nature of their structure? This is what has baffled scientists for years until recent research has started to shed new light on the subject of structured water.
What is “Structured Water”?
First, let us clarify what it is that is being structured. Some people, when they hear “structured water”, they think of the structure of water, as H2O. H2O is only the chemical structure of the atoms which make up a water molecule, which is discussed in the section “Structure of Water“. When we talk about “structured water”, we are referring to the arrangement or configuration of the H2O (water) molecules in relation to each other, and when they become organized to form a repeating, geometric, molecular pattern, then water becomes a liquid crystal and this liquid crystalline form of water is what is referred to as “structured water“.
To help you understand a little better… every one of the Earth’s minerals has a crystalline form. Diamonds are crystalline carbon and emeralds are crystalline beryllium. The difference between a diamond and carbon is the way the molecules are organized or structured. Each crystal has a specific structural pattern which gives them their unique characteristics. Minerals form crystals when external forces or energy cause the molecules to form an organized, repeating pattern. Most people know that a diamond is formed by extreme pressure, and that is because it forces the molecules to arrange themselves in a different configuration to withstand the pressure.
Most people only think of H2O as being in a crystalline form when it is in its solid phase as ice, but numerous scientific studies have discovered that there is a liquid crystalline form of water as well. Unlike in solid crystals such as diamonds, the molecules remain mobile and fluid, yet they move together in a coherent way. The only way many of the properties of water can be explained is by understanding that water has a very unique molecular structure which gives it properties that don’t tend to follow the generally accepted rules of physics, but the understanding of this “fourth phase of water”, as Dr. Gerald Pollack describes it, gives us a more holistic view of why water acts the way it does.
Water’s crystalline structure is based on tetrahedral geometry where oxygen atoms form the center of each tetrahedron. Under ideal circumstances, as water tetrahedra join together, a repeating hexagonal pattern is generated with oxygen atoms forming the vertices of each hexagon. This is the reason liquid crystalline water has also been referred to as “hexagonal” water. Quartz crystals exhibit the same molecular geometry as structured water. Quartz is a network of interconnected SiO4 tetrahedra. Structured water is a network of OH4 tetrahedra. This is one reason water has the capacity to store and transfer information.
Liquid Crystalline Water in Biological Organisms
One of the most dedicated, innovative and insightful scientists that has researched extensively into the amazing substance that is water, is Mae-Wan Ho.
Mae-Wan Ho has a BSc in both biology and chemistry (first class honors) and a PhD in biochemistry from Hong Kong University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in biochemical genetics at the University of California, and in the 1970’s, she was Senior Research Fellow at Queen Elizabeth College. She was then affiliated with Open University for almost 25 years, first as a lecturer in genetics and later as a reader in biology. Ho has most recently been Visiting Professor in biophysics at Catania University in Sicily. She is the author or co-author of a dozen books, best known among them: “The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms”, as well as over 200 scientific papers. She is also an inventor with two patents on polarized light microscopy and one on collagen ultrasound therapy.
Her first major discovery of liquid crystalline water and the major role it played in all biological organisms, she writes about in her paper, “Water is the Means, Medium, and Message of Life“:
“More than 20 years ago, I peered down a polarizing light microscope and saw a rainbow dancing inside a worm. It took a while to decipher the meaning of that vision. Typically, colours are generated by birefringent crystals such as quartz with ordered arrangement of atoms, or liquid crystals with ordered alignment of electrically polarized molecules. The rainbow in the worm means that the organism is liquid crystalline and coherent to a high degree, even quantum coherent, as consistent with other evidence. It means that the entire organism is electrically polarized from head to tail, like a single uniaxial crystal. Not only are the macromolecules in all the tissues and cells perfectly aligned, but also the 80% by weight of water in the organism. It is actually the water that makes the entire organism liquid crystalline because this water is liquid crystalline, as others also discovered later. To see the rainbow colours in the living organism, the liquid crystalline molecules not only have to be fully aligned, but also moving coherently, macromolecules and water molecules together.“
In another one of her scientific papers, “Life is Water Electric“, she states:
“New evidence suggests that the L-field (Life-Field) is generated by, and embodied in, the quantum-coherent liquid crystalline water that makes up to 70–90% of organisms and cells, and is essential for life. Water forms quantum coherent domains at ordinary temperatures and pressures. This liquid crystalline water makes life possible by enabling proteins and nucleic acids to act as quantum molecular machines that transform and transfer energy at close to 100% efficiency. It provides excitation energy to split water in photosynthesis, releasing oxygen for the teaming millions of air-breathing species that colonize the earth, at the same time generating electricity for intercommunication and the redox chemistry that powers the entire biosphere. Living water is the means, medium, and message of life.”
In an article titled “How Water Shapes DNA“, scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in Germany discovered that the structured water surrounding the DNA molecule actually influences the very structure of the genetic code of life itself.
Dr. Gerald Pollack, professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington has provided significant evidence for water’s liquid crystalline structure. His research has demonstrated water’s capacity to form large zones of structured water. He has shown that this water has measurably different characteristics including: molecular stability, a negative electrical charge, greater viscosity, molecular alignment, and an enhanced ability to absorb certain spectra of light. He and others have provided evidence that the liquid crystalline phase of water is intimately connected with the generation of life. Dr. Pollack discusses his research in a lecture given in this video:
The Importance of Structured Water
For centuries, science has molded a conception of the world based on purely materialist principles, but 20th century physics has taught us that more recent findings on energetics also have to be taken into account. That is why it is reasonable to assume that the energy and wave patterns in drinking water are tremendously important for all life on earth as well as for our health.
In a paper published by the Water Journal, “A Preliminary Study of the Effects of Reich’s Orgone Accumulator on Oats Seed Sprouting and the Structure of Water“, it says:
“It is necessary to point out that the importance of water fractions – free and structured – for the functioning of living systems has been seriously discussed for a long time. Its effect is most fully investigated on plant bodies. As it follows from these publications, the intensity of physiological processes in plants depends on the free and structured water ratio in them. T.D. Nazarov with co-authors studied the relationship between oxidation-reduction enzymes (malic enzyme and glutamate dehydrogenize) activity and their asymmetry and hydration. The researchers found that the structured water optimally corresponds to the greatest enzyme activity. Upward or downward deviation from this optimum leads to enzymes activity reduction. Changes in the structure of the substrate groups, which do not directly interact with the protein surfaces, can change the enzyme reaction rate by an order of magnitude. This kind of data is usually explained by water contribution to the free energy of the enzyme reaction. These phenomena seem to be a possible manifestation of the direct influence of the structured water on biological reactions.”
If we took two glasses of water from the same place in the same stream – one glass taken a thousand years ago, and the second glass, taken today after pollution has affected the stream’s properties – we would see a measurable difference in the two glasses. This is due to massive amounts of pollution caused by the last century’s worth of global industrialization and technologies that interfere with the electromagnetic field of our planet. Because of this pollution, and the chemicals and minerals that are added to our drinking water, the water in our homes, available to us through our public municipal systems, has lost its natural healing abilities which nature imparts to it. We can endlessly attempt to filter and purify it, but we will never be able to make it biologically active, or “alive” without putting it back through that physical process that it goes through in nature. Our current drinking water is often chlorinated, chemically cleaned and UV-irradiated. It is compressed under high pressure through long pipelines. In doing this, the original energetic quality of the water gets almost completely lost, and our cells may not be optimally supplied with water.
In the energizing process, structures are restored to the water, making it once again possible for this important element of life to purify itself. Counteracting dehydration and excessive acidity, which most people suffer from nowadays, can only be achieved with optimally structured water which can be absorbed by the cells. Dr. Kohfink put it very aptly in connection with his well-grounded studies into various water sources and types of water purification devices when he said: “Water is life, but only when it is alive.”
“Modern-day humans mostly come across poor-quality water nowadays, which is why many of us are no longer in the habit of drinking water, thus inflicting great damage on our bodies.”
~ Viktor Schauberger
Structured Water and Cellular Hydration
With aging, the body’s mechanisms of water balance are disturbed, increasing the risk of dehydration (and loss of hydration) among the elderly. Dehydration is indeed the most common fluid disorder among older persons, and it can have a considerable impact. It is estimated that between the ages of 30 and 70 years old, the body loses about 15% of its capacity to retain water.
Research in the field of cellular hydration has shown that when the cell swells up, it triggers an anabolic mechanism in the body, which is a healing mechanism. It is accompanied by positive nitrogen balance, protein synthesis, and growth hormone release, equivalent to useful levels even in older people. Cellular hydration also results in a reduction of cell acidity, reduced autoimmune response, increased fat burning, DNA repair, and increased resistance to viruses.
Now when the cells become dehydrated, they metabolize in a catabolic state, which means the body starts utilizing its own tissue for energy production, resulting in degeneration of cellular health and immune response. As a result the cell becomes more sensitive to free radicals and more susceptible to viruses. Over time this process may result in auto immune diseases, such as lupus, MS, Chronic Fatigue, Rheumatoid Arthritis, allergies, and many more degenerative processes. Virtually all symptoms of aging are the result of cellular dehydration accompanied by free radical damage. As such, proper hydration is essential for improved health.
Of direct biological interest, if for any reason nutrients are unable to influx into cells or efflux and remove the toxins from cells, the cells die due to accumulation of their own metabolic waste products. In order for toxins to leave the cells and for nutrients to enter the cells, the cells must be in intimate contact with water. Thus, a low surface tension environment is optimal for cellular health. In fact, it has been demonstrated that an increase of over 64 times nutrient capacity was observed by doubling the speed of fluid flow. Lowering surface tension and wetting angle is directly related to the speed of the fluid across cell membranes.
SURFACE TENSION, WETTING, AND HYDRATION
Surface tension is an important indicator of the flow characteristics of water through a living system and across cell membranes. When water comes in contact with a solid or is placed in another liquid, the water either spreads to form a thin film or bead up into round drops. The degree of interaction between the film and the drop is known as wetting. The former behavior is generally described as complete wetting, and the latter as incomplete or partial wetting of the surface.
The external measure of the degree of wetting is the contact angle, i.e., the angle formed between planes tangent to the surfaces of the solid and the liquid at the wetted perimeter. A zero contact angle is the condition for complete wetting of a solid by a liquid (e.g., water on clean glass). This concept is exceptionally important in the discussion of the nutritional aspects of a liquid. To fully discuss the phenomena and details of liquid interaction, it is important to understand the concepts of three terms: surface tension, wetting tension, and wetting angle.
Surface tension is the force that exists between a liquid and the atmosphere it is in. For example, in atmospheric air, a drop of water will bead up on some solid surfaces. It is the surface tension existing between the water and the air that allows this to occur. The drop of water can spread out on another solid surface if the new surface has molecular forces (surface energy) high enough to overcome the water/air surface tension and draw the water flat onto it.
Wetting tension is the maximum liquid surface tension that will make it spread, rather than bead up, on the film surface. It is a measurable property that estimates a film’s surface energy. Wetting tension is determined by applying different test solutions of increasing surface tensions until one is found that just spreads (wets) the film surface. Units of measurement used are dynes/cm.
Contact or wetting angle is a measurement of the behavior of pure water in contact with the film surface. The surface energy of the film controls whether the droplet tends to stand up or flatten out. This is quantified by measuring the contact angle of the droplet with the surface. A higher energy film will cause the droplet to be flatter and closer to the surface, which results in a smaller contact angle value.
Ordinary (unstructured) water has a high surface tension, as well as a high wetting angle, which means it has a difficult time wetting the cells within the body. In the body our cell membranes contain a significant amount of phospholipids (fats), which have low surface tension of about 45 dynes/cm. Cells require a surface tension of about the same range for water to wet the cells, thus passing through the cell wall carrying nutrients, etc. This concept is the same relationship as the idea that oil and water do not mix. Normal tap water has a surface tension of around 73-75 dynes/cm which is able to suspend the cells in the body but is not in intimate contact with the surface of the cell, so it passes through the body, and is not fully utilized by the cells. Higher surface tension water can actually dehydrate cells in which it comes into contact. (Hank Liers, PhD)
The lower the surface tension, the lower the wetting angle and the “wetter” the water becomes. With this in mind, it is of utmost importance to make sure that your intake of water is in its most useful form, i.e., the form that produces the greatest hydration in the body. Structured water has a dramatically lower surface tension, so cells become fully hydrated and the water is fully and most effectively utilized by the body. This means that the structured water can much more efficiently penetrate into the interior of the cell allowing the structured water to carry into the cell all of the necessary vital energy and nutrients while also removing all of the cellular waste products and toxins. By this means, cellular hydration is achieved.
Here is a short video showing the blood of a patient before and after drinking a small amount of structured water:
To learn how to get clean, living, structured water, check out “Water Structuring Units“.
** Disclaimer: The information posted here by essenceofwater.org is for informational purposes only and is not meant to replace professional medical diagnosis, treatment or advice. You should always consult a qualified healthcare professional with questions about any medical conditions.