WATER: GROUND STATE
In order for a water molecule to form, an oxygen atom must be in its "ground state". This ground state has two bonding locations it wants to fill. This "need" to fill makes oxygen "electronegative" (negative charge). Hydrogen, conversely, has an electron it wants to give up, making hydrogen "electropositive" (positive charge).
The result of this bonding angle between the oxygen and hydrogens gives the molecule both positive and negative charge fields similar to a magnet.
This specific property is what makes water a universal solvent.
Because it is both a polar substance (+/- ends) and a hydrogen bonding molecule, water dissolves many substances that are ionic and polar compounds. This is important to biologic systems.
STRUCTURE OF WATER: WATER AS A POLYMER
In liquid water, each oxygen atom forms two bonds with two hydrogen atoms. This "hydrogen bonding" is with adjacent water molecules.
What is known is that water molecules have a high affinity for each other. Many water molecules will link to form clusters of up to six water molecules. These clusters will also join to form polymers. This transient bonding, and polymerization, is what gives water its viscosity, it's property to hold heat, and why no two snowflakes are alike (transience frozen in time like a photograph).
It is also this property of water that forms layers of water polymer sheets around proteins and ammino acids, etc. within a cell that play an integral role in assisting these complex cellular compounds to do their job.
WATER SHELLS
The polarity, and hydrogen bonding, of water makes it a highly interactive molecule. This property of water is an expression of its capacity to form an oriented shell around an ion.
Because of the water shells around ion complexes, water conserves ionic energies [oxidation potential], it attenuates the reactions and reaction rates of ion complexes with organics, and it provides a raw material source for oxygen species. Hence, water is not just a carrier, but an active ingredient.
In biologic systems, the water shells around ions of micronutrients, i.e. minerals that cells need to function, is key to the behavior/reactivity of the ion, that also carry oxygen. Micronutrients carry oxygen (mineral oxides) to necessary locations to play a critical role in the building of proteins, amino acids, enzymes …. Etc. Once a cell comes to its functional end, these mineral oxides help drive the process of “apoptosis”, which is the self-destruction of the cell.
Once the proteins and amino acids are produced, the property of water to form layers of polymerized water around them enables these biologic molecules to function.
All these water shelled mineral oxide reactions are chemically called “oxidation-reduction reactions, or in short ReDox reactions and the micronutrients keep things in balance.
ReDox (Oxidation Reduction) reactions rely on ionic micronutrients that are integral to a multitude of metabolic processes. Among these metabolic processes are:
- Bone Development
- Regulate Muscle Activity
- Regulate Myocardia Activity
- Regulate Blood Clotting
- Nerve Impulse Transmission
- Regulate Cell Permeability
- Digestive Processes
- Hemoglobin
- Myoglobin
- Lipid (Fat) Metabolism
- Enzyme Synthesis
- Protein Metabolism
- Water Retention
- Osmotic Pressure
- Essential Amino Acids
- Acid-Base Balance
- Intestinal Peristalsis
- Apoptosis