INTRODUCTION TO THE ALKALINE DIET The alkaline diet -- also known as nutripathy -- is based on the proposition that alkalinity in the cells of the body is conducive to health, while acidity is conducive to illness. When foods are metabolised in the cells, they are effectively "burned up" and leave behind an "ash". This ash tends to be either alkaline, acidic or neutral, depending largely on the mineral content of the food. This state of alkalinity or acidity can be measured and charted on a scale -- known as the pH scale -- which goes from zero to fourteen. A rating of 7 is neutral, less than 7 is acidic and more than 7 is alkaline. The human bloodstream is rated at 7.4, which is mildly alkaline. The human body goes to great lengths to maintain the blood at 7.4, if necessary drawing alkaline minerals from the cells. If the body has to draw too many minerals from the cells,
Transcript
INTRODUCTION TO
THE ALKALINE DIETThe alkaline diet -- also known as nutripathy -- is based on the proposition that alkalinity in the cells of the body is conducive to health, while acidity is conducive to illness. When foods are metabolised in the cells, they are effectively "burned up" and
leave behind an "ash". This ash tends to be either alkaline, acidic or neutral, depending largely on the mineral content of the food.
This state of alkalinity or acidity can be measured and charted on a scale -- known as the pH scale -- which goes from zero to fourteen. A rating of 7 is neutral, less than 7 is acidic and more than 7 is alkaline. The human bloodstream is rated at 7.4, which
is mildly alkaline. The human body goes to great lengths to maintain the blood at 7.4, if necessary drawing alkaline minerals from the cells. If the body has to draw too many minerals from the cells, however, the result is acidity, which is conducive to a
large variety of illnesses.
To maintain alkalinity in the body, it is necessary to consume foods that supply the necessary alkaline minerals. The balance
of foods should be in the ratio of four parts of alkaline foods to one part of acid-forming food. This ratio is necessary because it
takes four parts of alkaline to neutralise one part of acid. In short, the diet should be 80% alkaline foods and 20% acid-
forming foods.
MY EXPERIENCE
I first heard of the alkaline diet back in the 60s, when I found the statement, in a book on nutrition, that the diet should be 80%
alkaline and 20% acidic. At that time I failed to follow up on the idea, but its existence in a book in the 60s shows that there is
nothing new about the idea.
I thought nothing more about the idea until 2003 -- a long time between drinks, one might say -- when a product called Unique Water came on the market in Australia. When I checked their website, I found they were basically talking about the old idea
that alkalinity was conducive to health and acidity was conducive to illness. In the case of Unique Water, they were putting the emphasise on the alkaline mineral magnesium.
Unique Water contained a certain amount of magnesium in the form of magnesium bicarbonate. This form of magnesium exists only in water, which is why they had to market it as a particular
form of bottled water.
For purely economic reasons, I proceeded to test the idea without the benefit of Unique Water. This involved changes to the diet, putting the emphasis on eating more of the foods that
provide alkaline minerals. Naturally, I also looked at the question of mineral supplements. It is not all that easy to have an alkaline diet, because most foods that we eat are acid-forming.
Vegetarians and such people might find it easier, but for most of us, an alkaline diet is rather difficult. After researching alkaline foods on the internet, I found a page that described the use of sodium bicarbonate for neutralising acids in the body. This
practice has been researched thoroughly for sporting purposes, where sodium bicarbonate (or baking soda, as it is also known)
has been found to neutralise the buildup of lactic acids in the body after certain sports.
I proceeded with some changes to my diet plus the use of sodium bicarbonate in the recommended dose, which is 0.3
grams per kilo of body weight. The dietary changes were simple enough. I threw out the black pepper, which is acid-forming, as well as the peanut butter. I replaced all dairy products, which are acid-forming, with soy products. I started eating oranges instead of apples and bananas, which are more acid-forming because of their fruit sugar (sugar is acid-forming). I did not
eliminate all forms of junk food or acid-forming foods because, unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth. (This is why I had to cheat by using sodium bicarbonate). I then settled down to await the
results.
Nothing happened for the first six months or so. After six or seven months, I began to notice results. The first thing that
happened was that I lost my allergy towards grasses, which had previously caused my sinuses to block up. Suddenly I found that I could lay down on the grass without my sinuses blocking up.
Next, I found that my arthritis was getting milder. Previously, I had found that, in my fifties as I was, I was developing pain in my feet, calf muscles, lower back, hips and knuckles. This pain was particularly strong when I got up from a sitting position or
from laying down in bed. After six or seven months on the alkaline diet, however, I found that the pain had softened and was no more than a feeling of stiffness; stiff, but not painful.
These improvements continued over the next few months. The pain and stiffness gradually disappeared completely. The sinuses
continued to clear up and I lost the allergic reaction to house dust and mites as well as to grass. My neck felt less stiff and even my sleep settled down a little. Most surprising of all,
however, was that I suddenly noticed a patch of new black hairs in the middle of my moustache. At first I just thought, "Where
did that come from?" Then I noticed more black hairs to the left of the first patch, then another to the right. I then realized that
the hair on top of my head was blacker than before. My hair was actually getting blacker instead of greyer, although the
moustache and beard never caught up with the hair on top. (This development is in keeping with statements on the Unique Water
website that alkalinity slows the ageing process.)
After twelve months on the alkaline diet I had very definite results: the arthritis had disappeared completely, the allergies
had disappeared completely, my neck was looser, my sleep was slightly better and my hair was blacker. Now, sceptics might say that it was all nothing but placebo, because I had read about the alleged benefits on the Unique Water website. They could easily say that I had read about the effect on arthritis and so forth, so my subconscious simply imitated the results. However, I had definitely not read about hair turning black. In any case, the
simple reply to the sceptics is, "Try it for yourself."
In short, after being on the diet for twelve months I had unambiguous proof that it works.
ALKALINE AND ACID FOODS
(The following lists are a rough guide. They are by no means comprehensive.)
ALKALINE FOODS
Soy Grapefruit
Lima Beans Tomatoes
Apricots Peaches
Spinach Apples
Turnips Grapes
Raisins Bananas
Almonds Watermelon
Carrots Millet
Celery Coconuts
Cucumber Oranges
Cantaloupe Lemons
Potatoes Limes
Pineapple Lettuce
Cabbage Watercress
Grapefruit Buckwheat
ACID-FORMING FOODS
Oysters Breads
Veal Nuts (except almonds)
Most Fish Cheeses
Organ Meats Lentils
Liver Eggs
Chicken Dairy Products
Fowl Sugar
Most Grains and Cereals Honey
Rice Dried Fruits
TWELVE MOST BASIC ALKALINE SALTS
Ferric Phosphate -- necessary for oxygenating the blood
Potassium Chloride -- necessary for the lining of body cells
Potassium Phosphate -- essential nerve nutrient
Potassium Sulphate -- necessary for oxygenating the cells of the skin
Magnesium Phosphate -- a nerve stabiliser
Sodium Chloride -- regulates distribution of water
Sodium Phosphate -- emulsifies fatty acids
Sodium Sulphate -- eliminates excess water
Silicic Oxide -- necessary as an eliminator, cleanser and conditioner
Calcium Fluoride -- important for the elasticity of tissues
Calcium Phosphate -- necessary in teeth, bones and gastric juices
Calcium Sulphate -- a crucial blood purifier
SODIUM BICARBONATE
(Carb Soda, Baking Soda)
Researched for effective neutralization of lactic acid in the body
1. Recommended dose -- 0.3 grams per kilo of body weight, once daily ONLY
Higher doses of 0.5 grams per kilo of body weight have been tried but are no more effective
2. Has numerous medical uses
3. WARNINGS
Sodium Bicarbonate should not be used by individuals with hypertension or kidney problems, or by those on low-sodium
diets.
It should not be combined with MILK or CALCIUM supplements. It may induce the milk-alkali syndrome, leading to
kidney problems.
Sodium Bicarbonate may cause gastrointestinal distress, including nausea, bloating, diarrhoea and flatulence.
Sodium Bicarbonate supplementation may block the absorption of some other nutrients.
Sodium Bicarbonate overdose can cause a HEART ATTACK.
SODIUM BICARBONATE SHOULD ONLY BE USED UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION.
FURTHER STUDY
THE PH MIRACLE -- Robert Young -- (Time Warner Paperbacks, 2002)
Unique Water website -- loads of technical info on how it all works
(Note: the author does not use Unique Water and does not have shares in the company)
Are You Eating Enough Alkaline Foods to Maintain Vital Health?
This chart provides information that shows the contribution of various food substances to the acidifying of body fluids, and ultimately, to the urine, saliva, and blood. In general, it is important to eat a diet that contains foods from both sides of the chart.
Allergic reactions and other forms of stress tend to produce acids in the body. The presence of high acidity indicates that more of your foods should be selected from the alkalizing group.
You may find it useful to check your pH using our Personal pH Test Kit in order to find out if your selection is providing the desired balance.
Each of us is at war and we don't even know it! The private war we each wage is a daily assault on our body by bacteria, virus, fungus, yeasts, and molds. We have entered what might be referred to as critical mass when it comes to this bacterial warfare onslaught being waged against us by stronger and stronger killer bugs and bad bacteria. Our immune systems are becoming weaker and over-taxed in this war. Even the medical profession's first line of
defense (the antibiotic) is becoming less and less effective against resistant new strains being created daily as the bacteria mutate. Since Louis Pasteur discovered the germ theory of disease that states germs are the cause of disease, time has proven him correct. But note Dr. Pasteur's dying words: "The germ is nothing, the inner terrain is everything."
The inner terrain referred to in Dr. Pasteur's statement is now being called our biological terrain and comprises our body's digestive tract, lymph system, blood, urinary tract, interstitial and interstitial fluids. Our bodies are alkaline by design and acid by function. Maintaining proper alkalinity is essential for life, health, and vitality. Simply put - an imbalance of alkalinity creates a condition favorable to the growth of bacteria, yeast and other unwanted organisms. All leading biochemists and medical physiologists have recognized pH (or the acid-alkaline balance) as the most important aspect of a balanced and healthy body. They have long known that the maintenance of an alkaline pH in our tissues and cells is critical to cellular health. In contrast, our digestive tract (except for our normally alkaline mouth) has varying degrees of acid by design, and our urinary tract should be slightly acidic for healthy function.
We live and die at the cellular level. All the cells (billions of them) that make up the human body are slightly alkaline, and must maintain alkalinity in order to function and remain healthy and alive. However their cellular activity creates acid and this acid is what gives the cell energy and function. As each alkaline cell performs its task of respiration, it secretes metabolic wastes, and these end products of cellular metabolism are acid in nature. Although these wastes are used for energy and function, they must not be allowed to build up. One example of this is the often painful lactic acid which is created through exercise. The body will go to great lengths to neutralize and detoxify these acids before they act as poisons in and around the cell, ultimately changing the environment of the cell. Most people and clinical practitioners believe the immune system is the body's first line of defense, but in actuality it is not. It is very important, but more like a very sophisticated clean-up service. We must instead look at the importance of pH balance as the first and major line of defense against sickness and disease and for health and vitality.
If we were to ask "What is killing us?", the answer might be "ACIDOSIS"! It has been demonstrated that an acidic, anaerobic (lacking oxygen) body environment encourages the breeding of fungus, mold, bacteria, and viruses. Let's look at an example. If we were to seal the door to our freezer and then unplug it, come back and open the door in two weeks, what would we find? Mold, bacteria, microscopic bugs. Things will be growing and multiplying. Where did they all come from? They did not sneak in - remember the door was sealed. The answer is . . . "they were always there". It is simply that the environment changed to a more inviting and healthy one for the "critters" to live in. This can be likened to a shift in our biological terrain from a healthy oxygenated, alkaline environment to an unhealthy anaeorbic acidic environment. You see what is healthy for us is unhealthy for the body attackers and what is healthy for them is what is unhealthy for our body.
A state of acidosis is simply the lack of oxygen and available calcium which the body uses to maintain its alkaline balance. Calcium makes up 1.6% of our body weight. It is literally the human glue that holds the body together. Calcium is so biochemically active that it has been likened to an octopus. A calcium ion can hold onto seven other molecules while it grabs onto one molecule of water. No other ion can do this. And it is the right size to easily get in and out of the human cell. As it does this, it takes a chain of nutrients into the cell and then leaves to get more nutrients.
The biggest problem scientists have found is that over time the human body becomes depleted of calcium. A compound called mono-ortho-calcium phosphate is the chemical buffer for the blood. This buffer maintains the alkaline level (or the lack of acidity) in your blood. Without it you would die. If the acidity level of your blood changes even slightly you die immediately. But in order to supply enough calcium for buffering we must have enough
calcium being absorbed from our diet or our body will simply rob the needed calcium from our bones and teeth. The more acidic we become, the harder it is for oxygen to be present, so our biological terrain also becomes more anaerobic. Without adequate oxygenation, unfriendly bacteria, viruses, molds, and fungus can live and prosper. Then our cells cannot carry on their life-giving functions in a very efficient manner because our biological chemical reactions need oxygen.
Life and death are in the biological terrain and the battle cry here is to reclaim your biological terrain. This is so important that some practitioners working with the inner biological terrain and its implications to the health of our bodies are beginning to say "There are no specific diseases, only specific disease conditions, and there is only one disease. And that one disease is acidosis."
The human body is very intelligent. As we become more and more acidic the body starts to set up defense mechanisms to keep the damaging acid from entering our vital organs. It is known that acid gets stored in fat cells. After all, if the acid does come into contact with an organ the acid has a chance to eat holes in the tissue. This may cause the cells to mutate. The oxygen level drops in this acidic environment and calcium begins to be depleted. So as a defense mechanism, your body may actually make fat to protect you from your overly-acidic self. Those fat cells and cellulite deposits may actually be packing up the acid and trying to keep it a safe distance from your organs. The fat may be saving your vital organs from damage. Many people have found that a return to a healthy inner biological terrain helps them to lose excess fat.
Osteoporosis is very confusing for many people. Most people think they can eliminate it by increasing their consumption of milk and dairy products. But in the countries where the consumption of dairy products is very low the instances of osteoporosis is very rare. Osteoporosis is an acidosis problem. As the body becomes more acidic, to protect against the event of heart attack, stroke, illness, or even cancer, the body attempts to remain healthy. So, it steals calcium from the bones, teeth, and tissue. As bone mass becomes depleted, this is what we call osteoporosis. As we saturate the body with calcium this brings the alkaline pH up and drops the acid levels down.
One of the first warning signs of an acidic biological terrain is calcium deposits. A little known fact is that there has never been a scientifically proven association between calcium deposits in the body and nutritional calcium. In fact quite the opposite is found in the results of testing calcium deposits of the body. Calcium deposits come not from dietary calcium but from the structural calcium of our bones and teeth!
So if calcium deposits are forming, we know our inner biological terrain is too acidic. Our dietary intake of calcium is not keeping up with the calcium buffering needed and we are actively pulling calcium from our bones and teeth. It all works like a little train, from the bones to the fluids and cells, to the blood. As our biological terrain becomes acidic, our pH level drops. When this happens we start losing calcium out of the blood, the bones, and the tissues. This is a safety mechanism. Now your biological terrain's oxygen level drops leaving you tired and fatigued, allowing fungus, mold, parasites, bad bacteria, and viral infections to flourish and gain a hold throughout the body. It is interesting to note that you often won't have just some of these invaders. If you have Candida you will likely have bad bacteria, fungus, and parasites because they all flourish in the same terrain.
WHAT ARE THE FIRST THINGS WE CAN DO TO CHANGE ALL THIS?
Call The Wolfe Clinic to order your Personal pH Test Kit. With hundreds of tests in a roll, and the most accurate tester available, you can monitor your entire family's pH on a daily basis.
We must get in there and cleanse the body to get it under control. After it is under control, we have to support the body nutritionally to build new cells. We are in an era of malnutrition because the minerals aren't in the soil and they can't possibly get into our food chain. What we have is lots of food but very little nutrient value in it. I've heard experts comment "if you don't want to take supplements, you haven't got a chance". The quality of the supplements you do decide to take will make all the difference in the world because not all supplements are created equal.
Calcium is the one mineral that can really alkalize your body. It produces the calcium buffering compound Mono-ortho-calcium phosphate which raises your pH (makes your biological terrain more alkaline). There are many ways to keep your body's biological terrain at a healthy alkaline environment. These include:
eating alkalizing foods including lots of green foods and super foods limiting our intake of phosphates which bind to calcium and prevent its absorption. Dietary
phosphates are commonly found in all carbonated drinks, and in all animal protein. Adding dietary calcium in the form of supplementation is generally difficult because of our body's
inability to absorb and assimilate most forms of commonly available calcium. The best calcium supplement, which is 95% absorbable by the human body is ionic coral calcium.
This all takes time. It is not easy to reverse acidity once we become too acidic. The extreme importance of cellular environment has been mostly overlooked in the past, but has recently been recognized.
Scientists who describe the environment of our cells measure three conditions of certain body fluids - in blood, saliva, and urine:
1. pH- Acid or Alkaline2. Antioxidant power3. Electrical conductivity.
The report that describes the overall environment of your cells based on those measurements, is called your Biological Terrain. The instrument used to test the body fluids is named the Biological Terrain Analyzer. Scientists have found that when the biological terrain is out of the narrow healthy range, the cells can not perform properly and a person is at a higher risk of contracting a wide spectrum of acute and chronic diseases as well as experiencing physical deterioration and more rapid aging.
During this century, despite many technological advances in our society, we have seen many threatening declines. One of the most obvious and dangerous is the nature of food consumption. Food consumption in our most advanced countries has changed from nutritious raw foods to highly processed foods low in nutritional value. Over 100,000 new chemicals have been introduced to our foods, air, and water. All of these changes have put even greater stresses on our body's innate ability to affect the chemistry of our body fluids, and therefore our Biological Terrain. As a result we see huge increases in the incidence of chronic and life-threatening diseases.
Your logical question at this point is, "How can I adjust and maintain my Biological Terrain in the healthy range?"
Fortunately we now have the ultimate nutraceutical to add to our nutritional arsenal. The addition of the nutraceutical, Microhydrin to your diet is simple and safe. It is not a drug. It is a revolutionary nutritional supplement developed by Drs. Gael and Patrick Flanagan, who are known throughout the world for their long history of contributions to health care. Microhydrin™ is a special form of time-released silica hydride powder. Each molecule has an extra electron.
When consumed, it releases much needed electrons into your body, improving the condition of all three characteristics which make up our Biological Terrain.
1. It tends to increase pH-- alkalize body fluids. 2. It is the most powerful antioxidant available. 3. It increases electrical conductivity.
BENEFITS OF MICROHYDRIN™:
1. INCREASED pH - Pollution, stress and our consumption of highly processed foods tend to create acidic body fluids, a characteristic compatible with certain diseases. All cellular waste, and most internally generated toxins are acidic. Microhydrin increases the pH of your body fluids like no other alkalizing substance available.
2. INCREASED ANTIOXIDANT POWER - Free radicals are compounds which have lost an electron and which tend to steal electrons from healthy cells, which can cause malignancy, loss of energy, accelerated aging, and other diseases. Damaging free radicals are created by normal activities, but also from contamination of our food, air and water. An antioxidant is a compound that gives up an electron to a free radical, making it harmless. Vitamin C gives up an electron, and becomes a weaker free radical. It then steals an electron from Beta Carotene which becomes a weaker free radical and steals from Vitamin E. Microhydrin, with its extra electron, is the only antioxidant in the world that does not itself become a damaging free radical.
3. ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY - Water without minerals will not conduct electricity. Messages from cells to other cells are vital to their functions, but will not be transmitted if minerals are inadequate in the body fluids between and inside the cells. Because our soils and the vegetables we eat are often depleted of trace minerals, our body fluids tend to be low in the minerals necessary to transmit vital messages. This can lead to frequent fatigue, poor mental function, and other diseases. Microhydrin increases the electrical conductivity between your cells to promote better overall health.
You'll have to ask yourself, "is pH balance a luxury or a necessity?" When we get the body alkaline it can function correctly and utilize all nutrients better. The most important thing that you can do for your body is Reclaim Your Inner Terrain. Once you do, the parasites, fungus, mold, yeast, and bad bacteria should begin departing because they cannot exist in a healthy alkaline environment. Our private war against the daily assaults of stronger and deadlier organisms and our fight to stay alkaline will not end with a magic cure. Good health requires getting the proper nutrition on a daily basis.
TOP PRODUCTS FOR PH BALANCING:
Wellness Antioxidant Water Filtration System
Royal Flora - Advanced Soil Based Organisms
Ionic Coral Calcium
HydraCel
Spirulina
Bioxy Cleanse
Warning SignsThat You Should NOT Ignore
Why is it that the most important issue (your health) never gets addressed until you are sick? If you are aware of the warning signs, the "little" symptoms that can lead to larger health problems, you can head off disaster. Prevention is far less costly than disaster recovery - physically, emotionally, and financially. Let's learn to read the signs and take heed when our body starts to warn us of impending ill health.
Many of us don't know the "subtle" warning signals we experience on a daily basis. We are bombarded daily by so many advertisements designed to mask these symptoms, rather than find the cause of them, that we have come to believe that the symptoms are "normal". If we only temporarily relieve the symptom and don't get to the root cause of it, it WILL escalate and cause further damage to your body.
All illness, disease, and symptoms of ill health are related. There is no such thing as an "isolated" health problem in your body. Treating any symptom as an isolated incident, without determining the root cause of the symptom, will not fix it, only mask it. On this basis, we, at The Wolfe Clinic, work with you and your body as a "whole" so that your body's build-in healing mechanism can give you balance and vital health.
Did you know that . . .pain of any kind means your body is in crisis? This means headaches, neck aches, back aches, leg cramps, menstrual cramps - pain of any kind.
When your body is in crisis, some of the warning signs it will give you are:
indigestion or incomplete digestion bloating gas abdominal pain/cramps low back pain bladder/urination problems varicose veins water retention bad breath ear infections frequent sore throat dandruff dry/oily hair soft or brittle nails dry/oily skin sensitivity to perfumes and
acne and other skin disorders angina diarrhea and/or constipation hemorrhoids and/or protruding
rectum fevers/night sweats hormonal imbalance breathing disorders pain/swelling/lumps of any kind painful menstruation bowel movements that do not float anal itching itchy eyes shortness of breath sensitive mouth/gums hiatal hernia
chemicals insomnia or irregular sleep patterns painful joints chronic tiredness headaches body aches and pains
low attention span foggy head dizziness nausea swollen abdomen
How many commercial advertisements have you seen lately for products that are designed to "instantly" get rid of most of the symptoms listed above? And when the symptoms return, do you reach again for that "instant" fix? Did you ever wonder why the symptoms return again and again to haunt you? It's because the "cause" was not addressed.
Nature's Way of Telling You
The quality of your bowel movements is nature’s way of telling you the level of health you are experiencing. Just as you need to monitor what goes in your mouth, stool investigation will give you valuable information regarding your highway to health, the digestive tract. Your digestive tract is the assembly line for the food you eat. Your bowel movements can give you a clear picture daily as to whether the most important process of health is functioning properly.
Learning what to look for in your bowel movements can prevent future illness and suffering. We have been taught to feel embarrassed about talking or even thinking about our bowel movements. Do not let this get in the way of your vibrant health.
The large intestine is the sewer system of your body. Mismanagement will only cause the digestive tract to become a cesspool. How does the rest of the body become toxic? The answer is "mismanagement of the large intestine". You reabsorb your own toxic waste.
What indicates a good bowel movement is, firstly, that the stool floats and does not mark the toilet bowl. One or more bowel movements EVERY day is essential to good health.
Stool Investigation
If you have any of these warning signs in your bowel movements, you must take action. These are a physical indication that things are not well in your digestive tract. An unwell digestive system is always the start of bigger health problems that can lead to chronic disease, including cancer, diabetes, arthritis, etc. You can be sure that someone with any chronic disease started out with one or more of these warning signals that were not heeded:
blood of any color in your stool - bright red, dark red, blackish red, or totally black stool that is yellow, orange, olive blue, slate gray, very dark brown, or black offensive smelling stool hard stool that sinks to the bottom of the toilet bowl and/or marks the bowl flat thin-like stool
stool with many small bead-like bubbles slimy stool that appears to have mucous in it bowel movements that require effort on your part to excrete less than one complete bowel movement EVERY day.
These symptoms are warning signs of bigger health problems if they are not addressed properly. Stools should normally be soft, a medium brown color, and should float, and this should occur a minimum of once per day. If this is not the case with your bowel movements, you need to fix the situation before it escalates into chronic illness.
As embarrassing as it might be for both you and your children, it is important to check with your children on a regular basis, as to the quality of their bowel movements. Remember when they were babies and you did this on a regular basis? Remember when you took them to the doctor and one of the first questions he asked was about your child's bowel movements? Somewhere along the way, we forget the importance of this vital key to good health.
If you have been in a health program for more than 6 weeks and you are not seeing "real" results, or if you have been experiencing recurring symptoms that never seem to go away, it is our opinion that the root cause of your symptoms has not yet been addressed.
Alkaline Diets and Cancer: Fact or Fiction?
Stephanie Vangsness, R.D., L.D.N.Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's HospitalPreviously published on Intelihealth.com, May 3, 2006Click here for a printable format.
Can You Make Your pH More Alkaline? Can an Alkaline pH "Kill" Cancer Cells? Can Diet Change the pH Balance of the Body? Are Urine and Saliva pH Test Strips a Good Way to Measure pH? Can an Alkaline Diet Be Harmful? Do Dieticians and Other Health Professionals Recommend Alkaline Diets?
Advocates of alkaline diets claim that they help you lose weight, increase your energy, and even reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer. While their arguments sound persuasive, they ignore all the facts.
The body performs any number of intricate balancing acts daily. One of them is to make sure that the body's fluids, tissues and cells aren't too acidic or alkaline, but stay in a healthy pH range. If you recall high school chemistry, pH measures the concentration of hydrogen in a solution. The more hydrogen, the more acidic it is (low pH); the less hydrogen, the more alkaline it is (high pH).
Proponents of alkaline diets claim that when the body's pH is too acidic, your risk for many conditions, including cancer increases. They also claim that eating too much of certain foods - animal protein, sugar, caffeine and processed foods - makes your body more acidic and that changing what you eat will change your pH.
We know that people whose diets are high in fat and low in fiber are at higher risk of certain types of cancer. But claiming that restricting certain foods and eating others will make your pH "alkaline enough" to prevent cancer is more fiction than fact. Here are the answers to questions I frequently get about these diets.
Can You Make Your pH More Alkaline?
Your body has a complex system of checks and balances to keep its pH in a normal and healthy range: 7.35 to 7.45. When your pH shifts outside this range and becomes too acidic or too alkaline, your body automatically corrects itself to bring things back to normal by:
Increasing or decreasing respiration - When you breathe more rapidly, you blow out more carbon dioxide. This raises your pH so it becomes more alkaline and less acidic. Conversely, slowing down your breathing causes you to release less carbon dioxide, which lowers your pH making it less alkaline.
"Mopping up" excess hydrogen ions - Neutralizing substances in the blood such as bicarbonate and hemoglobin, mop up excess hydrogen ions and prevent pH from becoming too acidic.
Eliminating the excess - Your kidneys excrete excess acidic substances into urine to prevent pH from becoming too low. Conversely, if your pH starts to become too high or alkaline, the body uses similar tools in reverse to bring down the pH.
The bottom line: The body fights hard to keep your pH balanced. It's nearly impossible to achieve and maintain a high-alkaline pH for a prolonged period of time.
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Can an Alkaline pH "Kill" Cancer Cells?
First of all, there are no human studies supporting alkaline diets for the prevention or treatment of cancer. Test-tube studies, however, have shown that some cancer cells grow faster in an acidic solution. They've also shown that some chemotherapy drugs become more effective if the area around a tumor cell is altered to be more alkaline. However, we can't assume that what happens in a test-tube also happens in the human body. In fact, the opposite effect could occur and have dangerous consequences.
Can Diet Change the pH Balance of the Body?
The body's pH levels may change slightly as a result of eating some foods, but will remain in the tightly held range of 7.35 - 7.45. For instance, some fruits and vegetables as well as dairy products may raise the pH of your urine, whereas meat products and cranberries may lower the
pH of your urine. However, even if you eat large quantities of these foods, your blood pH will barely change and only for a short time.
Are Urine and Saliva pH Test Strips a Good Way to measure the Body's pH?
The only way to directly measure the body's pH is by testing your blood. Testing your urine only tells the pH of your urine. Urine is naturally more acidic and has a lower pH (~6.0). Similarly, saliva test strips only measure the pH of your saliva, not the pH of your blood.
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Can an Alkaline Diet Be Harmful?
Alkaline diets promote the exclusion of many foods. Excluding an entire family of foods can result in some potential anti-cancer benefits. A list of foods often restricted on an alkaline diet is listed below, along with the reasons why these foods shouldn't be eliminated.
Food Group Benefits of the Food Group
Fats and Oils Provide essential fatty acids (EFAs). EFAs are needed to make healthy cells, maintain immunity and combat inflammation.
Dairy An excellent source of protein and vitamins, specifically vitamin D and calcium. Adequate vitamin D intake has been linked to increased survival from cancer.
Beans and Legumes Rich in phytonutrients, substances also found in colorful fruits, vegetables which help lower cancer risk and boost the immune system. Beans and legumes are rich in fiber, which is good for gastrointestinal health and may help prevent colon cancer. Also a good source of vegetarian protein. Protein needs are higher in cancer patients, especially those receiving chemotherapy.
Fruits Contain phytonutrients, vitamins and fiber.
Do Dietitians and Other Health Professionals Recommend Alkaline Diets?
No. Studies of alkaline diets are limited to animal and test tube trials. There's no scientific evidence at this time that alkaline diets are beneficial to humans.
Can Alkaline Diet and Alkaline Water Help You Lose Weight and Improve General Health?
by James Khan
Acid/Alkaline Food Combining History
"If one does not know that the nature of substances may be opposed to each other, and one consumes them altogether indiscriminately, the vital organs will be thrown out of harmony and disastrous consequences will soon arise."
Chia Ming, Essential Knowledge for Eating and Drinking, 1368 AD, Source Daniel Reid, The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity
In 1908 Dr Howard Hay after practicing medicine for 16 years developed high blood pressure, bright's disease and a dilated heart. There was no treatment available for bright's disease and dilated heart so Dr Hay decided to find a cure for his own symptoms. He focused on his food intake and the chemical process of digestion and the enzymes that are essential for this process.
To the amazement of his colleagues, he had a complete remission of his symptoms in 3 months of changing his diet.
He also reduced his weight by 20 Kg.
In 1911 Dr Hay introduced his Food Combining guidelines, which are also known as the Hay Diet.
His simple message was: eat whatever wholesome, nutritious food you like; just don't eat complex proteins and carbohydrates/sugars/fruits in the same meal because this will allow the digestive enzymes to work better. He advised on a reduced consumption of acid forming foods.
Although Dr Hay had many critics, he continued to lecture till his death. Today millions of people world wide are following or further extending his basic principles to include other food types and such factors as individual and genetic metabolic differences.
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What do Clinical Studies suggest?
We know that enzymes are essential for digestion and that enzymes only function at specific pH levels. Common sense tells you that you should provide your body with the required nutrients in the right combinations that it needs to digest the food and perform its functions, including the all important maintenance of an alkaline blood pH level of 7.365.
Yet, chemists and some doctors maintain that the body needs no help from a dietary acid-alkaline angle with regards to digestion or to maintain an alkaline blood pH. They argue that all food in the stomach is acidic and becomes alkaline in the duodenum and that the body has an effective buffering system based on bicarbonates and an acid/alkaline diet or alkaline water has no effect on this. You can eat or drink what you like, in whatever combination and the body will have no problems, they argue.
Others like Daniel Reid disagree. He explains, for example, that the sugary sweet, fizzy 'soft drink' is actually an 'acid bomb'.
"A 350 ml serving of Coke, Pepsi or similar drink delivers a sugar fix equivalent to about 9 teaspoons of sugar straight into the blood stream. This instantly acidifies the bloodstream to the extreme point that without an immediate emergency response from the body, it would kill you in a mater of minutes.
To counter act this rise in pH, you'd have to drink 32 glasses of alkaline water to neutralize the blood pH. In order to prevent death by acidosis, the body reacts swiftly by drawing huge amounts of organic calcium from the bones and teeth and pouring it into the bloodstream to neutralize the excess acid and quickly restore alkaline balance. Calcium is the bodies most potent alkalizing agent, and this defensive response mechanism is one of the main causes of osteoporosis."
Who is right? Are there any scientific studies to settle this issue?
1. Pavlov's Experiments
Probably the first scientific studies on digestion were conducted by Ivan Pavlov who became famous for his experiments on 'salivating dogs'. Pavlov's experiments with rats showed that that starches are digested in about two hours, proteins are digested in about four hours but a protein-starch mixture can still be digesting 13 hours later. In other words, a protein-starch mixture takes several times longer to digest, compared to eating then separately.
Pavlov also showed that food taken on top (i.e. before digestion has completed) can lead to fermentation and toxic by-products, putting strain on the system. This happens when you eat fruit after a meal; many people say that it gives them gas.
What could account for this?
"In fact, most fruits go straight through the stomach into the duodenum for digestion, which means if you put fresh fruit on top of a big meal, it has to sit and wait in the top of the stomach until the other food is digested, during which delay bacteria attack the fruit and ferment it, gobbling up all the nutrients and leaving you with gas and metabolic wastes." Daniel Reid, Trophology: The Science of Food Combining.
2. Cola Beverage Consumption
This study of " Cola beverage consumption induces bone mineralization reduction in ovariectomized rats" (the rats were fed cola - acid, pH 2.5 - and the effects on bone density
measured) suggests that calcium from the bones is used up in maintaining an alkaline blood pH balance. The researchers concluded: "These data suggest that heavy intake of cola soft drinks has the potential of reducing femoral mineral density".
3. Ionized Water on Milk Yield
This study on the effects of alkaline ionized water on milk yield, body weight of offspring and perinatal dam in rats tentatively concludes that "higher calcium concentration of AKW [alkaline water] enriched the mother, serum calcium which was transferred to the fetus through the placenta and to the offspring through the milk."
4. Ionized Water and Electrolyte Concentration
This study on the Influences of alkaline ionized water on milk electrolyte concentrations in maternal rats states "These data suggested that the Ca cation of AKW enriched the Ca concentration of the milk and accelerated the postnatal growth of the offspring of rats given AKW"
5. Decline of Alkaline Buffer Bicarbonates with Age
In 1996 Dr. Lynda Frassetto at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that as we age, starting around age 45, we lose the alkaline buffer bicarbonates in our blood. By the age of 90, we lose 18% of bicarbonates in our blood. This loss was shown to be diet induced. This is from the published abstract
"Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity."
Figure 2, graph B of Journal of Gerontology: BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 1996, Vol. 51A. No. 1, B91-B99 By Dr. Lynda Frassetto of University of California, San Francisco (Dotted line added by Sang Whang)
Sang Whang had been saying this for years. This study in part supports his Theory of Aging: we age because we accumulate organic acid wastes.
Insufficient amount of bicarbonates in our blood reduces our capabilities to manage (neutralize and dump) the acid our body produces from metabolism. The bicarbonates get used up after years of continual efforts to maintain an alkaline balance because of the acidifying diet that we now have.
The age of 45 is the average age when we start to show symptoms of diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis and many other adult degenerative diseases. Dr Frassetto suggests that since are now subjected to so much acid wastes, it is as if we have made a evolutionary change: we are now depositing them in pockets of fat away from the major organs where they can do less damage. These wastes show up as cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, urate, sulfate, phosphate, kidney stones, etc.
Conclusion of Scientific Studies
These and other studies suggest that:
1. If you eat proteins and carbs in the same meal, they won't digest quickly. 2. If you drink acid drinks (like cola), the body will take calcium from the bones and teeth to
maintain pH balance3. If you drink alkaline water this will be assimilated by your body - i.e. gradually improve your
bones and teeth 4. If you eat acid producing foods, over the long run it will deplete your alkaline buffers and is a
cause of acidosis.
5. Over-acidity could be the cause of obesity; alkalinity and hydration could be the simple cure.
So a water rich alkaline diet and alkaline water could help you lose weight and improve your general health.
Remember, often what you don't eat is more important then what you do eat. You should in particular avoid sugary, acidic soft drinks that give you concentrated acid water to harm your blood pH and blood sugar levels.
Also keep in mind as the Frassetto study showed, we are now stockpiling acid wastes in our bodies in pockets of fat. The body creates fat to cope with the heavy load of toxic acid wastes that are continuously being produced as a result of metabolism. The fat consists of cholesterol, cellulose and other deposits which actually contain dangerous organic wastes inside them.
The basic problem is that we eat too much of the wrong things. As Dr Young says, "obesity is an acid problem - the fat is saving our lives"
The answer is simple: lots of alkaline water; more alkaline, water rich foods and; don't eat foods the fight in the same meal.
This page is about a natural detox diet.
The next section addresses some specific alkaline diet and alkaline water questions.
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FAQ: Alkaline water and alkaline diet
Q1: Why do most ND's and nutritionists advice clients to eat a predominantly alkaline diet?
[A: Maybe they have studied nutrition from the acid-alkaline and digestive enzyme aspects, or they are vegetarian for ethical reasons.
I select food according to its nutritious content, rather then whether it is 'acid' or 'alkaline' on a food chart. I combine food in a meal according to how it will best be digested.
So, for example, I won't eat fruit after a meal or eat steak and chips - I'll eat the fruit first, and swap the chips for a fresh salad! I don't take the food combining rules too rigidly, as I know that the body is intelligent and can handle quite diverse food combinations. But the food combination in a meal of a Big Mac, Fries and Coke is a definite no!
Super Size showed a young man go from a state of good health to near death in under a month simply from eating processed fast food. Morgan Spurlock put on 25 pounds, got depressed, suffered chronic chest pains and palpitations, his libido was low, sex life non-functional, he stank, experienced mood swings, liver damage; his medical charts went off the scales. He also suffered from addiction, lack of energy and fuzzy logic. These things are now typical of modern life.
From a standard 'scientific' or chemistry point of view, his diet contained lots of protein (for muscle), fat and carbohydrate and sugary drinks for energy, so he should have been fine.
So why did he nearly die?]
Q2: What is the connection between acidity and obesity?
[A: We are now stockpiling acid wastes in our bodies in pockets of fat. The body creates fat to cope with the heavy load of toxic acid wastes that are continuously being produced as a result of metabolism. The fat consists of cholesterol, cellulose and other deposits which actually contain dangerous organic wastes inside them.
Remember: " Obesity is an acid problem - the fat is saving our lives"]
Q3: What is the connection between dehydration and obesity?
[A: It has also been shown (I'm afraid I don't have clinical studies to hand) that the body also creates cholesterol as a water conservation mechanism - it surrounds the cell walls to stop water leaving the cell. This also stops nutrients from entering in and toxins from leaving the cell, but it means that you will live. Eventually, such cells with access toxicity become cancerous]
Q4: Should I eat alkaline foods and avoid acid foods?
[A: No, I don't think you should focus too much on this. Foods are classified as acid or alkaline depending on the pH of the ash (in solution) that is produced on burning them. However, all food is composed of of simple elements like Carbon, Oxygen, hydrogen which burn to produce acid wastes. As over 97% of any food that you eat will create acid wastes; I don't think that the pH of the ash of the 3% will make much difference! For more details, read Reverse Aging by Sang Whang.
Alkaline minerals (which make the food acid or alkaline) are only a very small part of the nutrition from solid food. So you shouldn't focus on this at the expense of other vital nutritional elements that only nature knows about and only nature can provide. It's silly to avoid any food just because an acid-alkaline chart says that it's low on certain minerals!
You should, however, drink lots of alkaline water to hydrate, detoxify and mineralize the body. You can always take a balanced colloidal alkaline mineral supplement like Alkalife to supply any minerals not present in diet or water like Potassium, which so many of us are now deficient in.]
Q5: If I eat alkaline food, will it make me alkaline?
[A: No, I don't think so. The classification of food according to the mineral content of its ash is not particularly relevant to anything, I don't think. The important thing is what the food contains, how easy to it is to digest and how much toxic waste it produces on metabolism. The tiny amount of alkaline minerals in even the 'top' alkaline food will make very little difference to your alkaline blood buffers in the short term. Over the long term, as the Frassetto study implied, an alkaline diet could help reduce acidosis and obesity, since an 'acid' diet causes it.
Drinking alkaline water, fresh vegetable juices and fruit juices and super greens (spirulina, wheat and barley grass juices) on the other hand will help; not only will you get more alkaline minerals, you'll get the countless number of other nutrients and enzymes that your body needs. Remember, a half tea spoon of something like Barley Grass or Spirulina powder will give you the equivalent alkaline minerals and nutrients as a basket of green vegetables.
Similarly, don't drink acid soft drinks as discussed above - the concentrated sugar and high acid pH of these drinks plays havoc on your body, and makes you fat.]
Q6: If I have indigestion, isn't it cheaper and more effective to take ant-acids (baking soda) then mild alkaline water?
[A: Ant-acids are a billion dollar business, but a total waste of money and actually harmful as they reduce our ability to digest protein foods. Eat food in correct combinations, don't eat so much and drink plenty of alkaline water. Next time you want to snack between meals, snack on a glass of alkaline water!]
Q7: Will alkaline ionized water de-acidify the stomach?
[A: No. You can never de-acidify the stomach simply because the body produces acids on demand. Without the required stomach acids you won't be able to digest your food so you
shouldn't try to de-acidify it. The body generates acids depending upon the food you eat - it can produce around 3 liters hydrochloric acid/day. If you reduce the amount of proteins you eat, eat less and in better combinations, it will produce less acid.
Alkaline water is much too mild to have any effect on stomach pH. The stomach is thousands of times more acid, 16 drops of lemon juice would neutralize the alkalinity of alkaline water of pH 10.0.
Remember, the alkalinity (colloidal minerals + excess oxygen) of the water is only one of the benefits from ionized water. Other benefits are from the water being reduced (antioxidant), and its smaller cluster sizes (better hydration) ]
Q8:Will not the alkaline water you drink get neutralized by the acidity in the stomach?
[Yes, particularly if the stomach is digesting food, but the purified water will still be hydrating, provide alkaline minerals and all the other benefits, and zero toxins - you just won't get the slight alkaline boost for your blood pH that's all. This is a minor benefit in any case, but you should drink water first thing in the morning and in-between meals, not during or after meals to get the most benefits. When the stomach is empty, the water or freshly squeezed juices will flow straight through, and not be significantly effected by the acid stomach pH.
Studies show that in colloidal form the calcium ion is surrounded by water molecules; it could well be that nature has a sheltering mechanism for transporting alkaline minerals to where they are required in the body.
The actual pH (i.e. the measurable pH, 8-10 usually) is not the major benefit of this water - ' alkaline ' is just a label used to describe the water, one of many labels. You could call it natural water, water pure of contaminants, or pure natural water or pure mineral water. If you analyze natural spring water from the Alps or better still Glacier water, you will find that it has all these properties: alkaline pH, high colloidal alkaline mineral content, low acid mineral content, low ORP (i.e. reduced), low NMR (small clusters).
In health circles alkaline water is also called Microwater, Light water, Micro-clustered water, Reduced water, Electrolyzed Reduced Water (ERW), Ionic mineral water and even miracle water in the Japanese 13 part TV documentary. Appendix A lists abstracts from 100 published papers that give an indication of the diverse uses of ionized water and terminology used. What is important is what is contained in the water (i.e. alkaline minerals, active hydrogen, excess oxygen in the OH- form, micro-clusters, and zero poisons).
When nutritionists and naturopaths talk about an 'alkaline diet' they are NOT talking about neutralizing the acidity of the stomach acids that are needed to digest our food with chemicals! Alkaline foods like super greens and carrot juice are not particularly alkaline if you measure the pH with a meter, but they will have an overall slight alkalizing effect when you change your diet
to eat more of them. An important point to note is that if you are eating live, alkaline foods like fruits, freshly squeezed juices you should do so on an empty stomach to help the digestion process and get the most benefits (i.e. nutrients, enzymes and energy) from the food. This is less of an issue with alkaline water, since there is nothing to digest in water. JK]
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Q9: What happens to alkaline water in the acid stomach?
[A: When you drink alkaline water, two things are possible, both will be helpful to the alkaline buffers:
1. If your stomach is full, the water could get trapped in the acid stomach environment. The alkalinity would be neutralized by the stomach acid, and the stomach may produce slightly more acid. A pathologist friend of Sang Whang, Dr. Stephen Weiss explains that in the process of producing more stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) as a result of drinking alkaline water or alkaline foods, the body creates sodium bicarbonate (an alkaline buffer) and adds it to the bloodstream.
H2O + CO2 + NaCl = HCl + NaHCO3
Water + carbon dioxide + salt = hydrochloric acid + sodium bi-carbonate
So the net result is an increase in alkaline buffer. This does not happen if you ingest bicarbonates (baking soda) because the body converts these to water, carbon dioxide and sodium salt. The bicarbonates will not reach the bloodstream no matter how much baking soda you consume.
2. If the stomach is empty, it is likely that the water would go straight through the stomach to the intestine, and go to the blood stream to give it an alkaline pH boost, and any excess will replenish the alkaline buffers. As Sang Whang explains
"If alkaline water is introduced directly into the bloodstream from the intestine, the acid buffer (carbonic acid, H2CO3) will interact with the alkaline water to bring down the blood pH and the acid buffer will become the alkaline buffer
Ca(OH) 2 + 2(H2CO3) = Ca++(HCO3-)2 + 2(H2O) (calcium bicarbonate buffer in the blood is the net result)
An increase of bicarbonates in the bloodstream will prevent aging and the onset of adult degenerative diseases."
Q10: The body has an efficient buffering system which is continually generated as glucose is metabolized; what use is alkaline water or an alkaline diet for buffering?
[A: The body needs minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and zinc as fuel to sustain the buffering system, not only glucose! The bodies bicarbonates are sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium bicarbonates; it also makes effective use of hydroxides, primarily calcium hydroxide to maintain alkaline balance. We need to obtain these minerals from dietary sources; alkaline water , vegetable juices and super green juices are good nutritious sources for the many nutrients the body needs, including alkaline minerals.
Alkaline water helps the buffering system as it provides the minerals that the body needs. See the studies above You can make water alkaline by adding alkalife drops, which are potassium and calcium hydroxides in colloidal form in ionized water. The benefits from increasing the potassium hydroxide in the diet was shown by the Frassetto studies. However, this is only one of the many benefits from alkaline ionized water. Other benefits stem from the ionized water being reduced; it has an ORP around -300, and micro-clustered (low NMR) and it's good tasting water so you'll be able to drink more and avoid dehydration, which effects some 75% of the population.
Sang Whang, who introduced water ionizers to the west in the late 80's adds a couple of drops of alkalife to his ionized water. ]
Body pH doesn't become a meaningless concept just because different parts of the body and cell have different pH values. Look at the literature - Read Dr Theodore Baroody's Alkaize or Die. Read books and articles from countless other doctors, authors and naturopaths worldwide that state from personal clinical experience that body pH (i.e. blood and tissue pH) is a vital indicator of health, and the key part it plays in nutrition.
The same is the case for almost all bodily functions. Acid/alkaline balance concepts are based on years of observations of the types of food and the acidifying or alkalizing effect they have on blood pH. It has been confirmed by countless ND's throughout the world who advise a predominantly alkaline diet of greens, fruits and vegetable juices for health. This is a good summary that explains why restoring proper pH balance is vital for all bodily functions, including Heart, Lungs, Liver and Kidneys
Q11: Why does the body make so many efforts to maintain an alkaline blood pH?
[A: Body pH is the key to virtually all bodily functions, which is why the body takes immediate emergency actions to maintain an alkaline blood pH, even at the cost obesity, loss of calcium and minerals from the bones and organs and other ailments over the long run. This is confirmed by blood pH measurements, clinical studies. Our observation of nature shows how nature uses a delicate pH balance to regulate life on earth, including the decomposition of 'dead' life forms.]
Q12: What would happen if blood pH went slightly acidic, say 6.9?
[A: You would be dead long before this happens! Blood pH is very tightly regulated.]
Q13: Our 75 trillion cells are slightly acidic within and are surrounded by slightly alkaline interstitial fluid around them. Just like fish in the sea. What would happen if the interstitial fluid becomes acidic?
[A: The polarity essential for chemical and energy interchange of the cells would be lost which would effect the very functioning of the cell. This could be another reason acidic people lack energy. Energetically, we are like acid-alkaline batteries; minerals and correct acid-alkaline pH balance for the various body fluids is essential for most cellular functions.]
Q14: Why is water, which has just acid (H+) and alkaline (OH-) in it, vital for life?
The ions are able to hold charge, conduct electricity without which there would be no life.
Q14b: Could there be any truth in the 5000 year old Yin and Yang balance theories?
[A: Yes! I seriously wonder if there is a lot of truth in modern medical science - time will tell!]
Q15: Why is the water from high altitude mineral springs alkaline?
[A: Nature uses acid and alkaline ions in water to provide nutrients, hydration and to control growth, death, decay and house cleaning.
Q15b: Why would nature go through the trouble of separating alkaline water for drinking, and acid water for skin cleansing as for example in hot mineral baths?
[A: Alkaline water is energized, for drinking. Acid waters are for skin cleansing]
Q15c: Why is our skin slightly acidic on on the surface and alkaline from the inside?
[A: The acid skin repels bacteria, it maintains a polarity with the alkaline of the pH on the inner skin. This yin and yang are seen throughout the body.
Q15d: Why is the pH of sea water and our blood the same - slightly alkaline?
[A: We came from the sea. Our blood composition is the same pH as the sea in ideal conditions. Maybe mother nature is giving us some clues!]
Q16: Why does fish die in slightly acid or distilled water but thrives on slightly alkaline water?
[A: There is no nutrition (oxygen and minerals) in distilled water, the fish would die of starvation.]
Q16b: Are our cells not like 'fish', and would die in slightly acidic or nutrient deficient 'water'
[A: Our cells are very much like fish swimming in an alkaline sea, and would start to die when the 'sea' becomes acidic]
Q17: If the fish pond is polluted and the fish is dying, would you inject the fish with chemicals or change the water?
[A: Change the water; the same applies to the blood and other fluids in your body. This is why a detox, fasting and cleansing program is vital for health.]
Q18: Why do wine or beer makers need to keep the pH of their brew slightly acidic for fermentation?
[A: Bacteria is needed for fermentation, and bacteria does not grow in alkaline environments - it needs a slight acid environment to grow in. Slight alkaline or too acidic and it would die.]
Q18b: Why do wine or beer makers also need to keep the oxygen low?
[A: you must have acidity and low oxygen to ferment (grow) bacteria.]
Q19: What is the connection between oxygen deficiency, acidity and the growth of bacterial, viral and fungal infections?
[A: Bacterial, viral and fungal infections can only get a foot hold if the environment is acidic. You can't grow roses on concrete as Dr Young explains.]
Q19b: Why are virtually all pathogenic bacteria anaerobic, and why do they like a slightly acidic environments?
[A: They are all anaerobic - live in an absence of oxygen, and acid environment]
Q20: What function or business do pathogenic bacteria have in healthy living tissue?
[A: None whatsoever; they are not found in healthy living tissue. They are not the cause of the disease, just a symptom of an underlying condition]
Q21: Didn't Pasteur prove that pathogenic bacteria caused disease in healthy living tissue?
[A: No, his experiments just proved that it was possible to poison someone by injecting them with the poisoned blood of another
Q22: What is the origin of bacteria?
[A: The french genius Professor Antoine Bechamp showed that an elementary life form, microzymas, existed in all living things. It is the origin of bacteria and also DNA. What microzymas grows into depends on the environment according to Bechamp]
Q23: What is the connection between oxygen deficiency, acidity and the growth of cancer cells?
[A: Cancer cells are also anaerobic. This is the fundamental difference between cancer cells and normal cells; it was shown by Dr Walburg in the 1920's, see his book 'The Metabolism of Tumours']
Q24: Why does a dead body rot?
[A: When breathing stops, the body becomes acidic. In this environment bacteria multiply rapidly, causing the body to rot.]
Q24b: What is the connection between death and scavengers?
[A: Death leads to acidity in body tissue, that leads to the growth of bacteria that grow in this environment, whose job it is to gobble up the edible remains of the dead body.]
Q24c: Are pathogenic bacteria scavengers or our killers?
[A: On death breathing stops. Without oxygen the body can no longer maintain an alkaline balance and starts to acidify. The acidic condition of the cells causes a proliferation of anaerobic bacteria to breed and multiply. The bacteria are scavengers, they eat up the body tissues, decomposing and converting everything to simple forms. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust' as the bible says.]
Q25: Whenever you see a house on fire, you always see firemen around it; does that mean that the firemen caused the fire?
[A: This is the simple mistake the scientists make, mistaking presence at the scene with being the cause of the scene.]
Q25b: How would a campaign to kill firemen because they are always connected to fires, reduce house fires?
Modern medicine since Pasteur is based on a silly concept that our health is dependant on being able kill the smallest forms of life. It therefore has embarked on an ever escalating campaign, using more and more complex biological/chemicals weapons to kill simple life forms. This 'chemical warfare' is conducted on the human body and has contributed to the huge cost and failure of modern medicine to effectively treat even simple diseases.
You can now answer the following questions:
Q26: Should we question the sanity behind this modern medical approach?
Q27: Suppose we succeed and eradicate simple life forms, will that mean that we will all be free of disease and live forever?
Q28: You always see flies and maggots around rubbish; does this mean that the flies caused the rubbish?
Q28b: Are mosquito's the cause of the polluted water in a stagnant pond?
Q29: Why did Rudolph Virchow (Father of Pathology) say
"If I could live my life over again, I would devote it to proving that germs seek their natural habitat, diseased tissue, rather than being the cause of the diseased tissue; e.g., mosquitoes seek the stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant"?
Q30: Why did Pasteur on his death bed finally recant his germ theory by saying: "The Microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything."?
"Home water ionizers...promote the notion that alkaline water is somehow protective of your health. The underlying idea is that you can prevent disease by balancing your body's pH...None of these claims are true.
Furthermore, your body needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH.... I get a lot of questions about alkalinity and acidity and whether eating alkaline foods influences the body's pH in a healthful direction.
There is no scientific research supporting this line of thinking. Alkaline or "hard" water (due to high concentrations of calcium) is common throughout the west but to my knowledge a lifetime of drinking alkaline water hasn't protected people in the western states from the diseases and disorders that occur elsewhere."
I would suggest that Dr Weil has not looked at all the evidence; the four clinical studies mentioned above show quite clearly that diet plays a significant role in the bodies ability to maintain an alkaline pH balance and bone mineralization.
If you dissolve calcium (or chalk) in a glass and drink it, that doesn't mean that your body will assimilate the calcium. For the body to absorb minerals, they must be in ionic or colloidal form. If you ionize water with calcium dissolved in it, the calcium ionizes, and evidence indicates that this is better absorbed by the body. Look at people that drink water that naturally has minerals in colloidal form from glaciers like at Hunza.
The Hunza have the longest life span in the world and this has been traced as related to the water that they drink and their natural diet. Hunza has people who routinely live to 120-140 years, in good health with virtually no cancer, degenerative disease, dental caries or bone decay. Hunza people remain robust and strong and are also able to bear children even in old age. Research has proven conclusively that the major common denominator of these healthy long-living people is their local water.
Dr. Henri Coanda, the Romanian father of fluid dynamics and a Nobel Prize winner at 78, spent six decades studying the Hunza water trying to determine what it was in this water that caused such beneficial effects for the body. He discovered that it had a different viscosity and surface tension. Dr. Patrick Flanagan and others continued the research. They found Hunza water had a high alkaline pH and an extraordinary amount of active hydrogen (hydrogen with an extra electron), with a negative redox potential and a high colloidal mineral content. Look also at some clinical studies.
I have followed the acid-alkaline based food combining (or as someone called it 'food NOT combining') since the mid 80's when I read about it in Tony Robbins book 'Unlimited Power', and I've been drinking around 3+ liters alkaline water a day for a couple of years. I feel better for it. In 1976 I was North West Counties Boxing Champion; my weight was 57 Kg. Today, 30 years later my weight is the same - well 60 Kg, but I haven't been exercising! In fact, I stopped exercising 30 years ago to focus on the gentler Chi-Gung and Paranayama.
If you look at my picture on the top, what age would you say I was?
Could it be I'm doing something right?
This is a telling comment someone made on a Tony Robbins forum. It doesn't imply an disrespect for Dr Weil, just making a point:
"The term MD doesn't phase me anymore at all. There are way too many authors that have the MD next to their name. Wasn' Robert Atkins an MD?
At a seminar I met and spoke with Andrew Weil who is an MD that is highly respected I mean highly respected and he looks like he needs to do some sit ups or crunches and run around the block a few times.
His pot belly is brutal, I mean I like to take advice from someone who looks like they practice what they preach and Tony has that quality from the non stop energy and he looks great.
Andrew Weil does not believe in the acid/alkaline theory and boy does he look like it!"
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Dr Robert Young and The New Biology
Many experts like Dr Young maintain that blood pH is the most important measurement. Dr Young has spent a lifetime measuring the slight pH changes of the blood following consumption of acid and alkaline forming foods. Dr Young says
Forget cholesterol counts. Forget calories and fat grams. Forget blood pressure, blood sugar, hormone levels, or any of the other markers of health you're used to at the doctor's office.
It turns out that the single measurement most important to your health is the pH of your blood and tissues - how acidic or alkaline it is.
Different areas of the body have different ideal pH levels, but blood pH is the most telling of all. Just as your body temperature is rigidly regulated, the blood must be kept in a very narrow pH range - mildly basic or alkaline.
The body will go to great lengths to preserve that, including wreaking havoc on other tissues or systems. The pH level of our internal fluids affects every cell in our bodies. The entire metabolic process depends on an alkaline environment.
Chronic over acidity corrodes body tissue, and if left unchecked will interrupt all cellular activities and functions, from the beating of your heart to the neural firing of your brain. In other words, over acidity interferes with life itself.
It is at the root of all sickness and disease.
The important thing is that blood pH is maintained at 7.365 - you don't need chemical warfare and dodgy dossiers! Read this excerpt from the best selling book The pH Miracle Living by Dr Robert O Young.
Appendix A: Dr Frassetto Study Paper Abstract
Diet, evolution and aging--the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet.
Eur J Nutr. 2001 Oct;40(5):200-13
Frassetto L, Morris RC Jr, Sellmeyer DE, Todd K, Sebastian A.
University of California, San Francisco 94143, USA.
Theoretically, we humans should be better adapted physiologically to the diet our ancestors were exposed to during millions of years of hominid evolution than to the diet we have been eating since the agricultural revolution a mere 10,000 years ago, and since industrialization only 200 years ago.
Among the many health problems resulting from this mismatch between our genetically determined nutritional requirements and our current diet, some might be a consequence in part of the deficiency of potassium alkali salts (K-base), which are amply present in the plant foods that our ancestors ate in abundance, and the exchange of those salts for sodium chloride (NaCl),
which has been incorporated copiously into the contemporary diet, which at the same time is meager in K-base-rich plant foods.
Deficiency of K-base in the diet increases the net systemic acid load imposed by the diet. We know that clinically-recognized chronic metabolic acidosis has deleterious effects on the body, including growth retardation in children, decreased muscle and bone mass in adults, and kidney stone formation, and that correction of acidosis can ameliorate those conditions.
Is it possible that a lifetime of eating diets that deliver evolutionarily superphysiologic loads of acid to the body contribute to the decrease in bone and muscle mass, and growth hormone secretion, which occur normally with age? That is, are contemporary humans suffering from the consequences of chronic, diet-induced low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis?
Our group has shown that contemporary net acid-producing diets do indeed characteristically produce a low-grade systemic metabolic acidosis in otherwise healthy adult subjects, and that the degree of acidosis increases with age, in relation to the normally occurring age-related decline in renal functional capacity.
We also found that neutralization of the diet net acid load with dietary supplements of potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) improved calcium and phosphorus balances, reduced bone resorption rates, improved nitrogen balance, and mitigated the normally occurring age-related decline in growth hormone secretion--all without restricting dietary NaCl. Moreover, we found that co-administration of an alkalinizing salt of potassium (potassium citrate) with NaCl prevented NaCl from increasing urinary calcium excretion and bone resorption, as occurred with NaCl administration alone.
Earlier studies estimated dietary acid load from the amount of animal protein in the diet, inasmuch as protein metabolism yields sulfuric acid as an end-product. In cross-cultural epidemiologic studies, Abelow found that hip fracture incidence in older women correlated with animal protein intake, and they suggested a causal relation to the acid load from protein. Those studies did not consider the effect of potential sources of base in the diet. We considered that estimating the net acid load of the diet (i. e., acid minus base) would require considering also the intake of plant foods, many of which are rich sources of K-base, or more precisely base precursors, substances like organic anions that the body metabolizes to bicarbonate.
In following up the findings of Abelow et al., we found that plant food intake tended to be protective against hip fracture, and that hip fracture incidence among countries correlated inversely with the ratio of plant-to-animal food intake. These findings were confirmed in a more homogeneous population of white elderly women residents of the U.S. These findings support affirmative answers to the questions we asked above.
Can we provide dietary guidelines for controlling dietary net acid loads to minimize or eliminate diet-induced and age-amplified chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis and its pathophysiological sequelae. We discuss the use of algorithms to predict the diet net acid and provide nutritionists and clinicians with relatively simple and reliable methods for determining and controlling the net acid load of the diet. A more difficult question is what level of acidosis is acceptable.
We argue that any level of acidosis may be unacceptable from an evolutionarily perspective, and indeed, that a low-grade metabolic alkalosis may be the optimal acid-base state for humans.
PMID: 11842945 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLIN
5 Myths about alkaline Diet
The alkaline diet principle is based upon the belief that when we eat foods, they release either acid or alkaline bases into our systems after digestion. For example, foods such as meats, poultry, dairy products, grains, and salt produce acid. Fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and tuberous vegetables such as potatoes produce an alkaline base. Today, most modern doctors do encourage more consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, but most do not believe in the basics of an acid versus alkaline diet.
Many people believe that acid-based diets promote health problems, including headaches, ovarian cysts, nervousness and irritability, frequent illness such as colds, excessive mucus and nasal congestion, and a lack of energy overall.
Further, some people believe that an acidic diet can cause cardiovascular damage, weight gain and obesity, diabetes, a weakened immune system, kidney stones, osteoporosis, premature aging and slow digestion and elimination, which in turn can lead to buildup of toxins in the system.
Proponents of the alkaline diet say that consuming it restores the body's natural pH balance of between 7.35 and 7.45. There are many places on the Internet you can find that will sell you pH strips so that you can test yourself to see what your own pH balance is.
There are many myths about the alkaline diet.
Among them are:
Myth 1: It's hard to follow.
Is it hard to follow and alkaline diet if you want to try it? No, not hard at all.
In fact, the alkaline diet is very much like the common vegan diet, with the exception that it greatly limits the amount of grains eaten. However, you can take any vegan recipe (recipes abound on the Internet) and simply substitute grains for any other type of starch allowed on the diet, such as potatoes.
Myth 2: You're greatly restricted in what you eat.
To some extent, this is true, but this diet basically seeks to restore your body's balance. Yes, you're greatly limited in the amount of sugar, simple carbohydrates, and other unhealthy foods you can eat, including an excess consumption of meat and dairy. But in fact, you are allowed an unlimited amount of fruits and vegetables, beans, legumes, and the like, as well as tuberous vegetables and starches. This in fact provides a wide array of foods available to you, so that you're you won't feel deprived once you get used to it.
Myth 3: You can never have "forbidden" foods again once on the alkaline diet.
In fact, this isn't true, either. If you want to, you can occasionally have meat, dairy, or grains, for example. Doing this "once in a while" isn't likely to greatly impact your body's pH. However, you may find that once you're on the diet, you will not want to eat these other foods, because they'll lose their palatability.
Myth 4: An alkaline diet is unhealthy because it doesn't let you eat meat or dairy, two foods that are believed to be very important to health.
In fact, for centuries, vegans have eaten diets completely free of animal products, including dairy or meat. And in fact, vegans have lower incidences of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and may also be at reduced risk for osteoporosis. They are also much less likely to be overweight or obese.
Myth 5: You can't get enough protein on an alkaline diet without meat or dairy.
This, too, is false. Plant-based sources provide plenty of protein for those who consume them. It's long been a myth that animal-based proteins are superior to plant-based proteins. In fact, with the standard American diet, most Americans get too much protein, not too little.
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