At the Crossroads of Hydration and Health: Why Water Enriched with Magnesium Deserves a Place in Preventive Medicine
Last week in Bilbao, Aqvita was proud to participate with Food as Medicine cohort at the EIT FAN 2025 event. Surrounded by innovators reimagining how food and drink can serve our health, we presented a simple, powerful idea: that drinking water enriched with magnesium may prevent disease and save lives.
This is more urgent than ever. Today, over 25 million households across the USA and Europe rely on reverse osmosis (RO) or other water purification systems to remove contaminants and improve taste. But while these technologies ensure water safety, they come with an unintended cost: they strip water of essential minerals — especially magnesium.
Unfortunately, most “remineralization” technologies available on the market — like post-filter cartridges filled with generic mineral powder — fail to add any meaningful amount of magnesium back into the water. At best, they correct pH or add traces of calcium. The result is a widespread, silent exposure to water that is technically clean but biologically depleted.
This isn't just a technical issue. It's a public health concern.
Why Magnesium in Water Matters
Magnesium plays a vital role in cellular function, nerve conduction, muscle health, and — crucially — cardiovascular protection. But it is also one of the most underconsumed minerals in modern diets, especially among the elderly and those with metabolic or cardiovascular risk.
Groundbreaking results from the Rotterdam Study, a population-based cohort of nearly 10,000 people, showed that low serum magnesium levels are associated with a 54% increased risk of sudden cardiac death and a 36% higher risk of death from coronary heart disease.
These results were independent of other known risk factors.
In other words: if you drink water that lacks magnesium, and your diet is already insufficient — which is often the case — your heart health may be at greater risk.
This finding aligns with decades of epidemiological studies across Europe. Research from Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 80s found that populations consuming desalinated or very soft water suffered from hypoacidity, impaired bone mineralization, and increased cardiovascular disorders, especially when calcium and magnesium levels were low.
Mapping the Evidence: Spain, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands
The connection between magnesium in drinking water and cardiovascular outcomes has now been observed across geographies and methodologies.
In Spain, a spatial epidemiological study across 538 municipalities in Comunidad Valenciana found a clear inverse relationship between magnesium in water and mortality from cerebrovascular and heart disease, with the protective effect more pronounced for women
In Kazakhstan, Soviet-era research from the Schevtshenko desalination project found that residents consuming distilled water had increased risks of osteoporosis, gastrointestinal disorders, and altered electrolyte balance, especially when magnesium was absent
In the Netherlands, researchers confirmed that even small increases in serum magnesium — just 0.1 mmol/L — correlated with a significant reduction in risk of coronary heart disease mortality
Together, these studies make one thing clear: water without magnesium is not neutral. It may be a missing piece in the puzzle of chronic disease prevention.
Aqvita’s Contribution: Functional Hydration Without the Pill
At Aqvita, we believe water should be more than just safe — it should be health-enabling. Our patented formulation, MB50, delivers 8.3 mg of bioavailable magnesium per mL in the form of magnesium bicarbonate, the same ionic form found in natural mineral waters.
At the EIT FAN event in Bilbao, we demonstrated how adding just 2 mL of MB50 to 200 mL of RO-purified water raises the magnesium concentration to 85 mg/L — a level consistent with functional benefits and recommended intakes, without changing the taste profile.
This is not a supplement pill. There are no artificial sweeteners or flavors. It is a precision formulation designed to restore what purification removes — and support health in the most intuitive way possible: through water.
Water as the First Medicine
Being part of the Food as Medicine movement means rethinking how we deliver essential nutrients. Magnesium is essential, yet invisible in most modern water — especially in households relying on purified sources.
If food is medicine, then water — our most consumed nutrient — must be the first medicine.
At Aqvita, we are proud to be building the technology, the science, and the partnerships to redefine hydration as a tool for prevention — starting with magnesium.
Let’s not wait for deficiency symptoms to appear. Let’s build a future where water itself is a source of health, not just hydration.