Positive Health Online

Today, there’s a new worldwide health concern affecting everyone. If free radicals and antioxidants were the focus of the last twenty years, body acidity, body alkalinity, and the importance of maintaining a pH balanced system are the focus of today. For over a hundred years, researchers, doctors, and scientists have been conducting studies on the effects of acidity in the body. They have all come to a common conclusion. Acid in the body, if left imbalanced, will have perilous, chronic effects.

What are some of the effects of acid in the body is left unbalanced?

• Acid reflux
• Osteoporosis
• Gout
• Fibromyalgia
• Diverticulitis
• Interstitial cystitis
• Urinary Tract Infections
• Poor Digestion
• Inflammation
• Neuropathy
• Lack of Energy
• Pre-mature Ageing

When naturally balanced, your body is alkaline. But the combination of stress and our modern diet, 90% of which consists of highly acidic foods, like meat, dairy, sugar, coffee, and other highly acidic beverages including soda and alcohol, overwhelms your body with acidic waste, resulting in weight gain, low energy, poor skin, brittle bones and a myriad of other health concerns.

Blood pressure, cholesterol, and body temperature are well known barometers of health. However, body pH level is emerging as the most important measurement of all… and it affects all of the above. Unfortunately, most people take better care of the pH in their swimming pools than in their own body.

Result of Acid Overload in the Body - Internal Environment Enabling Disease to Manifest

Just the opposite with a pH balanced environment, which allows normal body function necessary for the body to resist disease. Leading medical researchers are now concluding that a decline in health begins when cellular pH moves toward becoming acidic, toxic, and polluted - a process called metabolic acidosis. When the amount of acid entering the body surpasses the body’s ability to neutralize and eliminate excess acid, a condition known as latent acidosis begins... which is the first step to the development of most chronic diseases.

Over 400 peer-reviewed articles indicate the link between low-grade acidosis with ageing and dozens of problems associated with the aging process. Although we have excellent biological systems for getting rid of acidic waste products through the liver and kidneys, the lungs and the out-breath, the stomach acid, and the bicarbonate buffering system in the pancreas and blood, our unhealthy lifestyles can overwhelm the body’s ability to get the acid elimination job done.

Consider the fact that we are not getting the alkalizing minerals in our processed and nutrition deficient food needed to neutralize this acid build-up, and the need for our blood to maintain a very narrow range of pH to maintain life (between 7.35 -7.45). The body will, indeed, act heroically to maintain that balance. It will draw alkalizing resources from bones, tissue and organs. One of the generally recognizes effects is osteoporosis, which results from the disintegration of the bone matrix and loss of bone density from the loss of potassium, magnesium, and other minerals. Or consider the ammonia odor found in nursing homes - the chemical reaction in the body of alkalizing minerals leaching from muscle tissue, often referred to as muscle wasting, results in the creation of ammonia. This ammonia passes from the body via urination, irritating the tissue of the bladder and urinary tract in the process. Once irritated, this tissue is open to bacterial infection.

Without a constant supply of alkalizing material, is there any wonder why these problems are chronic? Anti-biotics, which are themselves acidic, may kill bacteria in the urinary tract for a while, but they do not address the underlying cause of urinary tract infections. Nor will taking calcium, especially after passing through an under-acidic stomach, do much for metabolic acidosis and its myriad of symptoms, including osteoporosis. Indeed, potassium and magnesium are much more important to the bone matrix than calcium, but the dairy industry has steered us toward calcium through their marketing campaigns. Is there any wonder we have a problem?

How Do We then Become More Alkaline and Keep Acid Levels in our Body in Check?

The answer is both simple and complex. Simple, because eating more alkaline foods while avoiding or lessening our consumption of acid-producing foods should mitigate the acid build-up in our bodies. Complex, because the needed alkaline minerals are no longer prevalent in our soils, thus not taken up and processed by what we eat. And even though we do a good thing and seek better health avoiding injurious additives, pesticides and chemical fertilizers by eating organic, we are still not getting the basic mineral uptake we need from our food to keep our bodies in pH balance. Compounding the problem is low stomach acid. A high level of acid is necessary to start breaking our foods for absorption at the intestinal level. This is particularly true of minerals. And it is most important to keep in mind that stomach acid decreases with age.

Where we Must Turn to is Supplementation

Here, again, we run into some challenges. The public, inundated by advertising and the overwhelming influence of the pharmaceutical industry rightfully believes we have an acid problem… unfortunately it’s not the one they think. Conventional medicine and its emphasis on antacids and over-prescription of Proton Pump Inhibitors creates lower than optimal stomach acid, making it less likely to break down the little mineral content we do get from our food as well as most forms of mineral supplements. It can be said that our bodies are foundationally alkaline, but it must also be understood that, when it comes to our stomach, it is critical that we are functionally acidic.  Logically, though contrary to popular belief, we must find a way to increase our stomach acid and increase our supply of bio-available alkalizing minerals.

Fortunately, foods such as organic apple cider vinegar, pepper, and supplementation with betaine hydrochloride is available to raise stomach acid levels and aid in digestion. Betaine hydrochloride can be found in combination with digestive enzymes or as a stand-alone supplement. For mineral supplementation, trace minerals are always beneficial, but to maintain optimal pH balance, the presence of enough Potassium and Magnesium in the tissue is most important. Though various forms of these minerals are available for supplementation, the “most bio-available form we know of is the hydroxide form.”

Here's the Problem!

In nature, potassium hydroxide is commonly known as lye. Though lye contains the strongest alkalizing elements in nature, it is generally acknowledged that lye is too caustic, and extremely harmful to be ingested directly. However, when potassium hydroxide can be found in proper proportion in the soil and other growing conditions are met, plants process these ‘hot’ metallic salts by bonding them with other elements to make them bio-available and safe for human consumption. For some of the reasons stated above, this rarely happens in our modern agriculture.

What makes the Hydroxides so Special?

Potassium Hydroxide has the chemical formula KOH, consisting of the combination of one Potassium atom, one Oxygen atom, and one Hydrogen atom.  Potassium is known as an electrolyte, and this helps to maintain a healthy balance of fluids in the body. It also helps to transmit electrical pulses to allow for proper nerve and muscle function. Potassium also plays a crucial role with sodium to maintain blood pressure.

Potassium is essential for cellular health and is well known to be essential in keeping the cell’s mitochondria healthy. As the mitochondria goes, so goes the energy and health of a cell. As the Potassium (K+) enters the cell, it leaves behind a negative Hydroxide Ion (-OH).  This Ion will easily strip hydrogen atoms from acids and other toxins to help break them down for removal from the body through its elimination processes. It will also use the new Hydrogen atom to form water (H2O), which aids in this essential function.

Magnesium Hydroxide, MG(OH)₂, also plays an essential role. Magnesium, when released, is used in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body. It maintains a steady heartbeat, supports the immune system and, among other functions, maintains nerve and muscle function as well as contributes to bone structure. -OH Ions from both Magnesium and Potassium Hydroxide also play an essential role in the body’s Bicarbonate Buffering System, which is the major chemical resource that keeps the blood in its narrow pH range… neither too acidic or too alkaline.

Effects of the Introduction of Potassium and Magnesium Hydroxide?

• More energy;
• Improved digestion and nutritional uptake;
• Better endurance;
• Faster muscle recovery;
• Less joint pain;
• Less adipose fat due to toxins;
• A greater neutralization of the debilitating effects of acid in the body.

Diagram 1 - Schematic Representation of a Bio-ph Granule

Potassium Hydroxide and Magnesium Hydroxide can be found in combination with Calcium Carbonate in a granule called Bio-pH created in the US and currently available there. Granules can be pressed in tablet form and coated for maximum absorption at the intestinal level to insure the maximum bio-availability. Above is a graphic representation of the Bio-pH granule.

For more information about Bio-pH and how it can be used to balance body pH go to: www.powersofph.com  BIO-PH™, an exclusive, patented, all-natural mineral compound that is considered by scientists, biochemists, health experts and athletes, to be the most powerful body alkalization ingredient in thedetox, colon, nutrition, digestion world. Bio-pH™ is the ultimate solution to fight the battle your body wages every single second of every day against this acidic, toxic environment we create.

Infinitely more powerful than drinking popular alkaline water, Bio-pH™ is the only product of its kind to show a 50%+ average reduction in body acidity in less than one week of being on a loading dosage of these EXTREMELY highly alkalizing and bio-available minerals. Bio-pH™ has even received FDA recognition as a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI), as well as a designation of product safety and uniformity.

Some Last Words on Wellness, Physical Health, and our Model of Disease

It’s most helpful to keep in mind that the human body has miraculous self-regulating mechanisms that keep it operating at maximum efficiency if given what it needs. Most helpful is to embrace a holistic model of wellness that recognizes only one physical disease - cellular malfunction. Everything else we have come to consider as disease we should deem only a symptom. This includes cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and such. In this holistic model, there are only two causes of disease - toxicity and malnutrition. Lastly, toxicity and malnutrition exist on the spiritual, emotional and physical levels. All three levels, when out of balance create acid in the body as we’ll as other physical effects. When all three levels are in balance, we enjoy maximum physical health and wellness.