A new Japanese study reveals that drinking seawater (DSW) may help relieve those with stomach troubles from pain, indgestion, and even decrease the risk of developing stomach cancer and ulcers, the Daily Mail reports.
Researchers at the Kochi Medical School in Japan asked 23 patients to drink DSW, thinking that it might help kill the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, which infects up to four in ten people at some stage during their lives. The bacteria is the main cause of stomach ulcers, triggering an ulcer in about 15 percent of those infected.
If Helicobacter pylori, as scientists hypothesize, damages the lining of the stomach, acid from the stomach can irritate tissue underneath, triggering indgestion, ulcers and increasing the risk of developing stomach cancer. If someone is found to be carrying the bacteria, they are typically prescribed antibiotics to reduce the amount of acid in their stomach, though scientists are concerned about drug-resistant strains of the bug appearing, as well as potential side effects from the antibiotics, including vertigo, diarrhea, headache and nausea. Thus, studies are now being conducted about the possible benefits of DSW, a drug-alternative.
Of the 23 people who drank the seawater as prescribed at the Kochi Medical School, bacteria numbers in their bodies were reduced by 60 percent. Researchers believe that the high levels of calcium, potassium and magnesium found in seawater is toxic to the Helicobacter pylori bacteria, perhaps damaging the outer walls of its cells.
A new two-week trial at the National Taiwan University Hospital involving 60 infected patients is now underway. Half of the patients will drink 200ml of deep seawater four times a day, one hour before meals and at bedtime, while half will be given conventional water as a control.
"This looks like fascinating work, and it is interesting that it reduces numbers of the bacteria," John Mason, gastroenterologist from Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said to the Daily Mail on the new trial. "However, we don't know yet if the bacteria numbers increase when people stop drinking the water. At this stage, we simply do not know how useful it will be. And one of the problems is that this water won't be regulated as a medicine so people will need to be wary of claims made for it."
A recent study at the College of Medicine and Intractable Disease Research Center at Dongguk University in South Korea analyzed the affects of deep seawater on breast cancer cells, as "recently, the scientific community has begun to establish the health benefits of deep-sea water (DSW) due to its enrichment in nutrients and minerals."
So even though you were likely warned not to drink seawater as a child, scientists believe it may have great medicinal benefits.
