Way back in 1628, Harvey presented his Thesis entitled "Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals". He stated: "The blood therefore required to have motion, and indeed such a motion that it should return to the heart; for sent to the external parts of the body, far from its fountain, as Aristotle says, and without motion, it would become congealed". Another way of looking at it is the principle of flow. Harvey knew that disease induced coagulation of the blood. However he found peer pressure was so strong against his ideas that he feared for his life.

In 1878, Herman von Helmholtz established the mathematical basis for the physical chemistry covering the stability of liquid-solid systems, including milk, oil, emulsions, urine and blood. His mathematical theory forms the basic law of zeta potential today.

There were many other individuals that laid a foundation for the understanding of zeta potential and its practical application to health in the human body. However, if you ask any medical doctor like an oncologist or cardiovascular specialist - to whom these principles can be of critical importance - about zeta potential, they are apt to say they never heard that term before. This is likely because a study of zeta potential is not a part of the curriculum in medical school.

However, anyone who begins a serious study of biological terrain will encounter the concept of zeta potential because it is a basic principle of the electrical properties of life itself. And in one sense the body is electric--or electrostatic.

In various industries the concept of zeta potential is common knowledge. Zeta potential plays a critical role in many industrial processes. The manufacture of soap is one example. Water by itself does not always clean as well as it could. Sometimes the water needs to be made wetter. How can you have wetter water that becomes a better cleaner and disperser of dirt on grungy dishes? By adding anionic surfactants to the water thereby changing its charge. The anionic soapy water does a better job of getting between the cationic dirt particles of the dirty dishes and disperses the garbage.

The area of paints and pigments is another example. Whether a quantity of pigment added to a base paint will coagulate and form a speckled mess or disperse into trillions of tiny particles each remaining separate and discrete thereby leaving an even color, depends almost entirely on the electrical properties of the system.

In the industrial process of purifying water in treatment plants, zeta potential plays a crucial role.  In order to get out pollutants, the treatment facility pours in a highly cationic substances like aluminum sulfate which attracts the garbage to itself thereby coagulating or flocculating out the precipate. This floc becomes heavy and drops to the bottom of the holding tank thereby cleansing the water. (Note that if they miscalculate how much cationic aluminum to add to the water, some of that will stay in the water supply that arrives at your tap and this aluminized tap water is definitely not good for health as it coagulates elements of your own body fluids.)

In a general way of thinking which is overly simplistic, think of anions as dispersers, and cations as coagulators. Anions disperse things, cations bring things together. Further, you could say anionic leans alkaline, cationic leans acid.

Molecular compounds are composed of various atoms with electrons spinning in their orbits and is a mix of anionic and cationic components. The ratios of these anions to cations give indications as to the valence of the molecule or electrolyte. The ions of both anionic and cationic electrolytes may carry from one to four charges and are accordingly designated mono-, di-, tri-, or polyvalent type electrolytes.

When the electrolytes are negatively charged they are written as 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 to indicate their ratios and their respective ionic strength. The higher the ratio the more ionic strength to increase zeta potential and have a dispersionary effect.  The right ionic balance is good for humans.

When the electrolytes are positively charged they are written as 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1. The higher these ratios, the more ionic strength to decrease zeta potential and coagulate, agglutinate, flocculate, sludge and downright clog up systems. The wrong ionic balance is bad for humans.

A lot of the processed foods with chemical preservatives, pesticide residue and additives are of a cationic 1:1, 2:1 nature.  Bad for humans. These foods have a natural zeta potential lowering effect on the blood.  As it is, blood is naturally maintained in a dispersed state that is just on the verge of beginning to sludge. This is required for an effective blood clotting mechanism so if you cut yourself you don't bleed to death. The blood clotting mechanism is associated with the release and activation of prothrombin-thrombin which is a cationic polyelectrolyte. (Heparin on the other hand is an anionic polyvalent electrolyte dispersing agent and is used medically to relieve intravascular coagulation - though I should say we can do this 100% naturally with an understanding of this information). Now with blood at a natural precipice just ready to sludge, if we add negative health items to our diet that have a further sludging effect on our blood, the situation for health begins to deteriorate.