Acid/Alkaline Balance in the Human Body

Have you ever wondered if there is a common cause of disease? Many doctors, herbalists and nutritionists believe that the explanation may come down to three words: acid/alkaline imbalance.

Today, over-acidity is quite common; it’s a dangerous condition that weakens your body’s systems. While a healthy body maintains adequate alkaline reserves to meet its emergency needs, an excess of acid must be neutralized.

Unfortunately, depleted alkaline reserves leave the body weakened, and healthy cells begin to die prematurely. According to many experts, an acid/alkaline balanced diet is the key to staying healthy.

The concept of acid/alkaline imbalance as the cause of disease is not new. in 1933, a new York doctor named William Howard Hay published a groundbreaking book, A New Health Era,  in which he said that all disease is caused by autotoxication (or self-poisoning), due to acid accumulation in the body.

While suffering from unbalanced pH, you are acidic, which is a condition that forces your body to borrow minerals — including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium — from vital organs and bones to neutralize the acid and safely remove it from your body.

This is a strain on your body which can cause you to suffer severe and prolonged damage due to high acidity — a condition sometimes undetected for years.

Recognizing that your body is a complex system, you need to strike a delicate balance between acidity and alkalinity. Proper acid/ alkaline balance can vary from individual to individual.

Experts set a goal of a pH number of 7.4 for optimal health. Any numbers below that mean you have entered a state of acidity, opening yourself up to a host of health problems, conditions and diseases. Some aspects of your acidity or alkalinity are out of your control due to the finite amount of alkaline material with which you were born; and personal choices that you make on a day-to-day basis can play an even larger role in your overall health.

For instance, decisions about whether or not to consume alcohol or tobacco products impact the alkaline balance. These products are very acidic.

Meanwhile, the human body has stores of minerals upon which it draws for alkaline material on an as-needed basis — if it cannot obtain them through diet. As discussed previously, they are sodium, calcium, potassium and magnesium.

An acidic system can create a vicious cycle that saps energy, depletes minerals and nutrients, and causes a multitude of potentially life-threatening conditions and diseases. Research has shown acidic pH levels to be chief causes of obesity, migraine headaches, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

A Slower Metabolism

When your body is overly acidic, your metabolism rate can slow down, and it can even become difficult for your digestive system to break down fatty acids. When this happens, the brain and central nervous system cannot properly function. Over time, you can develop severe neurological problems such as depression, bipolar disorder and other, more severe, mental problems. Multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease have
also been linked to not maintaining a healthy balance of alkalinity.

A recent 7-year study conducted at the university of California, in San Francisco, on 9,000 women showed that those who have chronic acidosis are at greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels.

The scientists who carried out this experiment believe that many of the hip fractures common among middle-aged women are connected to high acidity caused by a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables.

This is because the body borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition).

As women, we all want to live healthier, more vibrant lives, but because our busy lives demand so much of us, we tend to skip exercise and make poor dietary choices, and our health suffers greatly as a result.

As our pH becomes more and more unbalanced, we tend to crave more acid-forming foods. Look for these signs and symptoms of acidity: Sunken eyes, bad breath, water retention and foul-smelling stools are some of the more prominent signs and symptoms that your body is too acidic. Some other warning signs are rheumatoid arthritis, constipation and diarrhea, and excessively low blood pressure.

To continue living, our bodies must continually regenerate cells, and a healthy cell cannot be acidic and properly regenerate. A cancerous cell must be acidic. if your body is in a constant state of over-acidification, it becomes impossible for healthy cells to regenerate. Cancer cells will thrive in this overly acidic environment. By taking action to become more alkaline, you can help make it more difficult for cancer cells to regenerate. So, as those cells die, they will be replaced with new, healthy cells.

Your outlook and thoughts Play a Part as Well.
When you spend a large part of your time with negative feelings or angry thoughts, it makes your body more acidic. The good news is that this is fairly easy to fix through prayer, yoga or meditation (deep breathing). not only will you feel better, your alkalinity will increase, and you’ll be more pleasant to be around — and that’s a good thing! you can change the balance!

Strive for about 80% of your food intake to be alkaline-forming and 20% to be acid-forming. Most of your body’s fluids, such as the blood, saliva, bile and even urine, function best when they are alkaline. When your body enters a state of acidity, the lungs, kidneys, intestines, liver
and skin must work harder.

Because all meats have a pH of less than 7, they are acid-forming. You should eat very little meat. Other foods such as pastas, breads, all dairy products, red sauces (such as those used in pasta dishes), chocolate and refined sugars also fall into the category of acid-forming. it’s important to introduce alkaline-forming foods into your diet.

Many fresh and raw vegetables, salad greens, seeds and nuts can fill out your menu of alkaline-forming foods and are a tasty path to healthier living. if you can, always choose organic fruits and vegetables.

Improving your diet, avoiding alcoholic beverages, not smoking and getting enough rest are good ways to help bring your body into the proper balance of acidity and alkalinity.

None of these measures alone will result in a perfect pH balance overnight. But by taking action now, in just a few of these areas, you’ll have a dramatic and positive impact on your health, and on your overall sense of well-being.

You’ll look better, you’ll feel better, and you’ll be better positioned to live a longer, healthier life regardless of the cards that Mother nature dealt you!
Maintain a diet of 80% alkaline-forming and 20% acid-forming foods.

When you have a healthy digestive system and your diet consists of whole, raw, live foods, it’s next to impossible to gain weight!

Imagine eating whenever you’re hungry, and eating as much as you want! You can if it’s a whole, live food diet and, in most cases, you won’t gain an ounce.