Somavedic Review UK (Structured Water Unit)

Rating the Somavedic Structured Water Unit

Let’s now explore the Somavedic, taking into account everything from how to actually use, the science behind it, and how well it actually works in practice.

What Is Structured Water?

It’s water arranged in a hexagonal lattice structure.

The water molecules (which we all know as H2O) have loose ionic bonds with each other, forming an H3O2 lattice structure.

When water forms in this way, the lattice structure takes on the shape of a hexagon, hence why it’s sometimes also called “hexagonal water”.

The Process

Among pretty much all the other products on the Water Filter Geek site, the Somavedic is unique as it’s not specifically a device that outputs water.

So how does it work, then?

It’s not complicated. You take a jug of water, which can be directly from your tap, or from wherever else you get your drinking water from.

You place it near to the Somavedic device for a while. That’s it.

The Science

Let’s delve into what the science says about structured water, and let’s discuss how well we judge the Somavedic to successfully produce this water.

Structured water is water in a highly organised structure of hexagonal layers.

We’ve spent a lot of time studying the science of water after many years in this industry and running this site. So, of course, we’ve known about structured water for a while.

When we really took the time to research the science behind structured water, we were surprised. Frankly, it’s some of the most compelling and convincing science we’ve ever read.

Why so compelling?

That’s something we pondered too, why we find it so compelling. And, in the end, we realised that its because the science shows that structured water is really congruent with nature. Surely, we’ve always felt, the healthiest water will always be the one that is most natural.

This type of water is much studied for nearly one hundred years.

There’s convincing science showing a few key things:

Firstly, that water in these structured shapes is the form that water takes on inside the cells in living beings. Expressed another way, the cells in your body “like” structured water.

Secondly, that the consumption of structured water by living organisms confers many major health benefits. In fact, there’s tons of evidence that when animals consume structured water, many health markers significantly improve.

Thirdly, that there are multiple techniques to produce structured water, or convert normal water into hexagonal water.

Albert Szent-Györgyi

He’s known as the father of modern biochemistry, and is perhaps best knows as the discoverer of Vitamin C for which he won the Nobel prize.

He’s got a wonderful quote:

“Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.”

He offered a holistic view where water is central to all biological processes. He said water’s role in biological systems is as an active participant, not just as a passive solvent.

His work highlighted water as the very essence of the living state; that all biological processes are the function of the creation and destruction of water structures (composed of water and proteins, enzymes, DNA, cell membranes and other solid matter).

He asserts that the entire field of biology encounters such regular roadblocks in their ability to explain many biological functions because they focus purely on particulate matter, excluding water. In other words, they treat water as just the solvent in which the important, action-taking solids can perform their function.

This speaks to a general lack, in the biological field, to consider the whole, preferring to dissect down to the tiniest component and analyse that aspect alone, in a vacuum, so to speak.

We’ll finishing discussing Albert with his quite fantastic quote, summarising his views about water:

“Though my own body consists of 80 percent water and only 20 percent solid, and if you would shut me into a desiccator I would dry down to 15 kilograms, I always felt that my 75 kilograms are all me and I am not merely 15 kilograms plus water.”

– appearing in Biology and Pathology of Water, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 14, Number 2, Winter 1971

Gilbert Ling

Gilbert Ling is a renowned scientist, inventor of the glass microelectrode, which revolutionized cellular electrophysiology.

However, he suffered blowback from established scientists because his experimental work consistently carried the clear implication that water molecules line up in a very organised structure, contrary to the established model of water molecule structure (as just a typical liquid, with molecules bouncing around).

Gilbert Ling produced his own extensive collection of evidence, and gathered corroborative evidence from results of many other scientific experiments by other scientists over many year, showing the following:

That water in our cells does not consist of water (H2O) molecules bouncing around many times per second, completely randomly, as they do in a glass of drinking water, for example.

Instead, the water inside our cells is arranged in structured form.

He references x-ray, dielectric and nuclear magnetic resonance studies that show that water molecules appear to exist in a state between liquid and solid.

Speaking of a new state, or phase, of water…

Dr Gerald Pollack

Dr Gerald Pollack is perhaps the most famous name, and the one most synonymous with structured water. He’s collected a wealth of evidence in support of it.

He coined the term EZ water (for reasons we’ll go on to discuss), and promulgated the idea that this kind of water is the “4th phase” of water; beyond the 3 states of solid, liquid and gas. They were believed in the scientific community to have been the only forms that water could take.

He’s done a TedX talk on the topic. Or read the transcript of that talk here.

His work showed that structured water occurred at interfaces; in other words, when water meets certain materials, structured water forms at the boundary. The area which contained that layer of water he termed the “Exclusion Zone”, and then the water became Exclusion-Zone water, or EZ water, for short.

He also noticed something very unusual. Purely by chance, one of his lab technicians shined the light of a nearby lamp on the water which had this EZ water within it, and noticed something astonishing. The amount of structured water grew considerably.

This was followed by an analysis of what kinds of light might produce such an effect. Several kinds of light did so, but they discovered that infrared light had, by far, the most significant effect.

In perhaps the seminal work on structured water, The Fourth Phase Of Water Beyond Solid, Liquid, And Vapor, by Gerald H. Pollack PhD, 2013 (see a sample), Gerald Pollack describes how water has potentialities far beyond what conventional science describes.

Here are 2 key principles arising from Pollack’s work:

1. Water stores energy

Conventional science agrees that water can store energy, but its limited to a slow thermal process whereby water receives or gives heat to and from the surrounding environment.

Gerald Pollack’s work showed water has far, far more energy storage capacity than that, and in far different ways than once supposed.

This is what he said on the topic:

“Conventional wisdom says otherwise: a closed bottle of water sitting on your tabletop is considered in equilibrium with the environment; the environment might heat up and transfer energy to the water, but other than this slow thermal process, no obvious mechanism should allow the water to receive and store energy, let alone deliver it”

– The Fourth Phase Of Water Beyond Solid, Liquid, And Vapor, by Gerald H. Pollack PhD, 2013

Gerald Pollack, however, showed that electromagnetic energy can be applied to create potential energy in water.

In water’s fourth phase state, it can provide energy in a couple of ways.

Firstly, its change in state from order to disorder, from its structured composition, as EZ water, to typical unstructured liquid water.

Secondly, EZ water necessarily has a separation of charge, that’s where potential energy is created. The EZ water molecules have a negative charge, and hydronium ions have the corresponding positive charge. This separation of charge makes a kind of battery.

2. Water gets energy from light

We all know that the sun is an immense source of energy, that powers many earthly processes.

But conventional science doesn’t give too much importance to the effect of the sun’s energy on water.

It treats water as being this inert (though it is not chemically inert and takes part in many reactions) substance that’s in a stable equilibium all the time.

Kind of like a simple background carrier, a stable medium for the much more important, meaningful and powerful particles of matter to exist in.

Gerald Pollock’s work, along with many others, including the other scientists discussed in this article, that this is far from the truth. Water is in fact, continually taking in energy from the environment and transducing that energy into work.

This shouldn’t be too much of a shock. Consider plants. They absorb energy from the sun’s emitted photons, converting it into energy in a process we all know as photosynthesis. And remember, plants are, like us, composed mainly of water.

We feel a surge of energy when we step out into the sun, right? We tend of think of this as being a largely pyschological phenomena; that it makes us feel good and that psychological boost gives us energy.

And that’s clearly true.

But what if being in the sun, in addition to the feelgood factor, is actually powering us like a battery? Dr Pollack’s work suggests the sun is literally giving us energy, by converting the sun’s photonic energy (from sunlight) into real chemical energy in the cells of our bodies.

And the evidence suggests it does so, at least partially, by creating more EZ water within the body, hence water that has greater potential energy, ready to be used in whatever way the body needs.

Dr. Mu Shik Jhon

Dr. Mu Shik Jhon is the writer of The Water Puzzle and the Hexagonal Key.

His work shows that biological cells with greater amounts of hexagonal water are healthier.

For example, his evidence proved that ageing is associated with a smaller proportion of hexagonal water in the body.

He also investigated the interaction of Vitamin C with water. Vitamin C is well-known for its remarkable ability to boost the immune system and prevent many diseases. Despite this, its precise methods to achieve this effect are still not fully understood.

Dr. Jhon has collected evidence showing that Vitamin C has the ability to increase the proportion of structured water within a given quantity of water. This could play a substantial role as an explanation for Vitamin C’s immune-boosting effects.

It’s not that difficult scientifically to identify how much of the water in a container is structured (EZ) water. So much of his work is showing in an enormous number of different ways that greater health and condition of a wide variety of human cells is associated with them having a greater amount of structured water in them.

For example, he investigated the relationship of water with cancer and diabetes. He found that cancerous and diabetic cells have a water environment that is less structured.

He concluded that:

“both cancer and diabetes have a common feature – the destruction of water structure at the cellular level.”

– The Water Puzzle and the Hexagonal Key: Scientific Evidence of Hexagonal Water and Its Positive Influence on Health, John, Mu Shik (2004)

In other words, both those diseases are associated with cells that have less structured water.

They even tested the reaction of tumour cells with a particular type of hexagonally structured water. They found that a collection of tumour cells in typical, unprocessed water increased to 3.2 million cells in 4 days, whereas the tumour cells exposed to structured water decreased to 20,000 in the same 4 day time period.

As Dr. Jhon himself says, this area of study is extremely promising but many more clinical studies are required to confirm that the consumption of structured water could improve various diseases and illnesses.

Dr. Marie McMahon, Ph.D. backs up Dr. Jhons work, writing that Dr. Mu Shik Jhon “also collected scientific evidence that the hexagonal structure of water is preferred by all biological organisms”.

Structured water’s importance for collagen functioning (and other essential proteins)

Many other scientists have provided experimental work showing that water being in its structured form plays a very significant role in human biology.

For example, in Role of water in the formation of macromolecular structures, (by Peter L Privalov, Colyn Crane-Robinson, Eur Biophys J. 2016 Jul 25;46(3):203–224.v) they add weight to the notion that water is much more critically important than existing water theory supposes; and their evidence shows some water in cells within the body must be in a structured form.

They provide evidence that water is no mere solvent, rather it is crucial for determining the structure and properties of proteins. They demonstrate its importance for collagen, for one example, to work effectively. They firstly describe the “flexibility of the collagen structure is a property important for its functioning, and this is achieved by the very specific interaction of collagen with the water forming the frame around the collagen superhelix.”

They go on to say that at least some of the water is ordered when bound to macromelocules, and prove that various bilogical cells have different amounts of unfreezeable water, which must be “bound” to the cells. This may be attributed as being due to the fact that some water is not in its liquid form, and so cannot freeze.

They conclude with the following statement:

“water does not appear just as a solvent for biological macromolecules, but also as a partner determining their structure and, therefore, their properties, being itself substantially influenced by these macromolecules.”

– Role of water in the formation of macromolecular structures, by Peter L Privalov, Colyn Crane-Robinson, Eur Biophys J. 2016 Jul 25;46(3):203–224.

This evidence proves that it is not just that water is crucial because it allows the proteins to do their work, it’s that it’s water that determines the stability and flexibility of organic structures that make the body’s cells work efficiently.

The type of water that allows for this stability and flexibility is structured water; if water was merely just a solvent with water molecules bouncing around, it couldn’t have such sophisticated functionality, and couldn’t play its essential role in biological processes.

These studies show, then, that biological cells need structured water to work efficiently and effectively.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance proof of Structured Water

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies also show that water in cells is highly organised, and very different to typical liquid water.

Going back many decades, there were multiple NMR studies that strongly indicate that at least some water in cells has greater crystallinity than liquid water.

However, there was a gap (and fair warning, it gets technical here. There were a couple of other possible explantation for the findings.

Specifically, the evidence showing that water may be crytallised in organic tissue could have been due to:

1) paramagnetic ions;or

2) microscopic magnetic inhomogeneities

However, that gap was then closed. A study proved that it could not have been either of those two reasons above.

In Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Evidence using D2O for Structured Water in Muscle and Brain by Freeman W. Cope (Biophysical Journal, Volume 9, Issue 3, March 1969, Pages 303-319), they performed an analysis of this exact issue. See it here.

Here’s what they said:

“Pulsed NMR studies of deuterium showed marked differences in NMR relaxation times between tissue and liquid water, and ruled out the possibility that these effects could be due to paramagnetic ions or to magnetic inhomogeneities.”

If you skipped that densely scientific description above, here’s what they concluded:

“That tissue water has a significantly greater degree of crystallinity than liquid water remained the only tenable hypothesis.”

– Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Evidence using D2O for Structured Water in Muscle and Brain by Freeman W. Cope (Biophysical Journal, Volume 9, Issue 3, March 1969, Pages 303-319)

In other words, water in biological tissue is much more organised thanthat of ordinary liquid water.

In recent years, structured water, termed clustered water, or micro-clustered water, has even been pictured by transmission electron microscope and atomic force microscope.

For one example, Large Supramolecular Water Clusters Caught on Camera – A Review, by Ho M-W. Check it out here.

Drinking Structured Water

Does all this necessarily mean that you need to actually drink structured water for your body to be able to stay healthy?

No, of course not. Many people have lived long lives without th structured water. The water in your body’s cells is already partically structured or your cells wouldn’t work. Clearly, there are biological or energetic processes of some form that produce structured water within the body.

We’ve discussed some major ones, light can do so, particularly infrared light. Spending more time in the sun would increase the proportion of structured water within your body.

So what’s the importance of drinking structured water then?

Lots of us don’t get enough sunlight, don’t eat as much fruits and vegetables (which contain plenty of structured water) and live fairly stressful lives that probably aren’t conducive to the amount of structured water in our bodies.

Drinking structured water could be a simple way to get more of it into the cell environment of our bodies.

Since the evidence suggests that biological cells contain structured water, and other studies show that consuming structured water can improve cell function in humans and increased rates of growth, reduced signs of oxidative stress, improved blood lipid profile, and much, much more positive effects in animals, it could be that drinking structured water can give your body’s cells a boost to work more effectively than before.

Essentially, much of this evidence is suggesting that water is so much more than just the solvent in which proteins and other biologically important macromolecules do their important work in our bodies. Rather, it plays an extremely crucial role in the work done to keep our bodies healthy and strong.

There is convincing evidence that:

1. Water in biological cells is at least partially structured, in an ordered, lattice configuration
2. This structured water is crucial to how proteins unfold and do their important biological work
3. Drinking some form of structured water improves cell structure and function in humans (Microclustered water and hydration, Wang et al., Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2004, Vol 13, pS128), and many studies show significant improvement in multiple health markers in animals.

Structured water science also explains many of the mysteries behind water’s properties; why it behaves so uniquely and distinctly compared to other substances of its kind.

We may consider drinking structured water as an infusion of a type of water that your cells “like”. That is, the kind of water that more easily creates the kind of water-protein environment that aids how the protein works.

Dr Gerald Pollack describes how proteins work as them folding and unfolding. They need to be in an environment of EZ (structured) water.

So it stands to reason that surrounding your cells by more structured water could aid with that process. You could see it as life-building structure-making water.