Survival Science: Why You Must Filter or Boil Stream Water
Clear water does not equal clean water. Debunking the clean stream myth.
Animals like dogs, horses, deer etc., have different digestive and immune systems than humans do. Sometimes animals do get sick. But we never see it.
People see a deer or horse drinking from a stream, and falsely think that means the water is safe, but that's not what that means at all.
Bacteria and viruses have incubation periods.
This is the time it takes from the point of ingestion/infection for the pathogens to multiply and become more than the immune system can deal with.
When that happens it causes fever as part of the immune response to the foreign invaders in the body.
Sickness comes later. No one ever sees that in the wild because people don't ever stick around long enough to see if the animal gets sick from drinking stream water.
More importantly, besides all that, animals have completely different immune systems than humans.
Cows for example can drink some of the nastiest water you can imagine, including water contaminated with their own urine and e-coli infested feces and still not get sick.
If humans drank the same water cows did we'd be sick or worse.
We know better than to drink or eat water or food that's contaminated with feces and urine because that feces and urine has deadly bacteria and viruses in it. (no urine is NOT sterile; it's full of harmful bacteria and possibly viruses) .
But for some odd reason people have this false notion that clear mountain streams are safe to drink from because they can't see the viruses and bacteria in the water.
This is false. It's a myth.
SURVIVAL SCIENCE: Clear water does not equal clean water. Even pristine mountain streams carry invisible pathogens—Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, Escherichia coli, and a soup of viruses and protozoa. These microbes exploit the incubation period, the lag between exposure and illness, which can last days or even weeks. That’s why hikers often blame “bad food” or a “flu bug” instead of the untreated water they drank weeks earlier. Animal immune systems are adapted differently; cows can tolerate contaminated water that would hospitalize or kill a human. Humans, lacking that resistance, require the same defense nature uses: filtration and heat. Soil and rock act as natural filters underground, that’s why deep springs and wells are safer. In the field, replicate that process: filter your water or bring it to a rolling boil for at least one minute (longer at altitude). Anything less is gambling with pathogens you can’t see.
Don't take my word for it, read some of the science:
Humans are terrible at determining the difference between correlation and causation.
They believe the myth that it's ok to drink stream water.
Not realizing that they likely did get sick from drinking that water, many times, but they didn't realize it because the incubation period takes so long for people to get sick, so they forget about drinking the water from the stream and blame their illness on the food they ate the night before or a "flu bug that's going around". Never the water they drank. And when you confront them about it, they deny it because their pride gets in the way.
Cognitive dissonance kicks in and they feel embarrassed or angry when they think about the possibility that something they've believed their entire life could be wrong. So they argue and deny it.
Then when they finally realize they're wrong, they quietly accept the truth and never mention it again because it's embarrassing for them to admit they were wrong.
"I've been drinking water from that stream all my life and never got sick!" they insist.
No...you didn't. You actually did get sick, most likely but you just never realized it was from the water you drank.
And for those that still refuse to accept the truth.
They cite the fact that:
"humans have been drinking water from streams for thousands of years, and they never got sick!"
Yes. They did get sick.
That's a large part of why the average lifespan was 35-45 years old for tens of thousands of years.
Sometimes even less.
Most died as children who got sick from eating contaminated food and drinking contaminated water.
Many more died from infection and disease caused foodborne and waterborne pathogens.
Many died from infected wounds and broken bones that got infected from the inside out, even when the skin wasn't punctured.
The body's immune response cannot fight certain pathogens. Even today. Which is why we have antibiotics and antiviral and antifungal medications.
It's why we have health and safety regulations in the food industry.
Are you going to take your family to eat at a restaurant that has rats and roaches and rodent feces and urine all over in the kitchen?
Are you going to eat or drink from unclean unwashed and filthy glasses and plates and silverware?
Are you going to eat meat like beef and chicken that's raw and uncooked?
No? Why not? Because it's unsafe, right?
Drinking from a stream in the wild is the same thing, whether you want to admit it or not.
It might looks clean, but it's not.
Viruses and bacteria are in all natural water sources.
There is ONE exception, but even that is not 100% safe.
Springs.
Most of the time as a general rule a well or spring is "safer" to drink from than a stream mainly because it's coming straight out of the earth which acts as a filter.
So when we say "filter" or boil your water, we're saying do what mother nature does. Purify your water before drinking it.
Don't get sick. Stay safe.
Filter or boil your water before you drink it.
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