Bottled water not always better!

By EMME SUELTO

DOHA: Mohamed (not his real name), a 42-year-old expatriate, suffered from high blood pressure three years after he arrived here to take up a job in January 1999.

He saw a doctor who prescribed him medicines saying that high blood pressure was common in Qatar and resulted from work-related stress.

But the medicine didn’t help Mohamed much as he always felt restless. He went to the doctor again and he made some changes in the prescription and gave him stronger drugs.

But when Mohamed went home on annual vacation, he consulted his family doctor, who said if he was to stay for two weeks he could change the medicine and prescribe some milder drugs and monitor their impact over 10 to 15 days.

With the new medication, Mohamed’s blood pressure was under control throughout his stay in his home country. He was prompted to think that one of the major factors for his improved condition could be that he was with his family and friends and had little or no stress.

But back here, even after he had brought along his wife and children as well as his medicine, he occasionally felt restless with his blood pressure readings going up.

Work, he thought, was what caused him stress and high blood pressure. But one evening, after he had poured out cold water from a bottle, a friend of his happened to read its contents on the label before consigning the empty bottle to the dustbin.

“Mohamed, you have high blood pressure and yet you are having this water which has 27mg sodium…. You will die, won’t you,” said the friend.

Mohamed had a look at the label on the water bottle and having read the contents with concern decided he wouldn’t touch that brand of water again.

He panicked since he consumed no less than three bottles of this water on average a day and he realised to his horror that not work-related tension but the use of this brand of water for more than three years could have led him to his health woes.

Mohamed immediately went out and began looking for a bottle of water that had less sodium content. He did succeed and switched to a brand of water that had sodium content of 1.50mg. Another brand he later chanced upon had even lower sodium content, of 1mg.

Mohamed’s blood pressure is much under control ever since and he now takes his medicine only once a day instead of twice.

Doctors say the standard percentage of sodium in bottled water that is safe for drinking is less than 10mg per litre, while the recommended daily calcium intake for an average person is 2,400mg.

According to Dr Jalal Fattoom, the recommended calcium intake for men and women in the age group of 19-50 is 1,000mg per day, and for people between 50 and 70 years of age, the average should be 1,200mg.

People who suffer from heart disease or kidney problems, including kidney failure, are recommended a low-sodium diet (low-sodium water as well!). High sodium intake damages the heart and the kidneys more quickly, Fattoom said.

“There is strong scientific evidence supporting the link between high sodium intake and developing high blood pressure,” he added.

The recommended daily sodium intake for people with heart and kidney problems is 1,500mg. As for calcium, it is not a health concern, according to Fattoom.

Tap water, he said, must be filtered before drinking. Other experts say tap water is safe to drink but highly sophisticated filtration devices should not be used to clean tap water because they cause the water to lose its natural properties.

But people must get tap water storage tanks in their homes cleaned regularly to make sure that pollutants do not spoil the water.

And, according to Fattoom, those who prefer to use bottled water for drinking must make sure that ideally it (bottled water) should be high in magnesium (more than 90mg per litre) and calcium (twice the amount of magnesium) and low in sodium (less than 10mg per litre).

According to figures released by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the percentage of people who have kidney failure in Qatar is similar to the percentages in other countries.

The main reasons for kidney failure are diabetes and hypertension. One study, Fattoom said, found that 60 percent of the kidney failure patients were diabetic. “But I don’t know if (bottled) water plays any role,” he said.

THE PENINSULA
Source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/121281-bottled-water-not-always-b...