Acid and Alkalinity: Maintaining that Proper Balance

By Frank King, DC

Our body has a few key regulatory systems that determine our quality of health or susceptibility to disease. Proper balance within these systems is essential to good health. Examples of these systems are the sympathetic/parasympathetic system, the water/electrolyte system, and the acid/alkaline system. Imbalances within any of these regulatory systems are a consistent common denominator with chronic, recurrent disease. The ability to measure and monitor our regulatory systems is essential for effective quality health care. However, in modern medicine, both therapeutic and monitoring measures to balance our regulatory systems are rarely considered.

Proper monitoring and balancing of our regulatory systems will not only help overcome disease, it will enhance our overall quality of health by increasing our energy, improving our mental and emotional function and preventing disease from occurring in the first place.
This article will focus on acid/alkaline balance. Over the past 17 years, I have monitored the urine and saliva of just about every one of my patients. You can measure the blood, sweat, tears, stool, semen, and mucus pH. However, I have found the urine and saliva provides an accurate monitoring of the various metabolic functions.

The primary pH condition I've encountered is acidosis, especially in the urine. This is primarily due to excessive protein consumption. Hyperproteinemia will cause excess acid which is commonly first seen in the urine. The average adult needs about 40 grams (1.3 oz.) of pure protein daily for natural metabolic equilibrium. However, the average daily consumption of protein in America is between 50-100 grams (1.6 to 3.2 oz.). Some studies estimate as high as 150 grams of average protein is consumed daily. Any excess proteins must either be stored, broken down or excreted by the body.

Proteins are broken down by a process called purine synthesis. In this process, proteins break down into amino acids and purines that are excreted as uric acid, which is very acidic. Excess proteins put an excessive burden on the eliminatory mechanisms. Excess proteins are excreted as waste products, free radicals, and toxins which could eventually lead to purine elimination pathologies.

The primary etiology for these purine pathologies is the extreme acid environment that excessive protein metabolism leave behind. Within this latent hyperacid environment, negatively charged amino acids bind with minerals leading to a deficiency of biologically available minerals, especially calcium.

The long term hyperproteinated hyperacidic patient will exhibit mineral deficiency in the bones and calcification outside the needed areas due to calcium deposition. Skin can become large- pored, thickened and light or UV sensitive, with a tendency to be allergic to sun exposure. The more familiar condition of arteriosclerosis or vascular rigidity cause impaired supply of life giving blood not only to the heart, but to any of the glands and organs in which are supplied.

The treatment and management of hyperacidity due to hyperproteinemia is usually long term; six months to years and requires a multi disciplinary or multi therapeutic approach including lifestyle changes. The successful administration of these therapies corrects the key common denominators behind many chronic degenerative disease. Therefore, the monitoring and treatment of this condition can not only correct, but also prevent common degenerative diseases.

Related degenerative diseases include: arthritis, corrective tissue disorders, other chronic musculoskeletal disorders, arterio- sclerosis, premature aging, chronic lung disorders, chronic bone disorders, chronic immune disorders, osteoporosis, anxiety, impaired memory and mental dysfunctions, various female disorders, cataracts, and chronic skin disorders. From a biochemical stand point, the largest common denominator to chronic degenerative diseases is hyperacidity due to hyperproteinemia.

Proper patient compliance to the long term successful treatment requires sound patient communication. If your patients don't understand to the point of being motivated, you may lose them if results are not immediate enough, or if uncomfortable detox reaction occur. If patients are not well educated concerning a long term metabolic program, they could easily lose desire or be talked out of following through the treatment process by friends, relatives, or other health professionals. The medical profession in general chooses to ignore acid/alkaline balance as a clinical entity until the point that it severely fluctuates to an acute life and death issue. The medical models pathological norms for pH of urine and saliva are so broad that it's physiological effects upon disease have not been correlated. However, metabolic practitioners are correlating the importance of pH clinically and relating the physiological normal range to be very critical to disease correction and prevention.

Metabolic practitioners generally see normal urine and saliva pH to range from 6.4 to 7.2. If the pH of urine and saliva is out of these ranges, disease is probably present. If the pH fluctuates in and out of this range, the body's buffering system is stressed. This requires metabolic management to optimize health and prevent disease. In the lifestyle management section of this article there is a list of the most effective therapeutic approaches for correcting and maintaining pH balance.

Lifestyle management is essential to successfully maintaining a healthy pH balance. Excess protein consumption can accumulate in a body perhaps for a lifetime. Starting as infants with high protein formulas, force feeding high protein baby foods, high meat diets, combined with minimal exercise, will cause people to be toxic laden and diseased from the metabolic stresses of protein poisoning.

Along with lifestyle management, I have found homeopathy to effectively restore this condition. There are several formulas designed for acid buildup. Also consider formulas for calcium metabolism. There are many homeopathic formulas formulated for the specific symptomatic expression. These are most helpful in getting to the root of disease. Homeopathic formulas for stress and anxiety, as well as detoxification and drainage formulas are commonly found necessary and will help with the cleansing crisis experienced when your patients fast for the purpose of detoxification.

Taking care of this one issue of acidity will be the common denominator with many chronic degenerative disease in which most people suffer. Addressing the underlying causes will also prevent recurrences of these problems as well. Your effectiveness with these so called "incurable" diseases will soar and so will your practice and reputation. I hope you use this information wisely and with great success! The following is a list of lifestyle management steps intended for you to hand out separately to your patients. I hope this is most helpful to your patients to inform them of the many conditions associated with of acid/alkaline balance.

Lifestyle Management Steps for Patients

Take a moment and imagine your home with an atmosphere that allows you to thrive (whatever that may mean for you: sunlight filtering through the windows, pretty music playing softly in the background, rooms organized and cleaned, whatever permits you to flourish). Now take a moment and imagine the exact opposite of this environment, an environment that would send you into a state of chronic conflict.

Just as our home environment is important for us to live peacefully so we can function at our best, so is our body's internal environment important to allow vital health to be expressed and maintained within the body. Maintaining the proper pH balance is to our body what our home environment is to us.

We are born with a healthy pH balance, but through years of growing and being exposed to certain substances, by eating certain foods, etc., we actually cause a shift from this healthy balance to a more acid environment. A healthy balance between alkaline and acid is to our bodies what the pleasurable home environment is to us. An acidic pH is the opposite. Moreover, acid build up in the body is the culprit in many of today's diseases. Chronic acid accumulation within the body can cause the body to break down, become brittle, making it more susceptible to disease. How do we fix this? With healthy lifestyle management. What follows is a list of lifestyle management steps designed to help you maintain that proper pH within your body. Get educated about what works best for you: what's healthy, what isn't. Choose life by living healthy every day!

• Invest in a test. Either acquire from your doctor or go to the drugstore and purchase nitrazine paper. One hour or more away from eating, tear off a small strip and apply your saliva on one end of paper, your urine on the other end. The chart on the container will show your pH balance. Once you know your pH, you can adjust your diet, etc., to bring it into a healthy balance.

   

• Eat smart! The following foods are acid forming: alcohol, coffee, meat, fish, poultry, dairy, all grains except millet. Fruits and vegetables are alkaline forming. When your body is too acidic, alkaline forming foods should be consumed. When your body shows an alkaline pH, you should consume acid forming foods. The goal is to maintain a healthy pH balance somewhere between 6.4 and 7.2. Overall, low protein diets, especially minimized with animal proteins such as meat and milk. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables (as much raw as possible) for their cleansing enzymes.

   

• Drink more pure water consuming up to 4 oz. every 30 minutes can help flush accumulated acids out of our bodies as well as enhancing overall metabolism function.

   

• Fasting can be helpful. Remember to start with small fasts and slowly build up depending on your overall health. Consult with your doctor before beginning a fast; allow yourself to be prepared ahead of time so that you receive the maximum benefits.

   

• Get plenty of exercise. Make sure to get a good aerobic type workout such as a good brisk 30-45 minute walk 3-4 times a week, or working out with an aerobic video tape. When we breathe heavily during our workout, our body is able to get rid of excess acid through exhaling.

   

• Watch what you're thinking! Keeping your thoughts pure is so important for you to maintain good health. Keep focused on the blessings in your life, choose to think about the positive. When you're thankful for the good things, you're able to view life from the right perspective. Stress can cause acid to build up in our body.

   

• Keep educated. In reference to your health, keep updated on what works and what doesn't. While it's true that there are basic foundations that will always remain, there is always a new and better way to eat, think and exercise.

   

• Get on a good vitamin/supplement program. Taking vitamins and other supplements can assist in the right pH balance maintenance. Kelp reduces acid in the body, potassium increases the metabolism and can aid in balancing the pH in the blood. Your doctor or local health food store can suggest the right form and dosage. Vitamin A 50,000 IU for one month then 25,000 IU thereafter and vitamin B complex 100 mg. twice a day will also help you maintain a healthy pH balance. Potassium, magnesium and calcium help activate alkalinity. Phosphorus, sulfur and chloride activate acidity within the body. Homeopathic medicines are powerful tools in helping you to maintain health by getting to the root cause of disease. Your doctor or local health food store can assist you in choosing the homeopathic formula right for you.

   

• Be proactive. By choosing each day to achieve and maintain the highest level of health, you're saying yes to life. When you're maintaining the best health, disease just won't find a place to live in you. Don't wait until you're sick to be healthy, be healthy so you won't have to be sick!

Frank King, DC
Asheville, North Carolina

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