As I posted on the classicalvalues.com post, if you have any reason to watch what you send through your kidneys, you'll probably back up bottled water. Some municpal tap water, while perfectly fine for a person with two healthy kidneys, is verboten for a dialysis patient. Even those with one kidney (naturally or via surgery) should keep an eye on the water content.

What Lysander says should be tempered with the knowledge of both your municipality's track record of water quality, and the company that produces the brand you are considering drinking.

As for it being a "sin," it brings to mind the point that the radical environmental movement is trying to inculcate guilt into anyone who is affluent.

When the $$ were going to Europe for Perrier and Evian. it was the thing to do. Now that Coke and Pepsi lead the way, it is now a sin of excess.

John -

I agree. I'm not advocating some "Brand X" bottled water over tap, but knowing what is coming out of the tap and what is coming in the bottle.

Flouride (actually flourosic acid) + copper pipe = Alzheimers.

Most of the webpages that carried the original story have disappeared, but this, less scientific one, is still up.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/0628gl-alzheimers28Z18.html

-Bob

"Flouride (actually flourosic acid) + copper pipe = Alzheimers."

Absent any scientific knowledge of that "fact," of course.

Ditto aluminum, lead(including solder for copper pipes), smoking, lack of intellectual stimulation, acetylcholine deficiency, genetic abnormalities, lack of physical exercise, aging(and senescence in general), lack of social interaction, head injuries, etc., etc., etc.

Darrell, the guy is a scientist and he's published.

Also, (from one of the vanished articles) the water
has to be acidic enough to get the copper in it.

FWIW, last I read, the "flouride" the MWD puts in our water was
actually industrial flourosic acid, not some sort of pharmaceutical additive. And they've been sued because
they regulate the content so poorly that allegedly kids are
getting flourosis of the teeth.

-B

I thought there were genetic contributors to Alzheimer's. And that nuns who do crossword puzzles don't get it as much. Or something.

"nuns who do crossword puzzles don't get it as much."

You were referring to Alzheimer's, right?

Lately, I've been reading "Faith and the Placebo Effect"
by Lolette Kuby. Her thesis is that whatever you believe
will heal you will heal you. She also discusses the
"nocebo effect" -- which might be described as whatever
you believe will kill you will kill you.

She had breast cancer.
http://www.originpress.com/pXaceboeffect/
(Replace the 'X' with an 'l' -- your content filter doesn't
like "pX".)

-Bob

Yes--Alzheimer's. Though I was being facetious.

I had a great-aunt with Alzheimer's, and I may be third in a matrilineal sequence of women with an extreme fear of dementia.

The placebo effect does, I think, provide us with a window into the unharnessed power of the human brain.

Just saying nothing explains it totally. Not yet. Correlations are not causation. When an answer is found I will let you know. All the factors I listed have been linked at one time or another. They comprise the questions. One day we'll have an answer.

By the time an answer is found, you'll let me know and I'll promptly forget ;)

Yeah--I know about the causality arrow problem. But the genetic argument is very seductive to me (in areas other than obesity, of course--though it could be that there are families in which such things run, but every once in a while a supremely disceplined ubergirl arises, and maintains something like a normal weight against all odds, which makes her all the more admirable, blah blah blah . . .).