Acid or Alkaline: Can pH Affect Your Health?
Do you remember pH strips from your grade school science class? How the little strip changed colors after you dipped it in various solutions? Apart from the small bit of fun this experiment offered, it also had a great deal of purpose, one that many experts believe plays an important role in our health.
pH, as you likely remember from that very same grade school science class, is a measure of acidity and alkalinity. Something you may have forgotten, however, is the range associated with pH; 1 is the most acidic, 7 is neutral, and 14 is the most alkaline.
Susan Lark, M.D., co-author of The Chemistry of Success: Six Secrets of Peak Performance, asserts that being cognizant of your body's acid-alkaline balance is crucial to achieving better health. According to Dr. Lark, who was interviewed recently in a copy of Natural Muscle magazine, "It impacts immunity, digestion, bone strength, symptoms of joint disease, hormones, and function of internal organs."
To function properly, cells need to remain slightly alkaline. The problem faced by most Westerners is that we tend to maintain a high degree of acidity. Our fitness, or lack thereof, oftentimes plays a role, as do such factors as illness, certain medications, and stress. In terms of diet, high-fat, high-protein junk food (think Whoppers, Big Mac's, etc.), as well as refined sugars, trigger a response in the stomach, causing it to release a greater amount of acidic digestive fluids.
Thankfully, it does not require any invasive or overly involved procedures to determine whether your body is alkaline or acidic. In fact, all you really need are those same pH strips you used in grade school; a saliva or urine sample is all that's necessary. To get a head start on your little science experiment, there are also some simple yes or no questions you can ask yourself, all of which may help make your determination.
Dr. Lark suggests asking yourself the following questions. If you answer "yes" to five or more questions, your body is most likely overly acidic. That said, Dr. Lark also asserts that even if you only have one "yes" response, that alone may be enough of an indicator.
- Do you not feel your best after consuming fried foods, red meat, fast food, colas, or desserts?
- Do you regularly eat refined foods, such as white flour and sugar?
- Do you regularly take aspirin, antibiotics, or unbuffered vitamin C?
- Does vigorous exercise often leave you feeling exhausted?
- After an hour of work at your desk, do you feel mentally and physically tired?
- Are your muscles often stiff and sore?
- Do you have a history of osteoporosis, arthritis, or gout?
- Have you already celebrated your 50th birthday?
- Do you frequently catch a cold or the flu?
- Are you susceptible to sore throats, canker sores, or food allergies?
Of course you probably now have the question, What do I do to make my body less acidic if my trusty pH test and questionnaire basically tell me I'm a walking Duracell battery? Once again, the good news is that striking an alkaline-acid balance does not involve any major surgery, overly complicated procedures, or even taking any medications; rather, a change in your diet and lifestyle, says Dr. Lark, can really make all the difference.
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Let me simplify what she's saying "Are you human, may I have your money?".
Every time you see one of these symptom lists for a diet you should be immediately aware that a scam is afoot.
ReplyPhysiology Lesson:
Hyperventilating changes your bloods pH (a lot). If you hyperventilate for 30 seconds (without a brown bag)you will get light headed or faint. This is because the blood vessels in your brain are constricting in response to alkaline blood.
Lactic acid from exercise is buffered by hyperventilating. (expiring excess C02 rids the body of lactic acid for lack of a better term)
H+ + La = H2CO3 = H20 + C02
Think of the equal signs as arrows and H+ + La is lactic acid. Hyperventilating rids the body of C02 and shifts the equation to the right.
Your bodies pH is just fine and dandy unless you have lung or kidney disease.
Adjusting your bodies pH by eating certain foods is like changing the ocean from blue to red by adding some tomato juice.
Rule of thumb: if someone tells you how much water to drink or talks about body pH they are clearly full of it.
ReplyThis article left us hanging! What foods can increase alkalinity levels?
Reply@Pete, leafy green vegetables are a start ... barley, lettuce, broccoli, etc. are good options
Thanks for the good pH article. It's a topic that is often overlooked with the health of our bodies.
ReplyWho doesn't feel like crap "after consuming fried foods, red meat, fast food, colas, or desserts"? And just because you are over 50 doesn't mean you are not healthy.
I don't understand what this article is trying to tell us. I agree with Pete, this article left us hanging.
ReplyDrew said it well...our bodies are pretty damn good at maintaining homeostasis by the nice buffering systems they have. Any food you eat will make your stomach secrete stomach acid. However, as soon as the stomach contents move into your duodenum, they're pretty much immmediately neutralized by the bile that your liver makes. And like Drew said, your cells stay at their proper pH by using CO2 and O2 to buffer the metabolic products of exercise (like lactic acid). So unless you can't breathe and don't have a liver, you don't need this guy's load of BS.
ReplyDrew said it all...thanks for this article, and thanks to drew for his comment...and yes vegetables are always a good choice
(but i dunno if people older than 50 years old have more acidic blood!)...
Mezo
ReplyI'm confused:
"Do you not feel your best after consuming fried foods, red meat, fast food, colas, or desserts?"
So my answer to this question would be YES - I do not feel my best after consuming these foods - and that would put me one closer to having high acidity???? Or am I misunderstanding something here?
By the way at the end of the 2nd world war Clara Davis did some fascinating research with young children being weaned onto solids showing that when children were offered a range of pureed foods (healthy options) they were all able to select a completely balanced nutritional diet without any input from adults. But pertinent to this article, they found that these children all were slightly alkaline as well.
ReplyThis certainly sounds bogus. Any peer-reviewed articled or experimentally reliable results?
"Natural muscle" and "The Chemistry of Success"? You just lost a subscriber.
ReplyKrilu,
If this "sounds bogus" to you, that's only because haven't learned to "work the Google on your Internet machine" (quote from Blades of Glory). The acid/alkaline balance is very real. People with cancer tend to be acidic. The body is supposed to be slightly alkaline, and cannot magically maintain that state regardless of what we eat. Carbonated drinks, for example, are highly acidic.
On the other hand, if your personal health-related knowledge is all spoon-fed from pharmaceutical company-funded laboratory studies and surgeon general statements, I'm not sure how much they will really help you.
Also, what do you prefer - "Artificial Muscle" and "Chemistry of Failure"?
As for the loss of subscribership, good riddance!
ReplyI just read a book on pH and I believe there is something to it.
The interesting thing about diet book is that they all say eat the same things but they same them for different reasons.
One person says eat broccoli because of fiber, one says eat it because of B vitamins, one says eat it because it's low glycemic, one says eat it because it helps alkalinity.
ReplyHi
First up, yes I do run a blog that promotes the acid/alkaline approach to health.
Keep that in mind, or not, its up to you.
Secondly - I think that Dr. Lark is talking absolute rubbish and has clearly taken hold of an approach to health and completely misunderstood it. It has nothing to do with stomach acid. While I don't want to get into that per se - bear in mind that this article is pretty misleading with regards to this philosophy on health.
My opinion is that I truly believe that by focusing your food and drink consumption on those foods that have a high alkaline mineral content (and therefore an alkalising effect on the body) and minimising your consumption of foods that have an acid mineral content (yep, these have an acidic effect on the body) you will be doing yourself the world of good.
There is nothing more fancy, fandangled or scam-my to it than that.
Foods with an alkaline mineral content? Fresh green vegetables, salads, high water content foods, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, low-sugar fruit etc.
Foods with an acid mineral content? Red meats, sugar, sweets, chips, white breads & pastas, dairy, colas & fizzy drinks, alcohol etc.
This just makes sense to me.
If I had needed any more of a scientific explanation to convince me the work of guys like Dr Robert Young would be enough, the guy has devoted 25+ years of research to discovering more and more about this approach to health and many, many people recover from serious illness at his health retreats every year.
There are also so many peer-reviewed, scientific research articles published on this approach to health - google scholar makes it easier to find them.
Well anyway, I love it - it has made a HUGE difference to my quality of life.
Hope this makes sense
ReplyCheers
Ross
Hi
ReplyNice suggestions given to people who wants to go on a Acid or Alkaline: Can pH Affect Your Health?.The information provided by you is very good.It is very useful and helpful for every one.
To "cereal", "pete", "Drew", "Spectra" and the likes...North America is where it is regarding obesity, disease and health in general because its been blind to what's going on at the rest of the world.
Your way of looking at your pH balance its not working! look for proof at the average American: we are dead last in all health and diet categories.
Alkaline diets have been proven for hundreds of years in the far east and, lately in Europe.
Here is a great article on acid-alkaline balance that may change your view and open your minds.
For Pete: you may consult this alkalizing foods chart
Chris, thank you for this much needed article. As additional info,I'll also would like to suggest my article on food-combining.
ReplyI have read several books on the subject and done a lot of my own research too and agree fully that we need to work on our acid/alkaline balance and not take our bodies' for granted. While our body does buffer the acidity we consume, it does so at a great cost to our overall health. For example, if there is not enough calcium in our diet to act as a buffer, our body will leach it from our bones to maintain this precious pH balance. Much of American diet is acidic and sadly people don't listen to much of this sensible health advice and then cry when they or someone they love ends up ill.
I have friends who are scientists and Dr.'s and they all readily agree that science does not know everything about how the human body functions.
I believe that health is a choice.
Reply