11 Reasons to Avoid Acids: Click Here Part 1, Part 2

Understanding pH & POH: Click Here Part 1, Part 2

Food Chart Alkaline & Acidic: Click Here

America on Acid Cancer Notes: Click Here

Acid in Food Processing: Click Here

"A Completely Different Approach Took Me FromBeing Sick All The Time to the Picture of Health InOnly A Few Weeks -And I'm Convinced YOU Can Copy What I'm Doing, Once You Understand It"

Please take a minute from your busy schedule and read this letter from Dr. McCarley...I promise you will not regretit."Your disease is in perfect harmony with your body" these were the words I overheard from oneof the visitors at a health convention I attended almost two years ago.The man was a tall, attractive gentlemen. He remind me of Anthony Robbins somewhat, full ofenergy, vitality, and stamina. There was some kind of radiance glowing through him.I felt that something unusual was about to happen and I decided to stick around. He was talking to a woman who obviously suffered from many health problems.

She had a box of medication that she carried with her everywhere and you could tellshe was constantly sick. The conversation continued..."Your internal terrain is dirty" he said.Woman looked at him with an ambiguous look on her face."What do you mean?" she replied."Your internal terrain - inside your body is filled with toxins and acidic wastes andthat's why you're sick all the time. Clean up your diet and you'll get rid of many healthproblems you are experiencing," was his response.The woman continued to looked at him like he was talking to her in a foreign language, but I heard enough.

"The secret to healthy living was revealed: one that only a few people understand or use"

I went home and began to do research on the things that the man at the show wastalking about. What I discovered made me fully understand the truth of his statement.I learned that the "internal terrain" that he referred to was in fact the Acid / Alkaline or "pH level" of our body.

"When your body's pH is off, your health is off"

When your body's pH is off it creates an internal environment for bacteria, viruses, andother diseases to grow and thrive.Because this happens at the cellular level... when the pH level in your body is off, almost every area of the body can be affected:

· Nervous system--depression

· Cardiovascular system--heart disease

· Muscle--fatigue, joint pains, aches, pains

· Skin--aging, acnes, rashes, etc.

· Even obesity is a sign of imbalanced pH, a normal body response which

protects vital organs from damaging acids and their effects.

· Name any condition from Alzheimer's to Thyroid problems and what does the preponderance have in common... you guessed it - out of pH balance.

At that point I've just scratched the surface of the pH imbalance problem. I continued to research tons of books to get everything I could on this mysterious pH balance concept. And here is what I discovered.

The pH balance or acid-alkaline theory is not new. In his book A New Health Era, published in 1933, Dr. William Howard Hay determined that all disease is caused by acid accumulation in the body. Acid-alkaline balance is now witnessing a resurfacing in popularity, especially in light of new research that validates its main tenets: First that factors such as diet and lifestyle habits contribute greatly to an overly acidic system. And second, That an overly acidic system is a breeding ground for disease. Signs and symptoms of an acidic body include acid reflux, weight gain, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), cardiovascular damage, including the constriction of blood vessels and the reduction of oxygen, premature aging, bladder and kidney conditions, including kidney stones, immune deficiency, acceleration of free radical damage, possibly contributing to cancerous mutations, joint pains, aching muscles and lactic acid buildups. Low energy and chronic fatigue, headaches, sinus problems, irritability, colds and flu are other symptoms of an overly acidic body.

Today acid-alkaline balance has assumed a prominent status among complementary and alternative medicine approaches. The increasing use of biological terrain assessment, acid test, and functional medicine techniques attest to the emphasis placed on acid/alkaline by many complementary and alternative medicine practitioners.

Now let's talk a little bit about what is pH balance and why you need to keep it in check? Commonly referred to as "pH" (potential for hydrogen), the acid/alkaline ranges from 0 to 14 with 7 as neutral. The lower end of the scale (below 7) is acid and above 7 is alkaline. It's easy to test with special pH test strips, but make sure you get the right kind. Acid/Alkaline balance is extremely important to normal physiology. For example, the blood will maintain a slightly alkaline range of 7.35 to 7.45. Extended pH imbalance of any kind is not well tolerated by the body. The management of the pH factor is so important that the body's primary regulatory systems (especially breathing, circulation, elimination) closely regulate acid-alkaline balance in every cell and system.

I'll try to explain the acid-alkaline balance in more commonly used words rather than medical terminology. To those who already know about acid-alkaline balance you can skip this section and pick up your reading few paragraphs down. To those who are new to the acid-alkalinebalance please keep reading.

To better understand the importance of pH on normal body functions you need to look at the earlier work of the great French physiologist Claude Bernard. Claude Bernard more than 100 years ago pointed out the importance of organisms of a constant "milieu interieur" (internal environment). Bernard made a critical observation on the constancy of the internal environment. "It's the fixity of the milieu interieur which is the condition of free and independent life, all the vital mechanisms, however varied they may be, have only one object that of preserving constant the conditions of life in the internal environment".

His work continued in the 20th century, when great American physiologist Walter Cannon referred to the maintenance of constant conditions in the body as homeostasis. Homeostasis is a maintenance of an internal state that is distinct for the external environment and is defended against disturbance. In this homeostasis our body has to maintain many constant conditions. They are:

- The body temperature (98.6 F)

- Acidity and alkalinity of bodily fluids (pH 7.4)

- Blood glucose

- Oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations

- Water potential

- The chemical concentrations dissolved in body fluids

- The amount of bodily fluids

- The amount of blood

All these constant conditions are vital to our health. pH balance of your body is the most commonly overlooked condition but it's the most important one if you want to get rid of illnesses, sicknesses, viruses, and bacteria and as the result, improve your health.

pH balance is so important, in fact...

"All the body's regulatory mechanisms ( including breathing,circulation, digestion, and hormone production ) work to balance the delicate internal acid-alkaline balance"

And that's just the beginning...Our blood is alkaline. The tissues that make up our body are normally alkaline. The urine isgenerally acid but may be neutral or even alkaline.In order for you to better understand what is meant by an alkaline condition and an acidcondition, understand this...Vinegar is an acid and lye is an alkali. The first one is acid in reaction, the second alkaline. Theyare directly opposite in character. If just the right proportion of these two products are broughttogether, a substance will result that is neither acid nor alkaline. Such a compound is said to beneutral.As the acid substances increase in the body the alkalinity decreases.

Long before the tissues approach the neutral point illness makes its appearance.

"Should the blood or the tissue of the body as a whole become acid only to the slightest degree, death would soon follow"

By now, you probably have some unanswered questions...But wait...Don't skim through just yet. I'll try to answer them all as you go along. Be patient and keep reading.

"The Burning or Oxidizing of Foods Leaves Ash Residue"

Now let me explain how acid is produced in the body in the first place.When foods are metabolized the end product is always acid.Why?Because of the elements that food is made of. When these elements digest in the body they leaveacid residue or the end product of the digestive process (see example of chemical reactionbelow).Every food you eat is made up of carbohydrates, fat, and protein.It gets a little scientific here but stay with me : )When foods are metabolized, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats produce weak and strong acids.Protein produces sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid. Carbohydrates and fats produce acetic acidand lactic acid.Weak acid is an acid that does not fully ionize in a solution. Phosphoric acid, acetic acid,hydrofluoric acid are some of the examples of weak acids. Weak acids are mostly plant origin(vegetable proteins and carbohydrates). Weak acids are easy for the body to eliminate, becauseonce they have been oxidized they are eliminated from the lungs through breath moisture ascarbon dioxide and through kidneys. If the body needs to increase the elimination of weak acidsit does so by increasing the respiration rate, unlike the elimination strong acids.Strong acid is an acidic compound which ionizes completely in water solution. Strong acidscome mainly from animal protein. Hydrochloric acid, hydrotropic acid, nitric acid, and sulfuricacid are examples of strong acids. One of the characteristics of strong acid is its resistance tocombine with other substances and therefore are much more difficult to eliminate from the body.Their elimination from the body is performed by the liver and kidneys. But before they can beeliminated they have to go through the neutralization process, a task performed by the liver andkidneys. Neutralization is a chemical reaction in which an acid and an alkali react and producesalt and water. Neutralization is exothermic, meaning it produces heat.Strong acids are neutralized by the alkaline minerals stored in the body. When these alkalineminerals combine with acid, they create substances that are no longer poisonous and can besafely eliminated. Most generally, the following occurs:Acid + Base (Alkali) = Salt + Water +HeatThe family of alkaline mineral compounds that neutralize acids are the carbonic salts,symbolized as BaCO3, where Ba stands for any of the alkaline elements, which are calcium (Ca),potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and sodium (Na). When carbonic salts meet with strong acidssuch as sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, trichloro acetic acid, and lactic acid, the alkalineminerals making up the carbonic salt leave the salt and combine with the acids to make newsalts, water and heat. The new salts can be eliminated easily by the body through the kidneys andlarge intestine and water can be used by the cells to keep fit.The result of this change from acid to neutral salt reduces the concentration of alkaline mineralssuch as Na, Ca, Mg and K in the body. This lowered concentration of alkaline elements isreferred to as an "acidic condition" of the body. In order for us to stay healthy, our body fluidmust be kept at the alkaline level (pH 7.4). You must re-supply the lost alkaline elements throughthe foods you eat. This means concentrating on the alkaline-forming foods – foods that produceCa, Na, K and Mg in the body. Iron (Fe) is also alkaline-forming. Other foods produce acidformingelements: sulfur (S), phosphorus (P), chlorine (Cl) and iodine (I). These are the elements that need to be neutralized by the body before elimination.

"The body is also equipped with a mechanism for balancing its pH"

Normally our kidneys, lungs, and liver can eliminate excess acid from our body by the means oftheir normal functions...But here is the problem...There is so much excess acid in the body that these organs get overworked and break down.As the result they are not able to eliminate the waste as fast as they could, making the acid wasteaccumulate in the body even more. I see a question coming...

"How do you make your body alkaline?"

Well, the main reason lays in the way you eat.Through a properly balanced diet, the acidification of the body can, to a large degree, beprevented or regulated.When you eat so much acid-forming foods, the body's ability to clear all that acid out is greatlycompromised.Imagine your car for example...When you put gas in and change oil regularly, your car serves you well. It runs well and it takesyou from place to place without breaking down on you all the time.But try to put some debris in your gas tank and try not to change car oil for tens of thousands ofmiles. At first your car's engine will run fine, because it has a built-in capacity to handle some ofthe bad stuff. But what do you think is going to happen later? Do you think at some point yourcar will stall on you at the time when you need it most?Think of your body like your car. As you continue to put junk in it, it will try to balance things tonormal. It will try to eliminate all that acid waste through the kidneys, liver and lungs. But how long do you think this process can continue?

"How long will it take for your organs to get so overloaded withwaste, poisons, and toxins until your body starts

showing symptoms?"

There are many factors but one thing is certain - they will appear.Symptoms are the body's signs that acid waste is out of control. And it has to physically come out of the body as a sign of a cold, a flu, disease or a virus.

"And you are the one who pollutes your own body.

Isn't it sad?"

Nobody is forcing you to eat bad foods. It's the choice you make.The American (and many other countries) diet is far too high in acid-forming products, likemeat, eggs, and dairy, and far too low in alkaline-forming products, like fresh vegetables, fruits,nuts, seeds, sprouts, and water. We literally eat ourselves into bad health.You eat refined sugar and flour, white bread, foods that not only lack any minerals, vitamins andnutrients, they are also very acidic.According to the USDA dietary sugar data, you're eating 30 percent more sugar than you did in1983 and about twice as much as what the USDA recommends.Additionally you drink beverages, like coffee, sodas, alcohol, and processed juices that give usacid reflux and heartburn.Since the 1980's the consumption of carbonated soda drinks has increased by 47 percent. It's estimated that each person consumes 14.5 ounces of regular soft drinks per day!

"That's unspeakable. You're not only eating yourself to death, you're also drinking yourself to death too!"

Here's a shocker... Each 12-ounce can of soda pop contains between 10 and 12 teaspoons of sugar. We use too many drugs, which are very acidic. We use artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet© and Equal© and you eat foods packed with preservatives and chemical additives. I can go on and on - but you know it...

Look at the typical American's meal in any given day, and you'll see why we are an acidic nation. No wonder our physical condition collapses, day by day. Our bodies basically fall apart over the course of our diet.

"What's wrong with your diet?"

Our diet should make us feel strong and healthy? But does it? Not really.

You get tired.You get headaches. Your liver starts to fill up with so much waste that it's makes us ill. Your blood sugar skyrockets.Your cholesterol goes off the chart. Your blood pressure becomes completely unmanageable. Do I hear you saying "Stop"Ok I'll lay off. And what do you do then? Do you truthfully admit to yourself that you ate yourself into sickness, illnesses, viruses, anddisease that you are currently experiencing? Do you then look at your diet and decide what you need to change? Maybe, Maybe Not. Do you pop a pill or two to subside the pain and keep on going with your regular acidic lifestyle?

by Dr. McCarley