The next morning, I woke up nine-tenths dead – I felt really, really bad.strong> My wife had left early in the morning on business, and came home about four in the afternoon. I thought I would be dead soon, and I gave her all the passwords to our bank accounts. Later that day, she and one of her friends took me to the nearest ER which was about 30 miles away. I guess I didn’t have enough money in the bank for her to let me die. By this time, I could not stand or walk without help.
I was kept overnight in the hospital, and was scanned, poked, and prodded all night long. I was seen by several doctors – one said he found nothing wrong, another said my kidneys were failing, and a third prescribed an asthma inhaler – the same brand and type as the first doctor I saw. Again, I threw it away
I was terrified – I assumed that my kidneys were failing and I didn’t think I’d last a week. I tried to see the doctor I had seen earlier the morning I got out of the hospital just to get some answers, but he didn’t see patients that day. His receptionist was rather rude about it – see him later in the week or go back to the ER.
After some searching, my wife found a doctor that would see me. He looked at the ER and hospital records and declared that my kidneys were not failing, that I did not have asthma or need an inhaler, and there was nothing wrong with me except some mild arthritis. I pointed out that I could not stand or walk without help and slept 23 out of the 24 hours in a day, so there obviously was something wrong. I was sent to a clinic where they took several tubes of blood, and then my wife took me home, and I slept.
After several days, the doctor told my wife that all the blood tests turned up negative, but he scheduled some more blood tests, and a thyroid biopsy, and some sort of nerve test where they stick needles into you and run electric current – he warned me it would be somewhat painful.
My wife took me to get the second round of blood tests. The technician had trouble finding a vein, and I went out like a light. When I woke up, a nurse in the ER was cutting my clothes off. When I woke up, she told me “you are the most excitement we have had all day”. Apparently, I had been out for quite a while, and had turned a rather dark shade of green, according to my wife. She thought that I had died. The ER doctor asked me what my problem was, since the blood tests requested were rather unusual. I told him that I didn’t know. He told me that I was unusually weak and dehydrated, and most emphatically told me not to have any invasive procedures done until I had regained some strength because they could easily kill me. They kept me at the ER for about four hours.
My wife took me home, and immediately cancelled all of the scheduled biopsies and tests. The next day, against my protestations, she hauled me to an alternative medicine clinic run by a licensed MD that had gotten fed up with the conventional medical practices. At this time, I strongly did not believe in “alternative medicine”.
The first thing that became apparent is that the doctor and his staff actually listened to me, and asked detailed questions covering every detail of what I was going through, and asked my opinion of what was going on.
The following took place over a period of six months or more – I cannot remember exactly, but it was a long time. The first month or so I spent sleeping 23 out of 24 hours a day.
I won’t go into all of the treatments in detail (with a few exceptions, vitamins, minerals, and natural remedies). One procedure that was done is called “live blood analysis”. Conventional practitioners now call this quackery – but it used to be a common practice 40 years ago, and is stilled used by researchers. I observed the entire procedure, which basically consists of drawing a drop of blood and looking at it under a video microscope. The result was somewhat disturbing – in addition to various “stuff” floating around in my blood – fat and uric acid crystals, among other things - a significant number of my red blood cells looked like deflated balloons and starfish. The technician told me that he did not know the cause, or the cure, but it was obvious something was stressing my blood cells and that I had a “leaky colon”.
Now this is where the Tyent comes in. The alternative medicine doctor told me to drink at least 64 ounces of water a day. Plain water was good enough, but ionized water would be better.
My wife had a friend who was selling Kangen water ionizers. She volunteered to provide me with ionized water to prove that it would do some good.
For months, my wife would fetch ionized water for me. At this time, I was slowly getting better, staying awake longer and going into work a few hours a week. Being somewhat skeptical about the ionized water, I stopped drinking it for a week, twice, and drank tap water. Both times, I could tell the difference – I started feeling worse, very quickly, when I stopped drinking it, and got better when I started drinking the ionized water. Before I fell ill, I was having trouble urinating – just getting old, I supposed. A few months after starting with the ionized water, the difficulty urinating became less and less. Now, it is not a problem anymore. Also, I used to eat antacids like candy – I have always had an acid reflux problem. Over a relatively short period of time, my acid reflux went away. I seldom need antacid anymore.
I also found that the taste of the ionized water was very good. Filtered water and bottled water is just “bland” – the only way to describe it. The ionized water is just more drinkable to me.
OK, now it was clear to me that I needed my own water ionizer. The price of the Kangen ionizer was outrageous, plus the technology was quite old – it works, but very heavy and requires periodic cleaning.
I looked at a lot of brands, and settled on the Tyent because the price was affordable, the technology more recent, the self-cleaning feature, and the lifetime warranty.
My wife bought the lady that was providing the Kangen ionized water for me a very nice thank you gift.
I also looked into the technology of water ionizers on the internet. A lot of educated people who should know better say it is quackery and you cannot “ionize water” because pure water is a non-conductor, and in any case, if you did succeed in putting ions in it, they would just recombine and neutralize each other.
I remember a demonstration in physics class at Ga. Tech. The professor had a large, glass plate capacitor which could be disassembled. Glass is a non-conductor. He charged the capacitor up, and carefully disassembled it. He then shorted the conductive plates together to show that there was no charge on the plates. He then passed the glass plate around the class. He then reassembled the capacitor, and drew a three inch arc from the conductive plates. The purpose of the demonstration was to show that the charge in a capacitor is stored in the non-conductive dielectric. OK, I reasoned, now replace the glass with water – a water capacitor. Charge up the conductive plates. The water next to one plate will have an excess of electrons, the water next to the other plate will have a dearth of electrons. Now quickly remove the water next to each plate – the water next to one plate will be stuck with an excess of electrons, the water next to the other plate will suffer from a lack of electrons. The purer the water, the better this works. In any case, I was clear to me those on the internet – some who are PhDs – that argue that there is no such thing as ionized water should call their University and ask for their money back for giving them such a poor education in physics.
In any case, I not only satisfied myself that not only do water ionizers actually put a charge into the water, but that alkaline water is actually very good for you.
After six or seven months of alternative medical treatment, including copious amounts of ionized water, I begin to become my old, irascible self again. At the insistences of my wife, I had another live blood analysis. This time, all of my red blood cells were nice round like they are supposed to be, no fat in the blood, no uric acid crystals or anything else that was not supposed to be there. Objective proof that the treatments prescribed by the alternative medicine physician actually had an effect.
In about a year after I first became ill, I was able to begin seriously exercising again. I had gained 40 pounds over this period – doing nothing but sleeping and eating is not particularly good for you. I was too heavy to start jogging again, plus my leg muscles had atrophied. I started riding a recumbent tadpole tricycle (not what you think – it is a lean, mean, speed machine if you are man enough to pedal it). I started out barely being able to go 13 mph – now I can hold 22mph on the flats.
In summary, I’m now 69 years old. I can pee again. I lost the 40 extra pounds. I regularly ride Centurys on my recumbent trike faster than a lot younger folks on expensive diamond frame bikes – today I knocked off a 40 mile, very hilly ride with the local bike club. I will be riding the Cap2Cap Century (Richmond to Williamsburg) in May.
I still have my Tyent I bought years ago, it still works great, and my wife and I still religiously drink the ionized water from it.
What caused me to fall so seriously ill? I never found out – perhaps it was a pollen allergy - the day I was jogging was a severe pollen day – I probably will never know.
As to the extent that ionized water played in my recovery, I can only say that it very noticeably made a difference. As to what role it plays today in my overall health, I cannot say, but I feel great, and I can pee again and I do not have an acid reflux problem. I still drink copious amounts of alkaline water, and you could not pull my Tyent away from me with elephants.
I also have become a firm believer in alternative medicine. I am convinced conventional medicine would have literally biopsied me and drugged me to death, and, after the autopsy, they would have told my wife what killed me.
It can be argued that I eventually would have recovered on my own, if left alone. But three things are clear to me – conventional medical practices would have either killed me or left me disabled and on expensive prescription drugs, the alternative medicine, at worst, did no harm (and I’m convinced that it worked), and the ionized water makes me feel better and seems to have largely eliminated my life-long acid reflux problem.