Scottish mineral water 'kills cancer cells'

[WhiteTara]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/09/13/uwater.xml

The water of life – or “uisge beatha” in Gaelic - is a euphemism for whisky, but another Highland drink has been shown to have a more valid claim to the title.


The water, sourced from near Balmoral Castle, has been said to possess healing qualities since 1760

A mineral water taken from wells near the Queen’s Balmoral Castle can help to slow the spread of cancer, according to scientists.

Tests on Deeside Mineral Water suggest that it inhibits the growth of certain cancerous cells and kills other diseased cells.

Researchers from the department of biochemistry at the University of Maribor in Slovenia, placed diseased cells in the water for 10 days then compared them with cells which had been left in laboratory-grade water.

They found that the Scottish product inhibited the growth of colon cancer cells 62.5 per cent faster than ordinary water, and also encouraged the growth of healthy cells.

snip

Special properties were first attributed to the water, which comes from the Pannanich Wells near the village of Ballater and is filtered through granite, when a woman claimed in the 18th century that it had cured her of scrofula, a once common infection acquired by drinking milk from cattle with tuberculosis.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. what is 'laboratory-grade water'?

General laboratory grade water
General laboratory grade water not only has high purity in ionic terms, but low levels of organic compounds and micro-organisms. A typical specification would be a conductivity of < 1.0 µS/cm (resistivity > 1.0 MΩ-cm), a total organic carbon (TOC) content of less than 50 ppb and a bacterial count below 1 CFU/ml. Water of this quality can be used for a multiplicity of applications, ranging from the make-up of reagents and buffer solutions to the preparation of nutrient media for cell cultivation and microbiological studies. Laboratory grade water can be produced by double distillation or by water purification systems incorporating multiple purification technologies.


'sterile' water.


I'd like to see them run the same test on other water sources... rivers, glaciers, springs. Could be very interesting...

[gkdmaths]

3. Lab grade water,

reagent water, generally referred to as deionized water: best is 8 Mohm for impedance, nobody really uses conductivity in microsiemens per centimeter for DI water anymore. Generally used in analytical chemistry units, not so much for organic/synthetic facilities. Generated by constant water recirculation through anion/cation ion-exchange gels. I get to maintain a giant institutional DI generation unit. DI water is known by the non-chemist simply as distilled water, you can buy it by the gallon at safeway.

either way, this story is BS snake oil.

I have to work for some people who are trying to pass FDA standards for similar BS claims for "water" - and I hate it.

[Straight Shooter]

2. What an odd coincidence.

I just learned from someone today that she had colon cancer last October, and now I'm reading this on DU.

Thanks for sharing this. She's doing well, but I'll pass it along to her. Very interesting.