Wow, what a reception! I would like to thank everyone who commented on my last post, Drinking Distilled Water Is Dangerous For Your Health. The reason I wrote it the way I did was to elicit exactly this sort of response from you. I would like to clarify that I am writing from my own experience on the acid-alkaline balance. Please do your own research and I would like to suggest that you check out the following website on “Why Purified Water and Distilled Water are Bad For You” by Zoltan P. Rona MD, MSc.
In the meantime, this discussion would not be complete if I did not look into the importance of the acid-alkaline or pH balance of our body. The facts in this post has been “distilled” (no pun intended) from the book, “Blood Never Lies” by Ted Aloisio.
Otto Warburg, Nobel Prize winner, discovered the connection between health and pH balance. He also proved that cancerous cells could live and develop in the absence of oxygen.
pH is a measurement of how acid or alkaline a substance is. pH or potential hydrogen refers to hydrogen ion activity. All fluids have a pH from 0 to 14. A pH of one is pure acid and can make a hole in solid steel. Our internal body fluids have a pH level of 7.35 to 7.45 with the exception of the fluid in the stomach which should be acidic. At 7.2, the body experiences acidosis. At 7, you are dead.
The average adult has approximately 45 litres of fluids in the body. Most of these fluids thrive only if they are slightly alkaline. The human body is a group of cells held by magnetic energy. All nerves send signals through electrical currents. Cells and organs require energy to operate and that energy is electricity. This energy is delivered through a delicate balance in our biochemistry. Anything that affects this balance, affects our cells, organs and the whole electro-magnetic processes of our bodies. Excess acid in our bodies creates a biochemical breakdown.
So where does all this acid come from?
Metabolic acid
Your body already produces acid by itself known as metabolic acid. This is produced by us just existing. Everything we do from walking, talking and eating will produce acid, eg lactic acid.
Dietary acid
Adding to metabolic acid is dietary acid. The typical North American diet is almost pure acid; pizza, beer, hamburgers, hotdogs, bread, french fries, deep fried foods, processed foods, preserved foods, rancid oils, carbonated drinks, coffee, sugar, artificial sweeteners, additives, preservatives, etc. This diet is now being rapidly adopted in Asia in the name of progress and it is no wonder we see so many new diseases which did not exist 20 or 30 years ago.
Prescriptive acid
A third form of acid is caused by prescription drugs. No wonder we cannot chew our pills as it is bitter and that bitterness is because they are highly acidic.
How does our body cope with excessive acids?
Use Alkaline Buffer/Reserve
The large amount of acid the body has to contend with greatly overloads its ability to deal with it. The first line of defence is a set of complex systems known as alkaline buffers or the alkaline reserve consisting of substances such as malate, citrate, lactate, phosphate and acetate. Once these reserves are used up, the body has no choice but to store acids.
The favourite locations are the spaces around the cells. If acids keep coming, the spaces will be filled to capacity. Then the acids will be pushed into the cells themselves and will displace potassium, magnesium and sodium. These are three very important minerals for health and their displacement will create a host of problems.
Get from the bones
When the cells have reached a high level of acidity, acid may begin to enter the bloodstream. This is when the body starts to panic as a human being cannot survive very long if the pH of the blood is not maintained in a very narrow range. If the body detects excess acidity in the blood, it will reach for the most alkaline substance it knows, calcium. Guess where calcium comes from, yes, your bones so it can neutralize the acid in your blood and bring you back to balance. No wonder the incidence of osteoporosis and arthritis is so rampant now and people are getting these conditions much earlier than before.
Alkaline Molecules in the Blood
This is not the end of the story. The body can also compensate for excess acidity by placing an alkaline molecule in the blood. This results in the blood turning more alkaline which sounds like a good thing but too much alkalinity is just as bad as too much acidity. The red blood cells in this condition have the ability to become saturated with more oxygen but have difficulty releasing it to the tissues and organs. The starved cells are perfect breeding grounds for cancer to develop in the absence of oxygen.
What a roundabout way of telling this story and it all started with acidity which is so bad for you. That’s why drinking the right water with the right pH can solve a lot of these problems. More to come about this water.
[tags]acids in body[/tags]
I suggest that, before presuming to dispense health wisdom, doing more thorough research, specifically on your “Prescriptive Drugs” section. Your analysis of medications being bitter means they are not acidic – in fact, bitterness is an indicator of a basic, or alkaline, substance. Anyone who has had any background in chemistry knows this. Were any of the medications acidic, they would taste SOUR, not bitter.
Also, acids are not just “stored” in the “spaces around cells”. There is no “filling to capacity” of the interstitial fluid – it’s not a stadium with limited seats. The closest to what you’re talking about is if the interstitial grows too acidic from deposits, which would result in a pH gradient across the cell membrane, and the osmotic pressure that results would cause an influx of acidic compounds and an egress of alkalines in order to pH balance. The likely bases that would leave would be potassium or sodium, simply because they are in such large amounts.
You should most certainly not be dispensing any health advice to anyone; it’s clear that you have no idea of what you’re talking about beyond rudimentary regurgitations of books you’ve read, most likely filled with homeopathic crockery. My advice: stick to the sprouts.
Hey, Betty
You should have a link to “Blood Never Lies” by Ted Aloisio. That would enable us to check out more details. Also, have you got any other references? It’s interesting to read Spishak’s comment above and readers like me would like more info to make a discerning judgment.
Hey Spishak
I’ve been hanging around here for a while. I find what you have written interesting. Sure give a different perspective. Just like to point out that Betty isn’t the one who write about sprouts. The sprout expert here is Tarrak, and the other enthusiast is Vivienne. Just thought you should check out facts before you start hitting out at other writers.
Dear Spishak & BobaFett,
Many thanks to you both for your comments.
What I wrote can be found in Chapter 7 of Ted Aloisio’s book. Btw, you do not have to believe a single word I say as I am coming from my own experience. Even Ted Aloisio mentioned in his foreword, “I don’t ask you to accept anything I write….I am sharing knowledge and information…”
Ted Aloisio is a certified nutritional microscopist and a noted lecturer and researcher. Based in Toronto, Canada, he has personally performed over 10,000 live cell blood nutitional assessments.
I don’t know if he has website. Maybe you guys can do your own research by googling him.
My other references can be gleaned from this website: http://www.ionizers.org/acidosis.html
Hope this helps.
Betty
Hi betty, thanks for sharing and I guess through all these we learn a bit more and understand more. Personally I am not convinced about drinking distilled water and cancer even though the connection between an acidic condition within the body system link to cancer has been known for quite sometime now. The body is a complex and intricately self-balancing system which controls any unhealthy substances taken into the system through our diet. I guess through all the mixed of foods, fruits and vegetables we take make the acidity issue more complex due to anulling each others effect! Anyway I guess more research is necessary for me to fully comprehend this. Thanks.
Dear bokjae,
I get where you are coming from. However, I must add that it is because of the body’s balancing action that other things get out of balance, eg when the body is too acidic and there is no other way to bring it back to balance, it starts to leach calcium from the bones and when this happens on a continuous basis, osteoporosis results. The body has no choice as it is faced with death or something less life threatening. It picks the latter.