Shownotes
What do you think? Written out about ten times now
A US Marine Corps veteran and University of Michigan graduate, Ken Guoin has devoted over 35 years to advancing water purification, inspired by mountain lakes from his youth. In 2010, he launched Ophora Water to “put the nature back into water,” developing a patented 14-step filtration process that removes contaminants, re-mineralises with natural elements for optimal human health.
Today, Ken’s vision has evolved into a complete ecosystem of water solutions. From bottled water to whole home systems and therapeutic spas, all have been created to help the body function as nature intended.
Ken continues to innovate and educate, reminding people that water isn’t just something we drink — it’s something we depend on to truly live well.
> During our discussion, you’ll discover:
(00:06:45) Where does the name Ophora come from
(00:08:37) Hyperoxygenated weather
(00:17:10) What is nanopure water
(00:20:05) Ophora’s water purification process
(00:23:06) Carbon water filtration
(00:27:23) Structured/EZ water
(00:30:14) Glass vs plastic water bottles
(00:37:08) Water remineralisation
(00:42:05) How long does hyperoxygenated water last
(00:46:22) Potential health benefits of oxygenated water
(00:49:01) Hyperoxygenated water vs other oxygen methods (eg HBOT)
(00:58:25) The Ophora product range
(01:01:11) Hydrogen-enriched water
(01:04:58) How to respond to critics of the ‘water industry’
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Transcripts
Welcome to the VP Lifeblood Coast, the
Speaker:show where we bring you actionable health
Speaker:advice from leading minds.
Speaker:I'm your host Rob.
Speaker:My guest today is Ken Yeon, an
Speaker:entrepreneur, inventor and the founder of
Speaker:Afora Water, a company that aims to
Speaker:change the way we think about water.
Speaker:Expect to learn what hyper oxygenated
Speaker:water is, how oxygen is used by the body
Speaker:to produce energy and improve health, and
Speaker:how Afora aims to change the water market
Speaker:with its unique solutions.
Speaker:Now, on to the
Speaker:conversation with Ken Yeon.
Speaker:Good evening Ken.
Speaker:Well, morning there I suppose.
Speaker:It's great to finally
Speaker:have you on the show.
Speaker:I know we're going to be getting into the
Speaker:nitty gritty of Afora
Speaker:and well, all things water.
Speaker:But before we dive in, do I get no idea,
Speaker:I need to rethink, that's
Speaker:a terrible pun, I'm sorry.
Speaker:So, do you mind introducing yourself to
Speaker:us and then we can obviously chat about
Speaker:all things Afora and water?
Speaker:Yeah, so my name is Ken Guyan.
Speaker:I've been in the water space as it
Speaker:relates to health and wellness.
Speaker:Geez, since I was a senior at the
Speaker:University of Michigan and
Speaker:so pretty much all my life.
Speaker:And I actually, I'm an inventor.
Speaker:I actually have several
Speaker:different water patents.
Speaker:I filed my first patent way
Speaker:back when I was in college.
Speaker:It was for chlorine
Speaker:free swimming pool system.
Speaker:And it was the best system
Speaker:then and it still is today.
Speaker:We still market and sell our organic pool
Speaker:systems all over the world.
Speaker:But I'm all about water, drinking,
Speaker:bathing, showering, swimming.
Speaker:And I love what I do.
Speaker:I have no retirement plans.
Speaker:We're here in Southern California near
Speaker:Santa Barbara and we
Speaker:actually bottle water here.
Speaker:But what makes Afora unique is we not
Speaker:only make and bottle water, but we also
Speaker:sell the systems that make the water.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:and that's important.
Speaker:That's important because no
Speaker:bottle water is sustainable.
Speaker:What you eventually want to do is be able
Speaker:to make your own water at home.
Speaker:And the technology exists today that you
Speaker:can do that and you can create the same,
Speaker:basically the same
Speaker:water that we're marketing.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it really is incredible.
Speaker:Just a bit more on your background.
Speaker:You said you sort of, obviously you went
Speaker:to uni and you did a lot with water.
Speaker:What is your background technically?
Speaker:How did you sort of get into this idea
Speaker:of, I suppose, inventing products and
Speaker:especially within the space of water?
Speaker:Well, actually, so interestingly enough,
Speaker:I grew up on the east side of Detroit,
Speaker:didn't have a lot of money.
Speaker:I knew if I ever wanted to go
Speaker:to college here in the States.
Speaker:If you enlist in the armed forces, you
Speaker:can get what they call the GI Bill, which
Speaker:ends up paying for all your college.
Speaker:So I enlisted in the United States Marine
Speaker:Corps, did a 16 month stint there, and
Speaker:then came out and was able
Speaker:to attend the university.
Speaker:And University of Michigan
Speaker:is a big engineering school.
Speaker:I was not an engineer and I was in
Speaker:business, but some of my
Speaker:best friends were engineers.
Speaker:And I also, when I got out of the service
Speaker:and went to college, I still had to work
Speaker:at a generated income.
Speaker:And I actually saw an ad in the back of a
Speaker:magazine for selling hot tub kits,
Speaker:the old Redwood hot tub kits.
Speaker:And so I went online and I called them
Speaker:and they basically said, "Well, if you
Speaker:buy three, you can be a dealer."
Speaker:So I bought three hot tubs, became a
Speaker:dealer and built the first one.
Speaker:Before I could get it done, I sold it,
Speaker:same in the second, the third.
Speaker:I started buying them by the
Speaker:truckload and then boxcars.
Speaker:I ended up being the largest hot tub
Speaker:dealer in the United States.
Speaker:And it's funny because I ended up making
Speaker:so much money that I decided I don't even
Speaker:need to go to college anymore.
Speaker:But anyway, I did.
Speaker:So we sold a lot of these hot tubs to
Speaker:doctors at the University of Michigan.
Speaker:The big joke was that the whole hospital
Speaker:smelled like chlorine every day because
Speaker:all these doctors were soaking.
Speaker:Anyway, they came to me
Speaker:and asked me, "Can you...
Speaker:This chlorine is nasty.
Speaker:It's not good for your skin."
Speaker:They knew all the dangers of chlorine and
Speaker:chlorine is a poison.
Speaker:It was developed during World War I by
Speaker:Germany as a poison.
Speaker:So I just started doing a deep dive into
Speaker:how I could organically purify water and
Speaker:together with my engineering buddies, I
Speaker:developed what I call the trifecta.
Speaker:Again, it was the best
Speaker:system that it still is today.
Speaker:And what that is, it's a
Speaker:combination of high output ozone.
Speaker:You've heard of ozone.
Speaker:UV sterilization.
Speaker:And then the key component, believe it or
Speaker:not, was using 34% food
Speaker:grade hydrogen peroxide.
Speaker:Hydrogen peroxide is a very powerful
Speaker:oxidizer, more powerful than chlorine.
Speaker:But the only byproduct
Speaker:of it is pure oxygen.
Speaker:So unlike chlorine,
Speaker:it's a known carcinogen.
Speaker:When you combine 34% food grade hydrogen
Speaker:peroxide with ozone and UV, I called it
Speaker:the trifecta, I patent it.
Speaker:It gives you incredible
Speaker:organic water to soak in.
Speaker:It was so pure that you could actually
Speaker:drink the water in hot tubs
Speaker:while you're sitting in it.
Speaker:And so I went from sanitizing,
Speaker:organically sanitizing pools and spas to
Speaker:creating a drinking
Speaker:water formula as well.
Speaker:And so it was hot tubs that actually got
Speaker:me into the whole water space.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it sounds like
Speaker:you've had a fascinating career.
Speaker:I like the bit where you talked about
Speaker:making lots of money.
Speaker:I'll definitely have to come to you for
Speaker:lessons there, I think.
Speaker:Anyway, yeah, back to a forachin.
Speaker:The name there, it's somewhat unique.
Speaker:How did you land on a fora?
Speaker:Just to have me specific-- My co-founder
Speaker:actually, so we needed a name that we
Speaker:could trademark and using the web.
Speaker:So we basically realized we
Speaker:got to create our own name.
Speaker:She came up with Ophora and
Speaker:Ophor Oxygen, pH for pH balance.
Speaker:Ophora for gold.
Speaker:That's how we came up with a fora.
Speaker:Liquid gold.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And as you know, I think I
Speaker:did ship you a case of water.
Speaker:Yeah, OK.
Speaker:It's pretty special water.
Speaker:So Ophora is all about oxygen.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:your best overall indicator of your
Speaker:health is what your oxygen saturation is.
Speaker:And it's really important because, as you
Speaker:may or may not know,
Speaker:most disease is hypoxic.
Speaker:What that means, particularly like
Speaker:cancer, cancer grows, thrives, and
Speaker:survives in a non-oxygenated environment.
Speaker:So that's true of most disease.
Speaker:Where there's a low amount of oxidative
Speaker:phosphorylation as a result of low
Speaker:mitochondrachect activity where you have
Speaker:that sort of low oxygen environment.
Speaker:And those elevated levels of
Speaker:PIF1, alpha, and all of that.
Speaker:You're dead on.
Speaker:And thank you so much
Speaker:for that introduction.
Speaker:It just really lends so much credence to
Speaker:what you're trying to
Speaker:achieve with the brand.
Speaker:Before we carry on with the story there,
Speaker:though, Ken, I'd love it if we could
Speaker:maybe take a bit of a step back and
Speaker:discuss maybe what makes Ophora special.
Speaker:Now, as you alluded to, you were kind
Speaker:enough to send through a case.
Speaker:And OK, well, the
Speaker:office got into it as well.
Speaker:But I was able to snag a few bottles
Speaker:before the crowds went wild.
Speaker:But yeah, my initial impressions were
Speaker:that it's obviously a
Speaker:first-class product.
Speaker:The unboxing experience was just awesome.
Speaker:It was packaged well.
Speaker:It really is a top-tier product.
Speaker:Obviously,
Speaker:I'm a bit of a simpleton, so some of the
Speaker:marketing threw me a bit.
Speaker:And on the front of the bottle, just what
Speaker:the heck, let's pull it up there.
Speaker:It says "nano pure"
Speaker:and "hyperoxygenated."
Speaker:Now, yeah, I'd love to sort of dig
Speaker:through those one by one.
Speaker:But to start off with, maybe we could
Speaker:just sort of dig into what
Speaker:hyperoxygenated water is
Speaker:and then go from there.
Speaker:But yeah, what is hyperoxygenated water?
Speaker:Well, so our water used to
Speaker:have a lot of oxygen in it.
Speaker:You could go to a fast-moving river or
Speaker:stream, and that water would have 40, 50
Speaker:parts per million of oxygen in it.
Speaker:And same with tap water, you
Speaker:can measure tap water today.
Speaker:On a good day, there might be
Speaker:two to five parts per million.
Speaker:So there's less oxygen.
Speaker:So right now, you and I are
Speaker:breathing about 21% oxygen.
Speaker:The rest of it's nitrogen
Speaker:and some other inert gases.
Speaker:And where does oxygen come from?
Speaker:What you were probably taught at school,
Speaker:just like we all were, comes from the
Speaker:plants and the trees.
Speaker:Actually, 80% of the oxygen comes from
Speaker:the plant life in the oceans and the
Speaker:other 20% from the rainforest.
Speaker:Those are both under attack.
Speaker:There's less oxygen,
Speaker:bioavailable oxygen in the planet.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:as you may or may not know, anything
Speaker:above 95% saturation, you've had your
Speaker:oxygen tested probably at
Speaker:various times in your life.
Speaker:So anything above 95%
Speaker:saturation means you're healthy.
Speaker:Anything below 95% saturation means you
Speaker:have significant health issues.
Speaker:And every point above 95 is significant.
Speaker:I'm 75 years old, and I
Speaker:run 99 to 100% all the time.
Speaker:That's unheard of for somebody my age.
Speaker:That's a young athlete.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Just my chances of
Speaker:getting an autoimmune issue,
Speaker:cancer, it really limits, it really amps
Speaker:up my health in terms of
Speaker:your cellular health.
Speaker:Yeah, those rates are exceedingly low.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So in most people,
Speaker:it's more than the
Speaker:fact there's less oxygen.
Speaker:People are moving less.
Speaker:They're exercising properly.
Speaker:They're not eating clean.
Speaker:And it affects
Speaker:people's overall oxygen level.
Speaker:And that's one of the reasons there's so
Speaker:much illness in the world is people tend
Speaker:to be low on oxygen.
Speaker:So we bottle this
Speaker:water 40 parts per million.
Speaker:So it has a massive
Speaker:amount of oxygen in it.
Speaker:The other thing about this water is you
Speaker:could pour a glass of our water.
Speaker:The oxygen is actually-- I have four
Speaker:patents on the water.
Speaker:And the water--
Speaker:the oxygen is actually
Speaker:stable and bound to the water.
Speaker:So you can pour a glass, set it on your
Speaker:nightstand, and in the morning, it'll
Speaker:have the same amount of oxygen.
Speaker:It doesn't dissipate.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've got a question on that that I'd love
Speaker:to come back to later.
Speaker:But yes, please continue.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I drink a half a gallon to a gallon of
Speaker:water, of a four-hour water every day.
Speaker:In fact, it's the only-- I
Speaker:try and make it-- I do like it.
Speaker:I do like an occasional wine or beer.
Speaker:So other than that, I'm
Speaker:drinking pretty much water.
Speaker:And if you think about it, we're the only
Speaker:species on the planet that drink other
Speaker:beverages besides water.
Speaker:I mean, you know, lines don't get up in
Speaker:the morning and have a cup of coffee.
Speaker:They're just drinking water.
Speaker:And it's true if you go back
Speaker:to the days of Christ, I mean,
Speaker:what else was there to drink?
Speaker:They were drinking
Speaker:water or wine, I guess.
Speaker:I was about to say I'm sure we could make
Speaker:some-- have a discussion there about
Speaker:water being turned into wine.
Speaker:But aside from that, yeah, it was-- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I see these kids drinking Red Bull and
Speaker:all these energy drinks.
Speaker:There's some people,
Speaker:they don't even drink water.
Speaker:And God forbid, I mean, it's just like
Speaker:water is how you flush
Speaker:the toxins out of your body.
Speaker:And so it matters.
Speaker:It matters the kind of
Speaker:water you're drinking as well.
Speaker:So when I talk about
Speaker:nano, there's two issues here.
Speaker:So nano purity--
Speaker:Next question, thank you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The pure-- so water, as you may have
Speaker:heard, it's called the universal solvent.
Speaker:You've heard that probably, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:So what that means is water in its purest
Speaker:form will absorb anything
Speaker:it comes in contact with.
Speaker:It's called the universal solvent.
Speaker:So when you drink water, it's literally
Speaker:removing pollutants from your body.
Speaker:You're flushing toxins out of your body.
Speaker:And the purer the water,
Speaker:the better it does at that.
Speaker:So first, we have to nano purify the
Speaker:water, and then we hyperoxygenate it.
Speaker:When we say hyperoxygenate it, normal tap
Speaker:water might have two to
Speaker:five parts per million.
Speaker:They're just-- and when we test other
Speaker:oxygen waters, we test hydrogen waters,
Speaker:and there's no oxygen
Speaker:or hydrogen in them.
Speaker:So it's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker:It's a pretty expensive
Speaker:process to make this water.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I can imagine.
Speaker:But because of the nano purity, you're
Speaker:flushing toxins out of your body the same
Speaker:time you're uploading all this pure
Speaker:oxygen, which is
Speaker:going to keep you healthy.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:So it's almost acting as a sort of a
Speaker:chelating compound in that respect.
Speaker:It's sort of creating a chemical
Speaker:differentiator that sort of allows the
Speaker:higher-- not density, but the chemistry
Speaker:coming back into my head.
Speaker:It's helping move toxins at a high
Speaker:concentration to a low concentration,
Speaker:where the low
Speaker:concentration is in the water.
Speaker:Is that correct?
Speaker:That is correct.
Speaker:And it's so very, very important.
Speaker:We have America here in the States.
Speaker:We have the highest health care in the
Speaker:world, and we have the
Speaker:most unhealthy population.
Speaker:And the reason-- a big part of it is
Speaker:people aren't drinking enough water.
Speaker:They're not drinking
Speaker:enough-- the right kind of water.
Speaker:And these energy drinks and just all this
Speaker:garbage-- I mean, it
Speaker:worries me with these kids.
Speaker:I mean, I was sitting out in front of a
Speaker:grade school not long ago and watching
Speaker:these kids coming out of school, and
Speaker:they're all overweight.
Speaker:And I'm thinking to myself, I mean, when
Speaker:I was growing up, there was maybe like
Speaker:one fat kid in school.
Speaker:That was about it.
Speaker:And now these kids are all overweight,
Speaker:and they're drinking
Speaker:soda and just bad stuff.
Speaker:It's creating a lot of health issues.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:No, it definitely is.
Speaker:And I think that speaks to a bigger sort
Speaker:of problem surrounding
Speaker:metabolic health in general.
Speaker:I mean, people are obviously very quick
Speaker:to sort of point to the United States, of
Speaker:course, as being the main instigator.
Speaker:But I don't think it's
Speaker:necessarily just a US problem anymore.
Speaker:I think it's global.
Speaker:I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm from the UK.
Speaker:I grew up in South
Speaker:Africa, sort of traveled a bit.
Speaker:But yeah, you go to Australia, South
Speaker:Africa, the UK, the US.
Speaker:It's just a general-- yeah.
Speaker:It's sort of dearth of health.
Speaker:There is metabolic disease everywhere.
Speaker:So yeah, I wouldn't throw the states
Speaker:completely under the
Speaker:pass in that respect.
Speaker:It's a global issue.
Speaker:It's a global issue.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:Ken, you've mentioned this term,
Speaker:nanopure, a few times now.
Speaker:What specifically does that mean, though?
Speaker:My apologies.
Speaker:Maybe I've missed it.
Speaker:But what does this-- what does nanopure
Speaker:mean in terms of the process?
Speaker:It's basically taking the water down to
Speaker:nearly distilled quality water.
Speaker:It's like we live-- in today's world, the
Speaker:water is so denatured and de-vitalized
Speaker:that you need to literally start over.
Speaker:And that requires very robust filtration
Speaker:and mechanical filtration.
Speaker:We call it mechanical
Speaker:filtration, which is reverse osmosis.
Speaker:So--
Speaker:The gold standard, really.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:And there's issues with RO.
Speaker:It does produce wastewater.
Speaker:But in reality, it's the only way-- the
Speaker:hardest thing to remove from the source
Speaker:water in today's world,
Speaker:actually, is the pharmaceuticals.
Speaker:Yes, it's a good question.
Speaker:You have to start with RO.
Speaker:And even RO won't remove all of those.
Speaker:That's where we bring in high output
Speaker:ozone, low pressure UV,
Speaker:and a small residual of H2O2.
Speaker:You can mechanically filter out so much.
Speaker:But the other pollutants, particularly
Speaker:pharmaceuticals, you
Speaker:have to gas them off.
Speaker:And we gas them off with massive ozone.
Speaker:And ozone is really powerful.
Speaker:And that's how it works,
Speaker:literally gasses them off.
Speaker:If you think about it, we live in a gun--
Speaker:again, I don't want
Speaker:to pick up the states.
Speaker:But I think it's probably a global issue.
Speaker:But usually people my age, the
Speaker:pharmaceutical companies, want to have
Speaker:you on 8 to 10
Speaker:different pharmaceutical drugs.
Speaker:And that's a mess.
Speaker:Because you start
Speaker:combining all these drugs.
Speaker:Nobody knows what that does.
Speaker:And none of these pharmaceuticals were
Speaker:designed to be taken forever.
Speaker:It's like they got
Speaker:everybody in the states on statins.
Speaker:And now the word's coming out that
Speaker:statins are-- they don't work.
Speaker:And people don't need them.
Speaker:So pharmaceuticals are a big issue.
Speaker:That's the hardest thing to take out.
Speaker:And we have the solution for that.
Speaker:Yeah, I'd love to chat a bit more--
Speaker:excuse me a bit more
Speaker:about that in a minute.
Speaker:But yes, no, you are right.
Speaker:Opiates, endocrine disruptors, hormones.
Speaker:They are just a dime
Speaker:a dozen in our supply.
Speaker:And obviously, they also contribute to
Speaker:the endocrine dysfunction, the metabolic
Speaker:dysfunction we all talked about earlier.
Speaker:Ken, I know we'll probably have a feeling
Speaker:we're on the same wavelength.
Speaker:If something comes up in the form of a
Speaker:tangent, we'll probably go
Speaker:down the repertoire forever.
Speaker:So I'd like to bring us back on track
Speaker:slightly and just talk about your
Speaker:purification process
Speaker:in a little more detail.
Speaker:You did
Speaker:ask me that question.
Speaker:Yeah, no, I did.
Speaker:But I just need-- So we literally start
Speaker:with massive reverse osmosis.
Speaker:And there's different types of RO.
Speaker:And what RO is, it's a tightly-- very,
Speaker:very tightly wound membrane that the
Speaker:water is forced through under pressure.
Speaker:So what happens is the clean water goes
Speaker:this way and the
Speaker:pollutants go down the drain.
Speaker:So it ends up being pretty pure water.
Speaker:And then from there, we run it through--
Speaker:we pump it into a stainless steel tank.
Speaker:And we use a massive ozonator.
Speaker:So we have a 600-gallon treatment tank.
Speaker:And we use a 30,000-gallon ozonator.
Speaker:It's designed for a 30,000-gallon pool.
Speaker:That's how big the ozonator is.
Speaker:And then when you combine ozonated water
Speaker:with UV sterilization,
Speaker:the combination of those two things end
Speaker:up gassing off the rest of the
Speaker:pollutants, which are primarily, again,
Speaker:the hardest thing to take
Speaker:out is the pharmaceuticals.
Speaker:Gases those all off.
Speaker:And then once-- so it's reverse osmosis,
Speaker:UV, and ozone, really.
Speaker:That's the key.
Speaker:And then once you filter water to that
Speaker:level, you have to restructure it.
Speaker:And what Ophora does better than anybody
Speaker:is restructure the water.
Speaker:We add the minerals back in-- potassium,
Speaker:a little bit of sodium.
Speaker:We add the mineral--
Speaker:Yeah, we add magnesium.
Speaker:We add the minerals back in.
Speaker:And we also--
Speaker:we vortex the water.
Speaker:We run it through another round of UV.
Speaker:And we bring the water back to life.
Speaker:And the restructuring is as
Speaker:important as the purification.
Speaker:And the restructuring
Speaker:component is what's mostly missing.
Speaker:Most of the people here in the states
Speaker:have reverse osmosis
Speaker:under their counters.
Speaker:The water is pure, but
Speaker:it's dead acidic water.
Speaker:I mean, once you remove everything from
Speaker:the water, it turns
Speaker:it into just dead acid.
Speaker:Lots of it, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you have to bring the pH back up.
Speaker:We think the sweet spot
Speaker:on pH is between 8.0, 8.5.
Speaker:Some of these higher, 9, 10.
Speaker:We think that's a little too high.
Speaker:It does cause issues.
Speaker:So but you've got to bring that-- you've
Speaker:got to bring that pH back up as well.
Speaker:Just with regards to the filtering, what
Speaker:are your thoughts on carbon filtration?
Speaker:Do you think that serves any benefit?
Speaker:Is that part of your process, or do you
Speaker:just stick to reverse osmosis by default?
Speaker:No, there's-- so yeah, I mean, I guess--
Speaker:before the water goes through the RO, we
Speaker:run-- we use a lot of
Speaker:organic coconut carbon.
Speaker:So good point.
Speaker:Thanks for bringing that up.
Speaker:So yeah, here we're dealing with-- the
Speaker:first thing that we have to pull out of
Speaker:the water is the chlorine.
Speaker:The chlorine will
Speaker:destroy the RO membrane.
Speaker:So the water firstly goes through a big
Speaker:tank of organic coconut carbon.
Speaker:And chlorine is pretty simple to remove
Speaker:from the water, and
Speaker:carbon's the best way to do it.
Speaker:And these tanks that we use, they're
Speaker:called-- they backwash.
Speaker:So yeah, so we pull all the chlorine out.
Speaker:And then at the end of the day, the
Speaker:filters backwash and remove those--
Speaker:whatever's left and flush
Speaker:that down the drain as well.
Speaker:So no, you have to
Speaker:remove the sediment first,
Speaker:carbon, RO, ozone, UV, and
Speaker:a small residual of H2O2.
Speaker:And that's our secret sauce.
Speaker:That's your secret sauce.
Speaker:All on the right--
Speaker:Order operations.
Speaker:Yeah, because see, most people that use--
Speaker:the biggest problem in the water
Speaker:improvement industry is everybody
Speaker:undersizes all the equipment.
Speaker:And at the end of the day,
Speaker:the water just isn't very pure.
Speaker:I mean-- It drives me nuts.
Speaker:You see adverts for these sort of under
Speaker:the sink shower-- under the sink water
Speaker:filters, these shower filters.
Speaker:And the flow rate remains consistent.
Speaker:I just think, well,
Speaker:OK, so how is the water-- it's flowing
Speaker:through a few carbon filters, maybe a
Speaker:bunch of sand in the shower filters.
Speaker:How is it actually having any effect if
Speaker:the flow rate is not
Speaker:changing relative to-- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it just doesn't make any sense.
Speaker:When I talk about undersizing, the water
Speaker:needs contact time with the
Speaker:filter and the filter media.
Speaker:And that's what's not happening, because
Speaker:all these filtration
Speaker:systems are too small.
Speaker:We engineer and manufacture big whole
Speaker:home systems, but we also have under the
Speaker:counter POU systems.
Speaker:And we also
Speaker:manufacture a very robust shower.
Speaker:And again, with the shower filters, you
Speaker:want to remove that-- the big thing is
Speaker:removing the chlorine.
Speaker:And again, chlorine is relatively easy to
Speaker:remove, but you need a big filter so that
Speaker:the water has contact time.
Speaker:So we have the largest
Speaker:shower filter in the industry.
Speaker:It doesn't look pretty, and a lot of the
Speaker:wives don't like it.
Speaker:But-- It works to
Speaker:work, so-- It works well.
Speaker:So chlorine, if I could
Speaker:just veer off for a second.
Speaker:Of course, please.
Speaker:So you took a-- let's say you took a
Speaker:shower this morning.
Speaker:So what that means is you're wearing a
Speaker:shell of chlorine on your skin.
Speaker:So that's what happens when
Speaker:your water is not filtered.
Speaker:You're wearing a shell of chlorine.
Speaker:That interacts with your organic matter
Speaker:in your skin, and it forms a very
Speaker:carcinogenic material called chloramines.
Speaker:That's what's called-- all the skin
Speaker:cancer they're saying is
Speaker:from the sun is baloney.
Speaker:So I mean, they're finally-- even
Speaker:mainstream medicine
Speaker:is buying off on that.
Speaker:So skin cancer is showing up in a lot of
Speaker:places where the sun's never shining.
Speaker:And we attribute it to the massive amount
Speaker:of chlorine in the water.
Speaker:The chlorine interacting-- it's a poison.
Speaker:Interacts with your organic matter and
Speaker:forms this very strong
Speaker:carcinogen called chloramines.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that's why you got to
Speaker:get chlorine out of your life.
Speaker:But 80% of the pollutants you're coming
Speaker:in contact with is from
Speaker:showering and bathing.
Speaker:Yeah, it definitely is.
Speaker:That was a very succinct breakdown, Ken.
Speaker:Thank you so much for that.
Speaker:Previously, you mentioned
Speaker:this idea of structured water.
Speaker:Obviously, a lot of folks
Speaker:also call it easy water.
Speaker:Now, I've been trying to get Dr.
Speaker:Gerald Pollock onto
Speaker:the show now for a while.
Speaker:I'm sure you're familiar with his work,
Speaker:the fourth phase of
Speaker:water and all of that.
Speaker:But for the audience, and perhaps myself
Speaker:as well, would you mind breaking down
Speaker:what structured water is?
Speaker:It's talked about a lot, but I don't
Speaker:think many people understand the
Speaker:significance of what it really is and why
Speaker:it's required for the
Speaker:body to function properly.
Speaker:And then, yeah, maybe we could just
Speaker:discuss how you use structured water.
Speaker:I know you mentioned
Speaker:something about vortices.
Speaker:Again, a little outside of my wheelhouse.
Speaker:Yeah, if we could just go down that
Speaker:little rabbit hole for a while, I think
Speaker:that would be pretty cool.
Speaker:Yeah, so water.
Speaker:So again, when you nano purify water to
Speaker:nearly distilled quality, the first thing
Speaker:you have to do is put
Speaker:the minerals back in.
Speaker:And that's important because the minerals
Speaker:are what raise the pH.
Speaker:And again, we believe
Speaker:8.0, 8.5 is the sweet spot.
Speaker:But the other thing is
Speaker:water wants to be moving.
Speaker:We have a-- this gets a little woo-woo
Speaker:sometimes for people, but water is alive.
Speaker:It's as alive as the
Speaker:plants and the trees.
Speaker:And water wants to be
Speaker:moving, not in straight lines.
Speaker:So the biggest component of restructuring
Speaker:it is vortexing the water.
Speaker:So we have a vortexing device in every
Speaker:water component system that we make.
Speaker:We have a very robust vortexing device,
Speaker:and some of them get really large.
Speaker:And so what's happening is the water is
Speaker:spinning through that.
Speaker:So we add the minerals in, we vortex it.
Speaker:We run it through another--
Speaker:we're huge in the UV.
Speaker:Everything that we do, the last step is
Speaker:we run it through more UV just to make
Speaker:sure-- and there's
Speaker:nothing bad has gotten through.
Speaker:But the key component is actually putting
Speaker:the movement back into the water.
Speaker:And that's what the
Speaker:restructuring is really all about.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:And does that restructuring survive
Speaker:transport and save one
Speaker:of your bottle products?
Speaker:Is it in the water bottle?
Speaker:I assume it is in the water-- Yeah.
Speaker:In the bottle products.
Speaker:But does that restructuring process
Speaker:survive transit maybe to-- Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we bottle in glass, of course.
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:Which we would
Speaker:never-- well, first of all,
Speaker:we couldn't bottle in-- water in its
Speaker:purest form absorbs
Speaker:anything it comes in contact with.
Speaker:I might get a little
Speaker:off course for you here.
Speaker:But if you think about it, one of the
Speaker:biggest issues is most-- if you go to the
Speaker:market, all that bottled water that's on
Speaker:the shelf, that's all done by co-packers.
Speaker:And so they're basically taking a bottle
Speaker:of water-- who's ever
Speaker:bottled, and they're filling it.
Speaker:And it's sitting in--
Speaker:and those are all plastic.
Speaker:It's all plastic.
Speaker:So this water sitting in this plastic,
Speaker:because it's pure, it's literally sucking
Speaker:the toxins out of the plastic.
Speaker:And you're drinking those.
Speaker:You're consuming those.
Speaker:And we have a very astute
Speaker:medical board of advisors.
Speaker:And what a lot of the doctors are telling
Speaker:us is a lot of these toxins, particularly
Speaker:for women-- breast cancer is epidemic.
Speaker:Particularly for women, they're storing
Speaker:these toxins in their breasts.
Speaker:So if you think about it, by the time
Speaker:they bottle that water,
Speaker:it's in transit in a warehouse.
Speaker:That water has been sitting in a plastic
Speaker:bottle for three months.
Speaker:And just imagine it's pure water.
Speaker:It is pure water.
Speaker:It's drawing those toxins out.
Speaker:People don't get that.
Speaker:You shouldn't be-- anybody you love,
Speaker:nobody you know, should be drinking on a
Speaker:plastic bottle of water.
Speaker:I've been the long wolf for 30 years.
Speaker:And it's causing a lot of
Speaker:the issues we have today.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, no, it's definitely an
Speaker:endocrine disruption.
Speaker:All the BPS, bisphenols, they all mimic
Speaker:these sort of estrogen
Speaker:metabolites in the body.
Speaker:And then you have these estrogen-dominant
Speaker:cancers that can take effect as a result.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:thank you for saying that.
Speaker:I think it's important
Speaker:to-- It's a big issue.
Speaker:And I have two daughters.
Speaker:They're young.
Speaker:They're married.
Speaker:And they're trying to have kids.
Speaker:And young women today are
Speaker:having problems getting pregnant.
Speaker:It's a big issue.
Speaker:And again, they're
Speaker:saying it's the plastic.
Speaker:It's the residual in plastics.
Speaker:And it's the guys that
Speaker:are having the problem.
Speaker:Because of the plastics, that's the buzz.
Speaker:Yes, I did.
Speaker:The CVTRO, these kids, these
Speaker:young women are having $60,000.
Speaker:I mean, they're spending to get pregnant.
Speaker:And my daughter said, you
Speaker:know, dad, it's all my friends.
Speaker:They're all having
Speaker:trouble getting pregnant.
Speaker:I mean, when we were growing up, all we
Speaker:had to do was look at a
Speaker:girl and get her pregnant.
Speaker:(Laughter)
Speaker:But anyway, yeah.
Speaker:So the plastic is a problem.
Speaker:And I go off on tangents on that because
Speaker:it's such a big problem.
Speaker:And I don't get it.
Speaker:It's a convenience thing.
Speaker:I mean, this is why.
Speaker:But I see people that are pretty
Speaker:conscious drinking their
Speaker:water and throwing that.
Speaker:Yeah, don't even talk about
Speaker:the landfills and the plastic.
Speaker:Yeah, the sustainability aspect.
Speaker:It's a nightmare.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, it definitely is.
Speaker:I've been fortunate enough to chat to a
Speaker:few environmental physicians and some
Speaker:detox coaches in the
Speaker:space, Adam Park and Dr.
Speaker:Jenny Goodman in the UK.
Speaker:And you are just
Speaker:preaching exactly what they say.
Speaker:They talk about this sort of terrain
Speaker:theory of illness that it's not
Speaker:necessarily what's going on in the body
Speaker:that's driving this disease, but the
Speaker:terrain outside of the body that is
Speaker:causing the body to sort of move out of
Speaker:the sort of homeostatic state into the
Speaker:sort of state of allostasis.
Speaker:And then you just have all of this toxic
Speaker:load sort of, yeah,
Speaker:creating endocrine disruption,
Speaker:driving mitochondrial dysfunction.
Speaker:And then, yeah, you wonder why we-- well,
Speaker:not you specifically, of course, but one
Speaker:wonders why we then have these dearth of
Speaker:issues like we currently do in society.
Speaker:Yeah, no, you are, of course, bang on.
Speaker:What do you think of
Speaker:CANS, just out of interest?
Speaker:Is there any validity there as sort of a
Speaker:delivery or a mechanism for-- not a
Speaker:mechanism-- an option
Speaker:to sort of can water?
Speaker:Is that an option?
Speaker:Or just from a price perspective, maybe I
Speaker:assume it would be
Speaker:cheaper than maybe glass?
Speaker:And are you talking about
Speaker:terms of bottling water?
Speaker:Yeah, no, so I'm just thinking from the
Speaker:consumer's perspective,
Speaker:is canning water an option?
Speaker:No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:Here's the problem with CANS.
Speaker:CANS have a plastic liner.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:OK, so you're back to square one again?
Speaker:Back to square one, because if you're
Speaker:putting pure water in a can over time--
Speaker:I don't know if you've ever-- you
Speaker:probably haven't done this, but I've
Speaker:drank water out of a can
Speaker:that's like a year old.
Speaker:It's horrible.
Speaker:If you're bottling
Speaker:glass, we've had people--
Speaker:I had a woman call me that long ago, and
Speaker:she found a case of water
Speaker:from COVID that we had shipped.
Speaker:And she says, is this water still good?
Speaker:And I said, yeah, it's still good.
Speaker:And I said, you know what?
Speaker:Send me that case back.
Speaker:It was two years old.
Speaker:And I said, I'll send you a new case.
Speaker:We got the water back.
Speaker:We tested the oxygen.
Speaker:It had lost like two to
Speaker:three parts per million.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:It tasted terrific.
Speaker:And you can't beat glass.
Speaker:When I was growing up, I don't know if
Speaker:you remember Tupperware.
Speaker:Do you have Tupperware?
Speaker:OK, so my mother walked in with
Speaker:Tupperware when I was a small kid.
Speaker:And we're going, this is the coolest
Speaker:thing we've ever seen.
Speaker:So Tupperware was the beginning of the
Speaker:end, because
Speaker:everything used to be in glass.
Speaker:I don't know if you recall, but even
Speaker:frying pans and cooking pans were glass.
Speaker:They definitely were.
Speaker:I mean, it's something I'm
Speaker:very cognizant of personally.
Speaker:I won't cook, and anything
Speaker:that's got a PTFE sort of-- No.
Speaker:Or covering at all.
Speaker:I think that's just asking for problems.
Speaker:And yes, maybe the science isn't
Speaker:completely solid there.
Speaker:But I'd rather, with
Speaker:this smoke, there's fire.
Speaker:And I'd rather just earn the side of
Speaker:caution and use something like
Speaker:stainless steel or cast iron.
Speaker:It doesn't cost you anything.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's obviously just a lot safer than
Speaker:potentially looking at something
Speaker:Teflon-based and sorts of
Speaker:maybe flipping the coin.
Speaker:So I don't know the answer other than we
Speaker:got to move back to glass.
Speaker:I mean, yeah, glass is expensive.
Speaker:It's heavy.
Speaker:It breaks.
Speaker:We did get you a case all the way over on
Speaker:the other side of the world, though.
Speaker:You did, indeed.
Speaker:And it made it here.
Speaker:No broken glass.
Speaker:It was perfect.
Speaker:It was definitely perfect.
Speaker:Ken, I'd love to talk about the
Speaker:remineralization side of things again.
Speaker:Obviously, you alluded
Speaker:to that earlier somewhat.
Speaker:And again, I think it's important to
Speaker:note, as you said, so many companies will
Speaker:sell you a commercial filter or an
Speaker:at-home filter or something that just
Speaker:completely pillages the water.
Speaker:And you end up with these sort of
Speaker:molecules of hydrogen and
Speaker:oxygen that are bonded together.
Speaker:And beyond that, they're completely dead.
Speaker:There are no trace minerals in them.
Speaker:How are you, with your process at Afora,
Speaker:remineralizing water?
Speaker:Are you simply just adding
Speaker:in sort of axosalt magnesium?
Speaker:Or do you have-- No, so what we
Speaker:discovered out of Germany years ago was--
Speaker:I don't know if you've
Speaker:heard of bioceramics.
Speaker:Vaguely.
Speaker:Yeah, so they're really cool.
Speaker:So basically,
Speaker:they're organic.
Speaker:They're made out of calcium.
Speaker:They're bioceramic balls.
Speaker:They are invented in Germany.
Speaker:The South Koreans are actually doing the
Speaker:best job with them now.
Speaker:We actually buy these
Speaker:bioceramics in 50-pound bags.
Speaker:But these bioceramics are impregnated
Speaker:with trace minerals.
Speaker:And so we have-- all of our systems have
Speaker:a cartridge, depending
Speaker:on the size of the system.
Speaker:We have our big bottling plant.
Speaker:We have like six of these 20-inch big
Speaker:bioceramic cartridges that the water
Speaker:slowly passes through.
Speaker:And the minerals are
Speaker:eroded back into the water.
Speaker:It's organic.
Speaker:It's pure.
Speaker:And we've had really good success using
Speaker:these bioceramics over the years.
Speaker:And if you do a deep dive in them,
Speaker:there's bioceramics now.
Speaker:Just so many different types of
Speaker:bioceramics that are made of silk that
Speaker:you can do various things with.
Speaker:And there's actually a company out of
Speaker:South Korea it's called Bio Sierra, if
Speaker:you want to go online and look.
Speaker:But they pretty much took the whole
Speaker:bioceramics to another level.
Speaker:But that's what we use
Speaker:to remineralize the water.
Speaker:That's fascinating.
Speaker:I'll definitely check
Speaker:them out after the show.
Speaker:And then just with regards to
Speaker:remineralization, are you sort of
Speaker:focusing on those macro elements that we
Speaker:discussed earlier, the
Speaker:magnesium, the sodium,
Speaker:or are you sort of really looking at
Speaker:maybe the trace minerals as well, your
Speaker:zinc, your chromium, et cetera?
Speaker:Are those included there?
Speaker:Or is it just the higher,
Speaker:the more the electrolytes?
Speaker:Yeah, more of the electrolytes.
Speaker:We encourage-- we're all about really
Speaker:three things, drinking
Speaker:water, movement, and eating clean.
Speaker:I am a dietician on our staff.
Speaker:And we're promoting those--
Speaker:it's important to water is movement.
Speaker:People aren't moving enough.
Speaker:And then eating clean.
Speaker:I mean, those are the three components to
Speaker:live in a healthy life
Speaker:as far as we're concerned.
Speaker:And if there was ever a magic pill to
Speaker:make people younger or anti-aging pill,
Speaker:it would be movement.
Speaker:And it's free.
Speaker:And so we're more than just water.
Speaker:When we're really--
Speaker:my big game is a healthier-- getting
Speaker:people off all these
Speaker:pharmaceuticals and restoring health.
Speaker:And we just have to get people moving,
Speaker:drinking a lot of clean, fresh water with
Speaker:oxygen in it, and just
Speaker:concentrating on moving more.
Speaker:Focus on the basics-- light sleep, water,
Speaker:drinking clean water,
Speaker:exercising, et cetera.
Speaker:That's a great way to look at it.
Speaker:And I think what most people maybe don't
Speaker:think about-- not that they don't realize
Speaker:it-- is that a lot of our food should be
Speaker:our main source of minerals, of course.
Speaker:That's kind of where I was going.
Speaker:So you can't do better than eating clean
Speaker:and getting vegetables
Speaker:and fruit into your diet.
Speaker:Yeah, no, it's so important.
Speaker:And I think it's interesting to know--
Speaker:you've been in the health space for a
Speaker:while now, but it's just interesting.
Speaker:You see all of these people have these
Speaker:extreme views on diet, whether it's a
Speaker:carnival diet or a vegan diet.
Speaker:And then most of them sort
Speaker:of slowly come back to center.
Speaker:And they start to re-include meat or
Speaker:re-include vegetables
Speaker:or re-include fruit.
Speaker:And it's not complicated, is it?
Speaker:It's really just a case of following what
Speaker:nature has provided, eating seasonally,
Speaker:and leaving it at that.
Speaker:Anyway,
Speaker:Ken, something I probably should have
Speaker:touched on a little earlier.
Speaker:But this idea of the hypoxigenate water
Speaker:again-- I just would like
Speaker:to tie this up if that's OK.
Speaker:How do you ensure that the water-- or how
Speaker:does the oxygen remain super oxygenated?
Speaker:I assume that it's almost sort of a fully
Speaker:reacted molecule in itself.
Speaker:Is that where the H2O2 comes into it?
Speaker:You didn't allude to it, but
Speaker:I'll make the statement now.
Speaker:I assume it's not just a case of just
Speaker:pumping extra oxygen into a bottle of
Speaker:water, as you would
Speaker:with a carbonated process.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a very complicated-- if you
Speaker:ever get over here, you'd be amazed at
Speaker:the amount of equipment.
Speaker:It takes a half a million dollar piece of
Speaker:equipment to just produce our water.
Speaker:And so I have four pads on it.
Speaker:And without getting into how we do it,
Speaker:all I'll say is it really comes down to,
Speaker:again, water in its purest form wants to
Speaker:absorb anything it comes in contact with.
Speaker:We have what we call
Speaker:nitrogen scrubbers integrated nurse.
Speaker:Again, you're breathing 21% oxygen
Speaker:somewhere around there.
Speaker:The rest of it's nitrogen.
Speaker:So in our manufacturing process, we have
Speaker:nitrogen scrubbers that scrub out all the
Speaker:nitrogen that's
Speaker:giving us 98% pure oxygen.
Speaker:But what we do with
Speaker:that oxygen is the key.
Speaker:So if you cut a hose where the oxygen
Speaker:coming out and you put it in a bottle, it
Speaker:would just all bubble up, right?
Speaker:We have a process that turns those bigger
Speaker:bubbles into nano bubbles, which is
Speaker:absorbed and pulled
Speaker:into the water molecule.
Speaker:It's a complex--
Speaker:I'm really proud of it.
Speaker:Our water is a real
Speaker:anomaly in terms of what it is.
Speaker:The purity, the pH.
Speaker:Normally, it would take a massive amount
Speaker:of minerals to get our water to 8.0, 8.5.
Speaker:And we're able to do that without--
Speaker:so one of the things you noticed, I'm
Speaker:sure, when you drank our water is how
Speaker:light it is on your tongue.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's a lot of people who
Speaker:say they hate drinking water.
Speaker:They can actually drink our water because
Speaker:it's so light on the tongue.
Speaker:It's just no aftertaste to it either.
Speaker:It just tastes like what it should taste.
Speaker:It's the oxygen, yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, I wish I could get into more of
Speaker:the details of how we make it.
Speaker:But it's a complex process.
Speaker:I'm really proud-- So
Speaker:you're right, Peter.
Speaker:Don't stress.
Speaker:I won't press you.
Speaker:I promise you.
Speaker:I'm really proud of it.
Speaker:And our goal is to get
Speaker:the-- our water is pricey.
Speaker:It's expensive to make.
Speaker:The glass-- we're
Speaker:struggling with these terra.
Speaker:All the glass bottles in the
Speaker:world mostly come out of China.
Speaker:China owns the glass bottle industry.
Speaker:And nothing against China.
Speaker:But I try and stay away
Speaker:from Chinese products.
Speaker:But it's starting to
Speaker:come-- glass is coming back.
Speaker:So we have found some glass manufacturers
Speaker:in the South that
Speaker:we're starting to buy from.
Speaker:We're phasing out the Chinese.
Speaker:But it's expensive.
Speaker:Glass is expensive.
Speaker:But we don't see an alternative to glass.
Speaker:It's like I've searched.
Speaker:The cans don't work.
Speaker:And they'll go BPA free.
Speaker:And that's all a bunch of baloney.
Speaker:They'll just replace it with another
Speaker:highly carcinogenic material.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's back to glass.
Speaker:We've got to get back to glass.
Speaker:Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker:Maybe it's an unfortunate sort of truth.
Speaker:But it's currently the most sort of
Speaker:stable sort of canister container vehicle
Speaker:that you can currently ship it in.
Speaker:So I say la vie, as they say.
Speaker:Ken, I'd love to maybe move on to
Speaker:discussing some of the health effects of
Speaker:oxygenated water, should we say.
Speaker:Now, I'm not asking you to
Speaker:make any claims, of course.
Speaker:But based on your experience in the
Speaker:industry and feedback from customers,
Speaker:what benefits does a hypo oxygenated
Speaker:water appear to deliver both sort of
Speaker:acutely in the short term and then over a
Speaker:longer time horizon?
Speaker:Well, the big thing it does-- so the kids
Speaker:call it organic red bull.
Speaker:I mean, it amps up your mitochondria.
Speaker:It's very energizing.
Speaker:And if you drank some of our water, you
Speaker:would have experienced that.
Speaker:I mean, when people first start drinking
Speaker:our water, they usually have problems
Speaker:sleeping for a while.
Speaker:It's very, very energizing.
Speaker:And it speeds up your
Speaker:mitochondria big time.
Speaker:One of the benefits of this water, which
Speaker:is kind of crazy, is
Speaker:that it slays your appetite.
Speaker:And people lose a lot
Speaker:of weight in this water.
Speaker:And I'm not even sure why that is.
Speaker:It does speed up your metabolism, which
Speaker:is what I mostly attribute it to.
Speaker:But there's some other components to it.
Speaker:Yeah, if I was to speculate-- and I mean,
Speaker:there could be a bunch of
Speaker:potential mechanisms there.
Speaker:But if you've got improved oxidative
Speaker:phosphorylation at the level of
Speaker:mitochondria as a result of having more
Speaker:oxygen within the cell, then presumably
Speaker:you will be better as an individual at
Speaker:utilizing fatty acids
Speaker:as an energy source.
Speaker:And then you are more likely to be in a
Speaker:position where you can use both glucose
Speaker:and these fatty acids
Speaker:as an energy source.
Speaker:And then you're not necessarily just
Speaker:relying on glucose and the sugar spikes.
Speaker:So you probably-- again,
Speaker:just speculating an orthocuth.
Speaker:I've not given it much thought.
Speaker:But I'd imagine there would be something
Speaker:with regards to appetite in that respect.
Speaker:You'd have less blood sugar swings and
Speaker:just more stable appetite as a result.
Speaker:Yeah, big time.
Speaker:And I drink this
Speaker:water all through the day.
Speaker:I try and cut back a little
Speaker:bit as the evening comes on.
Speaker:But it is extremely energizing.
Speaker:And you get an energy spike from it.
Speaker:And again, it's organic Red Bull.
Speaker:Yeah, the coffee without the after-fix.
Speaker:Yeah, that's fascinating.
Speaker:Maybe a bit more of a technical question.
Speaker:But do you know offhand how
Speaker:hyperoxygenated water or fora maybe sort
Speaker:of compares to other methods of
Speaker:increasing oxygen uptake in cells, things
Speaker:like H-BART, hyperbaric oxygen chamber,
Speaker:of course, or things like
Speaker:exercise with oxygen, E-WART?
Speaker:Those are two therapies or modalities
Speaker:that spring to mind.
Speaker:Is it-- is a fora or oxygenated water in
Speaker:any way comparable to
Speaker:those sorts of technologies?
Speaker:Well, the one thing we have not talked
Speaker:about-- so we have two modalities.
Speaker:There's two ways that you can-- the fora
Speaker:has to absorb oxygen.
Speaker:One is drinking our water, of course.
Speaker:But the other is soaking in it.
Speaker:Again, I came out of
Speaker:the hot tub industry.
Speaker:I mean, I was building and shipping these
Speaker:tubs all over the world.
Speaker:So I soak in
Speaker:hyperoxygenated water every day.
Speaker:In fact, I don't bathe or shower.
Speaker:I soak in-- I have a hyperoxygenated hot
Speaker:tub when we market these and sell these.
Speaker:So we have two soaking vessels.
Speaker:We use a teak wooden 6x4 hot tub.
Speaker:And then we also have an
Speaker:acrylic spa that we market.
Speaker:So we have two soaking vessels.
Speaker:But we've developed a what we call a
Speaker:hyperoxygenation wellness platform.
Speaker:It's all pre-plumb, pre-wired.
Speaker:And it hyperoxygenates the hot tub water,
Speaker:which I was told I would never be able to
Speaker:do because water doesn't like to be hot.
Speaker:I mean, we actually bottle our water near
Speaker:freezing, which is interesting.
Speaker:So we keep-- I've got a hot tub here at
Speaker:our manufacturing plant
Speaker:so people can try it.
Speaker:So the water is actually-- we bottle our
Speaker:water between 40 and 50
Speaker:parts per million right now.
Speaker:The hot tub water is
Speaker:32 parts per million.
Speaker:But the interesting thing we discovered
Speaker:after some pretty sophisticated testing
Speaker:is you can absorb more water--
Speaker:excuse me, more oxygen in a 20-minute
Speaker:soak than you can in an hour and a half
Speaker:in a hyperbaric chamber.
Speaker:So I soak every day for 45 minutes.
Speaker:Is that measurable potentially something
Speaker:like a pulse oximeter or maybe a sort of
Speaker:a transcutaneous oxygen
Speaker:protocol or anything like that?
Speaker:Are you using any-- Both.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, OK.
Speaker:So using-- that's interesting.
Speaker:We've discovered-- so
Speaker:drinking the water is super powerful.
Speaker:But when you combine soaking and
Speaker:drinking, it takes it over the top.
Speaker:And the wound healing,
Speaker:soaking in these tubs, is amazing.
Speaker:It's astounding.
Speaker:I'm a big eicher.
Speaker:I've taken some really nasty falls.
Speaker:I've been in this hot tub bleeding.
Speaker:And it's amazing what soaking and
Speaker:hyperoxygenated water
Speaker:does for wound healing.
Speaker:I don't know if you've
Speaker:seen the pictures online.
Speaker:I had a-- I have.
Speaker:It's pretty-- those
Speaker:photos weren't photoshopped.
Speaker:No, they didn't.
Speaker:But in fact, we've got MDs.
Speaker:We just had some pretty-- two famous
Speaker:pretty amazing MDs in here last week.
Speaker:And they are so excited about the
Speaker:modality of soaking in this water,
Speaker:particularly for diabetes, amputations,
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:So it's way-- so in 20 minutes, you can
Speaker:absorb more oxygen in our hyperoxygenated
Speaker:hot tub than you can in an hour and a
Speaker:half on a hyperbaric chamber.
Speaker:And I'm big into hyperbaric.
Speaker:I love hyperbaric.
Speaker:We've developed the whole modality of
Speaker:soaking first in our tub, then getting
Speaker:into the hyperbaric chamber.
Speaker:Because if you think about this, once you
Speaker:soak in our tub, your body is-- so your
Speaker:body will absorb all the oxygen it can
Speaker:hold in 20 minutes and it'll
Speaker:last in your body for 14 hours.
Speaker:So what I was doing is I was soaking and
Speaker:then getting directly into a hot tub--
Speaker:excuse me-- directly into the hyperbaric.
Speaker:And if you think about it, my body is
Speaker:completely loaded with oxygen.
Speaker:And the hyperbaric was forcing that
Speaker:oxygen deeper into my cells.
Speaker:And I'm really, really, really excited
Speaker:about this modality.
Speaker:In fact, this is my last hurrah.
Speaker:And I'm trying to get this soaking out to
Speaker:the world because there's
Speaker:just so many benefits to it.
Speaker:And-- Don't say last hurrah.
Speaker:I'm sure you have plenty
Speaker:of miles left in the tank.
Speaker:Yeah, I suppose the only thing to add to
Speaker:that is that maybe one day we can figure
Speaker:out how to soak whilst in
Speaker:the hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And hyperbaric, it's powerful.
Speaker:And particularly, after having a big
Speaker:success with autistic kids-- but the
Speaker:problem is trying to stuff an artistic
Speaker:kid in a hyperbaric.
Speaker:I mean, they're not comfortable.
Speaker:They definitely aren't.
Speaker:I come from a background
Speaker:of working in special needs.
Speaker:My background's in biochem and such.
Speaker:And I worked in the special needs schools
Speaker:on a medical level for years with very
Speaker:non-functional,
Speaker:non-verbal autistic children.
Speaker:And I can attest to that.
Speaker:They are very sort
Speaker:of-- well, yes, they are.
Speaker:They're resistant to modalities.
Speaker:They don't have the-- it's not cognitive
Speaker:wear, or thought, but they are so
Speaker:overstimulated that any excess amount of
Speaker:stimulation for the want of a better word
Speaker:just over-- just puts them
Speaker:into a sympathetic state.
Speaker:And then all the wheels fall off.
Speaker:So yeah, something
Speaker:like soaking in a hot tub.
Speaker:Everybody loves hot tubs
Speaker:and soaking in the water.
Speaker:So it's a very comfortable, kind of fun
Speaker:way to really amp up your oxygen.
Speaker:And again, we're all about oxygen.
Speaker:I believe so strongly that the healing
Speaker:modalities of oxygen
Speaker:are just-- it's exciting.
Speaker:And we haven't really
Speaker:scratched the surface on it.
Speaker:No, definitely not.
Speaker:Have you got any plans to publish any
Speaker:data from a pair going
Speaker:through any specific--
Speaker:Interestingly enough, yeah, thanks for
Speaker:asking that question.
Speaker:So these two MDs, I can't mention their
Speaker:name yet, but these
Speaker:guys are heavy hitters,
Speaker:world-renowned.
Speaker:And they have the ability-- because of
Speaker:who they are, they have the ability--
Speaker:I've been bootstrapping
Speaker:this company for 15 years.
Speaker:So the problem with those studies is I
Speaker:just couldn't afford to do them.
Speaker:I've been trying to make
Speaker:the universities interested.
Speaker:I mean, we've done what we can.
Speaker:And we've done some
Speaker:pretty amazing testing.
Speaker:But it really isn't worth
Speaker:much in the big picture.
Speaker:You need-- It has to be peer reviewed.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So that is a major goal of mine.
Speaker:And it will happen.
Speaker:And we're getting a lot closer to that.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:Well, there's my offer out the window.
Speaker:I was going to offer to help you put
Speaker:together a steady protocol.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:sorry, I just, of course.
Speaker:Ken, I know it was
Speaker:starting to run up on time.
Speaker:But I have a few more
Speaker:questions, and that's OK.
Speaker:And I suppose the last one is maybe
Speaker:talking directly about the effects of
Speaker:water on health
Speaker:loosely held in this sense.
Speaker:Does hypoxidinative water-- this may be a
Speaker:bit of a weird question.
Speaker:Can it positively affect
Speaker:plant growth by any chance?
Speaker:Can it do what?
Speaker:I'm sorry.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:Can it positively affect
Speaker:plant growth by any chance?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So that's a whole-- yeah,
Speaker:I've got photos I can show you.
Speaker:So that's a whole other thing.
Speaker:It's crazy what it does on agriculture.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it's amazing.
Speaker:I have photos I could send you.
Speaker:So I was going down-- part of my problem
Speaker:is I am an inventor, and people come up
Speaker:to me and go, can you do that?
Speaker:I go, yeah, I can do that.
Speaker:And then I'm on another tangent.
Speaker:So we were going down the
Speaker:whole ag thing for a while,
Speaker:because it is so powerful for ag.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you can use less-- first of all, you can
Speaker:use half the amount of water.
Speaker:Second of all, the microbes
Speaker:in the soil love the oxygen.
Speaker:So everything grows faster and bigger.
Speaker:And it's amazing what it does for ag.
Speaker:And if I live long
Speaker:enough, I'll get there.
Speaker:But I had to kind of set that aside,
Speaker:because I got so excited about the
Speaker:soaking modality, drinking and soaking.
Speaker:So for me, it's all
Speaker:about drinking and soaking.
Speaker:But what this water does
Speaker:for agriculture is just crazy.
Speaker:Yeah, that would be interesting.
Speaker:I suppose it's just a scaling issue at
Speaker:that point, trying to sort of create
Speaker:enough water, obviously, to utilize an ag
Speaker:is very different to trying to sort of
Speaker:keep people hydrated.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Definitely a conversation
Speaker:for another day, perhaps.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Ken,
Speaker:I think we've discussed
Speaker:the Ophora solutions already.
Speaker:You've obviously got
Speaker:your bottled products.
Speaker:And then I think you
Speaker:mentioned a shower unit.
Speaker:Just sort of quickly for the listener,
Speaker:can you talk me through your range, just
Speaker:so that we can make the listener aware of
Speaker:the various options
Speaker:that you do have going?
Speaker:Well, and that's so--
Speaker:I just hired a new CEO.
Speaker:And his biggest complaint
Speaker:is the amount of-- SKUs.
Speaker:We have way too many SKUs.
Speaker:So he's writing me every day about that.
Speaker:So yeah, we've got a lot of products.
Speaker:So basically, it's all about drinking,
Speaker:bathing, and showering, and being the
Speaker:fact that I came out of the swimming pool
Speaker:hot tub industry, we also
Speaker:have systems for pools and spas.
Speaker:But our basic unit
Speaker:starts with a shower filter.
Speaker:So our products-- so
Speaker:I'm an engineering nut.
Speaker:I don't like things.
Speaker:The plumbing industry, by and large-- the
Speaker:water industry, by and large,
Speaker:is kind of driven by plumbers.
Speaker:And the one issue that I have with
Speaker:plumbers is their business model is they
Speaker:install something, and
Speaker:they want to service it.
Speaker:We're exactly the opposite here.
Speaker:I build stuff-- the products that we
Speaker:build, I build for a lifetime of use.
Speaker:I tease people and tell them, you're
Speaker:going to be able to leave
Speaker:this stuff to your kids.
Speaker:But for example, obviously, we use a lot
Speaker:of pumps in our manufacturing processes
Speaker:and the systems we build.
Speaker:I could buy these
Speaker:pumps from China for $200.
Speaker:I buy German Grundfos
Speaker:pumps that cost $1,500.
Speaker:But they don't break.
Speaker:I've got Grundfos pumps out there that
Speaker:have been in the field for 30 years.
Speaker:So I'm crazy about
Speaker:building stuff that doesn't break.
Speaker:But we have a line of POU point of use
Speaker:systems that we start with a shower.
Speaker:We have an under-the-counter
Speaker:bio-renew RO system we market.
Speaker:And then we have a
Speaker:freestanding water station.
Speaker:And then we have whole home systems.
Speaker:We actually have three different whole--
Speaker:five different whole
Speaker:home systems we market.
Speaker:We have pool systems, spa systems,
Speaker:hyper-oxygenated hot tubs.
Speaker:We've got a big product line.
Speaker:And it's all on our website.
Speaker:And we're going to be
Speaker:reducing these SKUs out.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:Now, I suppose it has to make economic
Speaker:sense at the end of the day, too.
Speaker:Ken, you've been awesome.
Speaker:But before I let you do go, I'd love to
Speaker:just run through a quick lightning round
Speaker:with you, a few rapid fire questions.
Speaker:Nothing too fancy, of course.
Speaker:But it's just a great
Speaker:way of closing it up.
Speaker:Would you be good with that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:OK, first one.
Speaker:We mentioned it briefly earlier.
Speaker:But what do you think of
Speaker:hydrogen enriched water?
Speaker:We recently had Alex Tanago on the show,
Speaker:who obviously made a very compelling case
Speaker:for hydrogen enriched water.
Speaker:Excuse me.
Speaker:But what do you think about it?
Speaker:Well, hydrogen is very unstable.
Speaker:It's way more unstable.
Speaker:It was a trick.
Speaker:Hyper-oxygen is unstable as well.
Speaker:But hydrogen is extremely unstable.
Speaker:So in my opinion, the best way to take
Speaker:hydrogen-- and I take it
Speaker:every day-- is I use tablets.
Speaker:By the way, we also have a sparkling
Speaker:water machine we manufacture.
Speaker:So you can have really nanopure
Speaker:hyper-oxygen sparkling water.
Speaker:But the best way to take the hydrogen is
Speaker:with sparkling water.
Speaker:And you have to drink it right away.
Speaker:So I'm not big into-- a lot of the
Speaker:hydrogen waters that we test, most of
Speaker:them, frankly, when we test them, we've
Speaker:got pretty
Speaker:sophisticated testing equipment.
Speaker:Have very little, in
Speaker:most cases, no hydrogen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The generators in particular--
Speaker:I'm trying to think of the specific law.
Speaker:It's not Hooke's law.
Speaker:It's a law.
Speaker:It's got to do with
Speaker:the gasket coefficient.
Speaker:But yeah, I know what
Speaker:you're talking about.
Speaker:Those generators, they produce two or
Speaker:three PPM after a couple of uses.
Speaker:They really aren't that effective.
Speaker:Well, no.
Speaker:They're going to end up-- I know.
Speaker:They're going to end up in landfills.
Speaker:I'm a big believer in hydrogen.
Speaker:And I do it every day.
Speaker:It's a huge antioxidant.
Speaker:It's wonderful.
Speaker:And the most efficient, best, inexpensive
Speaker:way is to take the tablets.
Speaker:And Dr.
Speaker:Marcola offers really
Speaker:great-- they're out there.
Speaker:There's one manufacturer
Speaker:pretty much makes them all.
Speaker:And they're very robust and good.
Speaker:So I love hydrogen.
Speaker:I recommend tablets.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Alex de Nava, who I mentioned earlier, is
Speaker:actually an inventor.
Speaker:You should probably have a chat with him
Speaker:at some time of the tablet specifically.
Speaker:And then he just outsources the
Speaker:technology to-- I think it's HRW, who
Speaker:then-- am I correct in saying this?
Speaker:Alex, if you're listening, I apologize.
Speaker:But yeah, no, he licenses the technology
Speaker:to the various manufacturers
Speaker:who then create the tablets.
Speaker:OK.
Speaker:So another one quickly.
Speaker:These are never rapid-fire my apologies.
Speaker:Beyond just the bottle products, are your
Speaker:solutions are
Speaker:available outside of the US?
Speaker:For our UK listeners, could they purchase
Speaker:your-- maybe your whole house units?
Speaker:Or is that sort of-- Yeah.
Speaker:(Inaudible) We have shipped all--
Speaker:we do ship worldwide.
Speaker:It depends on the system.
Speaker:But we have shipped our
Speaker:products all over the world.
Speaker:And we will get better at doing that.
Speaker:Frankly, right now,
Speaker:we're actually having--
Speaker:people are starting to get that in
Speaker:today's world, they've got to be
Speaker:responsible for their health.
Speaker:So what's interesting is when things--
Speaker:like during COVID, our business exploded.
Speaker:It's interesting.
Speaker:When there's events in the world that
Speaker:kind of-- people buy more of our water.
Speaker:And that's what's happening right now.
Speaker:We're absolutely swamped right now.
Speaker:And our water is not
Speaker:inexpensive, as you know.
Speaker:It just speaks to the
Speaker:quality of your product, evidently.
Speaker:I mean, if what you were selling wasn't
Speaker:of value, then nobody would be buying it.
Speaker:I mean, which really leads me to my next
Speaker:question, which is, I suppose, more
Speaker:philosophical question is, how do you
Speaker:respond to critics who generally look at
Speaker:hypoxidinated water?
Speaker:Or the water industry in general,
Speaker:structured water, easy water, maybe
Speaker:deteriorating, depleted water, and are
Speaker:quick to judge it and point to it, the
Speaker:price tag is being unjustifiable.
Speaker:What would you say to those individuals?
Speaker:Well, that's easy.
Speaker:So you can go to Starbucks and order your
Speaker:maca, whatever, whatever, for $8 a cup.
Speaker:Or you can go have a cocktail for $20.
Speaker:And all of a sudden, all
Speaker:these products are inexpensive.
Speaker:In all fairness to all these people, even
Speaker:like myself, is we're just not--
Speaker:we're not big enough yet to manufacture
Speaker:to really drive the costs down.
Speaker:I mean, there's a lot of great--
Speaker:I'm a huge fan of
Speaker:deuterium depleted water.
Speaker:But I think there's a place for it.
Speaker:I think if you're in cancer
Speaker:recovery, I think it's a must.
Speaker:It's pricey, but it's pricey because
Speaker:they're not mass producing it, just like
Speaker:I'm not mass producing it.
Speaker:So I want to get there,
Speaker:and I'll get there someday.
Speaker:But that deuterium-- again, if you're
Speaker:battling cancer, what's too expensive?
Speaker:Yeah, of course.
Speaker:It's a scale sort of economy thing at the
Speaker:end of the day, isn't it, ultimately?
Speaker:People tell me, I can't afford your--
Speaker:yeah, I hear it all the time.
Speaker:We can't afford it.
Speaker:And I go, I don't know.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's a matter of priorities, right?
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we can afford what we really need.
Speaker:I couldn't agree more.
Speaker:Yes, well, just about.
Speaker:Ken, OK.
Speaker:Last question then.
Speaker:What's next for Fora?
Speaker:Is there anything on the horizon or on
Speaker:the pipeline that you can share with us?
Speaker:Or is that all a bit top secret?
Speaker:Well, we're working on hyper-oxy-- eye
Speaker:drops are-- I am dry
Speaker:eyes as you get older.
Speaker:Our eye drops are amazing.
Speaker:We have a lot of work to do
Speaker:to get those FDA approved.
Speaker:But we've got some pretty
Speaker:exciting oxygen products.
Speaker:We're developing a skin care line that
Speaker:uses peptides along with our water.
Speaker:There's just so many exciting
Speaker:things that we're working on.
Speaker:And my goal is to shortly
Speaker:just go into-- I love R&D.
Speaker:That's what I love.
Speaker:I don't necessarily
Speaker:love running a company.
Speaker:But I just assume being
Speaker:in the lab doing stuff.
Speaker:But the number one thing is soaking.
Speaker:I want to get this soaking modality out
Speaker:to the world because it's so powerful.
Speaker:Yeah, no, that sounds fascinating.
Speaker:Ken, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker:If people want to purchase your water, it
Speaker:can maybe connect with you
Speaker:or just the brand in general.
Speaker:Where can they find you?
Speaker:Oh, forowater.com.
Speaker:We ship worldwide.
Speaker:And that's true of systems and our water.
Speaker:Again, it's not inexpensive
Speaker:to ship because it's heavy.
Speaker:But it's worth it.
Speaker:So yeah, just forowater.com.
Speaker:And we'll be more than happy to help.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker:This has been an amazing conversation.
Speaker:We'll chat soon.
Speaker:It's been fun.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Take care.
