The market is changing today, and it is challenging to find regular water filters or purifiers, the most commonly found machines are RO Water Purifiers or Reverse Osmosis machines.

While there is nothing wrong with the machine in itself, if you are using it for water with a TDS limit of less than 500, know that this creates innumerable problems with your health, including your bones and digestive system.

We first became aware of this a few years ago, when people from certain rural and village areas would have commonalities like low vitamin D3, B12, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and other electrolyte imbalances.

So, what is TDS? It stands for Total Dissolved Solids, and measures the quality of the water. The solids refer to salts and compounds dissolved in water, and that need to be filtered out.

In areas saturated with excess pesticides, they seep into the water and lakes in and around those areas due to which the TDS increases. This is mostly found in desert areas, or regions that use seawater. So, in areas where the TDS is high (above 500), an RO machine is needed. According to WHO, the quality of tested water is determined in the following manner.

However, the Indian Bureau of Standards states that water with a TDS reading ranging between 300 and 600 is okay, but anything above 500 requires an RO machine. This removes the TDS, and all the dangerous particles that can harm you.

If you already have an RO machine installed at home, but the TDS is below 500, your own water is being stripped of all the necessary minerals and salts necessary for your health. The dissolved salts and compounds in water need to be removed by Reverse Osmosis, only if required, and if not, it is wise to remove that machine and go back to using a regular water filter or the traditional boiling of water followed by simple filtration.

What happens if TDS is below 500, but you still have an RO machine installed?

1. It affects your intestinal mucosal linings, which is your gut health in simple words.

And, what is the number one problem most of us are facing today? Gut issues! Your food, exercise, and sleep can be great, but if your water quality is not at par, you are still damaging your health.

• It affects your metabolism, and almost everything in our body is connected to a healthy metabolism.

• It depletes calcium and magnesium, which ultimately leads to low Vitamin D3, which is critical for bone health, hormones, and immunity. We are aware of farmers, who work in sunny fields with bare backs for hours together, and yet are low on Vitamin D3, which speaks a lot about the quality of water they are drinking.

Additionally, when you cook food in this kind of water, minerals are further depleted. So, while you may be cooking mineral-dense foods, the water used in your cooking is stripping away all of them.

• It increases potassium and chloride depletion, leading to electrolyte imbalance, and moving you further away from homeostasis.

• It also depletes vitamin B12, which is necessary for cognitive, neurological, brain function, and development of a foetus.

So, something as simple as drinking water could be causing so much destruction, if we use an RO machine for water that does not even have TDS above 500. It is even more harmful to pregnant mothers, because a pregnant mother’s calcium demands are generally higher, and drinking water strips of all the important minerals like magnesium and calcium, which could cause vitamin D3 deficiency, affecting the foetus. It is also a concern for growing children and senior citizens, who complain of easy fractures and osteoporosis, because it affects bone health too.

There is a saying, “If you have a fish in a fish tank, and the fish keeps falling sick, you do not keep treating the fish, you need to change the water, i.e. the environment”.

The RO machine is being sold to us as a product with clever marketing, and while so many of us already have it, it is so important to know if its installation is justified or not. Using an RO does not mean your water is healthy. It means that it is only getting stripped of vital minerals and knowing how even one mineral or vitamin deficiency can be the start of any disease, it is crucial to reconsider its use.

RO is required for water with TDS higher than 500, for which one needs first to measure this through a testing meter. You can ask your water filter company to do it, or you can simply do it yourself too. Accordingly, decide if you need one installed or not.

So, get down to the basics. Popping more supplements to fix deficiencies will not help, if your basics are not in place.

Also read: The Importance Of Vitamin D For Your Bones, Digestion And Much More.