How your acid/alkaline balance affects your health
Your blood pH has a very narrow range of around 7.35 to 7.45 and going outside of this range causes illness. Should it go below 6.8 or above 7.8, cells stop functioning and start to die, leading to fatality. It's serious stuff. Your body naturally buffers the pH balance by breathing out carbon dioxide, releasing alkaline bile, retaining sodium in the kidneys and removing calcium from the bones. This used to be sufficient until our modern lifestyle kicked in.
What causes acid imbalance?
The modern lifestyle has a lot to answer for, with stress being a primary factor, along with processed food, environmental pollution, candida and parasite (unfriendly bacteria) infections, tap water and many medications leading to acid build up.
So why is acid imbalance harmful?
When your body is more acid than alkaline, it’s not able to absorb nutrients and minerals as easily from your food, your cells produce less energy and aren’t able to repair themselves as well, your body’s ability to detox heavy metals is decreased, you’re more susceptible to fatigue & illness, and tumours can thrive in an acidic environment.
Acidosis:
- Corrodes arteries, veins and heart tissues
- Accelerates premature aging
- Disrupts fat metabolism
- Studies suggest that acidity levels in terminal cancer patients is 1,000 times more than in healthy people.
- Slows oxygen delivery to cells
- Leads to weight gain and diabetes
According to Dr Robert Young, Author of pH Miracle for Weight Loss, “Weight loss is not about fat grams, cholesterol, carbs or calories, it’s about acid.” When you look at the foods that are acidic, one of the worst offenders is sugar, in all it’s forms. This ties in with the sugar (fructose) theory of being the number one cause of obesity, which I wrote about in March (See What could possibly be worse for your health than smoking?). Your body stores acids in fat tissue to protect the liver and kidneys from acid damage, so by balancing your body’s pH level, you’ll naturally lose weight.
Acidic blood is thicker, with less oxygen and nutrients being transported to the cells. When the cell becomes deprived of oxygen, it either dies or becomes malignant. Cancer cells then thrive in this environment, as they get their energy through fermentation, a process that doesn’t require oxygen. Professor Felicia Kliment, in her book ‘The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet’, says ‘Clearly, the prevention of cancer should begin with removing from the body acidic wastes that turn normal cells into cancerous ones. If an individual is being treated for cancer, the removal of acidic wastes generated by toxic chemotherapy could prevent a recurrence.’
So what can we do to help ourselves?
Can you guess what I’m going to say?!! Avoid sugar and processed foods, eat lots of fruit & veg, don’t smoke or drink alcohol, manage your stress and drink plenty of alkaline water. You’ve heard most of that before, but until recently I wasn’t aware of the benefits of alkaline, ionised water. Clearly if we’re trying to tip the balance towards the alkaline side of the scale, one of the easiest things to do is make sure the water we drink is as health giving as possible. Did you know that most water filters make your tap water more acidic? I certainly didn’t, and tested it for myself just to make sure. I found that straight tap water was around pH 7.5, Brita filtered water around pH 6.5 and with my new alkaline water filter, it’s around pH 8.5. I know what I’ll be sticking with from now on!
I also regularly do a parasite cleanse, by using a herbal tincture or essential oil capsules. I support my body through this process by taking lots of vitamin C, friendly bacteria and digestive enzymes, as sometimes the “die-off” from the parasites can be an unpleasant experience.
When you look into the effects of acidosis in the body, it appears to be at the source of a whole host of degenerative diseases, and ties together much of the thinking around weight loss and wellbeing in general. I’ve always said it’s a full time job being healthy, and every time I write an article, I add to the list of things to do to keep me balanced. But like a very wise person once said, “If you haven’t got your health, then you haven’t got anything.”
Wishing you peace and good health,
Bess
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