If you’re looking for a way to get healthier, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve come across a lot of dubious products and fad diets on your journey to find it.
In the old days, it was fairly common for some mysterious inventor who seemed like they knew what they were talking about to unveil a product that turned out to be complete garbage. Whether they had convinced themselves it would work or they were actively trying to scam people, their customers ended up finding out the hard way that they weren’t basing their health claims on anything real.
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And as we can see in one recent case, it’s not unusual for such products to actually leave people less healthy than they were when they started.
On March 16, the FDA released a statement advising Americans not to consume any products from an alkaline water brand known as “Real Water.”
As their warning states , “We are advising consumers, restaurants and retailers to not consume, cook with, sell or serve “Real Water” alkaline water.”
Since this warning has reached the public, KTLA reported that Real Water Inc. President Brent Jones has also advised retailers to pull the product from their shelves and return it to distributors.
These warnings come in the wake of a lawsuit filed on March 16 that alleges the water caused illnesses among three members of the Wren family.
As their attorney Will Kemp outlined, the brand is sold throughout the southwestern United States with a reach extending beyond Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico into the Los Angeles county area.
In addition to being available for home delivery in large bottles, Real Water was also sold in Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Costco.
In Kemp’s words, “They represent this as the best water available, and it was the worst.”
The lawsuit came to be after Christopher and Emely Wren — as well as their two-year-old son — became ill after drinking the water.
According to KTLA, the child was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah in November and was put on a liver transplant list before his condition improved and surgery became unneeded.
Meanwhile, Christopher was hospitalized for several days in Las Vegas after showing signs of liver damage and Emely experienced nausea and fatigue. The only member of their family who didn’t fall ill was their daughter, who didn’t drink the water.
These experiences have led the family to accuse Real Water of false advertising, negligence, and deceptive trade practices in their lawsuit.
Their experiences were consistent with 11 other cases under investigation by the Southern Nevada Health District.
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In five of them, children were hospitalized with acute non-viral hepatitis, resulting in acute liver failure.
As for the other six — involving three children and three adults — these seemed to mirror Emely’s experiences and included less severe symptoms like vomiting, nausea, appetite loss and fatigue.
As the FDA put it, “The consumption of ‘Real Water’ brand alkaline water is the only common link identified between all of these cases to date.”
Even in less severe cases, affected consumers showed symptoms of non-viral hepatitis, which the Mayo Clinic describes as “toxic hepatitis.”
As the clinic explains , this can come from alcohol, drugs, nutritional supplements and other chemicals and tends to get better once exposure to the relevant substance stops.
However, it’s also possible for toxic hepatitis cases to result in permanent liver damage.
Symptoms of toxic hepatitis include jaundice — yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes — nausea and vomiting, fever, loss of appetite, itching, rash, weight loss, and dark or tea-colored urine.
