Kangen Water Review: Is Alkaline Ionized Water Good for Your Health?

This Kangen water review is an opinion piece.

When I first posted about Kangen a few years ago, I was inundated with angry, hateful messages from Kangen salespeople and followers (mostly salespeople), most of whom wanted to tell me how wrong I was and that their uncle/mother/neighbor/someone cured cancer/recovered from walking/cured an autoimmune disease by drinking Kangen Water from a Kangen Water Machine.

I have received comments in my comment section saying that thanks to Kangen water, they have not had the flu for 10 years, and that their friends have been cured of AIDS and cancer.

Many of them sound like this:

Have you tested the waters?
Have you ever drunk water?
You can’t give an opinion without having tried it
Do you know how many people are drinking that water and how it helps cure cancer and many other diseases?
This is a medical device and has been approved by over 7000 doctors.

So before you waste your time writing articles that are not true, test the waters

That’s totally fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

But what no one has a right to is their own science, and in my opinion, Kangen Water salespeople and users have really lost sight of that fact.

Let’s talk Kangen, water, and science.

What is reduced water?

The Kangen water machine is made by a company called Enagic, which changes the pH value of water by running it through metal plates in a process called “electrolysis,” allowing the company to claim that their water is “ionized” and “alkaline.”

This machine is very expensive, costing thousands of dollars, and the claims made about this machine seem to justify the cost of the Kangen machine.

Kangen Water’s Claims

Proponents and sellers of Kangen water say it hydrates the body better than regular water, improves health, detoxifies the body and keeps you younger for longer. It also claims to make hair thicker and help you sleep better.

They also believe that Kangen water and other ionized waters have antioxidant properties that can help prevent and cure disease. This is a big claim, especially when we’re talking about water and incurable diseases that leave people desperate and debilitated in their search for some kind of cure.

Without a doubt, Japan has given the world many amazing things: groundbreaking electronics, beautiful ceramics, martial arts, the best chef’s knives ever made, and even general anesthesia was developed by Japanese scientists.

Kangen is the Japanese creator of cult-favorite water purifiers and ionizers.

But one thing this country has yet to do is change human physiology. This is an important consideration when looking at the efficacy of Kangen Water for all the effects people claim. Physiology, especially the acid-base system, is not something that can be manipulated at will.

That is the reality and ultimately you have to work within it.

What is pH?

Acidity and alkalinity, or pH, is measured on a scale of 0-14.

Pure water has a pH of 7, Canadian tap water ranges from 7 to 10.5, and US tap water is probably about the same.

Types of reduced water

The Kangen water machine produces five different “types” of water, or pH options.

Strong reduced water

Strongly alkaline Kangen Water has a pH of 11 (very alkaline) and is not suitable for drinking.

The company says this type of water is ideal for food preparation (“removing the fishy smell from vegetables”) and cleaning.

Reduced Water

Kangen water has a pH of 8.5 to 9.5. Kangen claims that “this electrolytically reduced hydrogen-rich water helps return the body to a more alkaline state, which is optimal for health.”

Clean Water

Clean water has a pH of 7.0, which means it is neutral and “easily absorbed by the body” (their claim, not mine).

Kangen says the water is perfect for making baby food and taking medicines.

Beauty Water

Beauty water has a pH of 4.0 to 6.0. “This slightly acidic water is said to have an astringent effect. It is ideal for gentle cleansing and beauty care.”

Strong acid water

Strongly acidic water with a pH of 2.7 is used for disinfection.

According to Kangen, “The water has disinfecting properties. Use the highly acidic water to disinfect kitchen utensils, counters, etc. to prevent cross-contamination.”

Let’s take hospitals as an example. These facilities have strict infection control standards and disinfection of all surfaces within the hospital is essential. As someone who has worked in hospitals in both the US and Canada, I can categorically say that I have never seen a facility that uses acidic water to disinfect anything.

Is Kangen water good for your health?

There is a lot to say about this.

Let’s start with the alkaline water and health theory. Unfortunately, this is complete nonsense. Unfortunately, many of the selling points for Kangen water machines are based on the assumption that alkaline water will promote good health.

Some Kangen salespeople say that there are many studies that say that drinking alkaline water is good for your health, but this is false. Many Kangen salespeople have sent me the same Japanese studies on ionized water. So, yes, I have seen those studies, but if you are a Kangen salesperson reading this, those studies are not convincing. So, I don’t need to read those studies again.

In my conversation with a Kangen sales representative, I was told to “Google” such studies, which

1. There is no research

2. The person has no knowledge of science at all.

If you’re selling something that you claim is backed by research, it’s your responsibility to provide that research upon request. Telling me to look up the research for myself is a huge red flag.

While the current research on alkaline water is small and unconvincing, if you can’t interpret the studies or don’t bother to look at them in the first place, you might believe someone’s claim that there is “good research” on a product.

Don’t make that mistake!

Do you need alkaline water to detoxify and balance your body?

no!

Human physiology is an amazing thing, involving complex processes that maintain homeostasis within the body.

Balancing pH is a process that is carried out entirely by your kidneys and lungs and has absolutely nothing to do with what you eat or reduced water.

Oh, do I need to say that again for the people in the back?

You cannot control your body’s pH with food or water.

Our blood has a tightly regulated pH of 7.4.

Many alkaline water advocates claim that an unhealthy diet can cause “systemic acidosis,” another crazy scare that I simply cannot stand.

Systemic (or metabolic) acidosis can result in admission to intensive care, but it is not caused by eating “acidic” foods.

The most common causes of metabolic acidosis are:

Ketoacidosis due to type 1 diabetes.

Renal failure.

Excessive lactate buildup due to shock.

Fistulas and other conditions cause loss of digestive tract.

Notice that “consuming acidic foods” isn’t on the list. This is because the concept of “systemic acidosis” in the acid-alkaline diet is entirely invented.

If we could control our body’s pH through what we eat, we’d all be dead by now. Having an imbalanced body pH wouldn’t cause a whole host of horrible diseases, because no one lives their daily lives with that condition. They’re being treated in hospitals… and they’re not being treated with ionized water.

The importance of acid-base balance is simple, and there is no excuse for ignoring it or not understanding it just for the sake of making money.

There is no scientific basis for the claim that alkaline water is more absorbent and hydrates you better than regular water “at a cellular level.” “At a cellular level?” That’s just marketing nonsense.

Because we are made of cells, everything we do affects us at a cellular level.

Ordinary water from the tap does a great job of keeping us hydrated; otherwise, we’d all be walking around dehydrated.

Can acidic water disinfect or sanitize surfaces?

Another misleading claim made by Enagic is that Kangen’s “acidic” water can disinfect and sanitize surfaces.

This is not only impossible, but extremely dangerous.

In other words, Kangen’s “strongly acidic water” has a pH of 2.7. To put this in perspective, lemon juice has a pH of 2 and orange juice has a pH of 3.

In other words, Kangen’s “strong acidic water” has an acidity level somewhere between that of lemon juice and orange juice.

Do you use lemon or orange juice to disinfect contaminated countertops?

Try spilling raw chicken juices on your kitchen counter, wiping it up with lemon juice, and then making a salad on the same counter.

You don’t want to do that, right? Why?

Because it’s completely negligent to tell people that a pH of 2.7 can disinfect anything when it can’t.

And Kangen’s website actually states: “Beauty salons, hair salons, restaurants, agricultural colleges, daycare centers, pet stores, nursing homes, and many more can all benefit greatly from using highly acidic water.

A daycare center or a nursing home? I think it should be illegal to even make this claim. Do not use water of any kind to clean contaminated surfaces.

Incidentally, Kangen Water is not an antioxidant. I don’t understand that.

Kangen users post all sorts of crazy fear-mongering rubbish online, such as:

What all of these have in common is that It’s all fear-based, talking about toxins, government conspiracies and chemical phobia — none of these marketing tactics are ethical or helpful.

Mixing meat and starch is safe (not surprisingly, advocates of the alkaline diet claim so), and what’s in that nasty photo is not colon cancer.

Also, Kangen water does not cure cancer. There is no food or drink that can cure cancer. If it could, cancer wouldn’t exist.

Kangen water has no more beneficial effects than regular water when it comes to hair, sleep, risk of disease, skin, or anything else.

Despite claims that tap water is “toxic,” it’s not poisonous. Tap water is heavily regulated, and anyone who claims otherwise is probably using scare tactics to try to sell you something… like a totally ineffective $5,000 Kangen water ionizer.

Oh, and did I mention Kangen is an MLM company? That’s not shocking at all.