 | |
| Type | Bottled water |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | United Beverage [1] |
| Country of origin | United States [1] |
| Website | www.pentawater.com |
Penta Water is a brand of bottled water produced by United Beverage, based in Southern California. Penta Water undergoes a patented process which the company claims to result in specific health benefits. These claims have been heavily contested by scientists and regulators and do not have any genuine scientific basis.
Penta Water was created by Bill Holloway in Carlsbad, California. Holloway says that he was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia which he contracted due to working with mercury at a previous job. His son, Mike Holloway, then came up with the formula for the highly purified water by accident, and the resulting water "caused him to feel better and to lead a relatively normal life." At this point he realized that he should manufacture and sell this water. [2]
Southern California based United Beverage acquired the patent for Penta Water in 2009, and is still manufacturing and distributing the water as of 2019. [1]
Founder Bill Holloway claimed that "the water formula actually saved his life." [2] He also claimed to have thousands of written testimonials from people with such conditions as cancer, arthritis, cirrhosis, heart disease, and teenage acne who claim to receive relief from his purified water as it allegedly reduces swelling. [2] [3]
In a 2004 interview with Tom Morrow of The San Diego Union-Tribune , Holloway states "our water protects DNA. It acts as a sort of anti-aging process. Heck, it may even be the fountain of youth.” [2]
Press releases from March 2008 announced that Penta Water would be releasing a new study run by dermatologist Dr. Jean Krutmann and the Environmental Health Research Institute. [4] [5] This study allegedly demonstrated "that human skin cells cultured in Penta water had significantly less damage from ultraviolet radiation than skin cells cultured in plain water." [4] The press releases claim that this suggests Penta Water may have anti-aging and antioxidant effects. [3] Penta Water also claims to have commissioned UC Davis to continue this study into the hydration abilities and antioxidant effects of Penta Water. [5]
A 2003 US class action lawsuit, led by San Diego lawyer Stephen Morris, against Penta Water on the grounds of false advertising and unfair business practice, resulted in the company no longer being allowed to claim the water has health benefits. [3] [6]
In response to the lawsuit, the makers of Penta said that scientists from UC San Diego as well as the Scripps Research Institute [6] "had confirmed the health benefits of their water". [3]
Morris said that he contacted one scientist who was listed as a collaborator on the study and "she told him she disagreed with the study’s conclusions and wanted her name removed from it." [3]
In 2016, San Diego news radio station KPBS contacted UC San Diego chemistry professor Andy Kummel, who coauthored the report on Penta Water's claims. They concluded that Penta Water's claims were "not only wrong, but absurd." [3]
In March 2005 a public complaint was filed with the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom regarding a promotional leaflet on the qualities of Penta Water. The leaflet claimed that "it's no ordinary water" and that the water is "ultra-purified", "restructured", and can provide the consumer with something called "bio-hydration". [7] The leaflet claimed this process, which was granted a patent for a 13 step water purification process by The US Patent Office [1] [4] , was proven at UC San Diego, Moscow University, and again proven by the General Physic Institute. The complaint alleged that the leaflet implied the product contained health benefits beyond those of plain water, and that it claimed water was "restructured", which the complainant did not believe was possible. [8] [7]
According to the Advertising Standards Authority,
The advertisers asserted that Penta was a new form of water that was restructured. They submitted research papers that they believed showed scientific evidence of restructuring and several works in preparation, including studies from UK universities, that they believed showed increased performance and recovery levels after exercise with Penta when compared with ordinary water. The advertisers argued that, because Penta could hydrate more efficiently than tap water, it was better for health; they said they had not, however, made any medicinal claims for the product. [8]
Based on the scientific evidence presented to the Advertising Standards Authority they "concluded that the information submitted was not sufficient to prove Penta water had health benefits over and above those of ordinary water or was structured differently from ordinary water." [8] [7] Thus, the ASA "told the advertisers not to repeat claims that implied the product was chemically unique, had been restructured or molecularly redesigned, or hydrated cells and improved physical performance better than tap water. [8] [7]
In 2005 Ben Goldacre, investigating for his Bad Science column in The Guardian , examined Penta's website and found that Penta Water had many health claims and testimonials on their website. [9] When he reached out to Penta for scientific evidence, he was told that there exists an in vitro study on liposomes with aquaporins in artificial membranes that demonstrates this water is absorbed faster, although this study was never produced. [9]
Ben Goldacre claims he received threatening messages from Penta Water in the form of a message to his Bad Science column that read "Sleep well tonight and think about how and why you tried to fuck us over and practice [sic] keeping one eye open", but he claims they also apologized for this remark. [7]
Penta Water claimed that seeds could germinate in half the time in Penta Water, compared to normal water. Because of this testable claim they were encouraged to attempt James Randi's million dollar challenge. Penta Water announced that they would accept the challenge. [10]
As they further discussed the terms for verification of the experiment, Penta Water declined to continue with the challenge, noting they did not have the appropriate resources at the time to provide someone to oversee the experiment. [10]
The University of California, San Diego is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is the southernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California, and offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling 33,096 undergraduate and 9,872 graduate students. The university occupies 2,178 acres (881 ha) near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, with the main campus resting on approximately 1,152 acres (466 ha).
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography is the center for oceanography and Earth science based at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California.
Gillian McKeith is a Scottish television personality and writer. She is known for her promotion of various pseudoscientific ideas about health and nutrition. She is the former host of Channel 4's You Are What You Eat (2004–2006), Granada Television's Dr Gillian McKeith's Feel Fab Forever (2009–2010), and W Network's Eat Yourself Sexy (2010). In 2008, McKeith regularly appeared on the E4 health show Supersize vs Superskinny, and in 2010, she was a contestant on the tenth series of the ITV show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was created in 2004 after 59% of California voters approved California Proposition 71: the Research and Cures Initiative, which allocated $3 billion to fund stem cell research in California.
Matthias Rath is a doctor, businessman, and vitamin salesman. He earned his medical degree in Germany. Rath claims that a program of nutritional supplements, including formulations that he sells, can treat or cure diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These claims are not supported by any reliable medical research. Rath runs the Dr. Rath Health Foundation, has been closely associated with Health Now, Inc., and founded the Dr. Rath Research Institute.
Ben Michael Goldacre is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford. He is a founder of the AllTrials campaign and OpenTrials to require open science practices in clinical trials.
UC San Diego Health is the academic health system of the University of California, San Diego in San Diego, California. It is the only academic health system serving San Diego and has one of three adult Level I trauma centers in the region. In operation since 1966, it comprises three major hospitals: UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest, Jacobs Medical Center in La Jolla, and UC San Diego Health East Campus Medical Center in East County. The La Jolla campus also includes the Moores Cancer Center, Shiley Eye Institute, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center, and Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion, and the health system also includes several outpatient sites located throughout San Diego County. UC San Diego Health works closely with the university's School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy to provide training to medical and pharmacy students and advanced clinical care to patients.
Patrick Holford is a British author and entrepreneur who endorses a range of controversial vitamin tablets. As an advocate of alternative nutrition and diet methods, he appears regularly on television and radio in the UK and abroad. He has 36 books in print in 29 languages. His business career promotes a wide variety of alternative medical approaches such as orthomolecular medicine, many of which are considered pseudoscientific by mainstream science and medicine.
The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine is the graduate medical school of the University of California, San Diego, a public land-grant research university in La Jolla, California. It was the third medical school in the University of California system, after those established at UCSF and UCLA, and is the only medical school in the San Diego metropolitan area. It is closely affiliated with the medical centers that are part of UC San Diego Health.
La Jolla Institute for Immunology is a non-profit research organization located in La Jolla, San Diego, California. It is located in UC San Diego’s Research Park. The institute researches immunology and immune system diseases. The institute employs 220 M.D.s and Ph.D.s, including 23 faculty members and more than 450 employees. Dr. Mitchell Kronenberg has served as its president and scientific director since 2003. The institute was founded in 1988.
The UC San Diego Tritons are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, San Diego. UC San Diego has 23 varsity sports teams, as well as esports teams, and offers student participation in a wide range of sports. As of July 1, 2020, all UC San Diego teams participate at the NCAA Division I (DI) level in the Big West Conference. During their time in NCAA Division II and the California Collegiate Athletic Association starting in the 2000–01 season, UC San Diego placed in the top 5 in the Division II NACDA Directors' Cup standings nine times, including three 2nd-place finishes. NCSA Athletic Recruiting ranked the Tritons as the nation's top Division II program for eight consecutive years.
Carl David DeMaio is an American politician from San Diego, California. DeMaio hosts a radio show on NewsRadio 600 KOGO. He also founded and served as Chairman of Reform California, a conservative political action committee.
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients is a book by the British physician and academic Ben Goldacre about the pharmaceutical industry, its relationship with the medical profession, and the extent to which it controls academic research into its own products. It was published in the UK in September 2012 by the Fourth Estate imprint of HarperCollins, and in the United States in February 2013 by Faber and Faber.
Jacobs Medical Center is a teaching hospital on the University of California, San Diego campus in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego. Along with the UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest, it serves as a flagship hospital of UC San Diego Health and the primary teaching hospital for the UC San Diego School of Medicine. The facility, which offers specialized care not previously available in San Diego County, opened in 2016.
Jeanne Frances Loring is an American stem cell biologist, developmental neurobiologist, and geneticist. She is the founding Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and emeritus professor at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She has founded two biotechnology companies, Arcos BioScience (1999) and Aspen Neuroscience (2018)
The UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest is one of three medical centers of UC San Diego Health and is a teaching hospital for the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.
The San Diego Climate Action Plan was adopted by the city of San Diego in December 2015. It is a local climate action plan whose rules are defined by the California global warming Solutions Act of 2006, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Through this plan, the city initially set goals of eliminating half of all greenhouse emissions and sourcing all energy from renewable sources by the year 2035. With a coalition of business owners, environmental advocates, and community leaders, Mayor Kevin Faulconer approved the Climate Action Plan. The Climate Action Plan consists of several policies to ensure the economic and environmental growth of the city of San Diego. It was referred to in The San Diego Union-Tribune as "the most aggressive climate action plan in California."
JoAnn Trejo is an American pharmacologist, cell biologist, a professor, and also an assistant vice chancellor in the department of health sciences faculty affairs in the Department of Pharmacology at the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego. She is also the assistant vice chancellor for Health Sciences Faculty Affairs. Trejo studies cell signalling by protease-activated G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). She is also actively involved in mentoring, education and outreach activities to increase the diversity of science.
Detoxification foot baths, also known as foot detox, ionic cleansing, ionic foot bath and aqua/water detox are pseudoscientific alternative medical devices marketed as being able to remove toxins from the human body. They work by providing an electric current to an electrode array immersed in a salt water solution. When switched on, the electrodes rapidly rust in a chemical process called electrolysis which quickly turns the water brown. This reaction happens regardless of whether or not a person's feet are immersed in the water and no toxins from the human body have ever been detected in the water after use.
Ruth S. Waterman is an American anesthesiologist, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego Health, Associate Clinical Professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Commence Bio, a company that specializes in next generation stem cell therapy and cancer immunotherapy. Waterman is known for developing stem cell-based therapies to help patients with pain and advancing methods to personalize pain medicine based on pre-surgery genetic testing.