The Critical Importance of Acid and Alkaline Balance for Health   When our acid/alkaline balance is too acidic, we lose minerals out of our bones.  What makes us so acidic?  Sugar is the big culprit, along with processed grains.   Virtually all degenerative diseases including cancer, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney and gall stones and tooth decay are associated with excess acidity in the body. While the body has a homeostatic mechanism that maintains a constant pH of 7.4 in the blood, this mechanism works by depositing and withdrawing acid and alkaline minerals from other locations including the bones, soft tissues, body fluids and saliva. Therefore, the pH of these other tissues can fluctuate greatly. The pH of saliva offers a window through which you can see the overall pH balance in your body.   Cancer cannot exist in an alkaline environment.  All forms of arthritis are associated with excess acidity. Acid in the body dissolves both teeth and bones. Whatever health situation you are faced with, you can monitor your progress toward a proper acid/alkaline balance by testing your saliva pH.   What are Acid and Alkaline? Water (H2O) ionizes into hydrogen (H+) and hydroxyl (OH-) ions. When these ions are in equal proportions, the pH is a neutral 7. When there are more H+ ions than OH- ions then the water is said to be acid. If OH- ions outnumber the H+ ions then the water is alkaline. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14 and is logarithmic, which means that each step is ten times the previous. In other words, a pH of 4.5 is 10 times more acid than 5.5, 100 times more acid than 6.5 and 1,000 times more acid than 7.5.  Minerals with a negative electrical charge are attracted to the H+ ion. These are called acid minerals. Acid minerals include: chlorine (Cl-), sulfur (S-), phosphorus (P-), and they form hydrochloric acid (HCl), sulfuric acid (H2SO4), and phosphoric acid (H3PO4). Minerals with a positive electrical charge are attracted to the negatively charged OH- ion. These are called alkaline minerals. Nutritionally important alkaline minerals include calcium (Ca+), potassium (K+), magnesium (Mg+), and sodium (Na+). (Cancer patients tend to have an excess of sodium.  Also important for cancer treatment and prevention are the alkaline trace minerals rubidium and cesium. To determine if a food is acid or alkaline, it is burned and the ash is mixed with water. If the solution is acid or alkaline then the food is called acid or alkaline. Ash is the mineral content of the food.   Ways to Restore Acid/Alkaline Balance in Your Body If your saliva is too acid you may wish to increase the alkalinity of your body. Ways to do this include: 1. Eat mostly alkaline foods. The general rule is to eat 20% acid foods and 80% alkaline foods. Minimize the "strongly acid" foods.   Modern agriculture and food-preservation methods have done serious damage to the human diet. The detrimental effects on the human body caused by acidic wastes from processed food and chemical additives are myriad. By-products of the foods we eat, acidic wastes are the common denominator in all degenerative diseases. When acidic wastes accumulate, they can cause organs to malfunction and break down. Balancing the body's acid-alkaline pH factor is a dynamic way to improve health.   The sulphur in the concentrated protein of meat, fish, eggs and hard cheese, and phosphorous in meat and soft drinks is what makes these foods so acidic.   Fats and oils have a neutral pH, neither acid nor alkaline. Plant-based beverages (tea, coffee, cocoa, herbal teas, beer, wine, juices of fruits and vegetables) are generally mildly alkaline. The above summary is based on a detailed Acid Base Food Table you can download.    The healthiest dairy products to consume have never been pasteurized or homogenized. Look for "raw" milk, and cheese made from raw milk. The healthiest way to consume grains and legumes is in the form of sprouts.   2. Supplement your diet with alkaline minerals. The main alkaline minerals in the body are calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. These minerals complement each other. For example, calcium is needed to contract a muscle and magnesium is needed to relax it. At a cellular level, your cells maintain a balance of potassium inside and sodium outside, but this pumping of potassium and sodium requires magnesium. The calcium concentration in cells is controlled by sodium. All four of these minerals work together in the body. Problems arise in the body when one or more of the minerals are deficient or when the minerals are out of balance with each other. People in North America tend to consume too much calcium and sodium and insufficient magnesium and potassium. This is often reflected in urine tests which show calcium and sodium being excreted while magnesium and potassium are being retained. (This is why we are not interested in urine pH. An alkaline urine simply shows that some alkaline minerals are being discarded by the body. Of much greater interest is the pH of saliva, which reflects your success in creating an alkaline condition within your body.) In the North American diet, excess calcium is coming primarily from dairy products, and excess sodium is coming from "prepared foods" that are loaded with salt. Largely missing from the diet are magnesium and potassium that would come from eating fruits and vegetables. A diet based on fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, with a small amount of dairy, would give the body all four of the alkaline minerals in better balance. This is the diet we recommend in point number 1 above. Given that the kidneys will excrete excess minerals and retain what the body needs, it is not necessary to be overly concerned about consuming "right" amounts of calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. Just make sure that your diet contains all four of the alkaline minerals in reasonable balance. Bones and teeth are made from calcium phosphate. You can consume calcium in the form of bone meal or calcium hydroxyapatite which contain the needed phosphate, or you can take your calcium with a separate source of phosphate, such as lecithin. To preserve your bones and teeth it is good to consume at least one gram of calcium and one tablespoon of lecithin daily. Vitamin D is needed for absorption and utilization of calcium, and doctors are recommending more (the Canadian Cancer Society recommends at least 1,000 IU daily for all Canadians) as the benefits of vitamin D become known. Teeth are held in the gums by connective tissue, and formation of connective tissue needs vitamin C. About 3 or 4 grams of vitamin C daily is required to prevent receding gums and the formation of pockets between the teeth and gums. Tooth enamel is rebuilt both from within and without by an enzyme called adenosine diphosphatase. This enzyme is one of dozens of enzymes in the body that are inactivated by fluoride. It is best to avoid all sources of fluoride. The positively charged H+ ion in acid saliva will pull the negatively charged phosphate ion right out of the tooth. Alkaline saliva is necessary to preserve and rebuild tooth enamel. Rinse the mouth with water after consuming an acidic food or liquid.    Acid and Alkaline Minerals and Foods   Modern agriculture and food-preservation methods have done serious damage to the human diet. The detrimental effects on the human body caused by acidic wastes from processed food and chemical additives are myriad. By-products of the foods we eat, acidic wastes are the common denominator in all degenerative diseases. When acidic wastes accumulate, they can cause organs to malfunction and break down. Balancing the body's acid-alkaline pH factor is a dynamic way to improve health.   The sulphur in the concentrated protein of meat, fish, eggs and hard cheese, and phosphorous in meat and soft drinks is what makes these foods so acidic. Fats and oils have a neutral pH, neither acid nor alkaline. Plant-based beverages (tea, coffee, cocoa, herbal teas, beer, wine, juices of fruits and vegetables) are generally mildly alkaline. The above summary is based on a detailed Acid Base Food Table you can download. If you The healthiest dairy products to consume have never been pasteurized or homogenized. Look for "raw" milk, and cheese made from raw milk. The healthiest way to consume grains and legumes is in the form of sprouts.   3. Supplement your diet with freshly made fruit and vegetable juices. As a treatment for cancer, some doctors recommend one 8 oz glass per hour for every waking hour of the day. We could never eat the amount of nutrition we drink with these juices. (See also: VMIXX 16 oz. = 100 oz. fresh juice) Stress is insidious because it affects us 24 hours each day. Stress causes the heart to beat too fast, the muscles to be too tense, the entire metabolism to be too fast. Metabolic waste products are acids (lactic acid, uric acid, etc.), which is one reason why dissolving stress increases the alkalinity of the body. The effectiveness of TM is evidenced by a 53% reduction in overall health care costs and a 55% reduction in cancer. Any stressor that the mind or body interprets and internalizes as too much to deal with, leaves an acid residue. Even a mild stressor can cause a partial or total acid-forming reaction 5. As people age, the digestive system weakens. The result can be nutritional deficiencies in the body, even when the diet is adequate. It is not just what you eat, but what you absorb that is important. (See also: VMIXX predigested alkali-genic super food) Blood is a colloidal solution. The overall negative electrical charge (called zeta potential) in the blood is what keeps the cells and nutrients in suspension (like charges repel each other). When the negative electrical charge becomes weak, then particles in blood tend to clump together and fall out of solution. Plaques form on artery walls, in the brain and other places. The blood loses its capacity to carry nutrients. The value of the nutrients you consume is lost if the blood cannot transport them. About half the population has badly sludged blood (the cells have coagulated), and most of the remainder have some degree of sludging. Everyone needs to learn how to maximize their zeta potential and the nutrient carrying capacity of their blood.   Unhealthy intestinal bacteria and yeasts excrete lactic acid and other organic acids that are absorbed by the body and turn the blood acidic. This situation is often associated with inflamed and swollen intestines that are less able to absorb nutrients.   What causes excess acid? The principal cause of acidosis is the excessive consumption of protein, which is usually metabolized "acidically" because of its sulphur content. We strain the organism with a daily proton excess of 50-100 mmol with the usual mixed diet. A lack of physical activity (lack of oxygen) also leads to an increased production of acid through metabolic processes   Bile contains alkaline salts that are often absorbed to help maintain the proper pH of the blood (which is slightly alkaline at 7.4). Since the Standard American Diet emphasizes more meats and refined foods at the expense of raw unrefined vegetables (resulting in acidic blood), the absorption of alkaline salts from the gallbladder is required to help bring the pH back into balance. When salts are removed from the bile, it becomes thicker. In turn, thicker bile makes the removal of cholesterol from the gallbladder more difficult - leading to the formation of gallstones.   The human body functions best when our blood is slightly alkaline. We make acid as a natural by-product of metabolism, but we make no alkaline. We must therefore get alkalinizing minerals from our diets (See also: VMIXX predigested alkali-genic super food)