Rural Heritage April/May 2026

Bioavailable Water

I admit that I have had water very much on my mind the past few months. This winter has been the driest I have ever experienced, despite living in semi arid climates for more than four decades. So, when two leaders in regenerative agriculture separately mentioned the cutting-edge work about water by Dr. Gerald Pollack, my curiosity was piqued. Pollack is an award-winning bioengineering professor at the University of Washington. His book The Fourth Phase of Water was particularly noted by those ag leaders, one even saying that this book was one of the few that they reread often. As peculiar as it might initially sound, it is likely that water is not really just water as we have known it. Structured Water is the phase of water in our body tissues and various cells and is not like water in a glass … . Rather, structured cellular water is ordered and energetically enhanced, very much like a crystal, but it’s in a fluid state … . Structured water has many other names: It can also be called coherent water, primary water, exclusion zone (EZ) water, magnetized water, crystalline water, hexagonal water, etc. – Dr. Marie McMahon 2 Dr. Marie McMahon is a professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Miramar College in California. Her 2023 paper on structured water explores structured water’s many characteristics. And there are even more names for structured water than she listed. One of those additional names is bioavailable water. The existence of structured water has been understood for more than 100 years and maybe as many as thousands of years in other cultures. Perhaps, like me, you have experimented with various kinds of drinking water, from spring water to alkalized. And perhaps you are familiar with the concept of bioavailable minerals for livestock. Or perhaps bioavailable vitamins for yourself. While I had heard in passing the term structured water, I had never heard the term bioavailable water. Dr. Pollack’s book makes clear that structured water is not just

by Jenifer Morrissey

Gardening is relatively new to the Voeikovs. Only recently had they acquired their dacha. Russians seem to have a genetic passion for growing vegetables, and the Voeikovs were eager to try their hand. Their immediate neighbors had been gardening for generations, yet Vladimir’s plants stood fully one third taller. This mildly embarrassing achievement arose not out of any special gift or unusual dedication, for the Voeikovs’ thumbs were not noticeably greener than most … Vladimir claimed it was the water. – Dr. Gerald Pollack in The Fourth Phase of Water 1

Water is easily taken for granted, yet a rarely understood phase of water is crucial to the health of cells in plants, livestock, and people.

Rural Heritage

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