Water is the essence of life. Whether it is clean, contaminated, or contains harmful substances directly impacts our health. As we enter a stage of high-quality development, the public is increasingly concerned about the safety, healthfulness, and benefits of our drinking water.
Wang Yanxin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Image provided by China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).
In recent years, people have been consuming a large amount of purified water in their daily lives. In today's market, purified water is processed using various purification methods such as distillation, electrodialysis, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, or other suitable water purification technologies. Purified water is indeed beneficial as it removes harmful components such as bacteria, heavy metal elements, and organic substances during processing. Overall, it has low hardness, good taste, can be consumed directly, and does not form scale when boiling.
However, at the same time, it removes beneficial minerals such as potassium, calcium, and zinc from the water. Although the processed Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) are very low, is it really absolutely beneficial for the human body? I think not necessarily. Previously, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a reminder: "Purified water does not contain mineral elements and should not be consumed as the sole source of drinking water." However, the overwhelming advertising in the market has led people to only know the "good" of purified water, ignoring its "dual nature."
Let's take a look at the longevity villages, counties, and regions distributed throughout China and the world. Why do people there generally live longer? One important reason is that they rarely migrate, drink local water, and eat local grains. Relevant institutions have found through data statistics and analysis that residents living in these areas share some common habits and similar climatic conditions.
If living habits and climatic conditions are similar, the composition of the grains and water consumed by the long-lived population becomes a decisive factor. Of course, individual differences in longevity genes cannot be ruled out. This raises a good scientific proposition: What is the relationship between the quality of water and soil environment, especially drinking water, and longevity and health? In recent years, my team has been conducting research on the relationship between Earth health and life health. I named this new discipline "Health Geoscience," and I have even chosen its English name - Health Geoscience.
We study "Health Geoscience," examining the impact of the composition and evolution of the Earth's environment on human health, animal health, and environmental health. Of course, the ultimate focus is still on the impact of the Earth's environment on human health and its mechanisms. In simple terms, we want to understand which places are suitable for human habitation and why, and which places have problems and what we should do about them. We are trying to establish this disciplinary system and promote related research in the entire field.
In the past, we heard more about medical geology, which has formed a relatively mature theoretical and methodological system. Since the mid-20th century, researchers have begun studying the clinical manifestations and possible causes of endemic diseases in certain areas. Now, in our research on Health Geoscience, we need to expand the scope to study the impact of regional environments on human health and the effects of global changes, among other factors. In this process, some interesting and important research directions have emerged, such as: What is the impact of urban green spaces on residents' mental health? Can hot springs treat depression? These are not just speculative ideas but phenomena supported by literature and clinical data.
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