Ever heard of “alkaline water?” An Augusta small business supplies ‘alkaline water’ to Masters tournament broadcaster
Geoffrey Jackson’s bottled water company has been serving homes and offices throughout metro Augusta for nearly seven years when he got “the call” in 2019.
The owner of Divine Health Water 4U, which specializes in distributing trendy “alkaline water,” found himself on the phone with CBS Sports headquarters in New York.
The broadcast partner of the annual Masters Tournament wanted 250 gallons of his high-pH H0 to hydrate its workers, guests and visiting VIPs at the Augusta National Golf Club.
The media outlet made another order for this year’s patron-free tournament, and the 59-year-old military retiree-turned-entrepreneur was more than happy to drive the company van through Augusta National’s Gate 1.
“We’re still over the moon about it,” said Jackson, a native of Daytona Beach, Fla., who settled in Augusta after leaving Fort Gordon, his last duty station.
The electrolyte-packed alkaline water that Jackson and his wife Tracey sell has become in recent years the drink of choice for many professional athletes – including golfers – who say it helps them hydrate better than regular purified water or sugary sports drinks.
CBS Sports Promotions Manager Benjamin Dietrich said it makes Jackson’s water available to golfers and others passing through its operations.
“We’re not seeing as many guests this year because of COVID,” Dietrich said. “But Geoffrey is still taking good care of us.”
Jackson’s Divine Health-branded water is used only in behind-the-scenes offices and portable units; Coca-Cola has the exclusive on bottled water and soft drinks at patron concession stands.
Jackson opened his Tobacco Road storefront in 2013 after working for a year as a home-based distributor for an ionized water machine manufacturer. His customers include more than 1,000 residential consumers as well as area businesses such as golf car manufacturer Club Car, chemical company Allnex, plumbing contractor Universal Plumbing and all Center for Primary Care physician group offices.
He supplies regular purified water and purification machines in addition to South Korean-made alkaline water ionizers, which can range from several-hundred to several-thousand dollars depending on the size of the model.
The “alkaline” in alkaline water refers to its pH level, a number measuring acidity to alkalinity on a scale from 0 to 14, with 7 being neutral. Orange juice, which contains citric acid, has a pH of 3.5; green tea, which is rich in flavinoids, has a pH above 8.
The human body, which is roughly two-thirds water, self regulates to reach a slightly alkaline pH of 7.4. Most tap waters range in pH from 6.5 to 8.5, with “soft water” – which is commonly found in Augusta-area municipal water systems – being the closest to neutral.
Jackson first learned about alkaline water while still in the military. His brother, who lived in California, bought their mother an ionizer machine while she recovered from colon cancer surgery. She was scheduled for 12 months of chemotherapy and another 12 months of radiation treatment, but tests after six months showed she was cancer-free with normal white blood cell levels.
She was convinced it was the alkaline water. Jackson himself remained skeptical until he started drinking it after being diagnosed as pre-diabetic. After about five weeks, he noticed his arthritic knees – inflamed from years of paratrooper jumps – stopped hurting.
“One day I went on a light jog and I said, ‘Wait a minute, my knees haven’t failed or locked up on me,’ ” Jackson said. “And I just kept going.”
Eight years later, he’s still not on insulin.
Home water ionizers grew in popularity in Japan and other East Asian countries before gaining popularity in the 1980s among the wealthy and celebrities, such as NBA star Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
The machines use electrolysis to separate water into acidic and alkaline components, unlike reverse-osmosis water purifiers that remove both to create the nearly neutral pH water found in bottled waters not sourced from a natural spring.
Both purification processes are similar in that they remove nearly all undesirable compounds, such as chlorine, lead and arsenic, but ionizers retain useful trace elements, such as calcium, magnesium and potassium.
“Reverse osmosis cannot differentiate between the good and the bad, so it eliminates everything,” Jackson said. “So you’re drinking dead water. The problem with that in a living body is that it’s depleting your body of the minerals and nutrients that your body needs.”
The minerals in alkaline water give it negative “oxidation reduction potential,” or ORP, which proponents say gives the water cell-protecting anti-oxidizing properties, unlike acidic soft drinks, which are highly ORP positive. Ionized water’s smaller molecular clusters are also purportedly more efficient at penetrating cellular walls than conventional water.
Empirical evidence on alkaline water’s health benefits are scant. Some studies have shown drinking ionized water assists in oxygen delivery to the body during workouts by reducing blood viscosity. Others say it may help deactivate pepsin – the main enzyme that causes acid reflux. However, medical sources such as Mayo Clinic and WebMD say the water’s health benefits may be overstated, and that conventional tap water is nutritionally sufficient for most people.
Jackson counters by pointing to hundreds of testimonials on his social media accounts from satisfied customers who say alkaline water makes them feel better. He also claims – albeit jokingly – that his water may have powered Tiger Woods to a green jacket in 2019.
“One of the guys at the course was saying, ‘You guys provided the water in 2019, right? Tiger Woods won, right? It could have something to do with your water,’ ” Jackson said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Hey, I’ll take that.’ “
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