The Water Factor

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Abstract
In the early spring of 1957 Kobayashi showed me some data linking a quality of river water in Japanese prefectures with death rates from cerebral hemorrhage, the first cause of death in Japan. There appeared to be a direct relation between deaths from this cause and the sulfate-bicarbonate ratio of water by prefecture.1 This ratio is an index of acidity. All Japanese river water is soft — less than 42 ppm hardness.2 Examination of these data showed the relation to be statistically valid; death rates from heart disease were low in Japan and bore no correlation with any quality of . . .
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