Water surprisingly does more damage than good on the exterior body, and the cause of the harmful effects of water can be outlined in one word: Oxidation.
Oxidation is the leading reason we wrinkle. Oxidation is at the root of most diseases. Oxidation is the cause of skin cancer. Oxidation is the reason most of us will die.
Oxidation takes place when excessive oxygen, in combination with oxidizing agents, starts a disastrous journey that leads to the development of free radicals, causing an unbalancing of electrons and eventually damage to cells that were otherwise healthy and productive contributors to a well body. These injured cells can themselves become aggressors and produce more free radicals.
Pure water can result in Oxidation when damp skin or hair is exposed to catalysts such as warm air, sunlight or direct heat. Of course, today’s water is almost never what is known as pure, and as a result of this, Oxidation is less the cause of the water itself, but rather of what is present in the water.
The most dangerous oxidative agents are present right in the tap. Tap water is intentionally loaded full of oxidizers including chlorine, chloramines and bromine.
Statistics on the amount of these chemicals in tap water can be suprising. For example, because one hundred people died in Milwaukee from bacteria in drinking water years ago, it has become typical to find over three times the chlorine in the city’s tap water than is legally necessary in public pools! You literally might be using pool water to cleanse your face and hair. In addition, today’s water is loaded with minerals such as calcium, iron and copper perhaps beneficial inside the body, but potentially disastrous to hair and skin. Just over a decade ago, a study in the United Kindgom linked hard water with eczema. And in case you think that does not harm you, more than 90 percent of Americans get hard water from the tap daily.
Understanding how hard your water is and how much chlorine it is composed of can encourage you to purchase hair and skin care options that will actually protect your natural hair texture, color and shine as well as stop or even reverse signs of aging on the skin. So what are your options?
Check Your Water. Do a simple chlorine test with OTO (orthotolodine) and get a hard water test strip to test for hardness. Simply buy the OTO at your local pool store and dispense 5-10 drops into a small glass of water to see if the water turns yellow. If it become yellow, it has enough chlorine to provoke oxidation.
Use antioxidant treatments that are of the right type and percentage to have an impact. An active form antioxidant, such as fresh-dried ascorbic acid at 10 percent concentration or higher, actually ceases oxidation on the hair, scalp and skin. Vitamin E, in a 5 percent concentration, is very successful on the skin to prevent oxidation from affecting lipids in and around skin cells.
So you believe you have the best antioxidant product? Don’t believe the hype; see for yourself. Your test kit will also test your antioxidant products to see whether they are neutralizing oxidative agents and thus are active. When you test your water and it becomes yellow from the chlorine oxidation, place one drop of your favorite antioxidant serum or cream to the water. If it is truly an antioxidant, or if the antioxidant is still active, the color will disappear like magic. If it doesn’t, the antioxidant is dead.