World Water Day is celebrated on 22 March. Founded in 1993, united Nations Day of Remembrance is not only a celebration and protection of water resources around the world, but also a popular science day for universal knowledge of water health.
Just the day before, on March 21, a paper published by professor Shu Weiqun of the Third Military Medical University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Frontiers in Nutritions (Impact Factor 6.576, JCR Zone 1, an internationally authoritative nutrition journal) attracted industry attention. Professor Shu Weiqun is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sanitation of the Third Military Medical University of the People's Liberation Army of Chinese, a doctoral supervisor, and has long been committed to the scientific experiments and popularization of scientific knowledge on drinking water health. The research has also been funded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Military Major Program, the National Key Research and Development Program, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
In a paper titled "Drinking Natural Mineral Water Maintains Bone Health in Young Rats With Metabolic Acidosis," Professor Shu's team used scientific experiments for the first time to reveal the beneficial effects of bicarbonates in water on the body. Specifically, drinking natural mineral water rich in bicarbonate can not only supplement mineral elements such as potassium, calcium, sodium, and magnesium, but also adjust the acid-base balance and reduce calcium loss in bones, thereby benefiting the body's bone health.
For a long time, a diet rich in highly acidic foods has prevailed among young people in China, which has led to chronic metabolic acidosis prevalent among young people. Acidosis is a pathology of acid accumulation or alkali depletion in the body, and the intake of large amounts of meat, dairy products, and lack of vegetable intake are typical causes of metabolic acidosis.
Previous studies have believed that the body's acid-base balance is strong, but the cost of acid-base rebalancing is the loss of calcium in human bones. In the case of acidosis, the body's calcium regulatory system can be disrupted, resulting in the destruction of bone microstructures and the loss of bone minerals, thereby weakening bone density and bone toughness. There have been many studies that show that long-term drinking of mineral water, especially mineral water with high calcium and bicarbonate concentrations, is an important source of calcium supplementation in the elderly and can be used to prevent osteoporosis in the elderly under chronic acid load.
Professor Shu's team built an animal model to assess the effects of drinking natural mineral water on the bones of metabolic acidosis. The study randomly divided 60 3-week-old female juvenile mice into three groups, drinking purified water and two weakly alkaline natural mineral waters (bicarbonate type and sulfate type natural mineral water) under the premise of providing a regular diet. In each group, the blood, urine and femur data of mice with metabolic acidosis after drinking different water were compared and analyzed, and the effect of different drinking water on the health of young mice in the case of metabolic acidosis was evaluated.
Experimental data show that: (1) Compared with acidic pure water, weakly alkaline natural mineral water can better maintain bone microstructure, bone density and bone toughness under metabolic acidosis, which is more beneficial to the bone health of young mice. Weakly alkaline natural mineral water can improve the biomechanic properties of juvenile femur by 17.3% and the ultimate stress of bones by 20%, reduce bone offset by up to 27%, and reduce bone limit strain by 35%.
(2) Compared with acidic pure water, weak alkaline natural mineral water can better neutralize the acid in the blood, buffer the acid-base balance in the young mice, and reduce the calcium loss under metabolic acidosis in the young mice. The weakly alkaline natural mineral water significantly reduced the titration acid value (D), ammonium ion value (E) and net acid excretion (F) in the urine of young mice.
(3) In addition to the above two sets of comparative data, compared with acidic pure water, weakly alkaline natural mineral water under metabolic acidosis, there are significant improvements in the body's calcium and magnesium metabolism, calcium regulatory hormones, bone model markers, bone histopathology and histomorphological characteristics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and nutrition experts from various countries have extensively studied the positive effects of minerals in water on human health, but the attention to minerals in water has long focused on the role of cations such as potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium on health. The research of Professor Shu's team confirmed for the first time through scientific experiments that anions in water, such as bicarbonate, have a positive effect on regulating the acid-base balance of the body, which can slow down the loss of bone calcium caused by chronic acidosis, thus demonstrating that weak alkaline natural mineral water helps maintain bone health under metabolic acidosis.
[Reporter] Zhao Binghui
【Author】 Zhao Binghui
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client