Boiling water has immune-boosting properties?

One “recipe” recommends boiling down water to intensify its immune-boosting properties. Does it work?

This newspaper clipping with the tip for “boiled water” has been appearing again and again on social media for a long time. Accordingly, you should boil water. According to the author, this would condense the molecular bond and intensify the immune-boosting properties. This is followed by a short “drinking guide”.

This newspaper clipping is:

The photo shows an excerpt from the magazine “Bild der Frau”. The author of the article was Kerstin Rosenberg. Wikipedia she is a German author who deals with the Indian medicine Ayurveda.

Water and Ayurveda

Ayurveda is a holistic Indian health system; the oldest known records are around 3,000 years old. It is understandable that there are now newer and more scientific theses about some of the findings of that time.

One can therefore assume that the term “water molecules” will not appear in the Ayurvedic writings, as this was simply not known at the time. So if you read something about water molecules in connection with Ayurveda these days, you should assume that this must be a more recent formulation.

It could well be that the Ayurvedic form of boiling water comes from a time when this certainly made sense due to the germ load. However, it is reasonable to assume that this conclusion or insight was drawn from observations without knowing the biological background. In some regions, boiling water is still recommended. – Independent of Ayurveda.

The term “cooking down” is familiar from many recipes when it comes to thickening or reducing a sauce. In other words: you let it simmer a little longer, the water in it evaporates, the result is a slightly thicker sauce. But this process cannot be converted 1:1 to water.

Water remains water

When cooking, energy is supplied in the form of heat, causing the water molecules to move faster and faster until they finally leave the water's molecular network and escape in the form of steam. However, this does not make the molecular network any denser. The water doesn't get thicker, just less. The concentration of the substances dissolved in it is then higher - yes.

For example, if you look at your kettle at home, after a certain amount of time a white layer tends to form inside.
- Lime. This is because when boiling in this kettle, only the water evaporates, but not the contents, such as lime in this case. This then settles on the inside of the cooker.

In her blog in October 2017, Kerstin Rosenberg also wrote about water, but held back on immune-related topics, instead explaining here that boiling water probably comes from the fact that in Ayurveda, boiling down was used to produce medicinal products. The recommendation to boil water is probably based on this. She also writes: “In any case, hygienic processing is guaranteed.”
Immune-boosting properties are no longer mentioned here.

Conclusion

It is clear that some water dissipates in the form of water vapor when energy is supplied in the form of heat. However, the idea that this has anything to do with immune-biological processes in the body is a bit far-fetched.

Regular fluid intake is of course important for our body's water balance. The idea that boiled water can achieve even more is scientific nonsense.

Exceptions are of course in regions where, for hygiene reasons, it makes sense to boil the water before drinking in order to remove germs.

You might also be interested in: Fact check: Why we get harder at remembering words as we get older