Hard water contains higher levels of calcium, magnesium, or calcium carbonate, and is really not good for washing or doing the laundry as the soap will not lather, but there are those who believe that drinking hard water is good for one’s cardiovascular health and that those who drink it are less likely to suffer cardiovascular disease.
Soft water is easier to drink because it tastes better, and there are many advantages to softer water, including the fact that soft water has palpable technical advantages over hard water. Soft water does not create scaling on appliances, pipes, and other surfaces, and works better for desalination plants and reverse osmosis devices.
There have been quite a few studies published over the years regarding the relationship between drinking water and death from cardiovascular diseases. There seem to be mainly two beneficial factors that stand out in all the studies; total dissolved solids (TDS) and hardness, and both of these are associated with lower mortality from heart disease.
The more calcium carbonates there are in the water, the harder it is; less calcium carbonates equals softer water. TDS is a measurement of all the minerals in the water, not just calcium or magnesium.
Some studies have contended that there is 10-15% more cardiovascular deaths in areas where there is soft water and other studies have concluded that higher levels of sodium in drinking water leads to higher blood pressure. There is however no proof that higher levels of sodium in the drinking water in any way leads to higher mortality rates.
It is believed that the extra calcium in hard water helps lower blood pressure whereas the low serum magnesium concentrations in soft water appear to be linked to arrhythmias. The higher concentration of magnesium in hard drinking water provides a more bio available method of ingesting the required amount of magnesium, especially in developed countries where many individuals do not adequately cover their magnesium needs.
Cooking food in hard water may also be healthier, because cooking in soft water tends to remove magnesium, calcium, and other essential elements from the food, making it less healthy.
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