Ep 115 | Optimize Your WATER For Optimal Health

In today’s episode, we’re covering water quality, common contaminants found in tap water, and how things like heavy metals, microplastics, pesticides, and fluoride may impact overall health. We also break down different types of water filters, ways to check what’s in your local water supply, and our recommendations for cleaner drinking water.

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Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome to the Freedom to Flourish podcast.

I'm Doctor Joel Miller, your Co host with Doctor Tim Augustiniak.

Today we're talking about water.

Well, what's the big deal about water?

Well, I think a lot of people don't realize that water is one of the main sources that we can slowly add stress to our system.

0:24

What do I mean by that?

Not all water is the same.

And there's so many different contaminants in water these days that we are drinking, that we are bathing in, that our our dishes are being washed in and our clothes are being washed in.

0:39

And yes, water filters are important, but not all water filters are the same.

A lot of them, I would say most of them don't do that much.

And, and so overall, what we're trying to do with this episode is create a little bit of exposure to this topic of water and water quality.

0:56

What type of water are you drinking?

What type of filter do you have?

Should you invest in a good drinking filter for your home, for your family?

What about filtering the water that comes through your shower that you're bathing in?

What we're washing our our bodies with contaminated water.

1:15

And so we're going to jump into this.

We talk a lot about the root causes of health issues, and a lot of those root issues go back to the water quality, our air quality, and our food quality.

And so today we're going to talk a little bit more about water.

1:32

Dr. Tim, welcome.

Good morning.

Glad you're here.

I'm glad we're both here.

I'm glad we're both here too.

Hopefully this is going to be one of those episodes where things are more so thought provoking so all of our listeners can do their own research and investigate some things more.

1:47

This is not one of the conditions based things that we like to talk about where a lot of people will just click on it just to read about their own own health issues.

But this is something where everybody can benefit from it.

It's not just a niche thing.

Everybody that's going to be listening is going to have some area of their life where they can be better about getting rid of all the junk that's in their water.

2:08

So hopefully everybody enjoys this one and it's just a bit more mindful because there are things that are always trying to poison us.

So totally, totally.

All right, let's Doctor Tim here's here's sorry.

Go ahead.

No, I just said let's get into it.

Let's get into it all.

Right here's the outline for our listeners.

2:26

We're going to talk about generally the problems with water, what kind of stuff is in our water.

We're going to talk about where these contaminants come from.

We're going to talk about one of the issues with our water system and our water supply is that we don't, not only do we have junk added in, but we also have the healthy stuff taken out like minerals, which we get in nature.

2:49

We're actually going to share how you can figure out exactly what types of things are in your local water supply so you can see like what you're being exposed to.

My family and friends in Virginia are exposed to different things than I am here in Texas.

And so and so we have a database that we're going to recommend you guys check out.

3:10

We're going to talk about water filters and then we're going to talk about our recommendations.

Hey, what should you do?

So what do we recommend as far as really creating a kind of a, a healthy water system and, and what that looks like?

3:26

So to start, Doctor Tim, do you want to kind of walk through some of the contaminants in water and maybe a little bit about kind of where those come from?

Yeah, absolutely.

So one of the biggest things is going to be our metals.

So especially within our clinical practice, heavy metals, those are going to be one of the most common offenders to the immune system that lead to issues with skin hypersensitivity reactions.

3:54

There's all kinds of all kinds of issues.

And so things that are on that list are going to be things like chlorine, lead, arsenic, radon is on that list.

There's quite a few things where iron, you know, you might not think iron is bad, but in soil that is incredibly full of iron, that's going to be, you know, kind of problematic in the long run.

4:15

Back before my wife and I moved here to Arkansas and started my practice here, we lived up in Minnesota and I practiced under Doctor Todd Anderson and in his office, actually, we would see a decent amount of patients that would come from further north out in the country.

4:31

And they'd live, you know, on well water and their labs would just show iron and ferritin and all these things through the roof because their their water was full of iron.

And once we started providing nutrients to help chelate out that excess tired and got them away from the well water, things started to improve.

4:48

Fluoride, fluoride is also on that list.

And so, you know, they started putting that in the water for the sake of oral health, tooth health, all of those things, preventing cavities, all that stuff.

But it is actually neurotoxic in into too high amounts.

5:03

And so it is something that could build up in the system and lead to some problems in the long term.

So I mean, fluoride itself when it comes to brushing your teeth and things like that, you know, I'm not a dentist.

I'm not going to say you know too much about whether or not you should do that because there are studies that prove that it is really good for your teeth and oral health.

5:23

However, ingesting it through water and, you know, swallowing toothpaste on accident and mouthwashes that have it in there, it can be a little bit too much.

And I have actually seen that quite a few times in my practice where patients do react to fluoride.

So anyway, metals super high on that list.

5:41

There's a ton of other other things like microplastics.

I mean, microplastics aren't everything.

I mean, I, I feel like there's zero possibility that any of us can avoid those at this point.

I mean, I remember back Doctor Joel, when we were going through the the Dapsey seminars, there was one seminar where Doctor Kessinger was talking about how blood that was being passed through umbilical cords.

6:06

They've been doing studies that even in that blood, which is supposed to be the most pure blood that your body or mom's body filters, it still is containing microplastics and sending it to the baby.

And so supposedly, no, no avoiding those these days, which I believe it.

6:21

I mean, how many things are made out of plastics?

I mean, you know, in our episode of water, I mean, we have bottles in the office that are, you know, single use plastics, you know, completely hypocritical, but it's, it's very difficult to avoid.

You know, it's just the most convenient thing that we can do to, you know, bring water to patients in the office.

6:40

So another thing on the list is pesticides.

So pesticides, this is going to be a lot more common in areas like the Midwest with a lot of heavy agriculture and crops that are there because where there are crops, there are going to be pesticides.

6:57

And all the runoff that comes from those fields, it's going to end up in the local rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, you name it.

Actually, back when I was in school, it's funny, she, from what I understand, she listens to the podcast, at least the last time I talked to her.

But a good friend from school, her family lives on a, on a lake that is fed by runoff from a lot of the local agriculture in Illinois.

7:22

And she actually found when I was working on her the one day that she had an issue with pesticides and it was because of the runoff from the, the, the fields that we thought.

So there's, there's, you know, a lot of different things that that can cause problems in water.

7:39

And we just got to, you know, be aware of that and, and where they come from and, you know, just kind of put our little detective hat on and then figure out if that's what's driving problems, you know, I mean, the list goes on there.

There's plenty more things.

But Doctor Joel, you want to walk us through like pharmaceutical residues, PFAS, things like that?

8:01

Yeah, totally.

So you mentioned, you know, the different heavy metals, so PFAS or PFAS as you may have heard, those are your forever chemicals, pharmaceuticals, obviously the microplastics we talked about the old pipes.

8:17

We we kind of talked about disinfection by products.

Obviously with the pesticides you mentioned, you know, they're spraying on fields that's going to kind of run off into our water supplies.

And so these contaminants are all around us.

It's kind of part of our modern world.

8:34

And I would, I would definitely argue it's like, as society thinks like, oh, we're advancing, we're getting so incredible.

It's like, well, are we though?

Because look at all these different side effects of what we think is so beautiful.

And, and so it's, it's not a perfect world, is what I'm kind of saying.

8:51

And, and there are some different side effects to some of these advances.

And so these contaminants, these are in our water, these are the things that are causing us problems.

These are the things that when we, you know, if we look back, these issues were not there 102 hundred, 300 years ago as far as the water sourcing goes.

9:16

Now, at the same time, there's OK, there's a point to be made that OK, our water systems now are actually safer because they're killing off different bacteria and viruses and things like that.

OK, there's, there's definitely a point to be made there.

But I think that maybe it's kind of a topic for another time.

9:34

One of the other issues with our water system is, OK, our filtration systems don't necessarily take all of these things out that we just talked about.

But also there's often times a lack of minerals.

So what are the healthy minerals that should be in our water?

9:51

Magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium bicarbonate, silica, zinc, selenium, copper, and I'm sure there's a number of other what we call trace minerals as well.

So these things are lacking from our system.

And of course we talked about minerals.

We need minerals AKA electrolytes to help with so many different functions in our body to help with hormones, help with energy, help with our foster health and hydration and so forth.

10:15

So we've got these problems.

These things are in our water.

Our water sources are kind of lacking these minerals.

So what's kind of the fix with a lot of this?

We'll get to that, but but first this this resource.

So what's in your local tap water?

10:31

OK, so this is something I want you guys to write down or even just like look up on your phone right now.

So you're going to go to ewg.org.

That's environmental working groupewg.org.

There should be a section pretty, pretty close there on the front page that says you might have to Scroll down a little bit, but it says it's the local tap water database.

10:49

So what you do is you put your zip code in and literally within like 5 to 10 seconds, it'll pull up all the different things in your local tap water database.

Well, what's the significance of this?

Well, your tap water oftentimes is what you're showering in.

11:06

It's what your dishes are being washed in, it's what your clothes are being washed in.

And if you're drinking tap water, obviously then it's what you're drinking.

And so I've actually had ironically, a number of patients that I've we've tested like, hey, there's in Kansas, there's hey, there's a arsenic toxicity your body's dealing with.

11:25

Lo and behold, we look up the database for their zip code and it's just through the roof with arsenic.

And so it's like, oh, that's, that's kind of interesting.

Some people on a water well.

And so there are a number of different companies that you can send a water sample to and you can have your, your water tested to figure out exactly what is in it.

11:47

So if you're not sure, if you've never done this, I would definitely recommend looking up ewg.org.

They have that local tap water database.

They also have a, a number of other cool resources for figuring out like just what chemicals and stuff are in your, your products, like your health products and makeup products and stuff like that.

12:07

All right, doctor Tim, next let's kind of jump into these water filters.

So obviously there's a lot of junk in our water system these days and even kind of the, the modern water treatment systems that we've developed kind of on a large scale, they're definitely helpful, but they don't necessarily get everything out.

12:31

And So what, what kind of water filters should we be looking at?

What kind of water filters should we be jumping into?

So we've got, we've got activated carbon filters, that's one of the most common types.

We've got reverse osmosis.

We've got shower filters, we'll talk about that a little bit.

12:48

Most of them whole house filters and then distillation, which is not necessarily a unnecessarily like a feasible, A feasible way here, Doctor Tim.

Most of the water filters that I've seen are some level of activated carbon or reverse osmosis.

13:06

And you know the ones at the gym, for example, most gyms at the airport, most water fountains, even if they have a filter, it's going to be this activated carbon filter.

And you know, my understanding Doctor Tim is yes, they can help get the chlorine out.

13:23

They can help make the taste a little bit better.

They can help get odors out.

But ultimately, it's kind of more superficial.

It doesn't remove everything.

It's not going to remove the microplastics.

It's not going to remove the forever chemicals.

It's not going to move potentially remove any potential like pharmaceutical traces in the water.

13:43

And then you have reverse osmosis, and a lot of people are familiar with this, Reverse osmosis does an amazing job at removing everything from the water.

But then the negative or the side effect there is it removes the minerals too.

And so that can then create issues because if you're drinking mineral deprived water, essentially what can happen is you drink that water, it can pull minerals almost out of your tissues because the water wants to be balanced with the minerals.

14:17

And so in a way, it can dehydrate you by throwing off the mineral balance.

And so Doctor Dutin, those are kind of the two top water filters that that we see and that we talk about.

And of course, we've got shower filters, which generally is a good idea.

14:35

Shower filters are not going to remove all of the chemicals.

But in a very general sense, most shower filters cost 30 to 40, maybe $50.

And they're going to remove a ton of the chlorine, chlorine and they're going to generally remove some of the other basic stuff.

14:54

But again, it's more of kind of a, a lighter filter.

It's it's not super heavy duty.

I recommend one for people.

And of course, we'll get to the recommendations just because it's fairly low cost and it it's very helpful for what it does.

Whole house filters are another topic Doctor Tim, of course, that we talked about where basically as the water before it comes into your home, it gets filtered.

15:19

The challenge with whole house filters is that they can be expensive.

A lot of them can be five, $6000, sometimes more.

The cheapest one I've seen is probably a little less than 3000 here in Texas as far as being a really good whole house water filter.

15:35

But basically what that means is all the water that comes through your shower, your bath, your, your kitchen, you're on your dishes with your washer, all that water is filtered of 99% or whatever the percentage is of chemicals and forever forever chemicals and micro plastics and stuff like that.

15:55

So definitely some value there, but can be a little expensive.

And so Doctor Tim, those are kind of the the the top kind of water systems most people have heard of, most people are probably familiar with.

I wanted to just kind of slide through those rather quickly.

16:11

Doctor Tim, do you have any other thoughts to add on some of this?

I know the topic of water may come up occasionally in the office and water and we can jump into hard water versus soft water and then of course our recommendations.

Yeah, for those who are watching our video probably were like, what is he looking down at?

16:31

Because I, I had my computer in my lap looking at, you know, our, our measurement for both where you live in Flower Mound and where I live in Decatur, our water district on all the stuff that is, you know, in our, in our water.

And Doctor Joel, where you live, there were there are supposedly 14 different contaminants out of 27 that exceed recommended guidelines in drinking water.

16:56

They exceed the environmental working group, their health guidelines.

Yeah, in mine there are 9 out of 27.

And so like it, it doesn't really matter if you're in a big city or a small town, you name it, because I mean, the, the town that we live in is, it's, I think it's less than technically speaking in town, less than 1000 people.

17:18

And so there's really not a ton of people on that water district and where you're at.

I mean, it's a super densely populated suburb.

And so there's like 80,000 people on it from what it's said.

And so it doesn't really matter, but everybody needs to be aware.

And that's where, you know, educating yourself on these filters is going to be super beneficial.

17:35

But you know, like you said, there's a lot of different kinds.

It all kind of depends on, you know, from a cost perspective, you know, if you want to keep replacing filters all the time, all that stuff.

If you're looking at doing like a one time big investment for like whole home stuff, if you're looking at like an under the sink RO system for for cleaning your water, for cooking and all that stuff.

17:57

But each thing has its pros and cons because like you said, if you clear out all the stuff, you're gonna strip your body of electrolytes and you'll need to add that stuff back in.

At least you can be selective at that point.

Now there are some filters that do get rid of some things like forever chemicals.

18:13

I mean, they basically get rid of all the stuff and from a cost effective standpoint and also a, you know, you can just try it and see how things go and how much you like it.

I really usually will recommend it's called 0 water.

And so we, we've been doing that one going on probably five years now.

18:33

So back when we lived in Saint Louis, the house that we lived in, I would just drink the tap water.

I was just whatever.

I didn't really think about it too much, but I would always, when we were practicing, this is back when we were in school practicing stuff on each other, we would always find heavy metal toxicities on me and I was like, where the where the heck is this coming from?

18:53

Like it was always metals.

Couldn't figure it out.

Well, at one time I was practicing with a buddy of mine, Doctor Justin Heineman, and he's like, bro, what if it's you tap water?

And so we actually had me take a sip of the tap water and it was showing that it was the issue.

19:10

Started using the filter and I was having headaches and fatigue and all kinds of stuff and it just gone.

Did really really really good but the filter went with this 0 water filter.

I researched it a lot and it was honestly pretty cheap to start off with because you can get just one of those tanks that you set on your counter or you can put in your fridge and it dispenses from the bottom.

19:31

And you can just buy a pack of filters.

And they have a five stage system where I mean, it'll get rid of almost all the total dissolved solids and they'll give you a little tester for it.

It gets rid of lead, it gets rid of a lot of the forever chemicals, it gets rid of plastics, all kinds of stuff.

19:49

And so it is honestly, we actually did like one of my roommates at the time, we did a side by side of like, which one do you think is the tap water?

And he sipped the tap water and he's like.

OK.

And then he sipped the water from the 0 water filter and he's like, my God, he's like that tastes like it's just water.

20:08

There was no comparison.

It was just so clean compared to the tap water and we didn't even realize how not clean it was.

But it really, I mean, there is a significant taste difference, but also there's a big health difference.

And so in my opinion, you should be taking out everything that you can and then selectively reintroducing the things that should be beneficial, like your certain electrolytes and stuff like that.

20:30

And some of the higher end RO systems have tanks where you can put in like electrolyte things.

So they'll add back in certain minerals and salts and stuff like that.

And so that's, that's a lot of times what I'll recommend, but for the sake of just simplicity, the 0 water filter is, is really, really, really good because you can just buy, you can buy it on Amazon.

20:52

I think they sell them at Lowe's, Home Depot, all the stuff, Walmart, and you can just buy a pack of filters.

You know, we had I think a subscription on Amazon for a while where they just shipped to the house.

So we didn't have to think about it.

It showed up, We just swapped it out at the perfect time.

And so it all all worked pretty good.

21:09

But you know, it just like I said, it just all depends on like we have one of our bullet points here budget friendly, you know, like it's gotta be, you know, if it's truly, I mean, if you're looking at a whole home system, like you said, they a ton of money and that's a factor of how big your home is.

21:25

And so if you have just like a small, you know, sub 2000 square foot home, yeah, you can look at a system that's about $5000.

But if you have a home that's, you know, double that or triple that, you're gonna be looking at a exponentially increasing price of, you know, point for, for that system.

21:43

Plus the installation fee is going to go up.

And so it, I mean, you can, you can easily get into a 20 + 1000 dollar system.

I mean, it just doesn't, it doesn't take very much to get to that point.

So anyway, with that being said, Doctor Joel, what, what do you typically recommend?

22:00

I recommend 0 water.

What is your go to filter that you recommend to patients?

So I have I have a few here.

So the the number one for like budget friendly, which means like, hey, we don't have a ton of money to allocate to to the water situation.

22:15

I tell them to get the 0 water filter.

It's literally you can go within thirty 40-50 bucks.

So you can get this filter that filters out 100% of everything, all the chemicals, all the plastics, everything.

So for the money, it's, it's a great place to start.

22:30

I think at the minimum, people should be using that doctor Tim, A lot of patients use Breda filters.

Breda filters are terrible.

They, they filter out next to nothing.

They are.

I tell people like, hey, I don't care what you do with it.

Just get rid of it and get it at least a 0 water filter again, thirty 40-50 bucks depending on the type that you get.

22:50

A lot of other filters people use as well like Berkey filters.

I personally don't like Berkey filters.

I don't think that they do a good job.

And I find that there was, there was some some different things that came out that that I had heard about later that some of the minerals were some of the different things as they were trying to filter out fluoride with the fluoride filter, some of the different things would kind of get through.

23:18

And so it was just like it was, it's kind of an odd thing.

I I'd lived with some friends that had a Berkey filter and I remember drinking it and it tasted pretty good.

They added in the fluoride filter.

It just was off.

But then I've had other other people that with Berkeys and I drink and I'm just like this water just doesn't taste, doesn't taste right.

23:36

And so I personally think Berkey has generally been overhyped.

I don't, I don't really love the Berkey filters.

Here's here's what I love.

If you're on a budget, if things are tight, go with the zero water filter.

If you can afford like the three to four to $450 range for water system, there's two things that I really like.

23:59

So 1, is this company called Aqua True?

They have a water filtration system that you can sit on your counter, but you want to make sure that you get the yes, reverse osmosis.

We get the one that has them where it adds the minerals back in.

So this is what we use in our office.

It's just a super simple solution for our office and it's, it's clean and it tastes really, really good.

24:20

And so this is what we use.

The other option that I really like if you, if you have a home and you want to put something under the sink, so at least you have clean water, a little faucet with clean water for drinking and for food cooking and that kind of thing.

Cloud water systems, look up cloud water systems.

24:39

They they have an under the sink system.

Aqua True also has an under the sink system.

But as I was looking at it, the cloud water system I think has it filters out a little bit better on everything.

And so you can look at, you can look at these different reports and that a lot of these companies have done that show how much has been filtered out and, and what's happening there to see how good these, how good these filtration systems are.

25:10

But the cloud water system that you put under the sink, it also puts the minerals back in.

And that's one of the reasons I like it.

Now at the end of the day, either, I would argue a 0 water filter or some kind of reverse osmosis is probably is the best way to go in the sense of like, hey, let's get this junk out of our water.

25:29

That is the best, the best place to start for sure.

And then if you're doing one of these, you just need to make sure you're adding in electrolytes and minerals.

Specifically, I, I recommend patients use Baja gold sea salt.

It's 80% sodium chloride, 20% minerals.

25:45

And studies and tests have shown that it's, it's clean stuff.

And I found that that works pretty well.

But really having really good sea salt and of course getting, you know, really good quality food is important for getting different trace minerals and different electrolytes.

26:01

But that's what I recommend as far as like shower filters, you can go online, going to Amazon and, and find things.

Aqua true has a shower filter.

I think it should be pretty good.

So and it probably looks a little bit better too, than the standard filter.

If you're, if you're kind of worried about some of the appearance stuff, but look around with those, look at they should have different reports for what they're able to filter out.

26:24

And, and, and those are great places to be.

The whole house water system.

That's one doctor, Tim, that I have not found something yet that I recommend to all my patients.

Once I find something that I'm actually willing to pay and put in my house, I'll tell all my patients about it.

26:41

But I haven't found that just yet.

And so that's kind of a continued search because you can get a water system that kind of does this reverse osmosis and kind of gives you pure water throughout the house.

And that's great.

26:56

And I've found a company that will do that for, I believe it's a little less than $3000, which is actually really, really good.

And, and yet also I found a water company that's able to make structured water, which is an interesting topic, structured water for the entire house, for the yard, for the pool, for whatever you got going on.

27:16

But the problem is the filtration is not the greatest and that there's, there's a little bit of fluoride in there, which I don't love.

Structured water, for those that are listening, is a really interesting concept and I hadn't even heard about it until probably 4-5, six months ago.

27:32

But the idea of structured water is that when water comes off of a mountain, for example, it's running, it's going over rocks, which is where it generally picks up different minerals.

It, it's got this velocity to it and it's, you know, when it's running off the rocks into the air, it, there's a, it's almost like an energetic thing that happens where the water, the structure of the water becomes more organized.

27:59

And that has a lot of benefits for our health.

The way I communicate in simple terms is there is an energetic component to water that we get from nature that that is lost in our modern purification systems.

It's lost as water sits in these long treatment tubes and when we had chemicals to it, it destructures the water.

28:20

Well, I actually found a whole house system that structures the water.

But like I said, there's as of right now, there's there's still some fluoride in there.

And so I've been talking with the owner of like, hey, can we can get that fluoride out and then I'll put it in my house and recommend it to everybody.

So it's a work in progress, but we'll see there.

So doctor Tim, those are my recommendations.

28:39

So, and again, that the take home points that I want patients to and people listening here to take away is there's junk in our water.

We need to get it out.

And if we can add minerals back in, that's, that's awesome.

And if we can do that, that's going to significantly by 90 to 99% is going to reduce some of the tax burden that we can feel from our water source.

29:04

And again, part of this episode is most people don't even know this, that there's so much junk in the water.

But for our listeners here, now that you know it, I encourage you to do something about it, pursue one of these systems, make the investment for your health and for the health of your family.

29:19

And also, the water is just going to taste better.

You're going to enjoy it better.

So, Doctor Tim, any other thoughts to add to that or any last thoughts here for our episode?

I think you covered about all of it.

You seem to be really passionate about water, Dr. Jewel.

Well hey, come on now, I drink it every day.

29:40

I sure hope so.

Geez.

That enrollment, you know.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, hopefully, hopefully everybody gathered something from this episode.

And just at the very least, like I said, it is provoking some thought as to how you can improve your health through your water.

29:57

So with that being said, let's just let's wrap things up.

And yeah, this is the shortest episode we've had in a long time, so look at that ahead of schedule.

But I'm Doctor Tim Augustiniak here at Flourish Functional Wellness Center down in Bentville, Arkansas.

30:12

If you want to find me online, my website isflourishfwc.com on there have links to all the socials as well as contact info for the office.

And if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions for future episodes, feel free to feel free to reach out.

30:29

Awesome and I'm Doctor Joel Miller.

The practice here is Freedom Health and Wellness in Flower Mound, TX.

The website is Dr. joelmiller.com.

If you guys have any questions, if you guys want any links to some of these things, I think I can get you like 100 bucks off these Aqua true filters and stuff like that.

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Feel free to reach out.

Otherwise, if you have suggestions for episodes that you'd love us to cover, we always consider them patients, share suggestions occasionally, and we definitely want to want to consider what you guys want to hear about.

So all right, we hope this has been helpful for y'all.

We hope you guys are having a great day and a great week and we'll see you guys in the next one.