May 25, 2019

https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/nutrition-podcasts/deuterium-depleted-water/

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:01:17] Podcast Sponsors

[00:04:44] I get tons of questions about water.

[00:08:44] Why and how Robert went from the aerospace industry into the water industry

[00:13:21] Moving to Brazil

[00:24:11] The Secrets to Robert's Youthful Physical Appearance

[00:29:32] Podcast Sponsors

[00:33:00] How to set up the ideal water filtration system in your home?

[00:44:53] Alkaline Water

[00:51:20] Structured Water

[00:55:32] Hydrogen-Enriched Water

[01:00:18] Deuterium-Depleted Water

[01:14:53] Closing the Podcast

[01:16:21] End of Podcast

Robert:  It's amazing, Ben, that the most revered unassailable nutrient in the world, called pure water, also contains the seed of destruction. That's unmatched in the world of contaminants. I went, “Marcelo, what is this? I want more tomorrow. Can you get me more?” Then, somebody said, “Hey, this is your spiritual destiny kind of thing, and you do it,” and so, I did it.

Ben:  I have a master's degree in physiology, biomechanics, and human nutrition. I've spent the past two decades competing in some of the most masochistic events on the planet from SEALFit Kokoro, Spartan Agoge, and the world's toughest mudder, the 13 Ironman triathlons, brutal bow hunts, adventure races, spearfishing, plant foraging, free diving, bodybuilding and beyond. I combine this intense time in the trenches with a blend of ancestral wisdom and modern science, search the globe for the world's top experts in performance, fat loss, recovery, hormones, brain, beauty, and brawn to deliver you this podcast. Everything you need to know to live an adventurous, joyful, and fulfilling life. My name is Ben Greenfield. Enjoy the ride.

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Well, I get tons of questions about water. Like, “what water filter is best?,” and “should I add minerals to my water,” and what do I think about alkaline water and structured water, and hydrogen-rich water, and this hifalutin deuterium-depleted water and a lot more. In all of my dealings in the health sector, as far as different masterminds and conferences that I go to, I run into a lot of people who claim to be experts on water but who don't have a lot of research behind what they say. However, probably one of the guys who I respect most highly in the water industry, who has taught me more about water than just about anyone I know. My dad is in the water filtration industry and has taught me quite a bit. But, this gentleman, Robert Slovak, has taught me a ton about water. He's technically a mechanical and aeronautical and astronautical engineer who founded something called Water Factory Systems in the '70s. I'll allow him to tell you the story about his background in the whole water industry. For the past near-decade, he has been researching everything from hydrogen-enriched water to different forms of minerals and trace elements, to different kinds of salts, all the way up to some of these more emerging technologies like deuterium-depleted water and, also, structured water and water filtration. He's just the bee's knees when it comes to water. As a matter of fact, right now, Robert, I'm sipping out of a glass Pellegrino water bottle. What do you think about Pellegrino, man?

Robert:  Yeah. I think, it's a decent mineral water. I'm a big fan of bottled waters. Typically, they're very low in contaminants.

Ben:  You don't mean like plastic bottled waters, though.

Robert:  Well, plastic bottle is another topic. It's nice to have it in a glass, but, I think, when we're talking about the best of plastics, there are so many other polymeric contaminants that you're exposed to that when people–it's just out of our weakness. We focus on bottles because it's right in front of us but we don't really think about the carpet in our house and the massive amount of plastic inside.

Ben:  That's true. That's true. It is true.

Robert:  We don't think about the rug and the paint.

Ben:  But, surely, you wouldn't argue, though, if I had the choice between Pellegrino, one of those creaky crappy little plastic bottle water brands, that there's not difference between the two?

Robert:  No, you're right. Go for it.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  I'm there with you. I will always prefer to have it in glass too.

Ben:  Well, thank you for your permission, good sir. Now, I want to know a little bit about your background in the water industry. Actually, even before I jump into some of my questions about which water filtration systems are best, et cetera, I also want to dig a little bit into your personal health regimen, regimen, regime, I can't talk today, anyways, the things you do for your health. Well, can I ask you how old you are? Would that be considered rude?

Robert:  No.

Ben:  All right, how?

Robert:  74.

Ben:  Okay, you're 74. You look, and I'm not just blowing smoke, you look like you're maybe early 50's. When I met you, that's the general age range that I thought that you were in, so I'm sure people are going to want to know a little bit about some of your anti-aging tactics, or any good little tips and tricks for exercise or nutrition, or health protocols that you found to be quite handy. Before we get into that, how did you go from being a mechanical and aeronautical and astronautical engineer to getting in the water? I realize it could be a long story, but we have time.

Robert:  Yep. It was boredom that drove it that way. My brother and I ended up in California from back east in the military industrial complex in the early 1970s. He worked for NSA, I worked on the Minuteman missile. We eventually ended up in the same building. Every time we met at lunch, we go, “Bored?” He said, “Yeah, I'm really bored too.” We knew we didn't want to stay there. Along comes something new on the scene in science. It wasn't our field but we were very well-educated in this broad range of sciences. It was a new technology called membrane separation, and more specifically, reverse osmosis. We became fascinated with it overnight, and within a couple weeks we had converted our bathroom in Corona del Mar California to a laboratory to research membranes and all that stuff. We just took it to a very high degree through the '70s, through the '80s. We took this technology and probably, we're most famous for refining it and bringing it to all the applications that this new technology, very inexpensive compared to other technologies and much more effective and complete and wide range of contaminant removal. We took this to many areas: from drinking water systems to restaurant systems, to micro-electronics manufacturing, to hemodialysis. We built the first portable hemodialysis water system so people on dialysis could take a vacation. They would just go in the back of their car. Things like that. We did exotic stuff.

Ben:  Did you actually invent reverse osmosis, or do you invent a certain style of reverse osmosis?

Robert:  Yes. Well, we didn't invent reverse osmosis. That was done about a decade and a half before, but it was very crude. It was just things didn't work that well and there were lots of problems, and we helped refine it and build. I'd say our biggest thing was building and designing products that used it. Our favorite one, probably my brother would agree, was spot-free rinse. It was the crudest one but was the most fun one.

Ben:  What's spot-free rinse?

Robert:  Well, when you go to, I don't know if you've ever used self-serve car wash or been to a car wash, and they don't even have to dry it off.

Ben:  I like to put on my swimsuit and get in movies and have car wash fights in slow motion.

Robert:  There you go. Well, I hope that it's spot-free rinse. We used to amaze people because everyone thinks that water itself leave spots and pure water doesn't leave any spots. We just had a grand time showing people their black BMW is you just rinse it off with this water and it dries in the hot sun of California spot-free. We built an entire industry called spot-free rinse.

Ben:  Huh? Wow. Your bio says that you retired from the water industry way back in the '90s. What happened at that point?

Robert:  Oh, wait, was that way back?

Ben:  Sorry, man.

Robert:  Wow, that seems like yesterday.

Ben:  Well, I don't know. I was, what? I was 14 in 1996.

Robert:  We took it to a pretty fairly high degree. Our company, in 1989, was purchased by a very large company I won't name in the water industry.

Ben:  Does it rhyme with rep-C or Toke, does it?

Robert:  No.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  It wasn't for that reason but it did rhyme. That company was quite soon purchased by a company that rhymes with three M. We stayed on as vice presidents of engineering and design until about 1995 and 6. Then, we retired and we didn't have any intention of actually retiring. We both split up and I went to Brazil to bring the technology.

Ben:  Brazil, where all the supermodels are.

Robert:  Ah, man, it was great. I lived there over a period of about eight years. I brought water technology to this country, to that country that had all these resources but no water technology to really make use of it like they should have. I wrote, I published magazines there, had trainings, seminars, taught at universities, made university courses, and really add it to the infrastructure of Brazil. But, what changed my life in about 2004 was the fact that I went into a remote area of Brazil to do water research.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  Because the remote areas were producing contaminants from unbridled industrialization that was making it to the cities like to Sau Paulo and to Rio. I went there to do this but, unfortunately, in this small, small village, I became deathly ill with serious gastroenteritis.

Ben:  Oh, dude.

Robert: Besides myself, I knew enough about health science to know this was serious and that I really needed a helicopter to airlift me to Rio de Janeiro. They told me that that wasn't going to happen unless I had the cellphone of the president. Someone handed me, and this a defining moment in my life, handed me six small glass vials. He said, “This is our doctor.” I will never forget this moment. I said, “Marcelo, are you losing it? What do you mean it's your doctor?” “This is what everyone uses to heal themselves here. There's no doctor. You're not going to have a doctor for a week.”

Ben:  Was it coffee?

Robert:  No.

Ben:  I was hoping it was coffee.

Robert:  It was something called Quinton Marine Plasma. It was a harvested extract of plankton blooms in the ocean. They somehow got it there and used it for almost everything. He said, “Take these six little 10-milliliter ampules. Take one per hour and I think you're going to be better.”

Ben:  How did they get marine plasma in the jungle of Brazil?

Robert:  Somebody knew the Argentinian biologist who brought it to Brazil.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  He was fanatic about this. He was like I am now. Somebody knew somebody and they brought the supply of this out there to help them deal with the lack of real health care.

Ben:  This was just like a mineral and trace element solution?

Robert:  Yes, but remember it spent most of the 20th century as a pharmaceutical medicine in the Physician's Desk References of Europe. That is what makes it [00:16:51] ______.

Ben:  It's called Quinton?

Robert:  Quinton. The real, for French, pronunciation is Quantone, but people say, Quenton, people say Quintone.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  It's famous. It came on the scene in 1897.

Ben:  Is this the same stuff that Quicksilver Scientific sells?

Robert:  Yes, it is. I'm the one who brought it to America in 2000.

Ben:  Okay, because I started ordering that stuff. I started adding it into my water. This is the same stuff you got in Brazil?

Robert:  That is exactly the same stuff.

Ben:  The other companies sell it too. Is this like Meriva curcumin or different companies will add Meriva curcumin to their supplements?

Robert:  No. No, no, this is an exclusively-made product. It's actually an injectable product. It's a true medicine, but now it's deemed in the United States a dietary supplement.

Ben:  Oh, wait. I remember you. I think, you were telling me. I think, you and I and Dr. Mercola were together when you brought up. I was looking into this for this biological medicine retreat I'm going to in Switzerland, you mentioned that it could also be injected and that that was a treatment that you could find often in Europe, but I forget the name of the protocol. Do you recall what that is?

Robert:  Well, there is one protocol for a specific health condition, a very serious one, called Percutaneous Hydrotomy.

Ben:  Yeah, Percutaneous Hydrotomy. But you wouldn't just do that for general wellness, that's used for specification.

Robert:  No, if you had a damaged spine, this is a miraculous treatment for a damaged spine. It takes about a week. There's a facility all throughout Europe, really, that doctors do this. Then, there's one in Mexico.

Ben:  Huh? Okay. I'll look up Percutaneous Hydrotomy.

Robert:  Absolutely.

Ben:  It's basically you're essentially injecting seawater.

Robert:  You're hydrating via gravity through an octopus subcutaneous array of needles into the surrounding spine area, and you're super-hydrating it with seawater which is what hosted. This is the big connection for me. Seawater was the host of life and the emergence of life and two and a half billion years of evolution. I think, that's a pretty good calling card for something called seawater.

Ben:  Is it more than just minerals in the stuff?

Robert:  It's very complex. It's way more than just minerals. First, the minerals are all very, they are organal complexed with, what you would guess, is in a plankton bloom. A plankton bloom is one of the most complex bioreactors on the planet. Some of the plankton blooms make about 65% of the oxygen on earth. They are monitored by treaty and satellites and buoys and ships. You have to have a license to enter them because, people, they are afraid that they could be tampered with. It would make a great spy story. They don't even want people to know there are plankton blooms.

Ben:  Interesting. Okay. You tried this stuff in Brazil, it nursed you back to life and then you took it back to the States?

Robert:  In one day. In one day, at midnight, I was, as you can imagine the vomiting and all the body fluids, at midnight after taking six of those, I just came alive. I took a shower. There was a moment when I thought maybe I'm just dead and I transitioned. I took a shower, I ended up literally running dead half-speed to the local bar which was the only thing that was open. I knew my friend, Marcelo, was going to be at–the guy who gave it to me. I went, “Marcelo, what is this? I want more tomorrow. Can you get me more?” He invited me to come for a beer, which I didn't take him up on, and the rest was history. I stayed in Brazil. I met that man in Rio de Janeiro. The biologist went to his house at 9 o'clock at night, apologized for coming late. I said, “Let me just tell me what this is in 30 minutes.” I ended up leaving his house at 7 o'clock the next morning and I never even said a word. My jaw had dropped. How do I not know this? I'm a scientist, how do I not know this scientist, Rene Quinton. The rest, I stayed there for two more years. I studied this with that biologist. I ended up bringing it to America, not with any business intentions to really find somebody who was more appropriate than I. Then, somebody said, “Hey, this is your spiritual destiny kind of thing, and you do it,” and so I did it.

When my brother passed in 2016, then, I didn't want to be in a day to day business anymore and enjoyed his partnership so much I ended up passing this license of Quinton on to Quicksilver, which I'm also a part of.

Ben:  Okay. Yeah, I love Quicksilver. I see Chris Shade all the time. He's like a mad scientist. He makes all these crazy liposomal formulations. My wife, actually, just because my wife loves it when I share her personal intimate health information on my podcast. She just was doing a consult with Dr. Matt Cook. He has her on Chris Shade's liver push detox. I use his bitters. I like to spray him into cocktails when I'm at a bar. It's really good bitters. I love their stuff. Their little liposomal formulations are fantastic. So, you licensed Quinton to them. Good job.

Robert:  No, no. I really just transferred the importation to them.

Ben:  Okay, got you. You did that, and then what did you do, retire again?

Robert:  No, no. I actually have another entity called Water and Wellness. This is a more experimental, more flexible way of reaching and speaking to doctors and trying a whole another line of products that include Quinton, that include Quicksilver Scientific products. Then, just very recently, from January, I spent two weeks in Russia, and I'm taking on, probably, the project of my lifetime, a water project called deuterium-depleted water.

Ben:  Yeah, I got to ask you about that. We'll get into that. I was looking at your Water and Wellness website. Half the stuff on there that you have, I use. You've got hydrogen water tablets. You have the AquaTru reverse osmosis filtration system. You've got the Quinton minerals. You've got good stuff on there.

By the way, everything Robert and I talked about, if you're listening in, just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/allthingswater and I'll put links to all the stuff that we discuss.

Now, I guess, I want to ask you, and then we'll get back to deuterium-depleted water because I want to ask you about that and hydrogen water and structured water, these other forms of water. Before we do, don't leave our audience hanging, why do you look so young, man? What do you do besides drinking this crazy unicorn-tier infused minerals from plankton blooms?

Robert:  I would have to say the biggest routine that I've had for the longest time is really taking Quinton. I place a lot of emphasis on having the entire building block of evolution, and that is the ocean is a solution of the periodic table of the elements. Then, when you add the living component, the plankton bloom, and you are talking about there's everything in there including the kitchen sink from, almost every vitamin, every vital nutrient DNA/RNA for millions of years.

Ben:  Yeah. It's so much how a lot of people swear by chlorella and spirulina. I make an order of ketone now every month. I just put, I don't know what you think about this, but I just drink it with my hydrogen water in the morning. Then, typically, if I've been sweating a lot during the day, or I'm feeling blown in the afternoon, I'll take another packet. It seems to work pretty well. Do you exercise? Do you do anything else?

Robert:  I moderately exercise. I regularly ground.

Ben:  Meaning, go outside barefoot?

Robert:  Oh, yes, yes.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  Maybe four times a week. I have a very strict dietary regime. Part of it is my eternal bachelorhood left me with no skills of cooking.

Ben:  Oh, you're single. Ladies? Ladies?

Robert:  That, may be, yeah, yeah, they have the 74-year-old bachelor just really hot. That may be part of the reason of eating raw and paleo.

Ben:  Okay, so you're on the paleo bandwagon.

Robert:  Part, yes.

Ben:  Yeah. Okay.

Robert:  I don't have any routine of eating. I don't eat it any particular hours. I'm very committed to Quinton and, now, hydrogen. Of course, I've always had available the purest of water and I always mineralized the water with minerals and trace elements. You can't forget the trace elements, it's so critical.

Ben:  You get that from the Quinton, yeah?

Robert:  Get that from the Quinton.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  You have 70 plus trace elements in there. It's something you can't get in your food. I even suggest people who have very involved with fresh juices and so on and excellent dietary addition. The fact be known, it contains, probably, very few trace elements. I always put a Quinton hypertonic in my fresh juice.

Ben:  Do you lift weights at all?

Robert:  No.

Ben:  No? Do you lift heavy stuff at all?

Robert:  In my daily life, I do sit-ups and calisthenics.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  Even Zack Bushes'.

Ben:  His little nitric oxide calisthenic?

Robert:  Yeah, I like that.

Ben:  Yeah. I like that too. I'll hunt down a video of that and put it in the shownotes for folks. Now, it's funny because a lot of people are like, “Oh, Ben, how do you take so many supplements, blah, blah, blah?” I asked you and you sent me over a list of everything you take. You, along with most people I know in anti-ageing sector who looked amazing for their age, they've got a lot of supplements. If I could count them up, I'll put the full list. We don't have time to go over them right now, but I'll put the full list in the shownotes, for those of you who want to see. I would count, maybe, 40 different things that you take. Then, your special bulletproof coffee recipe you have. That's like water, espresso, butter, coconut creamer, MCT oil, coconut oil, collagen peptides, whey protein, cacao, turmeric, Ceylon cinnamon, MSM powder, magnesium, Quinton, ribose, vitamin C, Restore. It's very interesting because a lot of people want to crack the code of living a long time. I think, it does involve some better living through science, granted there's some Italians running around Acciaroli, Italy, who are drinking rosemary and coffee and seem to be doing pretty well. Those of us who are fighting a battle against living in a westernized, post-industrial environment, I think need to throw a little bit extra into the mix, so to speak.

Robert:  I think, you're right on. I realize there are people living the proverbial Himalayas and the Vilcabambas that they couldn't identify one of my supplements, and they're living better, longer than I am. That, I have my own theories on. Nature can't be beat. We've abused it and we don't get the right dietary fix from our lifestyle.

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Ben:  Water filtration systems. In an ideal world, how would somebody set up their home water filtration system?

Robert:  Cool. Here's what they say, always find out, in the most basic sense, what is in your water? What is your water supply? I tell people, number one, and this is what no one ever does, please go on, find out who you pay your water bill to, go on the website and look up the latest EPA water quality report for that area you live in. I tell people, “You're not going to understand this report and it's a dilemma of sorts,” but people who know me send it to me and say, “Hey, would you recommend a system?” It really matters what's in your water. It really matters what disinfection the water supplier uses. It really matters what the hardness is. It really matters–everything, even including the temperature of the water. From that, you can make some reasonable approximations on the best approach. With the plethora of contaminants in water, the two methods that certainly remove the most from the greatest number of categories of contaminants is distillation plus activated carbon and reverse osmosis plus activated carbon. Those are almost equivalent in removing potential contaminants from the water. Then, you should remineralize.

Ben:  You combine reverse osmosis with activated carbon, and then you add minerals back into the water with something like Quinton…

Robert:  Precisely.

Ben:  …or sea salt, or I know AquaTru make some trace liquid minerals, something like that?

Robert:  Yes. I believe in Quinton because it's derived from a living region that's much more than just the electrolyte, ionic electrolytes. It's really organal complex. When you start taking things from places like the Great Salt Lake or you take ocean water and you denature it by allowing it to become a salt and precipitate, you change a lot of balances. It's better than nothing, I will say that, but nothing really approaches Quinton and its brilliance of balance and complexity.

Ben:  If I had to buy a salt from a grocery store and could find something in my area and didn't have access to Quinton, what would be the best salt to buy if I did want just like a few pinches of that into my [00:36:00] _______?

Robert:  Celtic.

Ben:  Celtic?

Robert:  Celtic, yes.

Ben:  Just like the brand, it comes with a blue bag, yeah?

Robert:  Well, there's many. There's Celtic gray salt, Celtic premium salt. I'm more into [00:36:08] ______.

Ben:  Why Celtic?

Robert:  Well, one reason is Jacques DeLangre, who is the founder of Celtic, was really a student, so to speak, of Rene Quinton. His whole objective in making Celtic salt was to retain as many trace elements that are typically lost in the salt evaporation process. When you rinse salt, you rinse away, probably, 30 or 40 trace elements the first time. They're in such minute quantities. Jacques DeLangre really did, and he wrote the first articles in English on Rene Quinton.

Ben:  Is that why it's gray because it's not washed?

Robert:  You got it.

Ben:  Okay, cool. That's good to know. That's going to be super helpful for a lot of people because I get questions about is it Himalayan, is it Mexican, is it Kona black?

Robert:  I'm not a fan of Himalayan, at all.

Ben:  Why not?

Robert:  One, it's from an underground salt mine, okay? The second largest in the world. I can't recall the name right now. It's not like a magical pink salt mine, it's really a part of the mine that just happens to have iron oxide contamination. That's how they viewed it in the beginning until a clever person, a marketer, came along and said, “That is really nice stuff. What do you sell that to me for?” I see it personally as a brilliant marketing move, but I don't like to add iron to my diet.

Ben:  Yeah. Most of it comes from Pakistan.

Robert:  Yeah, that's true. It's not Himalayas.

Ben:  It's in Khewra or something like that is the name of the mine.

Robert:  You got it. That's exactly where it is.

Ben:  Yeah, interesting. Okay. This is very good to know. Reverse osmosis plus a carbon block and/or activated carbon, is there a certain like a whole house brand or an under the counter brand? I mentioned that AquaTru Water Filter that you told me about. Would that be a good countertop one? What are some brands people could look for?

Robert:  It's my favorite. It's my favorite. It's really–there aren't many. There's less than a handful of countertop ROs. Now, my brother and I designed, probably, virtually all the under-sink designs of RO that ever were made. We also did some countertops. As I became more familiar with health and wellness, I realized there was a problem with RO systems or any water treatment system that has a storage tank that's sealed. This is one of the things I'm going to be going in next week to the AutismOne Conference. I've spoken of the AutismOne Conference, I think, for the last five years and I tell the mothers, do not give water from your under-sink RO system to your child with autism.

Ben:  No way. Why?

Robert:  It's like the bad news I don't want to give them because they already have enough bad news, but I tell them that it is too microbially contaminated and will disrupt further their child's microbiome and all kinds of other immune factors. They are like shocked. Generally, they are shocked as they thought.

Ben:  Okay. That would be like an under the counter system has a basin in it and microbial build-up can occur in that?

Robert:  Yes.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  When I wrote the book on that. I wrote a book that has been sold since 1991 on reverse osmosis system, the care and maintenance and all that stuff. I made it clear in there that I said, “Water dealers who are selling these things, now you can buy them at Costco.” That's a very bad thing, unfortunately; but water dealers who have some responsibility to their customer, I would tell them, “You must sanitize this storage tank at least once a year and every time you change filters.” Well, unfortunately, that never stuck. It's just not done. So, they become an incubator for huge levels of bacteria. That's very dangerous. I taught women, I said this, “If you can't do without your RO system, here's what you're going to do. If you have a child with autism or any kind of immune condition, you're going to drain that tank every other day. That's still not good enough. I want you to go to amazon.com or your local REI Sports store, and I want you to buy a product called the SteriPen. It's about $70. The water you give to your child with autism, you are going to sterilize that water, that glass, that [00:41:28] ______ with the SteriPen. It takes about 30 seconds.”

Ben:  It's a good idea. Okay.

Robert:  That's it. Now, when you really go to the AquaTru design, all that falls away. You don't have to do any of that stuff.

Ben:  Is there any conventional under-sink, point-of-use reverse osmosis system that one could use, or do they pretty much all have that issue with needing to use a SteriPen or clean them out frequently?

Robert:  There is one that was the last system that my brother and I worked on. That's, let's say, better than the pack. The rest of the pack is all the same. It's all the same.

Ben:  What's the brand?

Robert:  It's sold worldwide, but it's just beginning. It's called Wow, okay, Water on Water.

Ben:  Okay, WoW Reverse Osmosis.

Robert:  Nevertheless, would I really use this with a child whose immune system is impaired, I still wouldn't take the chance.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  But what's coming is LED ultraviolet sterilization.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  An ultraviolet lamp and you have a quartz tube and you have a mercury vapor lamp, and it shines into the water and it kills microbes. Okay. But, that never was practical to incorporate with an RO system under the sink. It was too much heat and lots of problems. Now, it's just coming out, literally within the last few months. I just came from the National Water Conference in Las Vegas, that they have LED UV sterilization. I talked to all the manufacturers and said, “This, you have to marry this with RO systems to reduce the bacteria to, say, in levels.”

Ben:  Okay, got it. Is that available as a commercial system right now?

Robert:  No, it is not.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  It's still a bad situation, I am very sorry to say.

Ben:  Okay. All right. Best solution at this point, if you're on the average municipal water and [00:43:35] ______ to a spring or well, or something like that, would be to use reverse osmosis with carbon block, something like a countertop, like an AquaTru, or an under the counter reverse osmosis with carbon block that you're going to clean frequently or use a SteriPen with. Then, you're going to add minerals back into that water.

Robert:  To both of that.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  When I saw the AquaTru, I wasn't the designer of the AquaTru, just bells went off in my brain. I said, “This is the design that solves my frustration over the years since I've been in water and wellness and medicine, because now I don't have to tell women.” It was the happiest day of my life on my birthday last year that I told the women at the Autism Conference. I said, “Women, I have some great news, and it's especially great news because it's my birthday, May 24th. You don't have to do any of that stuff anymore. This is what you need to get for your child or family.”

Ben:  Yeah. I interviewed the guy who invented that, Peter Spiegel. I don't know if he invented it, but he markets it, Peter Spiegel.

Robert:  No, no, no. He conceived that design. Then, a bunch of good designers came together. He was very clever.

Ben:  Okay, cool.

Robert:  Peter Spiegel.

Ben:  Okay, Peter Spiegel, yeah. I'll link to that one in the shownotes. The next question that I have for you is the whole idea of alkaline water. There's a lot of alkaline water generators. A lot of people are interested in alkaline water. There's a lot of companies, especially multi-level marketing companies with fantastic money-making opportunities, marketing alkaline water generators. I'm curious what your thoughts are on alkaline water.

Robert:  Well, I've been an anti-alkaline water person for probably seven years now. In all of my talks that I give internationally and here in the United States, I spend a lot of time with alkaline water. I call alkaline water the scientific misconception that became a billion-dollar business. It was not an intentional deceptive marketing thing. I believe that one of the main guys, Sang Whang, he was a Korean engineer, really didn't know chemistry well enough to know that alkaline is different than alkalinity. There is such a misconception of the word and meaning of pH. People think if pH is high, it automatically will neutralize acid. That's the connection that's made for them in marketing. It's totally untrue. pH is like temperature in a way, that just because you have something that's at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, it doesn't mean it can heat your house. I give people the example, you have a match at 451 degrees Fahrenheit and you have a fireplace at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, but only one can heat your home. pH is just like that. At any given pH level, like pH 9 or pH 10, which people consider supreme alkaline water, if it doesn't have buffering capacity, which is the equivalent analogy to the heat output of the fireplace versus the match, if it doesn't have this buffering capacity, which is called alkalinity, then it won't matter. It will do nothing. It won't matter if it's pH 5 or 7 or 8 or 10, it's irrelevant. The other thing is I tell people, “Listen, as soon as you drink alkaline water, the body is going to change the pH dramatically. What value really and how does it deliver its value? The stomach, your first place the water goes, is stomach acid?” When I tell a roomful of doctors this, most of them raised their open palm to their forehead and slap it like, “How the hell did I not think of this?”

Ben:  Yup.

Robert:  Alkaline water do not, I tell people to not waste your money on it. If you want to make water have the ability to alkalize your body, you have to add buffering capacity. You add buffering capacity by adding alkalinity in the form of minerals that have buffering capacity. Those minerals are typically in the form of carbonates and bicarbonates.

Ben:  Yeah. Wow.

Robert:  If you get a pH powder, the neutralizing powder, to help regulate your body fluid pH, pH ion. We have one that's active pH restore. These powders you just add to in almost anything. You can add them to coffee. It makes a nice frothy thing. These go in your body and alkalize your body by neutralizing metabolic acids. I also point out something really cool that sharks everybody. We all know that fresh green juices are a great way to alkalize the body. When I present it to a group of doctors, I go, “Hey, guys you all know that fresh green juices are very alkalizing. What is the pH of all fresh green juices?” They go, “Oh, well, it has to be at least eight or nine.” Some of them say it has to be 10. I said, “No, all fresh green juices are actually acidic, and yet, deliver the alkalinity to neutralize metabolic acids.” It's a little quirky thing in chemistry that the pH and alkalinity are not so connected, as we are led to believe by alkaline products.

Ben:  Yeah, you mean eating alkaline-based foods is not necessarily a way to increase blood alkalinity?

Robert:  What was that? Wait, say that again.

Ben:  Basically, what you mean is eating alkaline or eating foods with high alkalinity or low acidity or vice versa is not a significant way to adjust the body's pH?

Robert:  No, it is.

Ben:  It is?

Robert:  It is. If you have alkalizing foods, not alkaline foods, it doesn't matter what the pH is.

Ben:  Yeah, alkalizing. Yeah, exactly. Lemon is acidic but it's alkalizing?

Robert:  It is, and that's another little quirk of chemistry called amphoteric acids. We probably should go there. One good rule is the word, it's an acronym called PRAL, P-R-A-L.

Ben:  Yeah, potential renal acid load.

Robert:  Load, potential renal acid load is really the way that you get a perspective of what you need to do to balance the alkalizing properties or acidifying properties of food so you maintain the proper pH of your body fluids.

Ben:  Yeah. The PRAL score, there's a ton of charts. The Acid Alkaline Association has a pretty good list on their website. I'll link to it. It's based on the original study done on potential renal acid load. If those of you who are interested in certain things that could affect your pH, that'll be a good chart for you that I'll link to. Okay, so alkaline water, possible waste of money. How about structured water?

Robert:  Structured water is another can of worms because there's many. There is holographic structuring, vortex structuring.

Ben:  Micro clustering, blah, blah, blah, yeah.

Robert:  Micro clustering and so on. Here's what I tell people. Structuring of water, it mainly refers to the molecular configurations that the water molecules take on that are purported to have some physiological significance, okay? It could be certain kind of patterns, hexagonal patterns of water molecules, and so on. The molecular arrangements and clustering of water is very delicate and very fickle. It changes every picosecond. There are ways to, perhaps, induce a structure but here's where it fails. It fails when you drink it. Almost no structuring could possibly survive the stomach. It's an incredibly–here is something that is so torturous it can dissolve a piece of steak, and you're thinking that this little delicate water structure is going to make it through and, somehow, go through all the pH changes from the stomach to small intestines and gallbladder, et cetera, and it's going to come out and end up going into your cells. Forget it. Never going to happen. Many researchers, just over the decades, that were structured water advocates. I would point this out to them and I usually got the result of the palm being brought up to the forehead, like, “Oh, my god. How did I miss this?”

Ben:  Have there ever been any studies done on structured water are you aware of?

Robert:  Well, many studies, but no studies that I considered responsible in terms of its physiologic consistent physiological benefits. If you asked me, “Well, is there any structuring you would do, Robert, even though you don't have the study?” Perhaps, the only one that I'm attracted to, and it may be for weak reasons, is vortexing. I believe cavitation of vortexing brings in energies into a fluid. We have a lot to learn about it but it's something I hang my hat on.

Ben:  Now, I think, because I have a point-of-entry structured water filtration unit, full disclosure. It's the same one that like my dad creates in cells.

Robert:  Like [00:54:23] ______ or something like that?

Ben:  Yeah, that one is, from what I understand, it's a vortices.

Robert:  Why not? Yeah.

Ben:  It's like a series of glass beads and minerals that the water passes through after it's filtered through my well water of bacterial iron and manganese filter, and that cleans it up. Then, it goes from there through his whole house water structuring system. That one is a vortex-base system.

Robert:  That water is used for other things. I am a big believer in that system that your father sells, okay? I see it as something that you're bathing in, not necessarily relevant.

Ben:  Yeah, because it's a whole house system. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, cleaning with it, bathing with it, et cetera. That one, I think his new one does use carbon as well. It's carbon combined with structured water.

Robert:  That system does perform miracles with growing of plants in agriculture. I've seen it with my own eyes.

Ben:  Yeah, his primary customers are farmers and large [00:55:38] ______.

Robert:  Exactly, that's the real deal.

Ben:  Yeah. Okay. Good to know. It'll make my dad happy when he listens in. Okay. How about hydrogen water, hydrogen-enriched water? I have one of those hydrogen water generators in my basement. I travel with these hydrogen-rich tablets. I've been doing so ever since I interviewed my friend, Tyler LeBaron of the Molecular Hydrogen Foundation. I'm curious to get your take on hydrogen-enriched water.

Robert:  Well, you probably don't know, but Tyler would tell you that the first person to ever create the reacting hydrogen tablet was Robert Slovak.

Ben:  Oh, really?

Robert:  In December of 2010, okay? I'm not sure how old Tyler was at the time. Right now, somebody's writing the history of hydrogen water and this issue came up, and they said, “You really came out with the first product. It was called Active H-Minus, in December 2010.” He was so shocked. I showed him our actual brochure of this. He goes, “Wow.” I did this in cooperation with a pharmacologist.

Ben:  Yeah. I know exactly how he said it too, because I can do a pretty good Tyler LeBaron impersonation. “Wow, you invented that?”

Robert:  That's good.

Ben:  “It's amazing.”

Robert:  In the beginning of hydrogen, everybody thought we were delivering hydride ions. Hydride ions are hydrogen atoms with an electron that is donated to a free radical. That's how we thought it all worked. Like an antioxidant does, it was just a donator of an electron. We all based it upon the oxidation-reduction potential. We all carried oxidation-reduction potential meters around with us to show that our reactive hydrogen tablet was really delivering electrons. But, it was wrong. We were wrong. We named the product wrong. It wasn't until people like Tyler and some others from Japan who said, “Hey, it's not the hydride ion. It is the molecular hydrogen, H2, the neutral non-charged, et cetera molecule.” It was a shock for me. I felt a little bit stupid. But now, that's all been straightened out. It is a phenomenal technology. I'm so happy it escaped Big Pharma, because that and cannabis just slid right through, and they never noticed that these were two great medicines.

Ben:  They did get a patent. The GSK, I think, got a patent on cannabis for anti-inflammatory [00:58:51] ______, yeah, aside from that.

Robert:  Yes.

Ben:  With hydrogen-enriched water would you then, let's say somebody's got an AquaTru, or they buy a reverse osmosis with carbon block, could someone do–like you mentioned, adding Quinton minerals to their water and then add hydrogen tablets on top of that?

Robert:  Absolutely.

Ben:  Okay. Could they take the water that's been filtered by their central reverse osmosis filtration system or structured water systems?

Robert:  Central? What do you mean by central?

Ben:  Not central. Like that WoW water system you talked about or something like that. Could they then take that water, fill one of these hydrogen water generator systems, and then drink that as they're point-of-use water system?

Robert:  Absolutely.

Ben:  Okay. They'd still need to add minerals to that too? I don't know of any.

Robert:  Yeah, that could.

Ben:  I don't know of any hydrogen generators that have any type of remineralization feature on it.

Robert:  No. No, no, no.

Ben:  Okay, got it.

Robert:  You just do it separately.

Ben:  Right, right.

Robert:  I like the hydrogen appliances that dose it, but none of them really can give it. If you're using hydrogen seriously and therapeutically, probably, you can't match the tablet for giving you the–

Ben:  Yeah. That's my understanding at this point where the technology is at, is the tablets give you the highest, but you still get quite a bit of benefit out of the hydrogen water generator. You'll still get some amount of–

Robert:  You'll do because you can drink just more of it constantly because it's so easy.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah. Now, when it comes to this deuterium-depleted water, I suspect whatever you're doing over in Russia has something to do with this. What's the story with that? A lot of people haven't heard the term deuterium-depleted water. I think, the first person who told me about it was Dr. Thomas Cowan when I was speaking with him at, I think, it was the Weston A. Price Conference. He actually gave me a few bottles of it. Can you help people wrap their heads around what deuterium is and what deuterium-depleted water is?

Robert:  Yeah. It's not easy to wrap your head around it because we always called water H2O. “H” for hydrogen, really, the hydrogen itself consists of three isotopes. We're only going to talk about two of them. The isotopes are really called protium. That's the regular hydrogen we think of, that we thought we were saying the right thing by H2O. Then, there's deuterium. That's heavier than hydrogen. Then, there's something called tritium that we don't worry about because it is radioactive. There's hardly any on the planet, to begin with. Hydrogen and deuterium, these are two isotopes. If we call hydrogen the simple hydrogen, which is just a proton and an electron, if we call that H and we call deuterium, which is a proton, a neutron in the nucleus, and an electron, that's deuterium. The remarkable thing that just shocked me when I realized it is that that isotope is the only isotope, of all the elements, that's twice as heavy as its sister isotope, protium. Twice as heavy. For a scientist, that is a remarkable reality, because you immediately think “twice as heavy.” In all of the chemical reactions, “twice as heavy,” must really be significant, just intuitively.

Ben:  Right.

Robert:  Water is actually three molecules. It's H2O, it's HdO, where the simple hydrogen and the deuterium atom and oxygen combine, and D2O. Those are the three molecules. It's even more complicated than that, but we're not going to take you down the rabbit hole that far. These three molecules make up water. Now, if you ask, “Well, how much deuterium is there?” There are only about 150 deuteriums for every million protiums, or we call it regular hydrogen. Some of you who are having trouble with the protium word. 150 out of 1 million, that's not very much.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  It's really like 10 drops of deuterium in a liter of water.

Ben:  Okay.

Robert:  However, when water is made with deuterium, it's called heavy water. Heavy water is instrumental to the operation of conventional nuclear reactors that make energy and help make stuff for atomic bombs. Heavy water was the entire objective of the military industrial complex of four countries in World War II. Everybody wanted to make the bomb because they knew it was the controlling factor. America won the race to extract the deuterium from regular water and concentrate it. Then, they could make reactors in the atomic bomb. We won the race.

Ben:  They used the deuterium extracted from water to make bombs?

Robert:  Exactly. It's not used like in the sense that it's the bomb. It's just used to slow down neutrons, okay? It's a very subtle thing. It has to be that. That's the only thing that could do it.

Ben:  Now, based on the title, then, “deuterium-depleted water,” would you, then, want to eliminate deuterium from your water because it's so large that it would displace hydrogen ions when you consume water with ions of deuterium?

Robert:  Yes. Not displace it. Not displace it. It's interaction with your cells that is the problem. In other words, when they took the deuterium out of water to use it for bombs, they were left with a ply of deuterium-depleted water. They took it out. They would throw that away. However, it was the Russians in the late '50s and early '60s, and the Russians, I can tell you, are among the smartest people I've ever met on the planet, especially their scientists, they are a step above. They said, “Everybody is making the heavy water; but I wonder if there's anything unique about the water left behind, which we could call, ‘light water' or ‘lighter water.'” That's really what we call it, “light water” or “deuterium-depleted water.” It produced some incredibly unusual biological effects, in both plants and animals. There are reports. This dramatic increases in lifespan, growth rates, survival and diseases, et cetera. This was something that they alerted us to. They alerted scientists and physiologist early on, but no one really took it seriously, except themselves. Partly, there was no explanation.

Ben:  Interesting. Can you get? I've heard this before that you can get high amounts of deuterium from certain foods or plant sources. Is that something you should take into consideration as well?

Robert:  Not high amounts. When we talk high, remember, deuterium-depleted, if there are 150 out of every million deuterium atoms in normal water, well, somewhere it could be a 155 too, but if there's only 150 out of every million, when we deplete it, we even consider depleted as 130 parts per million. Meaning, you've only reduced it 20. We call it depleted when it's 120 parts per million. We call it depleted when it's 80 parts per million. We call it depleted when it's 5 parts per million. There are lots of kinds or degrees of deuterium-depleted water.

Ben:  Can you somehow deplete the deuterium using all the water filtration mechanisms that we talked about? I know to buy deuterium-depleted water is expensive, to buy bottled deuterium-depleted water. Is there a way to deplete the deuterium in the water with something you would add to your water, or deplete the deuterium in your body was something that you would take?

Robert:  Great question. No. There is no other process other than the rigorous, it is one of the most complex and difficult challenges I've ever witnessed in all of my years as a water scientist and engineer. It almost threw me back the first time I walked into the deuterium-depleted water room, manufacturing room. I go, “Oh, my god.” I went to Russia, really primarily, to find somebody that would help us build the facility in America. It was very, very defeating when I saw how complex it was. Remember, you're not messing with molecules here, you're messing with the atoms themselves. You're in another level. That's why RO and regular distillation, and carbon filtration, and all the gizmos cannot touch the deuterium.

Ben:  Now, from what I understand, the process of beta-oxidation or fat-burning can create some amount of water. I think, it was Dr. Cowan who is telling me about this, suggesting that being in a relative state of ketosis or burning a higher amount of fatty acids than carbohydrates could naturally create deuterium-depleted water metabolically within the body. Have you heard anything about that?

Robert:  Bingo. Bingo. You're really seeing this as the singularity. It's almost everything that modern health science is leading to, such as a ketogenic diet, shift from mTOR to [01:09:28] ______, the whole gamut. It really all ends with, what's the end result? I'm depleting the body of deuterium. You're right. For every 2.4 pounds of fat you burn, you produce about 1.1 liters of deuterium-depleted water. When I say deuterium-depleted water, let's say between 50 and 80 ppm. This is being generated in the mitochondria.

Ben:  I love it. The best things in life are free, right?

Robert:  The best things in life are free.

Ben:  Well, not necessarily. There's a lot of people who achieve ketosis by buying overpriced beta-hydroxybutyrate supplements. The best things in life achieved naturally are free.

Robert:  Right. This is how the camel does it. This is how the camel walks across the desert with all the energy needed to do that and doesn't need to drink, because he hydrates from within, from burning the stored fat in the camel hump. He burns that and he's producing all this incredible deuterium-depleted water in the mitochondria that's hydrating him, and having the benefit of having no or little deuterium to start messing up the mitochondria itself. That's the reason we want it. We want deuterium-depleted water because deuterium happens to destroy the mechanism that admits hydrogen into the electron transport chain of the mitochondria. It's really good for everybody to look that up and watch the little animated illustrations of how this nano-motor, they call it, spins at about 9,000 rpm. It's actually like a fantasy. You think you're watching Disney and you can't believe this is actually going on in your body. All the mitochondria are aligned with these nano-motors. They index protons from the cytoplasm of the cell into the electron transport chain. And, if a deuterium enters into that motor, destroys the motor. From the time were born, we're a mitochondria destroying machine. This is the great aspect of this discovery. You want to stop ourselves and our metabolism from becoming a mitochondrial destruction machine.

Ben:  Wow.

Robert:  The production of the deuterium water is yet another benefit to preserving the mitochondria, but the deuterium is destroying mitochondria. In a way, it's like the new definition of aging. It's really one of the reasons we are slowing down, because we are losing mitochondria.

Ben:  I'm going to make some T-shirts that say deuterium is kryptonite. Nobody will know what the hell they mean.

Robert:  It's amazing, Ben, that the most revered, unassailable nutrient in the world, called water, assuming it's pure water, also contains the seed of destruction that's unmatched in the world of contaminants.

Ben:  Yeah, that's crazy.

Robert:  It goes right to the core of your ability to make ATP.

Ben:  Well, God bless those Russians' hearts for figuring this stuff out. God bless you for doing all this water research, man. I hope people are listening, or people who are listening, get the impression now about what I was saying, how Robert really does do a lot of research on this stuff. You're my favorite guys to talk to about water. Probably, you, my dad, and Tyler LeBaron are the three guys I really like to talk about water.

Robert:  Cool. We now have a container of deuterium-depleted water on its way from Russia. It will be here. We have a brand called Lite Water (L-I-T-E Water). Our website, you can go on, even though that it's just going up, it's called drinklitetwater.com. We will have the lowest deuterium light water in the world, 5 and 10 ppm.

Ben:  Are you going to have that on your Water and Wellness website too?

Robert:  It will be on there very shortly. The five and 10, the purpose of it, you don't need to take five and 10. You don't probably want to take 5 and 10. But, with 5 and 10, you can use it as a concentrate. You can mix it to make a higher ppm water, which is all that really is required. Say, 100 ppm water is fantastic. You can mix three liters with one liter of ours, and now, you've cut down the shipping and the cost of all the higher ppm deuterium-depleted water. It was our strategy. We know we have to get the price down, so more people can take advantage of deuterium-depleted water.

Ben:  Brilliant. I dig it. I'll link to all this stuff in the shownotes over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/allthingswater. I'm very glad I was able to record this episode with you, Robert, because there was a lightning storm outside.

Robert:  Thank you, Ben.

Ben:  Fittingly enough, torrential rain has been coming down during this entire show. I've been watching water on my window while I'm talking about water.

Robert:  Ben, rain is typically slightly lower in deuterium, for meteorological reasons, okay? The grass-fed factor in the butter we eat and the milk and so on. It is a factor. If you have pasture-raised animals, typically, their fat, their products, their butter will be lower in deuterium than animals that are grain raised.

Ben:  Good thing I keep giant buckets outside to collect rainwater to feed my children.

All right, man. Well, thanks for coming on the show. Again, folks, the shownotes are at bengreenfieldfitness.com/allthingswater. Leave your questions, your comments, your feedback over there. Robert or I will jump in and point you in the right direction. I hope this has been as enlightening for you as it was for me. Until next time. I'm Ben Greenfield along with Robert Slovak, signing out from bengreenfieldfitness.com. Have an amazing week.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormone, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes, that I mentioned during this and every episode, helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. When you listen in, be sure to use the links in the shownotes, use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.

 

 

I get tons of questions about water.

Which water filter is best?
Should I add minerals to my water?
What do you think about alkaline water?
Structured water?
Hydrogen-rich water?
Deuterium-depleted water (DDW)?
And much more.

So on this podcast, I interview one of the world's leading experts on water and a guy who, along with my father Gary Greenfield, has taught me more about water than just about anyone I know.

His name is Robert Slovak.

Robert is a degreed mechanical, aeronautical, and astronautical engineer best known for co-founding Water Factory Systems in the early 1970s. He and his brother were among the early developers of reverse osmosis (RO) technology and its many applications. Their successful innovations encompassed home and office RO drinking water systems, bottled water production, laboratory purification, hemodialysis, seawater desalination, microchip production, bottled water production, water vending, spot-free vehicle washing, and scores more.

As a result of the rapid growth of RO applications, Robert’s ongoing seminars and a best-selling industry book on the subject of POU (Point of Use) RO, he became a well-known figure in the water industry. In 1989 Water Factory Systems was purchased by CUNO Inc, a global leader in fluid treatment. Since then, it was acquired by the 3M Corporation, which continues to market many of their original products.

Robert officially retired from the US water industry in 1996 and went on to bring his knowledge and experience to Brazil, Asia, and other international markets. He put together a team and published Agualatinomerica magazine to establish a legitimate water equipment and education infrastructure in Brazil and South America. His “students” continue to play a major role in Brazil’s water industry.

In 2004, while in a remote location of Brazil, Robert became seriously ill and was introduced to an obscure 1897 medical discovery known as Original Quinton Marine Plasma (after the famous revolutionary biologist René Quinton). Robert attributes his “jungle” survival to its remarkable healing properties. This ocean-harvested nutraceutical contains the entire periodic table of organo-complexed minerals & trace elements as well as essential and rare micronutrients and has been continuously produced for more than a century. Having been an avid student of health and nutrition science for decades, Robert recognized the remarkable history and efficacy of Quinton Marine Plasma in supporting a wide range of the most difficult health conditions and has distributed Quinton Marine Plasma to leading-edge clinics and health practitioners worldwide since 2008.

For the past nine years, Robert’s focus has been on bringing a new nutraceutical breakthrough called “Molecular Hydrogen” (H2) to the medical profession and health-minded consumers. This “smallest molecule in the Universe” has been overlooked for its remarkable health benefits until now. With more than 800 worldwide health studies on the subject, physicians, researchers, and clinicians have been proclaiming Molecular Hydrogen (H2) as the most unique and versatile antioxidant and signaling molecule. In 2010 Robert co-developed a practical way for everyone to benefit from this discovery by creating the first reactive hydrogen tablet that infuses water with a supersaturated concentration of molecular hydrogen (H2) gas. This proven nutraceutical is now in its 9th year of distribution in both professional medical and consumer markets.

In 2011 Robert became a founding investor in the Quicksilver Scientific Corp. that was developing a groundbreaking new technology to deliver nutrients and nutraceuticals to the cells. It is referred to as nano-encapsulated liposomes. In just a few years, Quicksilver Scientific established its scientific dominance in this growing field and is currently expanding its product scope and global distribution.

While attending medical and wellness conferences throughout North America, Robert recognized the persistent minefield of water-related misinformation encountered by doctors, patients, and consumers alike – that’s after spending nearly 50 years in the water technology industry. This unsettling experience soon turned into the motivation to do something about it and Water & Wellness was established in 2017. A team with more than 150 years of combined experience was assembled to create a product line of advanced point of use (POU) and point of entry (POE) water treatment systems for health and wellness-minded consumers. In addition, a line of synergistic water additives was formulated for the consumer market including Quinton and QuintEssential minerals & trace elements, Active pH Restore alkalizing mineral powder, Active H2 ULTRA molecular H2 tablets and Active Ribose C high-bioavailability vitamin C.

Recently, Robert’s 25-year interest in deuterium-depleted water (DDW) took a new direction forward. With a combination of Soviet-era research from the 1960s and recent announcements explaining the profound physiological benefits of water with reduced Deuterium content, Robert decided to act quickly in making a reliable and affordable supply available in North America. Soon, health practitioners and health-minded consumers will be able to obtain the most deuterium-depleted Litewater brand through soon-to-be-announced channels nationwide.

Robert continues to be a very active international figure in the rapidly expanding water technology, wellness and anti-aging community, making appearances and presentations worldwide.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-Why and how Robert went from the aerospace industry into the water industry…8:45

• Robert and his brother Jack were both working in the military industrial complex and were just plain bored to tears
• They became aware of a new technology called membrane separation, aka reverse osmosis
• They were pioneers in water systems in homes and restaurants, to microelectronics manufacturing
• Built the first hemodialysis system (portable dialysis)
• Didn't invent reverse osmosis, but refined and developed products that used it (the spot-free rinse being the most famous)

-How a near-death experience made Robert aware of a forgotten scientific discovery that led to his current work…13:20

• In 2004, Robert came down with gastroenteritis after moving to Brazil in retirement
• Was given by a local man 6 vials of Quinton Marine Plasma, a harvested extract of plankton from the ocean
  • This is what they used in the absence of proper health care in that area
  • Was first discovered in 1897
• Percutaneous Hydrotomy: a protocol used to treat serious conditions such as a damaged spine
  • Not to be used as a supplement of injectable for general wellness
  • Super hydrating a specific location with sea water
• Plankton bloom:
  • one of the most complex bioreactors
  • Make about 65% of the oxygen on earth
  • Heavily protected by national and international governing bodies
• Robert's brother and business partner passed away in 2016; passed on the license to Quinton to Quicksilver Scientific (use code GREENFIELD15 to save 15%)
• Water and Wellness

-The secrets to Robert's youthful physical appearance…24:15

• Quinton
• Moderate exercise
• Grounded with the earth
• Strict paleo dietary regimen (see below for details)
• Trace elements (from the Quinton)
• 40+ supplements taken daily (see below for details)

-How to set up the ideal water filtration system in your home…33:00

• Always find out what exactly is in your water (EPA water quality report for local water company)
  • Filtration system, temperature, etc. all matter in the quality
• Two methods for removing the greatest number of contaminants:
  • Distillation + activated carbon
  • Reverse osmosis + activated carbon
  • Then remineralize the water (quinton, trace liquid minerals, Celtic sea salt)
• Why Celtic sea salt, and not another type of sea salt?
  • Jacques DeLangre (founder of Celtic) was a student of Rene Quinton himself
  • Celtic is not rinsed. When you rinse salt, you rinse away 30-40 trace elements
  • Himalayan sea salt is an underground salt mine; has iron oxide contamination
• The best water filtration systems on the market:
  • AquaTru water filter
  • AquaTru minerals
• Sanitize the storage tank minimum once a year, and every time you change filters
• Incubators for huge levels of bacteria
• SteriPen portable water purifier
• WoW (Water on Water) under the counter filtration system
• LED and UV sterilization is coming soon

-Robert's take on alkaline water…44:50

• He's against it; has been for 7+ years
• It's “the scientific misconception that became a multi-billion dollar business”
• The engineer who conceived of it didn't know the distinction between “alkaline” and “alkalinity”
• Another misconception in how “pH” levels affect acid in the water
  • Match vs. fireplace: which will heat your home?
• Once you drink alkaline water, the body will change the ph level dramatically
• Alkalinity comes from adding trace minerals which have a buffering capacity: carbonates and bicarbonates
• Fresh green juices are a great way to alkalize the body (no ph levels)
• PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) Chart

-Robert's take on structured water…51:20

• Refers to the molecular configurations the water molecules take on that are purported to have some physiological significance
• These arrangements are very fickle; they change every second
• It fails when you drink it; no structuring can survive the stomach (remember, it can dissolve a steak)
• There have been no studies that show consistent physiological benefits
• The only structuring Robert would consider is vortexing

-And what about hydrogen-enriched water?…55:30

• Robert created the very first hydrogen reacting tablet in 2010
• Not to be confused with hydride ions (which Robert erroneously did from the outset)
• Tyler LeBaron (listen to my podcast with him) set the record straight
• You can combine Quinton minerals with h2 tablets

-What deuterium and deuterium-depleted water are…1:00:45

• The hydrogen in water consists of 3 isotopes: protium, deuterium, tritium (which is of little consequence)
• Deuterium is twice as heavy as protium (the only isotope that has that large a disparity with its sister isotope)
• Water is actually 3 different molecules: H2O, HdO, and D2O
• There are 150 deuteriums for every 1 million protiums in water
• When water is made with deuterium, it's called “heavy water” (it's used to power nuclear power facilities and make nuclear bombs)
• America won the race to extract the deuterium from regular water during World War 2
• Unusual biological effects of deuterium-depleted water on plants and animals: Increases in life span, Growth rates, Survival and diseases
• Russian scientists reported this, they were not taken seriously by the global scientific community
• Many variations or levels in which deuterium can be removed from water and still be considered “depleted”
• Incredibly complicated process of removing deuterium from water
• A camel produces deuterium-depleted water naturally; it's why they can survive without water for weeks in the desert

-And much more!

Resources from this episode:

• Spartan PodFest
• Robert Slovak's “Water & Wellness” website (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)
  • AquaTru Water Filter
  • Water and Wellness -Rich Water
  • Quinton minerals by Quicksilver Scientific (use code GREENFIELD15 to save 15%)
• Podcast: The Genius Mad Scientist Who Invented The Very First Fitness Product Ben Ever Bought – Along With “The Best
• Water Filtration System That Exists” & Much More.
• Percutaneous hydrotomy
• Zach Bush's Nitric Oxide Dump
• AquaTru minerals
• Celtic Salt (use code: BEN to save 10%)
• Steripen UV Water Purifier
• PRAL (Potential Renal Acid Load) Chart
• Greenfield Naturals Structured Water filter
• My interview on hydrogen-rich water with Tyler Lebaron
• SteriPen portable water purifier

– Robert’s 14-Ingredient Coffee Recipe” (for 3-4 cups):

– 450 ml boiling-hot water
– 3 small cups of organic espresso coffee
– 1 tbsp grass-fed butter  (use code: GREENFIELD for 15% discount storewide – Offer good for up to 2 orders per customer. Excludes orders over 40 lbs, sale items, volume discounts, and gift certificates)
– 1 fl. oz. coconut creamer
– 2 tablespoons organic MCT oil  (use code: BEN for 10% discount)
– 1 tbsp virgin coconut oil
– 1 scoop collagen peptide powder
– 1 scoop whey protein powder
– 1 heaping tsp cacao powder
– 1 heaping tsp turmeric powder
– 1 tsp Ceylon cinnamon
– 1 tsp MSM powder
– 1/2 tsp Magnesium L-threonate
– 1 scoop Active pH Restore (alkalinity powder)
– 1 scoop Active C with Ribose (Vitamin C powder)
– 1 vial QuintEssential 3.3 (minerals & trace elements)

– The supplements Robert takes:

Robert's Life Extension List:
– LEF Mix capsules
– Vitamin D3 5000IU
– Health Booster
– Super Omega-3 
– Mega Lycopene 
– Advanced Bio-Curcumin 
– Cognitex w/ Pregnenolone & Brainshield 
– Skin Restoring Phytoceramides 30 caps 
– Optimized Folate 
– Ultra Natural Prostate 
– Cardio Peak 
– Brite Eyes III 
– Macugard Ocular Support w/Astaxanthin 
– Super Miraforte 
– Endothelial Defense 
– PQQ Caps 
– Super Ubiquinol CoQ10 
– Triple Action Cruciferous 
– AMPK Activator 
– Milk Thistle 
– NAD+ Cell Regenerator 
– Super Selenium Complex 
– Neuro-Mag Threonate 
– Super Carnosine 
– Acetyl L-Carnitine Arginate
– DMAE Bitartrate
– Mega Green Tea Extract 
– DHEA Complete 
– Vinpocetine 
– Arterial Protect 
– D-Ribose powder 
– SAMe 

Robert's Water & Wellness List:
– Quinton Hypertonic (or QuintEssential) (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)
– Active Ribose C  (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)
– Active pH Restore  (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)
– Active H2 ULTRA  (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)
– Ageless Defense  (use code: GREENFIELD to save 10%)

Other Supplements Robert takes:
– Tri-Iodine
– MSM Powder
– Mega Strength Beta Sitosterol
– Wobenzym
– C3 Complex Turmeric Curcumin
– Multi-Fiber Colon Cleanse
– Mushroom Extracts  (use code: BENGREENFIELD for a 15% discount)
– MCT Oil (use code: BEN for 10% discount) & Coconut Oil

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–Kion: My personal playground for new supplement formulations. Ben Greenfield Fitness listeners receive a 10% discount off your entire order when you use discount code: BGF10.

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