Potential Health Impacts of Hard Water

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Abstract

In the past five decades or so evidence has been accumulating about an environmental factor, which appears to be influencing mortality, in particular, cardiovascular mortality, and this is the hardness of the drinking water. In addition, several epidemiological investigations have demonstrated the relation between risk for cardiovascular disease, growth retardation, reproductive failure, and other health problems and hardness of drinking water or its content of magnesium and calcium. In addition, the acidity of the water influences the reabsorption of calcium and magnesium in the renal tubule. Not only, calcium and magnesium, but other constituents also affect different health aspects. Thus, the present review attempts to explore the health effects of hard water and its constituents.

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Most cited references 93

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Magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women.

Ruy Lopez-Ridaura, Meir J. Stampfer, Eric Rimm … (2003)

To examine the association between magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes. We followed 85,060 women and 42,872 men who had no history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at baseline. Magnesium intake was evaluated using a validated food frequency questionnaire every 2-4 years. After 18 years of follow-up in women and 12 years in men, we documented 4,085 and 1,333 incident cases of type 2 diabetes, respectively. After adjusting for age, BMI, physical activity, family history of diabetes, smoking, alcohol consumption, and history of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia at baseline, the relative risk (RR) of type 2 diabetes was 0.66 (95% CI 0.60-0.73; P for trend <0.001) in women and 0.67 (0.56-0.80; P for trend <0.001) in men, comparing the highest with the lowest quintile of total magnesium intake. The RRs remained significant after additional adjustment for dietary variables, including glycemic load, polyunsaturated fat, trans fat, cereal fiber, and processed meat in the multivariate models. The inverse association persisted in subgroup analyses according to BMI, physical activity, and family history of diabetes. Our findings suggest a significant inverse association between magnesium intake and diabetes risk. This study supports the dietary recommendation to increase consumption of major food sources of magnesium, such as whole grains, nuts, and green leafy vegetables.

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British Regional Heart Study: cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged men in 24 towns.

M Wale, A. Gerald Shaper, Vicki Thomson … (1981)

The British Regional Heart Study seeks to define risk factors for cardiovascular disease, to examine their interrelationships, and to explain the geographic variations in cardiovascular disease in Britain. A clinical survey of men aged 40-59 in 24 British towns was carried out and preliminary data from the survey analysed. On a town basis cardiovascular mortality was associated with mean systolic blood pressure and the prevalence of heavy cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol consumption. No such association was seen for body mass index or mean serum total cholesterol or high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. Cigarette smoking and alcohol intake and, to a less degree, systolic blood pressure were related to the social class (percentage of manual workers) of a town, and these factors may determine to some extent the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in manual workers. Blood pressure in individual subjects was affected predominantly by age, body mass index, and alcohol intake. Body mass index appeared to affect blood pressure to a greater extent than alcohol intake and did so with a consistent and positive linear trend. Nevertheless, the differences between towns in mean blood pressure readings appeared to be more closely associated with variations in the prevalence of heavy drinking than with variations in body mass index. Alcohol intake and body mass index explained only a part of the striking differences between towns in mean blood pressure readings, and some important "town"factors remained unexplained.

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Environmental and occupational exposure of metals and their role in male reproductive functions.

Pallav Sengupta (2013)

This review summarizes the effects of more than 20 metals that, research has indicated, may influence male reproductive health. Though males lack an apparent, easily measurable reproductive cycle, progress has been made in evaluating tests to identify chemical hazards and estimate reproductive health risks. Some agents discussed in this review are well known to have potential toxic effects on the male reproductive system, whereas some are not so well established in toxicology. This review attempts to cover most of the known toxicants and their effects on male fertility. The literature suggests a need for further research in those chemicals that are reactive and capable of covalent interactions in biological systems, as well as those defined as mutagens and/or carcinogens, to cause aneuploidy or other chromosomal aberrations, affect sperm motility in vitro, share hormonal activity or affect hormone action, and those that act directly or indirectly to affect the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal axis.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Prev Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Prev Med

Journal ID (publisher-id): IJPVM

Title: International Journal of Preventive Medicine

Publisher: Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd (India )

ISSN (Print): 2008-7802

ISSN (Electronic): 2008-8213

Publication date (Print): August 2013

Volume: 4

Issue: 8

Pages: 866-875

Affiliations

[1]Department of Physiology, Vidyasagar College for Women, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Author notes

Correspondence to: Dr. Pallav Sengupta, Department of Physiology, Vidyasagar College for Women, 39, Sankar Ghosh Lane, University of Calcutta, Kolkata - 700 006, West Bengal, India. E-mail: sunny_pallav_1984@ 123456yahoo.co.in

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Publisher ID: IJPVM-4-866

PMC ID: 3775162

PubMed ID: 24049611

SO-VID: 1a7ae916-83b3-4156-969c-5dd427bb5129

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

History

Date received : 19 September 2012

Date accepted : 04 March 2013

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Potential Health Impacts of Hard Water

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Tobacco Prevention & Cessation

Most cited references 93

Magnesium intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in men and women.

British Regional Heart Study: cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged men in 24 towns.

Environmental and occupational exposure of metals and their role in male reproductive functions.

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Cited by 32