[NOTE: In this post I’ve taken information from previous, personal communications I’ve written and have edited it and included some additional comments to help tie all the subject matter together. I’ve decided to leave it in the form of a personal letter since I could have written to any of my subscribers in this way. The way I see it, if you’re one of our subscribers, I consider you to be one of my friends. I trust you will find the following to be helpful…]
Dear Friend,
In an earlier letter, I told you how concerned I am about the need to alkalize the internal “terrain” (milieu) of the body in order to avoid all kinds of adverse–and very serious–chronic health problems. Since this subject is so crucial to long-term health I’ve decided to put a few thoughts down for you so that you can begin taking some initial steps which can help you and your loved ones improve your prospects of avoiding the chronic, “adult diseases”. Most if not all of these are either directly caused by metabolic acidosis or are dramatically aggravated by this commonly-occurring condition, which is so characteristic of our western culture today.
Metabolic Acidosis is a deleterious condition in which the milieu, the intracellular and extracellular fluids of the body–including blood, saliva and urine–are more “acid” than they should be. Although the “rank-and-file” hasn’t even heard of it, a small but growing number of cutting-edge researchers and health practitioners have become increasingly convinced that a very high percentage of Americans unknowingly suffer because of this condition, with their long-term health being negatively–often severely–compromised. Odds are, you are one of these.
“A chronic condition lasts a year or longer, limits what one can do and may require ongoing care. More than 125 million Americans have at least one chronic condition and 60 million have more than one condition. Examples of chronic conditions are diabetes, cancer, glaucoma and heart disease.
“The number of people with chronic conditions is growing at an alarming rate. In 2000, 20 million more people had one or more chronic conditions than the number originally estimated in 1996. By the year 2020, 25% of the American population will be living with multiple chronic conditions, and costs for managing these conditions will reach $1.07 trillion… The number of people with chronic conditions is projected to increase from 125 million in 2000 to 171 million in the year 2030.”
[Source: Partnership for Solutions, an initiative of Johns Hopkins University and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]
The quotation I’ve supplied above indicates that nearly half of us here in America have at least one chronic condition and that the numbers are growing rapidly. But what’s worse and even more disturbing is that the average age of the “chronically ill” is on a constant decline–nearly half are under the age of 45 and a staggering 15 percent of these are children. Millions of youngsters now suffer from diabetes, asthma, developmental disabilities, cancer and other disorders. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting an estimated 5 million children. Among the population, children now have the highest rate of asthma and the numbers have increased 92% over the past decade. A growing number of children are also developing Type II (adult-onset) diabetes, which was primarily found only in adults. Millions of young ones are being medicated for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) for their inability to concentrate. Cancer is still the leading cause of disease-related deaths in children under 15. At bottom, you can lay odds that metabolic acidosis is a significant player in all of this.
Before I tell you more about what you can do about this alarming problem, let me first make a good faith effort to insure that you understand this personal letter to be for information purposes only. What follows is simply an expression of my personal opinion, based upon years of experience as a researcher and newsletter publisher. Nothing in this letter has been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. It should not be construed to be any kind of attempt on my part to practice medicine nor should it be construed to be any kind of attempt to diagnose or treat, or claim any kind of cure for any disease. It is our often-stated policy in the Bio/Tech News that a person should always consult with a competent, fully-informed health practitioner whenever it comes to making decisions regarding one’s personal health…and the case goes here for you, as well (see our Notice/Disclaimer for more on this).
Now, having said that, let me ask you if you have any of the following tell-tale signs which may indicate that you could be well on your way towards having to deal with long-term, often debilitating, problems during the “golden years” of your life. Here are some of the kinds of symptoms which should fly caution flags for you, especially if they are recurring symptoms (i.e., seem to come back on you from time to time) or, symptoms which tend to be present with you more and more consistently as you age (i.e. chronic symptoms):
Acne, Anxiety, Asthma, Bloating, Bacterial infections, Bronchitis, Cold hands and/or feet, Chemical sensitivities (to odors, etc.), Loss of concentration, Constipation, Cold sores, Cystitis, Colitis, Depression, Disturbed sense of smell, taste, hearing and/or vision, Diarrhea, Dizziness, Low energy, Eczema, Endometriosis, Food sensitivities or allergies, Fungal infections (candida, athlete’s foot, etc.), Gastritis, Excessive hair loss, Hyperacidity, Heartburn, Hives, Hay Fever, Hot or burning sensation during urination, Hyperactivity, Mild headaches, Irregular or rapid heartbeat, Impotence, Joint pains, Loss of memory, Migraines, Metallic taste in mouth, Excess mucous in head/sinuses (stuffiness), Muscular pain, Numbness and/or tingling, Osteoporosis, Pre-menstrual cramping, Pre-menstrual anxiety and/or depression, Psoriasis, Rapid breathing or panting, Sinusitis, Swelling, and/or Urinary infections.
Again, if any of these tend to be recurring or chronic symptoms, then you should pay close attention to the following…
The Biological Terrain
Some years ago, the Frenchman, Vincent (pronounced vaah-SAHNt), discovered that he could get a reliable picture of the body’s “biological terrain” (i.e., the intracellular and extracellular fluids of the body) and its “regulative capacity” by measuring various parameters: the Redox potential; the Resistivity; and, the pH of the blood, saliva and urine. Except to define them, I’m not going to spend much time in this short letter attempting to explain Redox and Resistivity (the plan is to cover this more extensively in a future issue of the Bio/Tech News)…but for reasons which will become obvious in a moment, it is important that I focus more on pH, so please bear with me.
Redox potential (otherwise known as “oxidation-reduction potential”) is an indicator of how readily chemical reactions can take place and is a good indicator for determining whether or not high cellular energy can be produced. Resistivity is the measurement of a fluid’s ability to conduct an electrical current. Suffice it for now to say that a low resistivity is desirable, since it will more easily facilitate energy flow. One more thing: the more mineralized a body fluid is, the lower the resistivity; so this is a good place to encourage you to make sure you are getting a full complement of minerals and trace elements on a daily basis.
pH, simply put, is a measurement of how “acid” or “alkaline” a substance is. Without getting into the why’s and wherefore’s behind the math involved, the pH scale runs from 0 on the “acid” side, to 14.14 on the “alkaline” side; a pH of 7.07 being “neutral”. The pH of healthy, oxygenated arterial blood runs somewhere between 7.35 and 7.45, which is mildly alkaline with very tight tolerances. The pH of carbon-dioxide laden venous blood runs between 7.31 and 7.41 which is also alkaline. The pH of saliva runs between 6.0 and 7.0 (mildly acid to neutral); and, that of the urine between 4.5 and 8.0 (somewhat acid to slightly alkaline).
Although I’ll return to it shortly, it’s important to point out here that with respect to the pH ranges of urine, these are not necessarily “ideal” numbers or “healthy” numbers; they are observed ranges. In other words, if you were to test the urine pH of 1,000 people, you would find that most, if not all of the numbers fall within the range of 4.5 and 8.0. I’m here to tell you though, anyone whose urine consistently measures a pH of 4.5 is one sick puppy (please excuse the technical jargon). Actually, anyone whose urine pH consistently falls below 6.0 should be concerned about their prospects for staying healthy over the long run.
Homeostasis
I mentioned “regulative capacity”, above. What I mean by this important term (the more commonly-used scientific term is “homeostasis”) is that the body is always working to keep itself in a healthy state; it is always “regulating”. By way of illustration, we have a rather sophisticated system here in our offices which “regulates” the air environment. Considering the single parameter of temperature, the building has been divided into various zones (I think there are ten, total), and there are special thermal sensors located in key areas which provide constant input to the small computers which monitor, among other parameters, whether or not the room temperature happens to be in the preset, programmed range for any particular time of day or night. If someone opens a window, the sensors report the change in temperature back to the computer, which then makes a quick adjustment to bring the room back to the proper temperature. When it’s hot outside, the moment someone walks in a door somewhere in the building the increase in temperature is detected, with the system reacting and constantly adjusting to insure that the room stays at its preset temperature for that hour of the day.
What this system is doing every second of every day, 365 days a year, is what I mean by “regulating”. Although it is “state-of-the-art” and quite complicated and impressive, it should go without saying that it is nothing when compared with what the human body has been designed and created to do in terms of moment-by-moment regulation. And though there are some similarities, one important contrast does need to be stated and thoroughly understood: When the air-handling system fails to regulate, the building becomes uncomfortable; when our bodies cease to regulate, we die.
Alkalize…or Die!
To get the most accurate and detailed indication of how well the body is regulating its biological terrain it is important to measure all nine of the above-mentioned parameters (three each for blood, saliva and urine) and this is normally done in a clinical setting, using instrumentation known as the BEV (Bio-Elektronische Vincent) or the more recently-developed, BTA 2001 (Biological Terrain Analysis). Unfortunately, you can “let your fingers do the walking” through your hometown Yellow Pages and not find a single doctor who knows anything about these important diagnostic tools. This is truly a sad state of affairs. Thankfully, however, there is a quick and easy way you can check yourself at home in order to get a reasonably good indication of the condition of your personal biological terrain and the status of your body’s regulative capacity…
The “home test” I have in mind has to do with pH. A simple way to get an approximation of how your body is doing in its attempts to regulate itself is by testing the pH of your first morning urine. The significance of this measurement is that the morning urine is a fairly reliable indicator to give an estimate of net acid excretion by the kidneys as they filter blood and lymphatic fluids throughout the “downtime” of evening rest. The assumption here is that acid morning urine suggests an acid milieu. The more consistently acid the urine, the greater the possibility this is in fact the case.
The test is easy to perform and is done by simply passing a strip of pH test paper through the urine stream and then comparing the color of the test strip with a chart which indicates the degree of acidity or alkalinity of the urine. This procedure should be done for 5-7 days in order to get a reliable indication of where your average morning urine pH tends to be. If the pH is consistently trending towards alkaline (i.e., measures higher than 6.4), it is moving in the right direction. If it tends to be on the acid side (i.e., less than 6.4) then there is reason for concern (a pH running between 6.4 and 6.0 is not nearly as serious as a pH that runs consistently below 6.0).
Of further significance is this correlation: if you already have some of the symptoms mentioned at the beginning of this letter (remember, recurring symptoms, not occasional symptoms), then you will no doubt discover that you are running consistently on the acid side of the pH range when you test your first morning urine.
In a nutshell, when the “terrain”, or internal environment, of the body tends to be alkaline, then one has reason to be optimistic concerning his or her long-term health. On the other hand, when the biological terrain tends to be acid, then one can anticipate a steady deterioration in his or her health and, if nothing is done to help the body move more towards an internal, alkaline state, then one can expect the manifestation of progressively-serious chronic, and often debilitating problems. As Dr. T. A. Baroody originally summed it up, we have a choice to either “alkalize…or die“.
Why this is the case is both simple and, at the same time, extremely complicated. However, one straightforward and powerful explanation of the need to maintain an overall alkaline pH has to do with enzymes.
pH and Enzymes
Enzymes are the “movers and shakers” of the human body. They make things happen, bio-chemically speaking. Not a single life process can occur, no matter how large or small, without the presence and activity of enzymes. Without enzymes, you could not hold this letter in your hands. Nor could you read it and think about what it is that you are reading. Without enzymes, you couldn’t taste, touch, smell, hear or see. Without enzymes you couldn’t sleep, stand, sit, walk or run. Without enzymes, you couldn’t breathe, nor would your heart be able to beat. During every moment of our lives, millions of enzymes are at work throughout the body insuring that all the necessary bio-chemical reactions of life and living are taking place.
Since enzymes are ultimately involved with each and every reaction in a living organism, it’s no wonder they have been called the “Spark of Life”. Scientists now tell us there are more than 3,000 different kinds of enzymes, with each kind responsible for performing its own particular task in the body, making its own unique contribution to our health and well-being at any given moment.
Enzymes are nothing short of amazing. They have been described as “bio-catalysts”. Most are highly-specialized protein molecules that have the capability of making bio-chemical reactions take place in a highly-efficient manner. They momentarily enter into and participate in the reaction, but they come out the other side unchanged and intact, ready to move on and facilitate another reaction. Although there are thousands of different kinds of enzymes, millions upon millions of which are actively working in the body at any given moment, biochemists have classified them into six major groups, according to the reactions which they catalyze.
Because they dramatically lower the activation energy required for these reactions to take place, reactions often occur with incredible speed. The enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, for example, is found in red blood cells where it catalyzes a reaction that enables the red blood cells to transport carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. One molecule of carbonic anhydrase can process one million molecules of carbon dioxide each second! But that’s nothing. The enzyme, catalase, is involved in the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. One molecule of catalase can break 40 million molecules of hydrogen peroxide each second!
In addition to a temperature at or near 98.6 F, metabolic enzymes must have an environment with a pH close to 7.0 in order to function at their optimum. The more the pH of the biological terrain moves towards acid, enzyme activity begins to fall off quite rapidly, soon reaching a point where enzymes are degraded and ultimately even destroyed. It only makes sense therefore that once the overall internal milieu consistently falls much below a pH of 6.5 that disease is not usually far behind. Once again, don’t miss this extremely important point: Without enzymes, not one single metabolic process can continue. Without enzymes, there is no possibility of life.
We intend to say a lot more about this in the future issue of the Bio/Tech News I mentioned earlier. Suffice it to say for now, though, that most Americans will test “acid” mainly because of our diets and our stressful lifestyles–
We eat too much in the way of acid-forming foods. Our protein consumption is usually well beyond 60 grams per day, which should be about the norm for an average adult. We drink too many beverages with a high, phosphoric acid content (colas, soda-pop, etc.). A single, 12-ounce can of cola (acid pH of about 2.5) would require more than 30 glasses of water with an alkaline pH of 7.4 just to get it within range where the kidneys can excrete it without damage to themselves (and even then, the resulting pH of about 5.0 would still be way too acid). In order to buffer strong acids like this, the body relies heavily on its “alkaline reserves” (wherein sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and carbonate are employed as buffers). Since the diet of most Americans is woefully deficient in these necessary minerals, and since the diet is consistently “acid”, the body in desperation often ends up pirating needed minerals from the bones (remember: it is absolutely imperative to maintain a proper range of alkaline pH in order for the all-important metabolic enzymes to function). This kind of situation leads to osteoporosis in the long-term (metabolic acidosis is no doubt the real reason for much of the osteoporosis we have in this country). Since your average American teenager drinks about 3 to 6 soda-pop beverages per day we shouldn’t be surprised at the statistics regarding chronic diseases which I quoted at the beginning of this letter.
We are under way too much stress. Excess cortisol and adrenaline production (in response to stressors in our lives) from chronic stress pushes the milieu of the body in the acid direction.
The solution? For starters, we should cut down on our protein load and stop drinking soda-pop. We should also try to eat a lot more vegetables and fruit (most of which help to move the biological terrain towards an alkaline pH). In addition, we should try to get a reasonable amount of regular exercise and we should take the time to “smell the roses” in order to help de-stress our lives.
So go ahead. Let me encourage you to make the necessary adjustments in your diet and make changes in your stressful lifestyle. At the same time, let’s get real here. The fact is, if you are like most Americans, you will probably do these things in fits and starts. The brute reality is this: most of us have a very difficult time insuring that our diets are consistently weighted in favor of alkaline foods; and, as for the stress which in large part comes from the busy-ness of our lives, most of us are on treadmills that are just plain hard to get off.
This being the case, it only makes sense to take a good alkalizing powder on a daily basis. Minerals like Calcium and Magnesium have alkalizing qualities. Better yet, however, is an alkalizing powder which has been formulated specifically to assist the body in its attempt to alkalize the biological terrain. Although these important powders might be more easily found in Europe, they are becoming more available here in the U.S. as doctors and health practitioners are becoming more savvy about the need to alkalize the body.
If you have any of the above-mentioned symptoms, it would be worth your while to evaluate a good alkalizing powder for yourself. I personally take alkalizing powder daily and wouldn’t be without it. I could tell you story after story where it has been a real lifesaver for me. The way I take it is to stir a rounded teaspoon into about 4-6 ounces of pure water and then “chug” it down while it is still effervescing. Health practitioners who are familiar with this kind of product recommend taking it this way before retiring at night and, if a person is running quite “acid”, the recommendation is to take it at 10am and 4pm as well.
Alkalizing powders are helpful in other ways, too. For example, they do a great job in neutralizing an acid stomach and many people use it for this express purpose (it only seems to make good sense that using natural, alkalizing minerals for this kind of condition is preferable to the use of drugs). We also understand that alkalizing powders work well for athletes who want help in neutralizing the lactic acid buildup which results after hard workouts.
In addition, and I want to explore this more in the future, I have personally found the alkalizing powders to be helpful in calming anxiety. Let me tell you a brief story about my experience in this regard…
I had flown from Portland to Phoenix and was busy with meetings off and on during the day. All of a sudden, out of nowhere it seemed, a sense of anxiety came upon me which I can only describe as feeling like I was trapped in a cage…
I called a doctor-friend of mine who was attending a seminar with me and he immediately asked me if I had brought any “Base Powder” with me. “Base Powder” is the generic name he uses to describe alkalizing products. I told him that I did in fact have some; he told me to take it as soon as possible. I took a rounded teaspoon in water and chugged it down while it was effervescing…
In less than ten minutes, the anxiety had completely subsided. I was “out of my cage” and was completely relieved. I have to tell you, the “Base Powder” was a real lifesaver for me.
Since then, whenever I get even the faintest sense of some kind of anxious uneasiness, I make sure I take some alkalizing powder right away. It continues to have a wonderful, calming effect on me. Therefore, I always keep it close at hand and never go anywhere without it!
Although I have nothing but my personal experience to back me up, I have a strong suspicion that other folks who struggle with anxiety from time to time may find these products to be greatly helpful to them. At least, I’m curious to find out if this will be the case. Thus, the reason for my passing along this personal experience.
My life now involves a routine of taking a rounded teaspoon of alkalizing powder at least once each day (usually before retiring). I am convinced this has done much to assist my body as it works to regulate and maintain an alkaline biological terrain and it has helped me to keep my nerves on an “even keel” over the past few years. This is one product I would never want to be without. Never!
If you haven’t tried it yet, get yourself a good alkalizing powder and be sure to get some pH test strips to test your first morning urine to see what kind of changes occur over time. The strips we like to use have a graded pH range from 5.5 (“acid”) to 8.0 (“alkaline”). The target range I personally use for first morning urine is 6.4 to 7.2 and, of course, the more it runs 6.8 or higher, the happier I am.
Well, I hope you have found this brief letter to be informative and helpful. When it comes to long-term health, I think this matter of acid/alkaline is serious business, indeed. We are born alkaline. We die acid. Life is, in a very real way, the struggle to maintain an alkaline milieu. Make sure you do your level best to see to it that you are consistently moving away from “acid” and always moving towards “alkaline”.
To find out our current, recommended source for Alkalizing Powder and pH paper, send us an email: info@biotechnews.com.
