soft water--does make me feel worse

I noticed a correlation to feeling even worse than before after showers & baths after I got a water softner a couple years ago, i didnt realise it was the soft water though til now, I had the water tested by the city etc put in a filter on the shower (do have r.o. on my drinking water) and nothing turned up or seemed to make a difference but then I turned off the water softner in the last month and it seems I don't feel bad the next day after a shower now. I need to give it more time to make sure its not a coincidence but if any biochemical-smart person could think of what could possibly be worse for a cfs/fm person to bathe in soft water please let me know...
[This Message was Edited on 01/18/2010]

bbb

I'm not sure about the softness of the water, but I can tell you that they made a big deal in our area out of some kind of new chemical being dumped into it. Some offshoot of chlorine that makes people sick and the water companies were getting away with using it.

The temperature of the water can make you sick. If the water is too hot or too warm, it will trigger POTS/NMH symptoms or even a POTS attack and will make you weaker and more fatigued and it can last half a day at least. Interestingly, since I've been having no real hot water in my apartment for the last two months, I'm all of a sudden much better with the POTS/NMH symptoms. The shower has been a major culprit in my symptoms. I'm rarely complaining of being lightheaded now, only when I eat the wrong stuff with nitrates or garlic in it.

I know hot water can make me worse, but when I control for that there was still a problem of even worse symptoms that coincided with when I got softner installed here, darn, wasted money.

Tea, are you saying some chemical in the water softner? they told me they just bring over salt for it, but there could be more to it, I am clueless. The guy shut off the valve to it for me to experiment a couple weeks ago but I should probly call them because if I am going to leave it permanently off then I might need to find out how to preserve it for the next owner. without it I will get more staining in my sinks/toilet etc cus the water has lots of minerals here, was a problem with manganese. I do have a filter on the shower though hopefully stops some chlorine and r.o. for drinking h20.

I wish I could remember more, but it had to do with that they came up with something alot worse than chlorine and have been putting it in the water. And the chemical has known toxic effects on the body, even just breathing it in from the shower steam. It was making people sick and people were protesting in some town around here that was going to get it in their water supply. In was within the last two years. It's a chemical that is used like chlorine, but it's toxic.

hey tea, was that just in your state? where are ya anyway?

I'm in PA, but it was more than one state. I can't find the article now, I looked. It was about how they were switching to something more toxic than chlorine and it was making people sick and they were getting away with it. I don't remember the name of the chemical, but it was supposed to be a more souped up version of chlorine, something like that.

If you do some research on toxic water, you'll find there are tons of horrible chemicals in our water. All kinds, including traces of drugs, hormones, toxic chemicals. The water we drink is not pure or safe. It kills us and harms us slowly.