Research indicates that nutritional pH balance is key to health

(NaturalNews) Most people in our society carry an excess of acidic wastes. This creates a significant burden in the body. The blood stream must be at a 7.365 pH level, if it rises or falls one tenth of a pH unit it creates an extreme emergency. If blood pH moves two tenths either way, it's lethal. Research indicates that nutritional pH balance is key for good health.

The body has an incredible homodynamic control system built around maintaining pH levels. These innate buffering systems include getting rid of excess acid or base byproducts through the lungs, skin, saliva, and urine. The most common problem with pH balancing is keeping up with the excess metabolic acids. Acids are produced from a lack of oxygen, poor diet, environmental toxins, cellular inflammation, and metabolic waste products.

The problems with chronic acidity

With chronic acidity, these innate buffering systems get overrun and the body must turn to alkaline minerals within tissues to provide the necessary buffer. As a result, alkaline buffering minerals are stripped from:

• Our bones & teeth (calcium)
  
• Our muscles & nerves (potassium)
• Our arteries (magnesium)
  
• Our joints (sodium)
  

Research has shown that when an individual's diet is full of fruits and vegetables (full of alkali content) that is has a significant effect on bone reabsorption and calcium excretion.(1) This is due to the bicarbonate that is produced in the body from the digestion of fresh fruits and vegetables. Citrus fruits, dark green leafy veggies and certain herbs are known to be contain the most alkaline elements.

According to Dr. Joseph Campbell "Excessive consumption of acid producing foods, results in metabolic acidosis. When this occurs, the parathyroid hormone stimulates the removal of calcium from the bones and teeth (osteolysis), to buffer or neutralize the excess acidity. After many years, such calcium loss results in depleted bone, bone weakness and structure."

Health challenges with an acid environment

A University of California study that looked at 9,000 women showed those with chronic acidosis are at a significantly greater risk for bone loss than those who have normal pH levels. The authors again credit this to the body's buffering system utilizing calcium to maintain blood pH homeostasis. Metabolic acidosis creates a net leaching of calcium from the bones and into the bodily fluids. (2, 3)

Esteemed researcher Lynda Frassetto, an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California has been a very large supporter of the pH balance approach to health. She has recently written an article titled, "Diet, evolution and aging." In this article she makes an appealing case that mankind is lacking proper alkaline buffers in their diet.

Original diets were classified as high protein, high mineral, high phytonutrient diets. They had a powerful alkalizing effect because they were not only high in protein but also in calcium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc.

Poor diet and chronic acidity

Meanwhile, they were low in sodium chloride, sugars, and void of refined carbohydrates. Calcium, potassium, and protein intakes were 2-3 times higher than current intake levels. Sodium was seven times lower. This ancient diet provided an excess of bases while Westernized diets provide an excess of acid. This sort of low-grade metabolic acidity could be the most unrecognized factor in all cases of bone and muscle depleting disorders.

According to Dr. Frassetto, "Among the many health problems resulting from this mismatch between our genetically determined nutritional requirements and our current diet, some might be a consequence in part of the deficiency of potassium alkali salts (K-base), which are amply present in the plant foods that our ancestors ate in abundance, and the exchange of those salts for sodium chloride (NaCl),which has been incorporated copiously into the contemporary diet,which at the same time is meager in K-base-rich plant foods."

Sources:

1) Hughes D, Harris SS, Palermo NJ, Castaneda-Sceppa C, Rasmussen HM, Dallal GE. "Treatment with Potassium Bicarbonate Lowers Calcium Excretion and Bone Resorption in Older Men and Women" Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism January 2009. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2630872/

2) Sellmeyer D, Stone K, Sebastian A, Cummings S. A high ratio of dietary animal to vegetable protein increases the rate of bone loss and the risk of fracture in postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 73, No. 1, 118-122, January 2001 http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/73/1/118.full

3) Macdonald H, New S, Fraser W, Campbell M, Reid D. Low Dietary Potassium intakes and high dietary estimates of net endogenous acid production are associated with low bone mineral density in premenopausal women and increased markers of bone resorption in postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 4, 923-933, April 2005 http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/4/923.abstract

About the author:
Dr David Jockers is a Maximized Living doctor and owns and operates Exodus Health Center in Kennesaw, Georgia where he specializes in functional nutrition, functional medicine and corrective chiropractic care to get to the underlying cause of major health problems.

His website features great articles on natural health and incredible recipes. He is the author of the best-selling book SuperCharge Your Brain - the complete guide to radically improve your mood, memory and mindset. He has over 50,000 active followers on his social media and email newsletter and is a big influencer in the Primal Health movement.

Dr. Jockers is also available for long distance consultations and health coaching to help you beat disease and reach your health goals. For more information got to www.drjockers.com