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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!