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A week ago I posted an inquiry about whether anyone had evidence or
knew of research regarding the possible link between the prolonged
consumption of distilled water (D H20) and the onset or aggravation of
DH, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, which is one of the gluten intolerance
maladies.  Several readers expressed interest in the topic either because
they also had CD or DH and consumed D H2O or because they were
already leery of the possible side-effects of long-term D H20 consumption.
I raised the issue because I heard second-hand about a recent interview
with an M.D. who authored a book about the body's 13 essential minerals.
He sees D H20 as a danger in general, but didn't mention DH or CD.
Nobody has yet cited any research linking D H20 with gluten intolerance,
but I received responses both for and against D H20.  Here's a sample:
         --Barb Smith

"Drinking distilled H2O can definitely be detrimental.  Two summers ago
my wife was getting distilled water for us and I drink a lot in the summer.
I was also working out a lot with long bike rides.  I started having
respiratory difficulties and feeling weak and light-headed.  I almost
passed out.  I went in to the ER where I work and they measured my
Phosphate level at 0.3.  Any lower and my ATP, which is the fuel of the
body, would have completely shut down.  Also, my Potasium was 3.0
which is also very low.  D H20 leaches out all of the electrolytes from
your body if taken for a prolonged period of time.  With the exercise I
enhanced this loss.  I do not know the association between  Dermatitis
Herpetiformis or Celiac Disease and D H20, however if you would like to
look this up, the National Library of medicine has an online search
mechanism called Grateful Med.  They have a web page."   -- J.S., M.D.

"I have also heard that distilled water can cause minerals to leach out
but I would worry more about what is in tap water these days - I can
smell the chlorine."

"When I bought my water distiller I was warned to add mineral supple-
ments to my diet in amounts well over the recommended amounts
because D H20 is a powerful solvent which could cause bone loss and
other problems.  I now drink Reverse Osmosis water from a filtering
system I installed.  It cleans the water without the D H20 problems.
Would anyone like to buy a distiller?  I have no use for it."

"If you look at nutrition tables the **amount** of minerals obtained in
drinking water is negligable compared to what is obtained in foods.  It
is theoretically possible that amounts of *trace elements* in drinking
water COULD be important IF they were lacking in the local diet.  But in
this age, when the majority of our foods come from non-local sources,
that is not likely to be the case.  In any rate a good trace mineral
supplement should take care of that possibility."

"Drinking distilled water avoids the numerous chemicals in city water
(nitrates from farm runoff, numerous toxic pollutants that were dumped
into the river, things added during the water treatment (some can have
gluten-containing starch added to improve the handling properties of the
powders) including chlorine (which is a halogen and halogens are said to
provoke DH (one of the tests for DH used to be an iodine (a halogen)
patch), microoganisms not removed or killed by treatment
(cryptosporidium, Giardia, whatever) etc.  I'll take mine distilled, thanks."