But if one consumes water with higher-than-average concentrations of calcium and magnesium. Is that OK? Studies have generally found hard water to have positive effects on the health of its drinkers. Several studies have reported that calcium and magnesium in drinking water have a dose-dependent protective effect when it comes to cardiovascular disease. There is also some evidence that calcium and magnesium in drinking water may help protect against gastric, colon, rectal cancer, and pancreatic cancer, and that magnesium may help protect against esophageal and ovarian cancer.
Hard water may also serve a protective role against atherosclerosis in children and teens. Some studies have shown a relationship between the mineral content of water and eczema or dermatitis in children. However, a study from the University of Nottingham involving children aged 6 months to 16 years with eczema put that relationship to the test.
Likewise, while some studies have shown correlations between water hardness and kidney stone formation, the majority of studies have found no such relationship.
It is estimated that individuals living in hard water areas who drink 2 litres of water a day ingest about 52 mg of magnesium from their water. Individuals with type 2 diabetes often experience hypomagnesemia low magnesium as insulin regulation requires magnesium to function. In these people, the extra intake of magnesium through drinking water could be beneficial.
The heightened magnesium concentration in hard water can also benefit people experiencing chronic constipation, as magnesium salts act as laxatives. Hard water may cause a film on glass shower doors, shower walls, bathtubs, sinks, faucets, etc.
Hair washed in hard water may feel sticky and look dull. Water flow may be reduced by deposits in pipes and aeration devices may have a chemical coating that appears white or gray. Water hardness problems can be an issue if the hardness is too low or high. Very low hardness may be associated with chemical corrosion of the water and a metallic or acidic taste and elevated hardness can be associated with chemical coatings, films, coatings, clogged piping, and dingy clothing.
If your test results reveal the presence of a contaminant that is cause for concern, you can either proceed to determine the best treatment see below or continue to Level 3 Testing.
There are a number of low cost ways to measure the total hardness of your water at home. In most cases these at-home tests are very easy to use, but do not provide a very accurate or precise measure of the water hardness, but can provide a value to help you to determine if the water is soft, slightly hard, moderately hard, hard, or very hard. Level 3 Testing is done through an accredited Water Testing Laboratory.
With Level 3 Testing, you can order a testing kit that is used to prepare your sample and submit it to the lab. By utilizing a lab, you have the assurance that a certified water expert had analyzed your water sample. If your test results reveal the presence of a contaminant that is cause for concern, you can either proceed to determine the best treatment options see below or continue to Level 4 Testing - Certified Testing.
Most informational water tests provide testing for the total hardness and some test kits provide additional insight into the other cations and anions that are contained within the water. These comprehensive water testing kit results are needed to determine whether the water needs treatment and, if so, to help design the treatment system. A Level 4 Certified Test Test uses chain-of-custody with a water professional coming to your home to prepare the water sample and then works with an accredited laboratory in order to certify your test results.
This type of testing not only gives you the highest level of assurance in the accuracy of your test results, but can also be used as a document in legal cases. For Baseline Testing , we recommend that you use Certified Testing.
If you require certified testing for total hardness or a hardness-related issue, we strongly recommend completing the diagnostic analysis to ensure that the water does not show signs of having a bacteria problem or a problem related to the presence of a specific cation like Aluminum , Iron , and Manganese or elevated anions like Chloride , carbonates, bicarbonate, or Sulfate. If you need assistance, please Contact our team. The most common means to soften a water or to reduce the total hardness is the use of a water softener ion exchange system using salt or a non-precipitating water softener no salt that helps to sequester bind the multivalent cations into complexes that keep them in solution the multivalent cations.
The "salt" based units will exchange sodium or potassium ions for the multivalent cations such as calcium and magnesium whereas, the "no salt or salt free" will typically sequester the multivalent cations by complexing them with additives such as NUVO citric acid and Aquios polyphosphate.
Typically, the NUVO and Aquios units are needed when we are only looking to slightly reduce the water hardness. In the short term and assuming you do not have a problem with any trace metals, you can boil the water and then filter the water. The process of boiling will cause some of the carbonate to be converted to CO2 and the cations causing "temporary hardness" will form a precipitate that can be filtered from the water.
You could also install a faucet-mounted or under-the-counter filtration system that contains a catalytic medium. If you use one of the Aquios or Nuvo units, you may want to consider adding a point-of-use Reverse Osmosis unit. Contact Us. In the long term, the choice of options depends on the situation and degree of your problem.
If you are only looking to slightly reduce the hardness of the water and you have limited space, you may want to consider the NUVO or Aquios units which will require that you change one or more filter cartridges every 6 months.
There are also no-salt systems that contain a catalytic medium which would have to be rebedded every , gallons or more depending on the degree of hardness. For very hard water, we suggest the standard "salt" based water softening systems.
These systems will have an automatic backwash cycle and have a "salt" tank to create the brine that is used to regenerate the system. Do note, however, that such ion exchange systems add sodium to the water which could be a problem for people with high blood pressure. Introduction Bacteria E. Introduction Methane.
Services Search. Home Indoor Outdoor Services Search. This is a newly redesigned Water-Research. Get Informed Hardness Water described as "hard" is high in dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium.
How Does Hardness Become a problem? What are the Health Risks for Hardness? Studies are needed to determine the role of sub-clinical magnesium status in diabetes risk. This should include measures of glycosylated hemoglobin, an indicator of glycemic control that has been found to respond to oral magnesium supplementation and to correlate negatively with serum ionized magnesium or serum total magnesium in type 2 diabetics.
Atopic dermatitis or eczema is an inflammatory, chronically relapsing, non-contagious and pruritic skin disorder. The environment plays an important part in the etiology of atopic eczema, but the specific causes are unknown. Exposure to hard water is thought to be a risk factor for eczema. The prevalence of symptoms of atopic eczema among Japanese, Nottinghamshire and Spanish children is the most. The reasons for such a high prevalence are unknown.
The study used data on water hardness and chlorine content of the water supply; prevalence of atopic dermatitis diagnosed by physicians and episodes of wheezing reported by the parents; and potential confounding factors by socioeconomic and health-care status per municipality.
The prevalence of atopic eczema was significantly higher in the highest water hardness category than that in the lowest respectively. A significant relationship between the chlorine content of the water supply and the prevalence of atopic dermatitis was observed after adjustment for confounding factors.
Water hardness may increase the risk of atopic dermatitis among elementary-school children in Japan, as well as in the United Kingdom. The hardness of water is due to the presence of carbonate and sulfate salts of calcium and magnesium. Stones form in urine that is supersaturated and this saturation is dependent on chemical free ion activity, which makes the urine under-saturated. In this situation, the stone will not grow and may even dissolve. Increased urinary ion excretion and decreased urine volume will both an increase free ion activity and favor stone formation and growth.
Formation of kidney stones nephrolithiasis is based on genetic, metabolic, nutritional and environmental factors. Metabolic factors involved in stone formation include hypercalciuria, hypocitraturia due to renal disease , hyperuricosuria, hyperoxalaturia, cystinuria and infections. Environmental and nutritional factors include dehydration, high salt intake, a diet rich in animal proteins and calcium rich diet when oxalate intake is restricted. The impact of water hardness of urinary stone formation remains unclear, despite a weak correlation between water hardness and urinary calcium, magnesium, and citrate excretion.
Several studies have shown no association between water hardness and the incidence of urinary stone formation. A correlation between water hardness and urinary calcium, citrate, and magnesium levels has been observed although the significance of this is not known.
Some studies suggest that in the preventive approach to calcium nephrolithiasis, intake of soft water has been preferable to hard water since it is associated with a lower risk for recurrence of calcium stones. There are few reports of the effect of water hardness over reproductive health of men, most of them emphasized on the effect of its constituents, calcium, and magnesium,[ 66 ] while others on some other constituents like fluoride.
Magnesium sulfate has also been demonstrated to prevent preterm labor. A rich union of calcium and magnesium in hard water, in a right combination, helps to combat constipation. The calcium in hard water results in teaming up with excess bile and its resident fats to lather up the soap like insoluble substance, which is emitted from the body during bowel movements.
Indeed, many renowned scientists have considered hard water as a boon as it has some fantastic health benefits that seem to encourage longer life expectancy and improved health. Magnesium salt represents with a laxative effect. This provides a rapid evacuation of intestine. Magnesium citrate, magnesium phosphate, and magnesium hydroxide are also used. The American Gastroenterology Association recommends milk of magnesia for the management of constipation as one of the therapeutic options; however, the Rehabilitation Nursing Foundation discourages the routine use of saline magnesium laxatives due to possible side effects such as abdominal cramping, watery stools, and potential for dehydration and hypermagnesium.
They only indicate the use of these laxatives in end-stage patients when other options have failed, and with and adequate prospective evaluation of magnesium levels. The correlation between calcium and magnesium in drinking water and its impact on bone health are unidentified. There is some evidence that high-calcium water is beneficial to bone. The results of several studies have suggested that a variety of other diseases are also inversely correlated with the hardness of water, including anencephaly[ 78 , 79 ] and various types of cancer.
Hardness is important for drinking-water from the point of view of both aesthetic acceptability and operational considerations. Although, there is some evidence from epidemiological studies for a protective effect of magnesium or hardness on cardiovascular mortality, the evidence is being debated and does not prove causality.
Further studies are being conducted. In spite of this, drinking-water may be a source of calcium and magnesium in the diet and could be important for those who are marginal for calcium and magnesium intake. Where drinking-water supplies are supplemented with or replaced by dematerialized water that requires conditioning, consideration should be given to adding calcium and magnesium salts to achieve concentrations similar to those that the population received from the original supply.
Consumers should be informed of the mineral composition of their water when it has been altered by piped suppliers or treatment device manufacturers and by means for supplementing if desired. The contribution of drinking-water minerals for mineral nutrition should be considered where changes in supply are proposed or where novel sources, such as seawater or brackish water, are exploited for drinking-water.
There are insufficient data to suggest either minimum or maximum concentrations of minerals at this time, and so no guideline values are proposed. Source of Support: Nil. Conflict of Interest: None declared. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Int J Prev Med. Pallav Sengupta. Author information Article notes Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Correspondence to: Dr. E-mail: ni. Received Sep 19; Accepted Mar 4.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
Abstract In the past five decades or so evidence has been accumulating about an environmental factor, which appears to be influencing mortality, in particular, cardiovascular mortality, and this is the hardness of the drinking water. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, calcium, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hard water, magnesium, reproductive health.
Table 1 Carbonate and non-carbonate hardness compounds. Open in a separate window. Table 2 Concentrations of dissolved calcium and magnesium in soft and hard water. Cardiovascular disease In most large-scale studies, an inverse relationship between the hardness of drinking-water and cardiovascular disease has been reported. Cancer Important findings in this field were provided recently by Taiwanese scientists. Cerebrovascular mortality Some reports suggest there is a significant protective effect of magnesium intake from the drinking water on the risk of cerebrovascular disease.
Malformations of central nervous system There is good evidence that environmental influences must play some part, possibly a major part, in the etiology of neural tube malformations in the human embryo. Alzheimer's disease The issue of aluminum as a cause for Alzheimer's disease has been contentious. Diabetes Hard water is indicative of the presence of higher levels of magnesium. Childhood atopic dermatitis Atopic dermatitis or eczema is an inflammatory, chronically relapsing, non-contagious and pruritic skin disorder.
Kidney stones The hardness of water is due to the presence of carbonate and sulfate salts of calcium and magnesium. Reproductive health There are few reports of the effect of water hardness over reproductive health of men, most of them emphasized on the effect of its constituents, calcium, and magnesium,[ 66 ] while others on some other constituents like fluoride.
Bone mineral density The correlation between calcium and magnesium in drinking water and its impact on bone health are unidentified. Other health effects The results of several studies have suggested that a variety of other diseases are also inversely correlated with the hardness of water, including anencephaly[ 78 , 79 ] and various types of cancer.
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Bull World Health Organ. Water hardness and cardiovascular mortality rate in Abruzzo, Italy. Arch Environ Health. Screening obesity by direct and derived anthropometric indices with evaluation of physical efficiency among female college students of Kolkata.
Annals Med Health Sci Res. In Press. Sengupta P, Sahoo S. A cross sectional study to evaluate the fitness pattern among the young fishermen of Coastal Orissa. Kubis M. Relation of water hardness to the occurrence of acute myocardial infarct. Sengupta P. Challenge of infertility: How protective the yoga therapy is? Ancient Sci Life. Int J Epidemiol. Health effects of inorganic drinking water constituents, including hardness, iodide and fluoride.
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The project: Myocardial infarction in mid-Sweden. Eur Heart J. British regional heart study: Cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged men in 24 towns. Changes in water hardness and cardiovascular death rates. Pomrehn PR.
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