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• Third Edition • Vo l u m e E i g h t 2 0 1 1 • D r M i r k i n : a t e s t • What causes decay? • Overthin: a risk? • Starting our kids early Al k aline De f e nce Alkaline Defence Program Pr o gr am Ian Blair Hamilton A WALK ON THE DARK SIDE Now that we are more clear about the concept, let’s test ourselves by taking a look at what the philosophy’s detractors have to say. Acid/Alkaline Theory of Disease Is Nonsense ~Gabe Mirkin, M.D. “Have you seen advertisements for proucts such as coral calcium or alkaline water that are supposed to neutralize acid in your bloodstream? Taking calcium or drinking alkaline water does not affect blood acidity. Anyone who tells you that certain foods or supplements make your stomach or blood acidic does not under¬stand nutrition. Ian Blair Hamilton is founder of AlkaWay, Australia’s longest serving alkaline specialists. He has written extensively on the subject over the last decade. You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine. Your stomach is so acidic that no food can change its acidity. Citrus fruits, vinegar, and vitamins such as ascorbic acid or folic acid do not change the acidity of your stomach or your bloodstream. An entire bottle of calcium pills or antacids would not change the acidity of your stomach for more than a few minutes. All foods that leave your stomach are acidic. Then they enter your intestines where secretions from your pancreas neutralize the stomach acids. So no matter what you eat, the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline. You cannot change the acidity of any part of your body except your urine. Your bloodstream and organs control acidity in a very narrow range. Anything that changed acidity in your body would make you very sick and could even kill you. Promoters of these products claim that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment and that is true, but neither can any of the other cells in your body. All chemical reactions in your body are started by chemicals called enzymes. For example, if you convert chemical A to chemical B and release energy, enzymes must start these reactions. All enzymes function in a very narrow range of acidity. (The degree of acidity or alkalinity is expressed as “pH.”). If your blood changes its acidity or alkalinity for any reason, it is quickly changed back to the normal pH or these enzymes would not function and the necessary chemical reactions would not proceed in your body. For example, when you hold your breath, carbon dioxide accumulates in your bloodstream very rapidly and your blood turns acidic, and you will become uncomfortable or even pass out. This forces you to start breathing again immediately, and the pH returns to normal. If your kidneys are damaged and cannot regulate the acidity of your bloodstream, chemical reactions stop, poisons accumulate in your bloodstream, and you can die. Certain foods can leave end-products called ash that can make your urine acid or alkaline, but urine is the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements. ALKALINE-ASH FOODS include fresh fruit and raw vegetables. ACID-ASH FOODS include ALL ANIMAL PRODUCTS, whole grains, beans and other seeds. These foods can change the acidity of your urine, but that’s irrelevant since your urine is contained in your bladder and does not affect the pH of any other part of your body. When you take in more protein than your body needs, your body cannot store it, so the excess amino acids are converted to organic acids that would acidify your blood. But your blood never becomes acidic because as soon as the proteins are converted to organic acids, calcium leaves your bones to neutralize the acid and prevent any change in pH. Because of this, many scientists think that taking in too much protein may weaken bones to cause osteoporosis. Cranberries have been shown to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, but not because of their acidity. They contain chemicals that prevent bacteria from sticking to urinary tract cells. Taking calcium supplements or drinking alkaline water will not change the pH of your blood. If you hear someone say that your body is too acidic and you should use their product to make it more alkaline, you would be wise not to believe anything else the person tells you.” Ready to test your knowledge? Here goes! Yes it is, except in life-threatening situations where the body is no longer able to support “Have you seen advertisements for products such as coral calcium or alkaline water that are supposed to neutralize acid in your bloodstream? Taking calcium or drinking alkaline water does not affect blood acidity. Anyone who tells you that certain foods or supplements make your stomach or blood acidic does not understand nutrition.” Q1: Is this true? the blood’s need for stable pH of 7.365. Scientist and Author Sang Whang explains it perfectly: “When a person drinks alkaline water which is high in alkalinity, or a cola drink which is high in acidity, the blood pH value does not seem to change much. The reason is that in blood there are two types of buffers to regulate and maintain the blood pH value to within a very narrow range of 7.38 and 7.41. One is an acid buffer, carbonic acid (H2CO3), which is the combination of water and carbon dioxide. (H2O + CO2 = H2CO3). The other is an alkaline buffer, bicarbonate, usually potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). The way these buffers work is as follows: If the blood gets an infusion of alkaline substance, such as sodium hydroxide (NaOH), the blood pH tends to go up. Then the acid buffer reacts with NaOH. NaOH + H2CO3 = NaHCO3 + H2O. High pH sodium hydroxide is changed to almost neutral sodium bicarbonate, which is an alkaline buffer, plus water. Note that the acid buffer is reduced and the alkaline buffer is increased. If the blood gets an infusion of acid substance such as hydrochloric acid (HCl), the blood pH tends to go down. Then the alkaline buffer reacts with HCl. HCl + KHCO3 = KCl + H2CO3. Low pH hydrochloric acid is changed to almost neutral potassium salt plus carbonic acid, which is an acid buffer. In this case, the alkaline buffer is reduced and the acid buffer is increased. An infusion of alkaline or acid solution does not change the pH value of the blood; what changes is the amount of alkaline buffer or acid buffer. As long as the human body is alive, these buffers maintain a blood pH value constant. When it is said that the body becomes acid in the aging process, it means that the alkaline buffer, bicarbonate, is decreasing and the acid buffer is increasing. It is now scientifically proven by Dr. Lynda Frassetto of the University of California, San Francisco that older people have a lower number of bicarbonates in the blood. From her research, we know that the bicarbonate density of the human being remains fairly constant until the age of 45 and linearly decreases about 18% by the time one reaches 90 years old. In general, adult degenerative diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure start to appear at the age of 45 and up and gradually worsen approaching the age of 90 and up. Dr. Frassetto attributes the reduction of bicarbonates in the blood, as we age, to generations of modern American diets She also points out in another paper that the average diet today is high in sodium and low in potassium, contrary to the original genetic makeup of the human body. It is this reduction of bicarbonates in the blood that affects blood flow and makes it difficult to manage the continuous outpour of acid, making it difficult to eliminate acid waste from the body and thereby developing many acid-induced degenerative diseases such as blood clots, acid reflux, heart disease, osteoporosis, gout, diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, cancer, strokes, etc. Alzheimer’s disease is nothing but a slow acidification of the brain. All these diseases are caused by systemic acidosis, which means insufficient bicarbonates in the blood. When we think of health, we think of diet and exercise, neither of which adds bicarbonates to the blood stream. Food supplements, raw foods, vitamins, herbs, antioxidant, detoxification, massage, chelation, acupuncture, magnetic devices, oxygenated water, Pi water, etc. seem to help some people some of the time, but they fall short of hitting the mark when it comes to increasing bicarbonates in the blood. Weight control by diet and exercise as well as wrinkle removal may maintain a youthful appearance; however, appearance can be deceiving. The blood inside the body still ages as long as the bicarbonates in the blood is diminishing. Drinking alkaline water adds bicarbonates to the blood stream indirectly through the stomach. When the stomach fluid pH is raised by drinking alkaline water, above 4.5, the stomach walls produce hydrochloric acid, which is interjected into the stomach to bring down the stomach pH value to below 4.5. The chemical formula for the production of hydrochloric acid by the stomach is: H2O + CO2 + NaCl = HCl + NaHCO3 In order to produce hydrochloric acid, the stomach also produces sodium bicarbonate that goes into the blood stream. If potassium salt is used, potassium bicarbonate goes into the blood stream. AlkaLife® is an alkaline concentrate to make alkaline water. Two drops into ordinary drinking water (6 to 8 oz) changes the water to high pH alkaline water. AlkaLife contains a patented ratio of potassium and sodium hydroxides to maintain the proper mineral ratio in the body. This ratio happens to agree with Dr. Frassetto’s opinion given in her second paper.” “You should not believe that it matters whether foods are acidic or alkaline, because no foods change the acidity of anything in your body except your urine. Your stomach is so acidic that no food can change its acidity. Citrus fruits, vinegar, and vitamins such as ascorbic acid or folic acid do not change the acidity of your stomach or your bloodstream. An entire bottle of calcium pills or antacids would not change the acidity of your stomach for more than a few minutes.” Q2. Does it matter if foods are acid or alkaline or not? Dr Robert O. Young agrees with Sang Whang. In his book The pH Miracle he says; “Just as our body teperature must be maintained at 98.6 degrees, our blood is ideally maintained at pH7.365 You can also measure the pH of the urine and saliva, but the blood is the most important and needs to stay within the tighest range. Different areas of the body have different pH requirements anyway. Blood and tissue should be slightly alkaline, urine slightly acidic or neutral. Saliva tends to be erratic. The pH of urine can be the best estimate of what’s happening in the body’s tissues but it is not always accurate. Blood pH is more reliable, and thus a better indicator of internal conditions. Physiological disease is almost always the result of too much acid stressing the body’s pH balance, to the point that it provokes the body into producing symptoms of disease. (disease can also be simply the toxic effects of an external source, but that is much more rare). Symptoms can be the expression of that stress, but they can also be a sign of the body’s efforts to balance it. Depending on the level and the extent of the stress, symptoms may or may not be obviously noticable.” He continues... “All the body’s regulatory mechanisms (including breathing, circulation, digestion, and hormone production) work to balance the delicate internal acid/alkaline balance. Our bodies cannot tolerate extended acid imbalances.... ...A declining pH just can’t be allowed. To prevent it, when faced with a lot of incoming acid, the blood begins to pull alkaline minerals out of our tissues to compensate. There is a family of minerals particularly suited to neutralizing, or detoxifying, strong acids, including sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. (Ian: Guess which minerals a water alkalizer isolates and concentrates in its alkalizing process?) When these minerals react with acids, they create much less detrimental substances, which are then eliminated by the body. Now, a healthy body maintains a reserve supply of these alkaline minerals to meet emergency demands. But if there are insufficient amounts in the diet or in the reserves, they are recruited elsewhere, and may be leached from the bone (as with calcium) or muscle (magnesium) - where of course, they are needed. This can easily lead to deficiencies - and the many and varied symptoms that come with them. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. If the acid overload gets too great for the blood to balance, excess acid is dumped into the tissues for storage. Then the lymphatic (immune) system must neutralize what it can - and try to get rid of everything else. Unfortunately, getting rid of acid from the tissues turns out to mean dumping it right back into the blood, creating a vicious cycle of drawing out still more basic minerals from their ordinary functions and stressing the liver and kidney besides. Furthermore, if the lymphatic system is overloaded, or its vessels not functioning properly, (a condition often caused by lack of exercise) acid builds up in the tissues. The imbalance in the blood pH leads to irritation and inflammation and sets the stage for sickness... ..When acid wastes build up in the body and enter the bloodstream, the circulatory system will try to get rid of them in liquid form, through the lungs or the kidneys. If there is too much waste to handle, they are deposited in the various organ systems, including the heart, pancreas, liver and colon, or stored in fatty tissue, including the breast, hips, thigh, belly - and brain. This process of acidic waste breakdown and disposal could also be called ‘the ageing process’.” So.. does it really matter whether foods are acid or alkaline? Dr. Theodore Baroody says so. Dr. Robert O Young says so. Dr. Sherry Rogers says so. Dr. Felicia Drury Kliment says so. Sang Whang says so. Herman Aihara says so. In fact every book ever written on the subject says so. Here’s what Dr Young has to say. When the Fish Are Sick, Change the water. “Think of your body as a fish tank. Imag- ine your cells and organ systems as the fish, bathed in fluids (including blood) that transport food and remove wastes. Then suppose I back up a car and put the tailpipe up against the air intake filter that supplies oxygen to the tank. The water becomes filled with carbon monoxide, making it acidic. Then I throw in too much food, or the wrong kind of food, and the fish are unable to consume or digest it all, so it starts to decompose. Toxic acid wastes and chemicals build up as the food breaks down, making the water still more acid. How long before the fish are goners?” Sang Whang, in his wonderful book ‘Reverse Ageing’ agrees: “We see quite a few people with obesity problems. Exactly what does their excess weight consist of? The answer is fatty acid. When we over-ingest carbohydrates and do not burn them away, they become fatty acid. I stated before that if you rest, your body gets rid of more wastes than it generates; however the body does not dispose of unburnt food. (Ian: unmetabolized food) We can burn this fatty acid later when we need it. To a point this is a reservoir but ‘later’ never comes and we keep adding to the reservoir.” Dr Susan Lark, in her book ‘The Chemistry of Success’ adds: “By avoiding highly acidic foods and eating foods that are neutral to slightly alkaline in their pH, you will restore the reserves of alkaline minerals and other important nutrients. Equally important, this diet will decrease the wear and tear on your buffer systems and organs of elimination by reducing the acid load of the body.” Walter Last, Nutritionalist, in his book The Natural Way to Heal also agrees. He simply says that in order to maintain an amply alkaline body reserve, we should eat approximately four times the weight in alkalizing food as we do acid foods. but also healthy cells. “All foods that leave your stomach are acidic. Then they enter your intestines where secretions from your pancreas neutralize the stomach acids. So no matter what you eat, the food in stomach is acidic and the food in the intestines is alkaline.” Q3. Is he right? Is all food that leaves the stomach acidic, and does it all become alkaline? Food leaving the stomach certainly carries acid. The food itself is not necessarily acidic. It has been oxidised and partially emulsified by the stomach acid in preparation for further nutrient extraction in the lower bowel. Because it is now mixed with acid, there is a need to reduce this acidity before it travels through the lower intestine. The great prevalence of Irritable Bowel and Leaky Gut Syndrome today demonstrates clearly that this alkalizing process of the pancreas isn’t working too well in many of us. Food is still passing into the lower bowel in an acidic state. This irritation of itself is only one problem; the other is that in a lazy bowel, the food that has not been neutralised by the pancreatic juices sufficiently is already rotting - becoming putrefactive. Combined with the acid eating away at the intestine wall, we now have a major problem. Putrefied food finds its way out of the bowel into the abdominal cavity where it really should not ever be. The body responds with its weapon of mass destruction; a flush of free radicals with the assignment to clean up the mess. In an otherwise healthy body, this works perfectly, but a body with poor acid/alkaline balance, already manifesting an acid gut and IBS does not respond in a ‘normal’ way. The free radicals, according to the majority view of the scientific community, run amok, attacking not only the rotten food, We begin to see why a water with extreme hydrating and penetrating ability, coupled with an abundant proportion of H- antioxdant ions becomes so important! “You cannot change the acidity of any part of your body except your urine. Your bloodstream and organs control acidity in a very narrow range. Anything that changed acidity in your body would make you very sick and could even kill you. Promoters of these products claim that cancer cells cannot live in an alkaline environment and that is true, but neither can any of the other cells in your body.” Q4. Is the highlighted statement true? In a very basic way, it is true. As we have already seen, prolonged acid imbalance, or conversely, a shortage of alkaline minerals, will indeed make you very sick. “All chemical reactions in your body are started by chemicals called enzymes. For example, if you convert chemical A to chemical B and release energy, enzymes must start these reactions. All enzymes function in a very narrow range of acidity. (The degree of acidity or alkalinity is expressed as “pH.”). If your blood changes its acidity or alkalinity for any reason, it is quickly changed back to the normal pH or these enzymes would not function and the necessary chemical reactions would not proceed in your body.” Q5. Is it true that all chemical reactions in the body begin with enzymes? In his book, The Cell- A Molecular Approach, Dr. Geoffrey Cooper defines the role of enzymes in the body. “A fundamental task of proteins is to act as enzymes—catalysts that increase the rate of virtually all the chemical reactions within cells. Although RNAs are capable of catalyzing some reactions, most biological reactions are catalyzed by proteins. In the absence of enzymatic catalysis, most biochemical reactions are so slow that they would not occur under the mild conditions of temperature and pressure that are compatible with life. Enzymes accelerate the rates of such reactions by well over a million-fold, so reactions that would take years in the absence of catalysis can occur in fractions of seconds if catalyzed by the approprate enzyme. Cells contain thousands of different enzymes, and their activities determine which of the many possible chemical reactions actually take place within the cell.” Dr Mirkin’s article, which we are using as a learning tool, says that if your blood changes its acidity or alkalinity for any reason, it is quickly changed back to the normal pH or these enzymes would not function and the necessary chemical reations would not proceed in your body. He is therefore correct. However we are, as you have already seen, not arguing about whether pH of the blood changes. We are talking about the effect on all the the major organs of an excessive intake of acid or alkaline food, or of an excessive creation of metabolic acid as a result of stress. In an inner terrain that supports the maintenance of blood pH, we can compare all the other parts of the body to worker bees, and the blood to a Queen bee. The worker bees are sacrificed in order to preserve the health of the Queen in all circumstances. Because the blood, or more accurately, the circulatory system is the ‘Queen’ of our body systems, our metablism is willing to rob and weaken other systems for its health. So while Dr Mirkin is talking about blood and whether food affects its pH, the whole acid/ alkaline balancing theory is about sup¬plying enough buffer minerals so that we have no need to sacrifice major ‘worker bee’ organs. “For example, when you hold your breath, carbon dioxide accumulates in your bloodstream very rapidly and your blood turns acidic, and you will become uncomfortable or even pass out. This forces you to start breathing again immediately, and the pH returns to normal. If your kidneys are damaged and cannot regulate the acidity of your bloodstream, chemical reactions stop, poisons accumulate in your bloodstream, and you can die.” Q6. What does this have to do with the theory that consumption of alkaline food can help balance the body’s acid/alkaline levels? . Nothing. “Certain foods can leave endproducts called ash that can make your urine acid or alkaline, but urine is the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements. ALKALINE-ASH FOODS include fresh fruit and raw vegetables. ACID-ASH FOODS include ALL ANIMAL PRODUCTS, whole grains, beans and other seeds. These foods can change the acidity of your urine, but that’s irrelevant since your urine is contained in your bladder and does not affect the pH of any other part of your body.” Q7. Is urine the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements? Q8. Does alkaline ash-producing foods include ALL fresh fruit and vegetables? Q9. This paragraph says that alkaline ash minerals only end up in the urine. Is this true? Q7. Is urine the only body fluid that can have its acidity changed by food or supplements? No. Saliva can be changed, but will change again very quickly. That is why it is better to pH test urine rather than saliva. The other fluid that can change if deprived of the minerals it needs is our interstitial fluid, or fluid surrouning each of our trillions of cells. This fluid is what Herman Aihara, author of Acid and Alkaline, calles our ‘Inner Sea’. It is saline, mineralized and alkaline; just like the sea Mr Aihara says we emerged from. It’s obvious that any change to this fluid’s mineral composition will have immediate effects on the ability of the cell to receive nutrition and send energy out. So like the blood, this fluid is supported by sacrificial control systems. Like the blood, if it becomes too acidic, it will be given alkaline minerals from bones and teeth. Dr Zoltan Rona wrote an excellent essay on the deleterious effects of drinking distilled water over longer terms. He pointed out that the body always uses what it has available to maintain optimum balance, so when we drink pure water, we are reducing the concentration of minerals in the interstitial fluid. So what does the body do? It finds them and replaces them in our interstitial fluid! Where does it get them? Bones and teeth. I had a visit from a lady from the UK who was an exballet dancer. Now fifty, she had been drinking distilled water for some years before her GP informed her that she had the bones of a seventy-year old! Q8. Does alkaline ash-producing foods include ALL fresh fruit and vegetables? No. The pH Food Charts you received in a previous lesson show the relative alkaline ash of fruits to be quite different. Q9. Dr Mirkin says that alkaline ash minerals only end up in the urine. Is this true? No. If this is so, the reports of the many people who have undertaken an alkaline diet are false. When change occurs in a medical condition, especially an acid-caused condition change after adoption of an alkaline diet, how can one claim that the alkaline ash is simply urinated away? I have had many, many, many discussions over the years with professionals who have their own ideas about the body. It’s not just doctors, but also naturopaths who often display this attitude. I sympathize with all professionals, “When you take in more protein than your body needs, your body cannot store it, so the excess amino acids are converted to organic acids that would acidify your blood. But your blood never becomes acidic because as soon as the proteins are converted to organic acids, calcium leaves your bones to neutralize the acid and prevent any change in pH. Because of this, many scientists think that taking in too much protein may weaken bones to cause osteoporosis”. Cranberries have been shown to help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections, but not because of their acidity. They contain chemicals that prevent bacteria from sticking to urinary tract cells. Taking calcium supplements or drinking alkaline water will not change the pH of your blood. If you hear someone say that your body is too acidic and you should use their product to make it more alkaline, you would be wise not to believe anything else the person tells you.” Q10. How would you respond to Dr Mirkin’s claim? I’ve had many, many, many discussions over the years with professionals who have their own ideas about the body. It’s not just doctors, but also naturopaths who often display this attitude. I sympathize with all professionals, especially allopathic ones, because they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they don’t ‘toe the line’ with the authorities, the FDA, the TGA, the AMA and the various big pharmaceutical companies that have ‘assisted’ government implementation of the control sytems that ensure doctors use ‘enough’ of their products, then their career can be at an end. Consequently, they ‘drive carefully’ and become very conservative and safe in recommending ‘unusual’ alternatives. The Allopath’s safety check is the double-blind study. If he or she makes a decision that can be supported by enough double-blinds, he or she gets to keep their job. However, let’s get back to Dr Mirkin’s claim. Once again, he misses the point. Alkaline pioneers we have examined in this series and I - agree with him. No-one is saying that taking calcium or alkaline water will change the pH of the blood. We are saying, clearly and unequivocally, that taking anything acid will have a corresponding balancing effect in the body, and taking anything alkaline will do the same. Our argument is based around the undisputable fact that the SAD - Standard American/Australian Diet- is massively biased towards acid overload, and our nations are suffering and dying because of it! I hope the little exercise has helped you to develop your personal viewpoint about Acid/ Alkaline Philosophy. We are all programmed through fear and respect for our society ‘elders’.. anyone with a degree. This programming tells us NOT to think things out for ourselves, not to try things for ourselves, but always to ask a ‘qualified’ expert. Nothing wrong with that.. except it’s based on the assumption that anyone with a degree IS an expert!