IOU Healing Week Six,

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

In the last three years i have seen these words written by doctors (allopathic):

" Flora overgrowth. " I see happening now and in the future a healthy merging of

allopathic medicine and alternative. We all come out as winners this way. I

myself straddle the two worlds currently as i see benefit from both.

So back to city water. Chlorine was the primary concern...even in the bath and

shower. Now ammonia is being added (chloramination of the water). I couldn't

afford bottled water and some of the purity reports i read were not impressive

so i decided to filter it.

Drinking chlorinated water: chlorine is added to kill bacteria and God only

knows what else. Chlorine in the drinking water kills bacteria in the gut. We

have bacteria in our guts for a reason...to assist in the breakdown of

foodstuffs for assimilation and absorbtion, produce B-vitties, keep the other

flora at normal levels. Say we take all or most of these wonderful little

bacterias away cuz we kill them with chlorine, hmmm now what do we do? We are

in a heap of trouble and it adds up over time as the organisms that are

unaffected multiply. People that use antibacterial mouthwashes and those on

long term antibiotics can see this played out in their mouths with a condition

known as thrush (candida). I want a healthy gut that works and provides me with

support not distress. Chlorine ingested via tap water also can destroy vitamin

E and polyunsaturated fatty acids and also create free radical damage via toxin

production. Chlorine also binds with organic compounds in water

(organochlorides) which do not break down well and tend to be stored in the

fatty tissues (it is speculated that this leads to immune comprimise). The body

does need chlorine but it can easily be supplied by chloride salts in the food

we eat. Flouride in the drinking water also has been linked to collagen

breakdown.

Chlorine in the shower: Chlorine vaporizes with the heat of the shower and is

inhaled as well as absorbed through the skin. It is a respiratory and skin

irritant. It can aggravate asthmatic conditions. It stands to reason that it

would also diminish good bacteria on the skin. My skin and eyes burned from the

chlorine and when i started filtering the shower water the burning stopped

(everywhere but my face). I remember coughing alot in the shower too. Someone

at work passed around a study from one of the universities regarding hand

washing and how nurses wash their hands too much. In the study they swabbed the

nurses hands after washing and agian hourly until the flora count was back to

normal...it took hours if i remember correctly...it was fascinating really.

Please continuue to question...it is a good thing to question...i call it

critical thinking. Reading and researching are two important tools for those of

us with problems that are poorly understood by traditional and alternative

practices.

Herbler.