Summary
Aim: To decide whether drinking water is either effective in providing health benefits
to human beings or increases the likelihood of injury and death among consumers. Design: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials was conducted according to standard
ised criteria. Data sources: Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library Database. Study selection: Studies containing “water” and “health” in the abstract, thereby indicating their
dealings with health associated benefits and risks of water consumption. Main outcome measure: Major changes in the status of health, as measured with various scores available
on the internet (pick any of interest). Results: Studies on the effects of drinking water on health that meet the generally accepted
criteria of evidence based medicine could not be identified. Conclusions: As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of drinking
water has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled
trials. This matter of fact is discussed using concepts from such diverse backgrounds
as epidemiology (cohort effect), public health (need for large scale studies), medical
economics (need to save money), medical ethics (bias effects) and social science (the
dangers of medicalisation of drinking water). Within this complex framework it turns
out that evidence based medicine is not without risks and sideeffects. It should therefore
always be applied with reason.
