You know it's best to drink clean, uncontaminated water, but does it matter if you use regular tap water to shower and bathe in? The answer is Yes, it matters a great deal to your skin (your body's largest organ), your hair and even your lungs! Here's why:

Chlorine
One of the biggest reasons is chlorine, which is found in most tap water. When you take a hot shower, the chlorine vaporizes in the air and combines with other organic compounds in the air and forms chloroform gas. Chloroform gas is a strong irritant to the lungs and also causes fatigue. You can't help but inhale this gas in the shower. Because chlorine and other irritants vaporize at a much lower temperature than the water itself, the concentration of chlorine in the air of your shower is much higher than the concentration found in the water itself. When the water you shower in is chlorinated, every time you step into a hot shower you are stepping into a concentrated chlorine chamber! Furthermore, both asthma and bronchitis may be linked to inhalation of chlorine.

Skin
As for your skin, your pores are wide open in the warmth of the shower and absorb a great deal of chlorine and other chemical contaminants such as VOCs (volatile organic compounds). We all know the feeling of dry skin from bathing or swimming in chlorinated water. Chlorine strips the oils from your skin, leaving it over-dried and even accelerating your skin's aging.

Hair
Your hair is also dried out and damaged by the presence of chlorine in shower water. Like your skin, your hair is 'wide open' when it is in hot water and it absorbs the chlorine, which strips the hair shaft of its natural oils, leaving it dry and dull. Also, chlorine and other chemicals found in tap water can interfere with and shorten the 'life' of hair coloring, highlights and other hair treatments.

Shower Filter
Fortunately, it is simple and inexpensive to address this problem. A quality home shower filter does an excellent job of removing chlorine, VOCs, lead and other contaminants from your water. They install quickly and easily and are a very inexpensive way to have an immediate and positive impact on your overall health. There are several quality brands on the market, and any of them will have a dramatic and noticeable impact on your skin and hair right from your first use.

A drinking water filter is, of course, highly recommended as well, and at least one of the top brands offers a drinking water filter and shower filter 'combo' pack at a reduced price for the pair. Given the importance of water to every aspect of your health, there are few better investments you can make!

For more information about water and your health, see other Articledashboard.com articles by author Ann Hession.