Kangen Water: Miracle or Hoax?

The testimonials are impressive. Smoother skin, weight loss and elimination of arthritis—these are just a few of the many outcomes local residents have said to experienced from the trademarked Kangen water—also known as ionized or alkaline water.

“I have had several patients who do drink Kangen water, and they have had good results in terms of feeling better,” said Lilian Au, ND, who works at Paracelsus Natural Family Health Center in Pasadena. “[I’ve seen] an improvement in their symptoms due to their chronic illness or overall health.”

While she has found little clinical research on Kangen (named for a Japanese word meaning "back to origin") water, Au, who also serves on the Membership Committee for the California Naturopathic Doctors Association located in San Marino, said without good filtration, there are many impurities that can acidify water and hypothetically affect an individual’s health in the long-run.

“You find a correlation with increasing chronic illness, fatigue and stress when people have more of an acidic environment in their body composition,” Au explained. "With poor Western diets that are high in fat and protein and stressful lifestyles, they cause an acid/alkaline imbalance in our body."

The Kangen machines, which can hook up to your kitchen faucet and range between $1,300 and $6,000, essentially perform electrolysis on tap water serving as a filter and ultimately altering pH levels. Made by the Japan-based company Enagic, 600,000 of these machines were sold globally in 2010, according to Kangen educator and salesperson Becky Schaer.

Users can choose their desired pH level; water with high levels between 8.5 and 9.5 is meant to drink. But the machine can also produce low pH water, also known as acidic water, which can be used for cleaning purposes—to disinfect or sanitize. Lastly, water with a pH of 5.5 is said to have anti-aging effects on the skin and can be used as a toner.

It’s no secret that there are impurities in the water we drink. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 1 million people in the United States get sick from contaminated water, and 900 die from waterborne diseases every year.

In relation to San Marino residents, about 90 percent of the town’s water is produced from the Raymond and Upper San Gabriel basins, while the remainder comes from The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (the Main San Gabriel Basin groundwater is also recharged in part by water supplied by Metropolitan). Having been tested 12,680 times, a total of 27 chemical pollutants have been found in the Metropolitan’s water since 2004. This is compared to a national average of eight, according to the Environmental Working Group’s website.

So it’s a fact that we should filter the water we drink. But is Kangen water better than say a Brita filter or bottled water?

There are skeptics. James Ellern, who serves as manager of the organic chemistry lab at the University of Southern California, refers to the machines as “sales fiction” and says the claims that this water has health benefits or anti-aging properties “just doesn't make any chemical or scientific sense.”

While he agrees that water with low pH levels can most definitely kill bacteria—acting as a source to sanitize your kitchen or heal a wound—this can also be done without one of Enagic’s machines. “Just take ordinary vinegar,” Ellern said. “Most micro-organisms don’t live well at a pH of below about three but, you know, Coca-Cola has got a pH of about 2.5—cleans rust and takes stains off your bumpers.”

"I think anything is a substantial placebo effect for true believers," he continued.

And true believers there are: teachers, dentists, chiropractors—even the current mayor of Alhambra, Gary Yamauchi.

“All of a sudden, I was walking more often without a cane,” said Yamauchi, 66, who is recovering from a stroke and has been religiously drinking the water for the past four months. “I’ve lost weight, and my body feels overall better.”