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H₂O Is Your Body's Most Valuable Resource. Treat It That Way.

Rooted in the First Core Pillar of Hydration: Purity.

The AquaWave System is made for those who are unwilling to compromise on anything that goes inside their body by purifying drinking water to the highest standard. 

AquaWave is a countertop system that was designed for every health-conscious kitchen, delivering smooth, crystal-clear refreshment without installation or plumbing.

While the casual health enthusiast often sees hydration as a surface-level concern to quench thirst or avoid fatigue. Those of us committed to optimal health understand that water's true power lies deep within our biology—fuelling mental and physical performance. 

Don't Just Take Our Word For It

Different Goals, Same Vehicle

78. 600. 2,000. 30,000,000,000,000 (trillion).

Each one of these numbers represents something remarkable yet easy to overlook: The number of organs, muscles, functions and cells that make up our biological system.

All contained within your body, this interconnected system is the vehicle that carries you through life, and how well it does so depends on how well you take care of it.

Nothing reflects that care more than the quality of what you choose to put into it, and this remains true, regardless of whether you are:

• An expecting parent committed to giving their child the healthiest start to life
• An athlete striving to better themselves mentally and physically every day
• A busy executive juggling long workdays with family, friends and hobbies
• Or a biohacker exploring new ways to stretch their lifespan beyond 120 years

Quality Inputs = Quality Output

💡 Did You Know: Over 90% of the air you breathe is immediately exhaled, leaving only 0.6kg of oxygen that's actually absorbed and used by your body each day.

To put this into perspective:

• 1 – 1.3kg of Food is consumed in a day on a 2,000-calorie diet
• Drinking 2 litres daily is equivalent to 2kg of water.

As you can see, water is by far the largest useful input into your body—greater than the combined weight of all the oxygen and food you consume throughout the day. This makes sense, as it's the foundation that sustains all of the most important parts of your body.

All of your vital organs are mostly made of water, and they each draw on water reserves around the clock, as they’re working to keep you alive.

Even your cells are 73% water; and every thought, heartbeat and muscle contraction is powered by the energy that's generated by the mitochondria inside your cells.

However, not all water is created equal, so to replenish your cells to a high standard, the water you drink must deliver on the First Core Pillar of Hydration: Purity

💡 Your gut lining wasn't designed to absorb manmade chemical substances like PFAS or chlorine by-products. All these common contaminants are removed to preserve the natural efficiency of nutrient absorption.

💡 Nanoplastics and pharmaceutical residues are also blocked from your drinking water to proactively shield your cells from avoidable free radical damage. 

💡 Eliminates all contaminants that trigger constant immune responses, so your immune system isn't wasting energy dealing with substances that shouldn’t be in your water to begin with.

✅ Your immune system is now free to focus on what it does best: Preventing illness, supporting faster recovery, and resisting lingering fatigue. 

✅ Protecting your gut health with pure water means more vitamins and minerals are absorbed into your bloodstream and get delivered to where they're needed most.

✅ With cleaner water, your cells spend less time repairing damage and more time producing energy at the deepest level.

Everything You Need to Know

✅ Short on time? This section gives you everything you need to know at a glance—no fluff, just the key facts to help you make an informed decision quickly and confidently.

💡 Prefer clarity and want to understand the why behind the what? Feel free to skip ahead to the tab named "Hydration Science Deep Dive: Purity". That’s where we begin unpacking the first principles and scientific reasoning behind every point briefly mentioned here—going deeper into how and why drinking water purity is a non-negotiable for anyone who values their health above all else.

UK Tap Water and the Cocktail Effect

• Despite treatment, tap water can still carry hundreds of contaminants (pharmaceutical residues, PFAS, plastic particles, chlorine and more) that are only partially studied and regulated.
• These contaminants don’t exist in isolation; their interactions (the Cocktail Effect) are largely unknown, especially the long-term consequences to health.
• Current regulations only focus on preventing waterborne diseases rather than also providing the best quality drinking water, when the technology to do so has been widely available since the 1990s.
• There’s no control over taste, filtration quality, or mineral ratios. Every glass of tap water is subject to variables you can’t see or influence.

Pitcher Filters

• Pitcher filters only offer partial filtration of smaller, modern, more complex compounds like PFAS, nanoplastics and pharmaceutical residues.
• PFAS are man-made chemicals that are engineered to be durable; if consumed, don't break down or leave the body for decades—even in amounts that are currently allowed under UK water regulations. 
• Most pitcher filters simply aren’t designed to remove the full range of trace toxins, as anything below 500 nanometres (0.0005 millimetres) is either too small or chemically unreactive to stick to the pitcher's carbon absorption filter.
• Because of their limited absorption capacity, they can also release contaminants back into your drinking water as filters age.

Bottled Water

• Plastic fragments (microplastics and nanoplastics) shed easily into water when exposed to heat, physical impact or oxygen, which is why labels typically say things like: "store in a cool place" or "keep out of direct sunlight".
• Microplastics are around 14x smaller than a human hair, while nanoplastics are 50x smaller than a microplastic and 700 times smaller than a strand of hair—making them invisible to the naked eye.
• Nanoplastic particles are small enough to cross biological barriers and enter cells, increasing the likelihood of build-up in the body.
• Just like PFAS, plastic particles don't break down in the body or environment.
• Even glass bottles aren't immune, as plastic particles still show up due to caps, seals and the bottling process.
• What appears to be an inexpensive daily habit becomes the costliest long-term choice, both financially and environmentally.
• Every bottle adds to the global plastic pollution problem that's likely going to outlast our grandchildren

How Contaminants Affect Your Health

• An active immune system uses as much energy as your brain and heart combined.
• Every contaminant it encounters adds to its workload—this is known as Immune Activation Burden.
• This happens because your body doesn't take risks with unfamiliar substances and works hard to eliminate them as quickly as possible.
• This constant immune surveillance demands energy and ultimately slows down the primary functions of the immune system: detoxification, illness prevention and recovery

Technology Trusted By Leading Scientists and Sports Teams

• Reverse Osmosis replaces uncertainty with clarity by eliminating 99.9% of all contaminants to give you full control over what goes into your body.
• Delivers pure H₂O stripped of all contaminants, ensuring only clean water hydrates your cells.
• Every litre is clean, consistent and plastic-free, without relying on disposable filters or single-use bottles.
• Removes even the smallest traces of contaminants that would otherwise burden your immune system, freeing up metabolic energy as your immune system is not forced to act as a secondary water filter anymore.

Next Steps

Hopefully, this section has served its purpose as a clear overview of why purity is a non-negotiable for hydration and for anyone who prioritises their health.

If you’re ready to take action now, the next tab will guide you through the final steps.

However, if you want to dive even deeper into the science, feel free to skip ahead to the tab named: "Hydration Science Deep Dive: Purity", where we go into more detail and explore the first principles behind each point listed above.

Final Step: Turn Purity Into A Biological Advantage

Stacking the Deck in Your Favour

If you follow the path of anyone performing at the highest level, you'll find one defining feature: Precision.

And it's this mindset of precision, rather than leaving things to chance, that brings success to any domain:

• Expecting parents who go on to raise resilient, healthy children first focus on shaping the early environment, because they know the immune system is at its most vulnerable during infancy.
• Athletes who consistently outperform the competition don't just train harder—they dial in everything: Hydration, nutrition, recovery, sleep, mobility, breath work, supplementation, nervous system regulation, as well as their mindset. 
• High-performing professionals who juggle demanding workweeks, family time, social commitments, and fitness always structure their time with intention. This intention gives them the extra mental bandwidth needed to stay razor-sharp, avoid burnout and fire on all fronts.
• The first people to 'bio-hack' their way to 150 years of age aren't waiting to be frozen in cryochambers; they're currently tracking every single variable, like their life depends on it. 

Leaving no stone unturned to stack the deck in their favour, starting with what goes into the body.

The AquaWave System

AquaWave Water Filter | Reverse Osmosis System

✅ Three-stages of Advanced Purification → Provides contaminant-free water that minimises exposure to PFAS, nanoplastics, and the potential cocktail effect to reduce the unnecessary immune activation burden that gradually drains energy reserves and disrupts internal balance.

✅ Customisable Water Temperature Control → An energy-efficient kettle replacement with 5 pre-set temperatures, ranging from room temperature to near-boiling (95 °C) to help you save countertop space while enjoying all your favourite beverages.

✅ No Plumbing. No Installation. No Stress. → A sleek countertop system that’s ready to go out of the box—perfect for both renters and homeowners alike. Simply plug-and-purify and it will deliver crisp, refreshing water at the push of a button, with zero setup hassle and full confidence in knowing you're serving the very best to friends, guests or loved ones.

✅ Water That Scales With You → Delivers cleaner water at a lower cost per litre compared to bottled water options, and the value compounds yearly with every extra user.

Risk-Free Hydration

✅ 30-day Money-Back Guarantee → We’re so confident you’ll love the authentic taste, clarity and feel of pure water that we've made the AquaWave system completely risk-free. If you change your mind within the next 30 days, simply return the item undamaged and get a full refund.

✅ 5-Year Comprehensive Warranty → Covers system faults and replacement parts to further protect your complete hydration set for the next half decade—for extended peace of mind long after the money-back guarantee ends.

Take Back Control 

You come into contact with a lot of water...

Drinking 2 litres every single day, just to stay hydrated—which adds up to over 3,900 litres flowing through your body in just 5 years.

However, all this exposure currently comes with a cloud of uncertainty.

Uncertainty over what’s actually in your water?
Uncertainty over whether it’s helping or harming?

This uncertainty disempowers you.

It puts you in the passenger seat of the thing that you put into your body most frequently, handing control over to outside forces you can’t see, influence or question.

• Relying on slow-moving water treatment regulations that often take decades to catch up, as they have to wait for science to confirm what’s currently unknown.
• Trusting cheap plastic pitcher-filters that simply don’t have the capacity to remove the most complex and harmful contaminants.
• Depending on bottled water that sheds hundreds of thousands of nanoplastic particles, which accumulate in your body as plastic doesn’t naturally break down.

All of them share the same objective: Deliver “safe enough” water at the lowest possible cost to them.

To be clear, this isn’t a conspiracy theory. None of these companies are inherently evil. This is just a simple case of completely misaligned goals.

Given the choice, most health-conscious people would prefer to hydrate with the best quality water available. The kind that supports long-term health.

While they prefer to focus on meeting regulations while keeping costs as low as possible. If their goal was to empower every individual they serve with the best possible foundation of health, wouldn’t they use the same technology trusted for decades by hospitals, laboratories, and space agencies? Organisations that leave no room for doubt.

And even though uncertainty still surrounds the long-term consequences of toxins and contaminants, your biology doesn’t wait. It still burns energy constantly activating your immune system each and every time a threat is detected, ejecting any molecule that doesn’t belong out of your body as soon as possible to leave no room for doubt.

This same mindset reinforces higher standards that better reflect a lifelong commitment to better health.

Make Purity Your Advantage Today

These days, everyone knows:

• To eat healthier, you choose organic food.
• To train smarter, you use a fitness tracker.
• And to sleep deeper, you start with a thermoregulating mattress.

So when it comes to hydrating better, why does purity still get overlooked?

While water carries the nutrients your cells need, purity ensures that it's not also carrying the contaminants your cells don't need.

Because protecting your cells means protecting your biology at the deepest level.

Today, you can bring this same level of biological defence into your daily routine.

For £495.00 — or just £50/month over 10 months, you unlock:

• Three Stage Reverse Osmosis Water Filter for Advanced Purification.
• Five Temperature Presets for an Energy Efficient Kettle Replacement.
• 5-Year Extended Warranty for long-term peace of mind with every single sip.

This isn’t for those who overlook quality, make compromises with their health or simply don’t care what goes into their body.

This is for those who choose to respect their body by purifying the liquid it depends on the most to function and keep you alive, so you're free to be at your best.

An upgrade to your water is an upgrade to your health. 

Order now to close the gap and purify your foundation for optimal health.

Hydration Science Deep Dive: Purity

AquaWave: Reverse Osmosis Filtration

The AquaWave system uses three integrated stages of Advanced Filtration to remove 99.9% of waterborne contaminants. This process delivers drinking water that meets the highest standard of purity currently possible.

Reverse Osmosis works by forcing water under high pressure through a semipermeable membrane—so only pure H₂O molecules pass through, while dissolved solids, microorganisms, and microscopic pollutants are left behind.

Here's how each filtration stage plays a distinct role in blocking harmful contaminants to preserve the integrity of your drinking water.

Stage One: Sediment Purification

💡 Captures visible particles such as sand, rust, and dirt down to the micron level (1 micron is 50x smaller than a speck of household dust).

✅ This reduces strain on subsequent filters, improves efficiency, and extends the lifespan of the system.

Stage Two: Activated Carbon Block 

💡 Adsorbs complex chemical contaminants, including chlorine, disinfection by-products (THMs & HAAs), pesticides, chlorides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

✅ This not only shields your cells from synthetic chemicals, but it also improves the taste and smell of your water.

Stage Three: Reverse Osmosis Membrane (0.001 Microns)

💡 For perspective, a single human hair is around 70 microns wide—this Reverse Osmosis semi-permeable membrane is 70,000 times finer.

✅ Forces water through the ultrafine membrane at high-pressure to block 99.9% of all remaining impurities, like bacteria, viruses, microplastics, nanoplastics, heavy metal traces, PFAS and pharmaceutical residues—ensuring every glass is clean, crisp, refreshing and free from anything that shouldn’t be there.

Reverse Osmosis technology operates at the molecular level, removing contaminants other water sources simply can’t.

This is why it’s the trusted water source in medical facilities, laboratories and high-performance health environments worldwide—where purity is never left to chance.

The Reality of Common Water Sources

A closer look into the most common water sources (tap water, pitcher filters and bottled water) reveals that what appears sufficient often hides unresolved uncertainty beneath the surface...

UK Tap Water and the Purity Gap

Public water systems were originally developed to prevent the spread of infectious waterborne diseases. This goal has shaped modern regulations that are currently focused on controlling bacterial threats. While this progress has been helpful for public safety, it’s equally important to understand which aspects of water quality are prioritised—and what still remains unaddressed.

In the UK, tap water is treated by regional utilities before reaching households. These companies operate under regulation from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which sets legal standards for quality, safety, and monitoring.

With this in mind, it serves as no surprise that the average consumer doesn’t give their tap water a second thought. Though a growing awareness of the aspects left unaddressed are prompting more and more health-conscious households to move beyond it. 

The Cocktail Effect

The Cocktail Effect refers to how multiple substances (each considered safe on their own) interact in ways science doesn’t fully understand, which carries potential risks.

Studying how combinations of substances interact is not as straightforward as it might first seem. Experiments can take years to yield reliable results, and ethical constraints prevent researchers from deliberately exposing people to potential harm. Even in controlled settings, results vary: individuals reach differently, and contaminant mixtures change based on time and location.

As a result, much of what science currently understands is based on studying substances in isolation—even though, in reality, exposures never happen one at a time. 

However, a lack of evidence around the combined effects isn’t proof that these combinations are safe. It simply highlights the challenges that have prevented science from fully understanding the cocktail effect.

This uncertainty over how multiple contaminants interact also limits the protection that regulations can provide you through the water quality standards set.

Most water quality standards establish separate limits for each contaminant. They don’t evaluate the combined effects of multiple substance exposures.

The Cocktail Effect isn’t unique to drinking water. 

• In medicine, combining two otherwise safe drugs can trigger harmful or unpredictable reactions—a risk known as polypharmacy, and it’s why healthcare protocols follow a zero-tolerance approach to unintended substance interactions.
• Pesticide research has also shown that low-level exposures can become unexpectedly toxic when mixed.

This serves as a reminder that potentially harmful interactions may be present in more areas of life than we realise.

What Contaminants Are in UK Tap Water?

Many contaminants are simply too small to be removed by standard treatment, or they enter the water supply after it’s already been treated—so their true presence isn’t always reflected in final water quality tests.

As a result, the water that ends up coming out of your tap can differ substantially between each household in: which substances are present, how much of each is there, and how they might all interact with one another. 

The Contaminants Purity Keeps Out of Your Cells

Chlorine

• A disinfectant that is added to tap water to kill bacteria and other microbes.
• Can leave behind by-products like trihalomethanes (THMs) & haloacetic acids (HAAs) that have been linked to health concerns over long-term exposure.

Microplastics

• Tiny plastic particles that form when larger plastics break down under heat or stress.
• Can also enter the water supply via packaging, pipes, or environmental pollution.
• Because plastic isn’t something your body can naturally process, these fragments don’t biodegrade—they build up over time, just like plastic bottles that float in oceans for decades.
• The long-term health impact of this build up remains unclear.

Nanoplastics

• Even smaller (less than 100 nanometres) than microplastic particles, small enough to easily pass through filtration and potentially enter cells through endocytosis.
• Like microplastics, the long-term consequences of accumulated ingestion remain poorly understood.

Heavy Metals

• Includes: lead, copper, or arsenic from natural deposits or old plumbing (especially in city centres).
• Can accumulate in the body over time and are linked to developmental and neurological issues.

PFAS

• Also called “forever chemicals,” used in products like non-stick coatings and water repellents.
• Resistant to breakdown and can persist in water for decades.
• Some are linked to hormone disruption and other health risks.

Pharmaceuticals

• Trace medicine residues enter the water system through wastewater recycling or disposal.
• Even in small doses, their long-term health effects remain uncertain.

Even with modern treatment technologies and regulatory standards, these complex contaminants often prove difficult to monitor, predict, or fully remove from the water that ultimately reaches your glass.

That’s why, when you take a closer look, there’s a clear gap in purity between what public systems can practically achieve and what’s possible when you control your own water quality.

Raising the Bar to Close the Purity Gap

In the UK, regional utilities follow three main steps to produce a public water supply:

1. Particle Removal: Binding agents (e.g. iron salts) are added to clump particles together, followed by filtration through layers of material that remove visible debris and sediments.
2. Disinfection: Chlorine is commonly used to kill bacteria; ozone or UV light may be used if chlorine isn’t available.
3. Additional treatments: Further steps like flocculation, sedimentation, or specialised filters are used in some water treatment facilities.

While these processes are effective at removing larger particles and most bacteria, their impact on chemical contaminants is far less consistent. Studies show that their overall effectiveness ranges from 50 to 80% for removing all contaminants.

As the most thorough purification method available today, Reverse Osmosis continues to grow in popularity since becoming available to UK households in the 1990s. This is because it removes up to 99.9% of contaminants, including the microscopic and chemical particles that standard treatment often struggles to deal with.

This 19.9% to 49.9% difference creates a clear Purity Gap: The measurable difference in water quality between filtration methods.

There’s a clear difference in values between meeting standards designed to avoid harm in the short term, and supporting long-term health by empowering individuals with the highest quality drinking water—especially since the technology to do so has been available for decades.

Why Pitcher Filters Aren't Enough Anymore

Pitcher filters were introduced as a simple way for households to improve the taste and smell of tap water, which is often affected by chlorine disinfection.

They use replaceable plastic cartridges to reduce chlorine, improve flavour, and catch particles.

Pitcher Filters Explained: How They Actually Work

Most pitcher filter cartridges rely on activated carbon, a material heated until it forms millions of small pores. As water passes through, some contaminants stick to this surface in a process called adsorption—think of it like lint clinging to Velcro rather than a liquid soaking into a sponge.

But as that 'Velcro' fills up, it stops trapping contaminants effectively. When this happens, new contaminants have nowhere else to go and end up straight into your glass.

That’s why manufacturers are legally required to recommend replacing cartridges every 30 days or so.

This 30-day timeframe isn’t based on a live sensor—it’s just an estimate tied to average household usage.

If your household uses it heavily, you could exceed capacity in half the time and spend weeks unknowingly going back to drinking unfiltered tap water.

So, to be sure your drinking water is even partially filtered, you’d have to manually track every litre, every time you’re thirsty, since most filters can’t tell you when they’ve actually hit their limit.

Partial Purity, Full Exposure

 

*The nanoplastic removal figure is extrapolated based on the known properties of nanoparticle behaviour—including microscopic size, surface reactivity, and how similarly sized contaminants are filtered by typical pitcher filter systems. To date, there are no verifiable studies confirming a pitcher filter's ability to effectively remove nanoplastics.

Note: The figures shown are based on the median values within the reported removal ranges from the sources above.

As you can see, they’re effective in dealing with larger contaminants, like chlorine, microplastics (above 1,000 nanometres) and undissolved heavy metal substances; while smaller, more complex contaminants often slip through the filter.

To put this into perspective…

• Chlorine particles are about 1,000 nanometres (nm) wide.
• While nanoplastics and trace pharmaceuticals are usually under 100 nm.
• And PFAS chemicals are often less than 1 nm wide.

Because most pitcher filters rely on carbon adsorption and not membrane filtration, their ability to remove contaminants is limited by how well particles stick to its surface.

Anything below 500 nanometres is either too small or too chemically unreactive to be caught.

Beyond what they fail to remove, pitcher filters can add new contaminants of their own. Most are made from plastic, which makes them vulnerable to heat, direct sunlight, and exposure to excess oxygen. These everyday conditions can accelerate the breakdown and release of:

1. Microplastic fragments, shed from the cartridges or containers, into your drinking water.
2. Chemical residues, monomers and additives that gradually leach into your water over time.

This is why you’ll see warnings like 'keep out of direct sunlight,' 'store in a cool place,' and 'avoid prolonged storage inside the pitcher.'

These warnings aren’t just about taste—they reflect a basic scientific reality: plastic fragments shed at the molecular level faster than most people realise.

Passive Protection, Active Risk

One of the most stubborn contaminants commonly left behind by pitcher filters is PFAS (per- and poly-fluoro-al-kill substances). These synthetic “forever-chemicals” are found in products like non-stick cookware, firefighting foam, and stain-resistant fabrics.

PFAS don’t break down naturally, as they were engineered to be durable, made with carbon-fluorine bonds, which are among the strongest in organic chemistry.

This durability is why they can linger for decades in both water supplies and the human body.

Because, just like the environment, the human body has no natural way to break down and remove these man-made chemical compounds.

Scientists are still studying the long-term effects of regular, low-level exposure, and this uncertainty is one reason why countries are starting to proactively tighten regulations. 

• In the United States, enforced legal limits are now set at 4 nanograms per litre (ng/L).
• Compared the UK’s current limit of 100 ng/L.

The gap wasn’t always this wide; as recently as 2016, the U.S. EPA allowed 70 ng/L—over 17x higher than today’s limit.

However, in March 2023, after growing evidence linking even tiny doses of PFAS to hormone disruption, immune issues, and developmental risks, the EPA moved quickly to dramatically lower limits all the way down to 4 ng/L, where it currently sits today.

The difference between U.S. and U.K. PFAS limits isn’t arbitrary: The U.S. invests more in environmental toxicology research than any other nation, and its standards often set the benchmarks other countries eventually follow.

Even more striking is how resistant PFAS are to filtration; pitcher filters only remove 20–60%, leaving a significant dose behind in each glass.

Just like the cocktail effect, PFAS reveal how emerging science, outdated filters, and regulatory lag can combine to create an unsettling uncertainty both in the present and for the future—especially for those who care about what’s in their drinking water along with H₂O.

Is Bottled Water Even Cleaner Than Tap Water?

Most bottled water comes in single-use plastic containers. Despite this, it’s still perceived as a premium upgrade over tap water or pitcher filtered water. This reputation stems from brands marketing highland springs sources, underground aquifers and other additional steps intended to improve quality.

Plastic: A Double-Edged Sword

At the molecular level, plastics are long chains of man-made polymers, which gives plastic the durability that has made it the go-to container for liquids worldwide. Protecting what’s inside from direct sunlight, moisture, and microbes, natural forces that quickly degrade alternatives like wood or paper.

However, this resilience to breakdown is also why there are an estimated 5 trillion pieces of plastic debris currently drifting across the world’s oceans. And just like PFAS, once plastic particles enter the human body, there’s no biological system to break down or remove them efficiently.

Nature never evolved to ingest man-made plastics, and neither did we.

When it comes to packaging or shipping, plastic’s durability is a strength. But when it comes to the environment and your health, that same strength becomes a liability.

Microplastics: When Packaging Becomes Part of the Product

Microplastics are tiny plastic fragments typically less than 5 millimetres wide. Too small to see, but large enough to raise significant concerns, microplastics found in drinking water can accumulate in the human body if left unfiltered. 

Microplastic particles shed from bottles through heat, UV exposure and simple movements like squeezing or twisting. These everyday actions exert forces that seem minor to us but make light work of the microscopic bonds that hold plastic together.

Think of it this way: A small impact that barely dents a thick wall might completely shatter a fragile ornament. In the same way, plastic gradually fractures under repeated, low-level stress.

Additional shedding can occur during bottling (as water is added), transportation, and storage, as plastics age and become more brittle over time. As a result, plastic particles have been detected in bottled water samples worldwide.

A study by the Centre for Environmental Health in the UK found microplastics in several leading brands, echoing similar findings from a 2019 World Health Organisation technical report.

To appreciate their scale, here’s a visual comparison:

For perspective, a human hair (easily visible to the naked eye) is roughly 14 times wider than a microplastic particle and more than 700 times wider than a typical nanoplastic particle.

As the visual shows, nanoplastics remain nearly invisible even under magnification, highlighting just how easily they can bypass standard filtration systems and accumulate in the body.

In reality, without advanced laboratory equipment, these particles are almost impossible to detect.

Nanoplastics: A Scale Few Consider

Before we move forward, it’s important to understand the difference between microplastic and nanoplastic particles.

While microplastics result from the shedding of larger plastic surfaces, nanoplastics form as microplastic particles continue to fragment into even smaller pieces.

Roughly 50 times smaller than the average microplastic fragment, nanoplastic particles more easily pass through standard filtration and biological barriers in the human body, posing a different set of challenges.

💡 Did You Know: The average human cell is between 10,000 and 20,000 nanometres wide (0.01 and 0.02 millimetres)—making it at least 100x larger than most nanoplastics.

Given their extremely small size and highly reactive surfaces, nanoplastics can penetrate these cellular structures or even be engulfed by the cells themselves in a process scientists call endocytosis.

In simple terms, a cell effectively swallows the particle; this ability to cross biological barriers is why nanoplastics are considered a major concern for long-term health.

While some are waiting for science to catch up, others see this as a clear warning: Just because we can’t see them, doesn’t mean we should leave them to chance. 

When Smaller Particles Raise Bigger Questions

The issue isn’t just the presence of nanoplastics themselves; it’s the uncertainty surrounding their accumulation in the body over decades.

Emerging research is showing that nanoplastics can easily cross the gut lining, blood-brain barrier, and also penetrate deep into muscle or organ tissue.

Nanoplastics aren’t biodegradable; they can persist inside tissues for years, interacting with cells in ways science is only beginning to understand.

Early studies have also linked chronic exposure to nanoplastics with inflammation in the gut, brain and other organs. While further research has raised concerns about free radical damage to cells (oxidative stress).

Most notably, recent studies have detected plastic particles in the human placenta, highlighting their ability to cross some of the body’s most protective barriers even during pregnancy. Though research is in its infancy, this finding raises new questions about potential effects on foetal development and long-term health.

Detecting and quantifying nanoplastics requires specialised equipment and remains costly and technically complex. As a result, scientists and regulators continue in their struggle to accurately measure plastic particles at scale.  

Once again, the dilemma is: Wait for definitive answers that could take decades to arrive, or take steps now to limit your exposure to materials that were never meant to be part of the human body in the first place?

Note: Tap water, filtered water, and glass-bottled water figures include estimated nanoplastic counts. Because nanoplastics are rarely measured in standard tests, these values were calculated using a published multiplier (10–100x) from the most advanced nanoplastics study to date (Columbia & Rutgers, 2024).

The chart illustrates the range of microplastics and nanoplastics in common drinking water sources, using peer-reviewed data.

Interestingly, when testing down to 1–100 nanometres (average nanoplastic size), researchers found 10–100 times more particles per litre than microplastic-only studies—revealing that plastic bottled water can contain up to 240,000 plastic particles per litre.

While the exact counts vary by region and brand, the contrast is clear: plastic bottled water often contains dramatically higher levels of plastic particles compared to other water sources.

Alternative Bottled Water

Glass bottles are marketed as the premium alternative to plastic, since they avoid direct contact and eliminate plastic leeching.

However, a 2020 Water Research study using Raman spectroscopy still found microplastics in glass bottled water. Introduced not by the glass itself, but originating from the bottling process (bottle caps, hoses, and filling equipment).

When nanoplastics are factored (using the multiplier discussed earlier), glass bottled water contains around 500 plastic particles per litre—as shown in the previous chart.

Reality Check: How Much Does Premium Water Actually Cost?

Note: All bottled water (glass & plastic) cost figures are based on UK supermarket price data as of 2024 averages.

On the surface, bottled water seems cost-effective, just a few pounds here and there. But as you tally up the costs over time, the numbers tell a different story.

The chart compares the daily cost of staying hydrated with glass bottled water, plastic bottled water, and The AquaWave system—based on drinking a minimum of 2 litres per day.

While daily costs seem modest, the long-term totals reveal the full picture:

• Glass bottled water: £3.40 per day = £6,200 over 5 years
• Plastic bottled water: £0.88 per day = £1,600 over 5 years
• AquaWave Reverse Osmosis System: £0.37 per day = £670 over 5 years (Including filter replacements)

Even plastic bottled water, often seen as a purer option, is more expensive than a high-quality home filtration system.

Ironically, bottled water isn’t even the cleanest choice, as you saw before, it can contain hundreds of thousands of plastic particles per litre, making it even less value for money.

So, while it’s marketed as the “premium” choice, the evidence shows it’s neither the purest nor the most cost-effective solution.

Beyond cost and purity, there’s also the wider environmental footprint to consider. Even with recycling, single-use bottles often end up in landfills or floating in the oceans for decades.

Over the same five year timespan, an individual can easily generate thousands of single-use bottles, adding to the very problem that contaminates many water sources in the first place.

The Hidden Cost of Impure Water

As mentioned earlier, nanoplastics and other waterborne contaminants can easily cross biological barriers and penetrate our cells at the deepest level…

Don't Just Take Our Word For It

💡 Did You Know: All contaminants (PFAS, pharmaceuticals, nanoplastics, etc.) are filtered by the same systems that process all other waste out of your body, placing a continuous low-grade burden on your detox pathways and immune system. 

While the long-term consequences of these contaminants are still being studied, one thing is clear: Your immune system doesn’t ignore them. Even low-level exposures trigger a response every single time.

Biological Deep Dive: Immune Activation Burden

Like the other systems in your body, the immune system doesn’t have endless resources. No matter how microscopic, each time it detects a foreign substance, a response is triggered to remove the substance as quickly as possible.

• Macrophages: Specialised immune cells that ‘eat’ unwanted particles like bacteria, before they can multiply and spread.
• Cytokines: Messenger molecules used to help immune cells coordinate a fast response.
• Immune Cell Surveillance: Your body is constantly scanning for foreign particles, so it can respond to the threat immediately.

These responses continuously draw on your metabolic energy reserves and pull focus away from what your immune system does best: detoxifying, recovering, and preventing illness.

Put simply, your immune system would function better if it wasn't constantly side-tracked by substances that are easily avoidable.

While not every low-level exposure leads to disease, chronic immune activation is now linked to a wide range of modern health issues, including metabolic dysfunction, persistent fatigue, and in some cases, autoimmune disorders.

Over time, decades of low-grade stress from chronic inflammation and immune activation burden gradually wear down your immune system's efficiency and functional capacity:

• T and B cells deteriorate into senescence, losing the ability to multiply and mount effective responses with age.
• Tissues accumulate microscopic damage that builds up over time.
• Antioxidant reserves run low, leaving you more vulnerable to oxidative stress.

This helps explain why older adults recover more slowly from minor illnesses and why they are at a higher risk of infections.

While no single factor is solely to blame, what goes into your body each day has an outsized impact—this is especially true for the inputs you consume most often.

The Silent Energy Cost of Immune Cell Surveillance

Your immune system is one of the most energy-demanding networks in your body—burning through energy even when you’re completely at rest.

💡 Did You Know: Constant immune surveillance can use up to 15% of your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is more than your heart (8-10%) and nearly as much as your brain (20%) at rest.

This high energy metabolism comes from immune cells rapidly dividing and targeting threats, like the low-level contaminant exposure that triggers:

1. Constant immune surveillance needs ATP (energy) for transport and signalling.
2. Cytokine release, which accelerates metabolism and coordinates immune response.
3. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced, which must be quickly neutralised by antioxidants.
4. Heat production (thermogenesis)—In a similar way in which infections raise your temperature.

These processes all demand constant energy, even when you feel healthy. Because your body doesn’t take any chances when it comes to foreign particles like contaminants, it treats them all as potential threats and burns through resources to eliminate each threat immediately.

Meanwhile, your lymphatic system works hand in hand with your immune system to clear metabolic waste, transport immune cells and maintain fluid balance.

When immune activation increases immune cell production, lymph fluid is forced to carry more immune cells that need processing and recirculation. This additional load slows lymphatic drainage and the clearance of everyday metabolic waste. Over time, this can lead to sluggish detox, lingering inflammation, and delayed tissue repair.

Chronic low-level immune activation is a zero-sum trade-off, because more energy spent on contaminant defence means less is available for cell repair and detox.

After months and years of accumulation, this imbalance can slow down recovery and make fatigue more common.

Water purity isn’t just about taste or appearances—it’s about sparing your immune system from the daily energy cost of being forced to act as a secondary water filter.

The Final Word on What Belongs in Your Drinking Water (And What Doesn’t)

To recap, tap water can leave you exposed to hundreds of partly regulated contaminants and the uncertainty of how they combine inside your body over time. Pitcher filters often miss smaller toxins (especially PFAS & nanoplastics) due to their limited filtration capacity. And bottled water contains hundreds of thousands of plastic particles in levels that remain largely untested for long-term health effects, all while adding to global plastic waste at a higher environmental and financial cost.

While the wait continues for scientific research to alleviate this uncertainty, these contaminants are still quietly accumulating, placing a constant burden on your immune system and draining your metabolic energy reserves.

But it doesn’t have to stay this way, as there’s an alternative that replaces uncertainty with clarity by eliminating 99.9% of all contaminants to give you full control over the foundation of your health.

Here's How Each Option Compares Across 6 Important Areas