El agua de mar es fuente de vida y de salud
Wilmer Soler: "My motivation was always to investigate to provide
a solution to the problem of malnutrition in Latin America"
Is seawater drinkable or is it toxic? That is the first concern of people. Therefore, Wilmer Soler, a Colombian Professor of Biochemistry found it necessary to follow up René Quinton's studies and others that were conducted in Europe and Asia. In 2003, he began to analyze seawater collected in a nature reserve in the Colombian Caribbean. He admits that it was difficult to convince the Ethics Committee of the University of Antioquia (Colombia) to allow him to test in humans. Thanks to the moral and financial support of Aquamaris Foundation (based in Badalona, Spain) he obtained the authorisation from the educational institution as well as human resources for the reseach in its laboratory.
Soler and his team began to analyze the water that was being distributed free of charge in a marine dispensary in the town of La Ceja. "We analized the microbiological components and the heavy metals and we realized that the water was unfit for consumption", he recalls. The problem was the presence of fecal coleiformes. In Colombia discharges are made at the edge of the beach. Unfortunately, there is no culture of caring about the beaches for tourism, as in Europe.
So Soler and his team decided to create a seawater treatment plant in the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Antioquia, with its own transportation system and as a separate activity from what was being done in La Ceja. "We did not want to risk the health of people and additionally we had to follow international standards for drinking water", he said.
Studies of the University of Antioquia were performed with seawater collected 10km from the coast and at a depth of about 5 meters deep. Soler states that his team could demostrate that it is not necessary to collect water from a greater depht than this and neither in the vortex. Several studies conducted in Asian countries claim that seawater collected at a depth of between 200 and 300 meters is very rich in plankton and is free of potentially pathogenic microorganisms. However, Soler warned that it also contains nitrites and nitrates, which pose a risk to human health.
In the vortex there is a lot of microbial flora, but that does not mean that there is no plankton somewhere else in the sea, claimed this scientist. The microbial flora play an important role in the production of organic matter. Marine microorganisms convert inorganic minerals into organic matter in order to introduce them into their metabolism. Similarly human beings cannot assimilate inorganic minerals. For example, 99% of the copper that we find in seawater is assimilated perfectly by our digestive system and by our cells due to the resident microbial flora, Soler said.
His latest study, not yet published, was conducted on a sample of 164 children aged between 2 and 6 years with allergic rhinitis and serious malnutrition. They divided the sample into two groups: one received a saline solution, while the other had a treatment with seawater introduced by drinking and intranasally. After 3 months, they noted that children who ingested seawater had greater growth compared with those on saline. Soler said that this is due to the fact that seawater provides minerals for the development of bones, specially important at this stage of growth. "The interesting thing for Latin America and the poor countries, but also for the people worldwide, is that we are demonstrating that seawater which doesn't necessarily come from the vortex or from deep in the sea has also nutritional and medicinal properties", Soler stated. He insists that plankton exists everywhere, as they have seen marine microorganisms in the seawater collected for their studies, although he admits that there is more plankton in some areas than in others.
Wilmer Soler is a permanent professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry and Director of the extension program of Seawater at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Antioquia, in Medellín (Colombia)
By Nieves Pellicer Sotomayor
Since the University did not want to keep a project that would not be self-sufficient, Soler has just created Amaris, a family business, with his son, a chemical-pharmacist, and his daughter, a biological engineer. This project has been set up for is commercialisation of seawater for the kitchen. The aim is to fund new research projects within the University of Antioquia and continue the free distribution of seawater to sectors of the population with fewer resources. So, people who can buy water would support this charity project benefiting all.
The project is currently seeking funding, but also authorization. In Colombia, marketing of seawater is not yet allowed, not even for cooking. The project is now in the final phase of health approval, and once approved, Amaris will start marketing. But for that, laws must be changed.
"We will start with this first line for kitchen, but the plan is to develop for pharmaceutical use. However, for that the requirements are generally more demanding. And, although we have evidence of the therapeutic properties of seawater, we prefer to start with something simple, like domestic use in the kitchen", Soler said.
The positive effects of surface seawater
They collected and stored seawater in the laboratory for 5 months. After that time, ten of the fifteen samples appeared to be disinfected on their own, but the other five showed residual indicators of fecal contamination. Therefore, "it is not true that water is disinfected always alone and completely in hours or days, as I have heard", he said. The marine environment is not ideal for terrestrial bacteria. Therefore they finally not survive, but Soler asserted, that would not happen overnight.
"If someone wants to collect seawater at the seashore, they have the right to do so, even if its contaminated, but I have a moral obligation to make known to the public the results of scientific studies that I have participated in and warn of the risks that they may highlight", Soler said.
When seawater is disinfected in the laboratory, the goal is not to destroy all marine flora, which easily happens during sterilization, when it is heated to more than 80 degrees. The goal is to remove microorganisms that indicate fecal contamination, Soler said. With a ceramic filter of 0.5 microns, as used by René Quinton, we can retain large organisms such as pathogenic bacteria, and let through microplankton and minerals which pose no health problems. With a filter of 0.22, required by current pharmacopoeia standards, virtually all microorganisms are killed.
Sample: 32 adults with gastritis
Goal: to evaluate the possible toxicity from the intake of natural seawater for 5 months in a group of patients with gastritis
Observations: no toxic effects were observed, despite the high volume of water ingested by some patients. Furthermore, no adverse effects on blood pressure were seen. Two overweight patients lost some weight and two with weight deficit took some kilos. No pathological changes in genotoxicity testing were observed. However, significant increases in direct bilirubin and transaminase AST were observed. Improvement was noted in the symptoms of gastritis in almost all patients, except one, who became symptomatic. In some cases, even other symptoms such as constipation and gastric reflux were also improved. About a third of the patients expressed feeling greater vitality and less physical and mental fatigue, possibly due to increased blood magnesium, which plays an important role in cellular activity.
Study: Absence of toxicity from ingestion of natural seawater in patiends with gastritis (2007)
Sample: 2-6 year old children of low socioeconomic stratum
Goal: to compare treatment with diluted seawater and physiological saline solution on symptoms of allergic rhinitis in children aged 2-6 years by intranasal administration and drinking for 12 weeks.
Observations: Assessment of growth control at the beginning and end of the study was made through anthropometry. A more significant growth of the bones was observed in the group that took seawater. There was also a further reduction of clinical symptoms of rhinitis observed in this group.
Study: Efficiency of the treatment of allergic rhinitis with seawater by intake and nasal lavage (2013)
Minerals are essential for the body, but too much is a matter of life or death, warned Soler. A person can be poisoned and die due to an excess of iron, copper, sodium or magnesium. We already consume them with food. Therefore, the excess can come from food supplements. We should therefore maintain a balance, adviced this researcher. If we incorporate seawater into our feed, we will provide the daily requirements of those minerals by 80%. With a daily glass of hypertonic seawater we would cover the needs of those minerals without exceeding, except in the case of sodium. "Sodium itself represents an overload problem when we introduce seawater in our feeding, because -due to cultural habits- Western countries exceed two or three times the sodium that body requires. We got used to the salty taste of food", he said.
Attention to salt
The solidary seawater consumption
It has been estimated that primitive humans consumed only 0.25 grams of salt a day, in food, and did not add salt as a supplement. Today we consume between 6 and 10 grams per day, depending on the region. Soler recommends to those who start drinking seawater to reduce the use of salt in cooking. Refined salt is pure clorude sodium. Seasalt is complete, but when seawater is cristallized, its organic component also deteriorates. Therfore, as already demonstrated by René Quinton, seasalt plus fresh water is not the same as seawater.
Soler and his team studied the overload of sodium in 32 adults with gastritis. There were people who had not taken seawater before. The study took six months, during which volunteers consumed a daily average of 350ml of seawater. After that period they reported a significant increase in trasaminases and bilirubin. However, there was no risk to those people because the consumption was for a short period. But Soler decided to conduct a study in adults (4 men and 4 women) who had over 3 years of ingesting seawater, with an average daily consumption 200ml. They reported very high levels of transaminases and bilirubin, which pose a risk of hepatic and haematologic problems. "These studies led us to the conclusion that if you drink seawater, you should avoid, where possible, the use of salt in food", said Soler.
Professor Soler states that ideally we should incorporate seawater into the kitchen. However, transport costs of seawater from the coast to the community are very high. While they had financial support of the Aquamaris Foundation, seawater was distributed for free to several cities in Colombia. However, when they ran out of funding, research in seawater at the University of Antioquia also stopped. Soler does not give up and has launched a charity project to go on investigating and to provide a solution to the problem of malnutrition in Latin America.
Refined salt is pure sodium chloride. Modern western culture is now used to cook with an excess of this food supplement.
An excess of sodium chloride carries a risk of liver damage and haematological problems
Thanks to solidary consumption, Amaris would have the opportunity to provide seawater to new reseach at the University, but the biggest challenge now is to find other sources of financing, due to the high costs of transportation, processing, etc.
Soler is already preparing a project plan following the latest study on rhinitis and nutrition, focused on the malnourished population where he predicts a significant impact if the treatment is applied to a greater number of people. "We will not give up these investigations. I will spend more time on them and then we will keep on solving the problems of economic resources", he stated with determination.
Sample: 30 samples of seawater were collected in polyethylene containers of 20 liters in three different locations in the Colombian Atlantic coast
Goal: to compare the efficiency of three methods of microbial control: microfiltration, sun exposure and quarantine.
Observations: in 15 of the samples collected enterobacteria such as E.coli and halophilic bacteria such as Vibrio and Aeromonas were found. The ceramic microfiltration through 0.5 microns resulted in disinfection in 100% of the samples, while quarantine for 5 months and solar disinfection were effective at 66 and 21% respectively. The latter one requires certain climate conditions to achieve disinfection and it is only effective for small volumes. It is therefore recommended to collect the water in the open sea, in clean areas and to perform microfiltration.
Study: Microbial control of seawater by microfiltration (2010)
Summary of some of the studies conducted by Wilmer Soler and his colleagues at the University of Antioquia
