No it is not. This is just one more thing organized medicine has not excepted.
The fact that alternative medicine are getting reslults with balancing the ph
level is *why* it is being fought.

Do your own research and you will find Peter Moran is wrong.

Ignore the screams from the *gang* when any information is taken from anyone
who sells products to balance the ph. Below are just a very few websites that
explain the ph level, there are many more.

Jan

http://www.rawhealth.net/bodyph.htm

The imbalance can cuase all kinds of problems. If conventional medicine won't
admit to it, it is no wonder we have so many *unansered *health problems.
==
  Have you ever changed your dietary habits to more fruits and vegetables, or
experimented with non-animal flesh dishes.  Improving a lifetime of eating
habits is not an easy task.  Regardless of the reasons, most are not aware of
the physiological necessity of a plant-based diet.
            The pH scale ranges from 1-14.  The highest acid level possible is
a 1pH.  The most alkaline level possible is a 14pH.  The proportion of acid
minerals relative to alkaline minerals is the major factor I use often to
understand what is happening internally.  Body chemistry has a delicate range
between 6.8-7.4 pH for proper maintenance of health.  This pH range is
necessary for the whole body to function well physically, emotionally, and
mentally.  That is not a philosophy; it is a physiological fact for cellular
integrity.

            The environment of the stomach is acidic, while the intestine
environment "ideally" is alkaline.  I use the word a "ideally" with intention.
Due to the poor diet of our modern culture, the intestines are generally more
acidic than nature intended it to be.  As the landscape of dis-ease is created,
it turns into an environment of parasitic and bacterial infestation, opposed to
an alkaline symbiotic homeostases.
            Would you prefer creating a toxic, acidic, anaerobic,
parasite-laden, and systemically dis-eased body, or an alkaline, oxygen rich
cellular system, which is vitally strong, and capable of defending itself
against common illnesses associated with an average lifestyle?  The decision is
yours.  Every action you take is a choice toward health or death.  Which will
you choose?

Characteristic of Alkalinity

            There are five alkaline-forming minerals, also known as
acid-binding minerals.  These minerals are: calcium, potassium, sodium,
magnesium, and iron.  Each of these are important for creating a healthy
alkaline environment.  These minerals bind with acid minerals and evacuate
those acidic and toxic substances.   Consuming more alkaline foods allows for a
mucousless body.  A vision of a mucous-free body is no sinus congestion,
chronic lymphatic congestion or swelling, fluid accumulation in the lungs,
joint calcification, calcium deficiency, etc.
 A person who has properly balanced pH will be happy, content, free of body
aches, and muscle cramps.   They will enjoy being emotionally stable and
mentally clear.  The result are extraordinary because the tissues will exist in
their natural and optimal alkaline environment, conducive for health.
            Thoughts and emotions are powerful forces that can alter our
internal chemistry.  Happy people can life longer and healthier because a
positive attitude will help create an alkaline environment.  As you may have
already guessed, negative thoughts and emotions create acidic waste.  I have
observed many people who have average to fair diets live a healthier life
because their outlook or disposition is joyous.  Conversely, a person with dark
thoughts and aggressive emotions will not find greater health on a better diet
until they deal with the greater underlying issues of negativity. The graph on
frequency illustrated how the emotional and mental energies have a greater
influence on the body than the lower frequencies of fresh produce or herbs.
The same holds true with their effects on body pH.
            Sunlight effects the levels of acid within the body as well.  An
alkaline chemistry is enhanced by the presence of full spectrum sunlight.  The
opposite is true in the absence of sunlight.  Darkness creates acid build-up
within bodily tissues.  The effects compromise the immune system, skin
vitality, vitamin D production, and more.  Realize to the marrow of your bones
that intention with integrity produces the best health possible.  There are no
quick fixes for the long-term health and well-being.
 

Alkalinity creates. . .
Acidity creates. . .

Sense of oneness & harmony
Allows for friendly bacteria
Healthy organs & glands
Decreased body aches
Diminished illness
Relaxed behavior
Mucousless body
Cellular health
Well-being
Happiness
Irritability
Depression
Mucous build-up
Auto intoxication
Anxious behavior
Increased illness
Cellular degradation
Increases body aches
Allows for bad bacteria
Sense of separation & pain


            In 1911, Dr. Alexis Carrel began what is now called "The chicken
heart study."  While working in his laboratory he discovered that it was
possible to keep a chicken heart alive as long as it remained in a colloidal
nutrient solution and replenished it faithfully every 48 hours.  By following
this simple procedure he was able to sustain the life of that tissue for 25
years!  A second study which used different cellular tissue had similar
results.  These are remarkable findings.  Imagine this possibility; all
creatures upon this planet have the opportunity for immortality.  By supplying
a cell with its required nutrition and removing any metabolic or toxic waste,
it can live indefinitely.
            There is documentation in Chinese medical writings were a doctor
would remove toxic or damaged organs from a person and submerge this organ in a
water or herbal bath.  Once the tissues were properly washed and allowed to
soak-up nutritive fluids, it was reattached to the person.  This procedure was
a successful and common practice that gave a patient marked improvement in
their health.  This is why fluid exchange is vitally necessary for cellular
integrity.  Next time you choose your thoughts, actions, reactions and foods,
be aware of this mortality-factor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------

Characteristics of Acidity

            Acidity, by its nature, breaks down bodily tissue.  It is created
by metabolic, dietary and environmental waste. The minerals which are
acid-forming also known as alkaline-binding minerals are:  phosphorous,
chlorine, sulfur, silicon, iodine, and bromine.  Acids are highly irritating to
delicate internal tissue.  An acidic chemistry will promote tissue dis-ease and
symptomatic side-effects.  Cells can adapt to their unnaturally acidic
environment.   That abnormal cell-growth is often diagnosed as tumorous or
cancerous.  My research and experience has shown that most dis-ease is a result
of acidic build-up and an anaerobic environment.  This may sound over
simplified, yet it is the initial "root cause."  In addition, when acidic
accumulation is not eliminated properly, body alkalinity decreases and acidity
increases.
             An acidic pH will greatly disrupt the body's mineral balance of
the three dominant alkaline minerals: sodium, calcium, magnesium.  The body
will take calcium from the bones to neutralize the acid environment.
Eventually it will use up or transmute its own reserve of alkaline minerals to
balance its chemistry.  When toxins remain: calcium deposits, tissue
inflammation, joints and bones deterioration, swollen joints, body aches,
tumors, lymph congestion, excess mucus production, skin problems, allergies,
colds, flu, swollen tonsils, loss of eyesight.  In addition to this, a host of
severe aggravation will occur from yeast and parasitic infections.
            As a natural metabolic process, acids are created and ideally
released out of the 5 eliminative organs: bowels, kidney, lungs, skin and
lymph.  All dis-ease, from viral infection to organ dysfunction, will develop
acidic waste.  When the proper proportions of quality nutrition and water are
consumed, then optimum health is achievable. The body works in various ways to
remove the poisonous waste. Eventually it must be removed.
            Suppressing a healing opportunity or toxins with synthetic drugs
will inhibit body's janitorial service from serving you properly.  When
symptoms are suppressed acidic waste does not it to leave the body.  These
waste products dry-up and become dormant pockets of condensed waste without an
adequate outlet.  This causes the surrounding tissues to mutate.  If the acid
environment is left unregulated it will eventually result in abnormal
cell-growth.  If health tissue is able it will encapsulate the toxic and
abnormal cells to keep it from further harming local tissue.

http://www.discoverhealthandwealth.com/articles/ph-factor.html

http://biomedx.com/microscopes/rrintro/rr4.html

http://www.souzaoenterprises.com/pH.html
http://www.thewolfeclinic.com/phbalancearticle.html

That is not true, but you are wise to leave it  to the body to control.  The
blood has many buffers.  Protein buffers, phosphate buffers,
carbonate-bicarbonate with the CO2, etc.  The blood must be kept in a very
narrow pH range and only the body intellect can do this.

You are poorly read then.  Saliva and urinary pH does not give info about the
blood since the blood is so well buffered.  It does give info about the tissues
, your mineral balance, and your bodily acidosis level.

Guyton is a good textbook.

But even Guyton, as you, does not comprehend nor understand what I am talking
about.

DrC PhD

Ah yes, Peter, but there are two types of acidosis. Immediate acidosis
where the blood works to keep at 7.6 without deviation, and latent
which is a disease state. Due to the problem of acidosis not being
dealt with properly when it presents, the acids deposit around the
body in joints, tissues and arteries which eventually leads to a
debilitated and increasingly precarious state of health, both
physically and physiologically. Looks like there is plenty of basic
stuff they don't teach you in medical school.

See the following article by Dennis Myers who describes in detail
these concepts.

HOW WE BECOME ACID
The development of latent "acidosis"
http://www.euroamericanhealth.com/how.html
If  we look for common denominators to all diseases, factors that make
any disease you have worse, then correcting these factors will help
and perhaps cure, whatever is wrong with you.
The fact is, every disease begins, at a cellular level, with those
particular cells becoming acid, toxic, polluted. Since the internal
environment or internal milieu the cells live in effects all diseases,
this is the best place to start, no matter what is wrong with you.
The acid/base balance or lack thereof in this internal milieu, is easy
to evaluate. Simply, you measure how acid your saliva and urine are,
at home. This will be explained thoroughly under Urine and Saliva
Testing and as stated this is an exceedingly useful tool in following
your own health.
HOW WE BECOME ACID
First, I would like to describe what a latent" acidosis" is and how we
get into such a condition. Then I'll go into some detail about the
significance of this as the changes that happen in our body as our
cells become acid are profound. Chronic Degenerative Disease is what
develops and is what this is all about.
pH
How acid something is determined by measuring its pH. The pH of
anything is set on a scale of from 1 to 14. pH 1 is the most acid,
like the acid in your car battery. pH 14 is the most basic, like the
lye you spray in an oven to clean it.
Water is supposed to be neutral at a pH of 7.0. The pH of the blood
has to remain exactly 7.40, all the time...exactly. If the blood's pH
rises or falls one tenth of a pH unit you are in intensive care in the
hospital where the pH of your blood is monitored very carefully. If it
moves two tenths either way it is lethal.
How the blood always maintains a constant pH is a very complex matter
and one that everything in the body helps to maintain, as everything
in the body depends on this sameness. Healthy blood just transports
things, in and out. It doesn't change in composition itself, it can't
and be healthy.
As hospital medicine is only concerned with serious illnesses, this is
the only place in regular medicine that pH is taken seriously.
Arterial blood pH is measured frequently in intensive care because
here the pH of the blood itself does change. This is considered a real
acidosis, as compared to a latent one, and is a very serious
condition.
As far as preventative or regular day to day medicine is concerned
these concepts are completely disregarded by modern, allopathic
doctors. Because this process of becoming acid correlates directly
with the onset of old age and the development of chronic degenerative
disease it becomes more important, in a way, to deal with it first, as
an 'outpatient', than as a patient in the hospital.
***
Strong Acids, Weak Acids and Protein
The strong acids in our bodies are those that are formed by the
degradation of protein. These are sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and
nitric acid. These are strong, like the battery acid in your car.
Strong acids are strong in contradistinction to weak acids such as
vinegar and citrus juices. Weak acids do not ionize (break apart
completely) when in solution whereas strong acids do. This is why
vinegar does not burn holes in your clothes, or dissolve your bones;
it does not break apart completely into an acid and a base part, it
remains partly a salt. A salt is formed when an acid and a base
combine and neutralized each other.
In fact, vinegar, although an acid when you eat it, does not stay that
way. Weak acids like the acetic acid in vinegar, tartaric acid and the
acids in most fruits and lemons contain lots of minerals which are
basic, along with their weak acid part. The weak acid part combines
with water and is converted into carbonic acid which then breaks apart
into carbon dioxide and water. You breathe out the carbon dioxide and
pass the water out through your kidneys. The minerals remain behind to
replenish deficient minerals so in fact these weak acids in the end,
alkalinize the body by adding more minerals to it.
The opposite happens with the excretion of strong acids as they take
out or leach minerals out of the body.
This is where the problem lies.
The Main Reason We Become Acid Is From Over-consumption Of Protein
When protein breaks down in our bodies, it breaks down into the above
mentioned strong acids. These three acids must be excreted by the
kidneys because they contain sulfur, phosphorus or nitrogen which
cannot break down into water and carbon dioxide to be eliminated as
the weak acids are. In their passage through the kidneys these strong
acids must take a basic mineral with them because in this way they are
converted into their neutral salts and don't burn the kidneys on their
way out as would happen if these acids were excreted in their free
acid form.
Sulfuric acid or any of the strong acids are excreted mainly as the
salts of sodium, potassium, magnesium or calcium as these are the main
basic minerals of the body, the ones that are the most plentiful. The
sulfur in sulfuric acid can and does combine with the calcium in your
bones for one and is excreted as the corresponding salt which is
called calcium sulfate. This salt does not harm the kidneys on its way
through them but it does rob the body of the needed basic calcium.
By taking all these basic minerals out of the body you make the body
relatively more acid. A latent "acidosis" develops then because the
body becomes relatively base deficient. Becoming BASE DEFICIENT is the
same as becoming acid, right? Latent "acidosis" is not the frank or
real acidosis (so the quotes) of hospital medicine because the pH of
the blood itself does not change.
* * *
We need protein, obviously, but all we need is 40 grams a day, a
training athlete may need 80 grams a day. The average American diet on
the other hand contains as much as 200 grams of protein per day,
that's bacon and eggs for breakfast, etc.. We all know that the
"richer" we became as a civilization and more "advanced", the more
meat we eat. Plato knew this in ancient Greece and toward the end of
that civilization I'm sure they had all the 'modern' degenerative
diseases that plague us today and, "fast foods".
This is a reason postulated for the extinction of the Mayan Indians,
their skeletons are demineralized, as if they too had been soaked in
excess acid. Maybe toward the end they became so rich they ate Big-Mac
Hamburgers too.
* * *
The colloid connective tissue organ of schade
As the blood can not change, it picks up the acids and transports them
first to the connective tissues of the body where they are stored.
This is the largest organ of the body really and in Europe it is
called the colloid connective tissue organ of SCHADE. The collagen
fibers of the body are specific acid catchers. It is also called a
pre-kidney as that is how it functions, storing acids prior to
delivery to the kidneys for excretion. Also it is the organ that
connects, holds everything in our bodies in place. It is composed of
ligaments, tendons and the like obviously but as these break down into
finer and finer fibers it becomes literally the scaffolding that holds
every single cell in our bodies in place. If too many acids need
storing in this organ, which includes the muscles, inflammation and
pain develop. Fibromyalgia is an acid disease for sure.
The space enclosed by these finer and finer fibers, is called
PISHINGER'S SPACE, from the German scientist that described it.
Essentially, this is the extracellular space that contains the fluids
that bathe and feed each and every cell while carrying away the wastes
from those same cells. There is no mention of this organ in American,
physiology text books, there is the extracellular space but no organ
that stores acids like this, no pre-kidney.
* * *
Base flood and base tide
There is also a daily rhythm to this acid-base, ebb and flow called by
Friedrich Sander the Base Flood and Base Tide. The stored acids are
mobilized from the connective tissues and Pishinger's Space while we
sleep. These acids reach their maximum (base tide) concentration in
this fluid, and thereby the urine, at 2:00 AM, so the urine is the
most acid at this time. The acid content of the urine directly
reflects the acid content of the fluid in Pishinger's Space, the
extracellular fluid compartment of the body.
By the time you get up though, in the morning, all the acids consumed
and generated the day before should be gone, excreted while you slept,
contained in your bladder and ready to be voided when you wake. This
first urine should be acid when you get up in the A.M.. The urine pH
you should check though is the pH of the urine measured the second
time you empty your bladder in the morning as this reflects the pH of
the body fluids at that time, in the morning, not the pH of the urine
from the night before.
Therefore, your A.M. urine, the second voided specimen after you get
up, should be back to about neutral, close to pH 7.00 (pH 6.8 to be
exact). Because most everyone is acid, this is hardly ever the case.
More and more acids accumulate day after day and chronic, degenerative
disease develops as the direct result of the pleomorphic changes that
take place in the blood as discussed above. Each day we add to the
acids not disposed of the day before.
On the other hand, this Pishinger's Space, becomes most alkaline
around 2:00 PM, the Base Flood, as then the most bicarbonate is being
generated by the cover cells of the stomach (see below), after lunch
and breakfast have been metabolized, actually. If your urine is not
alkaline at 2:00 P.M. you are definitely in an acid condition.
* * *
BICARBONATE
In the normal situation, hydrochloric acid is produced by the cover
cells of the stomach. Table salt, sodium chloride, is split into
hydrochloric acid and sodium bicarbonate. The production of each
molecule of hydrochloric acid is matched by the production of an
equivalent molecule of sodium bicarbonate
The acid goes into the stomach and and the sodium bicarbonate goes
into the blood stream and circulates all around, first flushing out
the excess acid in the tissues and especially, freeing the collagen
fibers and the colloidal connective tissue organ from the adsorbed
acids stored there. Any bicarb that is left over, is picked up by the
alkaline glands, the liver, pancreas, etc..
Of course, this is why our bodies are most alkaline around 2:00 P.M. .
This is after our stomachs have pretty well digested breakfast and
lunch. The stomachs have made all the hydrochloric acid they needed
for that and the equivalent amount of sodium bicarbonate needed to
neutralize the body and refill the alkaline glands of the body,
pancreas, liver, etc.. After those glands digested the breakfast and
lunch they need filled up again too! Where does their alkalinity come
from? It comes from the blood and from the alkaline food we eat, our
fruits and vegetables as will be described below.
An imbalance happens, of course, if enough alkaline food is not eaten
and because the sodium bicarbonate generated by the stomach's cover
cells, does not all go to the alkaline glands (pancreas, liver,
salivary glands and the alkaline glands in the duodenum). On the way
through the body to those glands, some of it gets used up by
neutralizing acid residues from the previous meal and ones stored in
the connective tissue organ from before.
If there is not enough base left over after a meal, enough base to
neutralize and clear the acids stored in the connective tissues, a
relative base deficiency develops which is again, the latent
"acidosis".
When this happens the liver and pancreas don't end up with enough
alkaline juices to ensure proper digestion.
Digestion can't proceed without enough of these alkaline juices for
the liver and pancreas, etc., so the stomach has to produce more acid,
in order to make enough base, ad nauseam, and one can develop stomach
ulcers. The ulcer is not the result of too much acid, on the contrary,
it is the result of too little base!
The 'excess' acid is there as a necessary by product as the organism
has to generate it so more bicarb can be made to satisfy the needs of
the liver and pancreas.
* * *
REPLACEMENT OF MINERALS
If minerals are lost because they are excreted with the excess protein
acids we consume, we can either cut down on such consumption and/or
replace the minerals.
THESE LOST BASE MINERALS CAN ONLY BE REPLACED WITH FRUITS AND
VEGETABLES.
We have to eat our fruits and vegetables!
"An apple a day does keep the doctor away."
This is so because the minerals from plants, organic minerals, are the
only ones our bodies can use. Organic minerals are much different then
the minerals from rocks, inorganic minerals. Sodium from a plant for
example, is much different than the sodium from table salt. For the
basis of this discussion it would be best to assume that they are not
the same at all. You can eat all the table salt you want and the cells
themselves can still be sodium or base deficient. The sodium used for
building cells has to be organic, from plants and it is the main base
mineral we have because there is so much of it. Sodium chloride or
table salt serves an entirely different function in the body.
In the same way, calcium from a plant is a lot different from say
"Tums for the Tummy". Tums are calcium carbonate or limestone, a
ground up rock.
We can't digest rocks, that's what plants do.
We simply don't eat enough fruits and vegetables to compensate for the
minerals lost, because of our "rich", fast life diets. If we are BASE
DEFICIENT, and most of us are, then our whole body is in a relatively
acid condition. That is all there is to it.
* * *
LATENT "ACIDOSIS"
So, in this acid condition we are talking about, we aren't "acidotic"
in so many words, rather we are base deficient. This is why 80 or 90
year old, old folks, are shrunk up, little people. They have no
mineral stores left. When all the minerals are gone, so are we, our
battery runs down.
It is just like a battery. The cells of our body do carry a charge
that can be measured as the oxidation/reduction potential of the
blood. This energy potential decreases with aging, just as the
minerals do. We become more oxidized (so the need for antioxidants).
Both things occur because of hyper-proteinization, too much protein.
We aren't acidotic as they say in a hospital, in shock, when things
have gone so bad that the very pH of the blood itself begins to
change, Code Blue. Rather, in a state of latent "acidosis" we are full
of stored acid residues, residues stored in the Pishinger space
waiting for a ride out on base minerals that aren't there. This is the
latent in latent "acidosis". Blood values have not started to change
yet, so the acidosis is stored in the tissues as it were. The tissues
are acid but technically this is not an acidosis either as the blood
appears normal.
If things get worse, this latent "acidosis" can proceed into what is
called a compensated acidosis. This means the blood pH itself still
hasn't started to change but other values in the blood have had to
change to keep the blood pH the same 7.40 that it is supposed to be.
Decompensated acidosis is when the blood pH itself is effected.
* * *
Hospital Based Acid / Base Medicine
As the blood itself begins to be effected the compensated metabolic
acidosis of regular medicine is the next to develop. This is when the
blood pH begins to be stressed if you will. Compensated means the
blood pH really doesn't change, yet. When it begins to change it is no
longer compensated, it has become decompensated.
In a compensated acidosis the first event that happens to begin the
compensation process is that the breathing rate increases in order to
blow off more carbonic acid which helps keeps the pH "normal", at 7.4,
not lower which is acid. This is revealed in the arterial blood gasses
as a lower PCO2 concentration which is the measure of how much carbon
dioxide there is in the blood. Carbon dioxide, CO2, combines with
water, H2O, to form carbonic acid, H2CO3. Blow off carbonic acid which
will lower the carbon dioxide content of the blood and you will
increase the pH of the blood. This increased breathing rate happens in
diabetic acidosis for the same reason.
Also the plasma bicarbonate level [HCO3-] which is measured as part of
the blood gasses, is decreased. Because of the relative base
deficiency, the stomach can no longer produce the required amount of
stomach acid so the corresponding bicarbonate that should come from
the reverse synthesis of the hydrochloric acid, just isn't there.
Also since the sodium and other base minerals are decreased,
bicarbonate is actually lost out the kidneys because there aren't
enough bases like sodium to connect with the bicarbonate so the
kidneys can reabsorb them. This point will be covered more below.
This is the compensated metabolic acidosis of hospital medicine then,
low PCO2 concentration, decreased bicarbonate level [HCO3-] with
little effect on blood pH yet.
In the type of latent "acidosis" we are talking about there are no
changes in the blood gasses. The blood pH, PCO2, [HCO3-], are all
normal. The latent "acidosis" we are talking about hasn't developed
into the compensated metabolic acidosis described above.
When the breathing rate can no longer get any faster and when the
kidneys can no longer increase their function to keep up with the acid
load then, the blood pH itself does start to change, it can fall from
7.4 down to 7.2. This is decompensated metabolic acidosis and is a
most serious condition. At blood pH of 6.95 the heart relaxes with
coma and death.
* * *
Acids that come from outside the body
The Latent acidosis described above is through the development of
exogenous (the problem comes from the outside of the body) base
under-nourishment, not eating enough fruits and vegetables and
consuming too much acid protein. This of course produces the relative
base deficiency that we call "latent acidosis".
* * *
Acids That Come From Inside The Body
The second way this "latent acidosis" can develop or be aggravated is
through the pathological formation of acids in the organism. These are
called endogenous acids (come from inside the body).
This frequently happens as a consequence of intestinal fermentation in
the intestine, too many of the wrong kinds of bacteria there (see
below, Dysbiosis). This can also happen if there is a malfunctioning
organ in the body, heart, liver, whatever, a diseased organ, an organ
injured in an accident or one inherited that way. Anything that
doesn't work right, produces toxic, acid by-products, oxidants.
These acid by-products then can be the end result of the base under
nourishment or malfunctioning organs with the symptoms described above
or they can be the forerunners of and cause of further degeneration of
organs. When this happens there is no more "latent", acidosis. It
becomes a frank acidotic condition, compensated to decompensated
acidosis, diabetic coma and the like.
With the above scenario come the diseases that call forth, through
anomalies of their own metabolism, the more serious acid producing
conditions such as diabetes, uremia or kidney failure, hepatic
failure, heart failure and other such illnesses. In these conditions
the acidosis is only latent in its beginning state.
As the illness progresses, the endogenous (from in the body)
production of toxic, metabolic acids quickly becomes worse, attacking
not only the alkala-reserve of the body, from the liver, pancreas,
etc., but also the alkala-reserve of the blood itself.
* * *
EFFECTS ON DIGESTION
Acidification of the intestines
As we get base deficient, the digestion itself is also is effected.
The bile from the gall bladder and the digestive juices from the
pancreas all have to have a lot of base in them, sodium bicarb
actually, to be able to neutralize the stomach acid as it passes out
of the stomach and into the intestine and in order to activate the
enzymes from the pancreas that require an alkaline medium in which to
work. If the acid from the stomach isn't neutralized, colitis or
inflammation of the intestine can happen.
As stated above, the main problem with decreased acid in the stomach
is that as the cells that make the acid in the stomach make acid, they
also make the base, sodium bicarbonate. If these cells don't make
enough acid they don't make enough base either.
Again, the sodium bicarbonate/base that is made as the stomach makes
its hydrochloric acid is carried by the blood stream to the salivary
glands, the gall bladder system, glands in the pylorus (the part of
the intestine the stomach is connected to) and the pancreas. These are
the alkaline glands of the body and essentially they neutralize the
acid contents of the stomach. If there is not enough base to
neutralize the acid from the stomach the intestines become acid too.
Without enough of this sodium bicarbonate/base for these organs,
digestion cannot proceed properly and indigestion occurs.
* * *
Dysbiosis
Also if the pH of the intestines is not right, different bacteria and
eventually yeast can grow there, dysbiosis (wrong growth), in place of
the bacteria that should be there. This causes its own set of
problems.
If the environment of the intestines is not alkaline but acid,
dysbiosis (wrong growth) occurs. The gut fills with and supports the
growth of the wrong kind of bacteria, fungus, yeast, Candida sp.,
etc.. These bacteria in turn generate their own acidic, toxic
by-products of metabolism that further aggravate and maintain the
already latent "acidotic" condition.
When this dys-biosis or wrong growth begins, it begins with
fermentation and as fermentation is the process of eating,
metabolizing and excreting that bacteria do, alcohol is produced.
Fermentation like this can even cause cirrhosis of the liver in
patients that have never drunk alcohol in their life.
As when making wine, this fermentation process can go 'bad' and begin
to rot. Vinegar and other rotten things are produced. This vinegar
acid and the other things can cause "heart burn" too, along with the
bloating and gas that come with the fermentation process but this kind
of heart burn is not from too much acid, hydrochloric acid, it is from
not enough. In this kind of heart burn, that comes an hour or two
after you eat, other acids form, acetic acid as in vinegar and other
putrefactive acids. These acids cause the "heart" burn. The meal is
not digesting well as with a good amount of hydrochloric acid, it is
fermenting instead.
These rotten things are reabsorbed back into the body and picked up by
the blood like anything in the gut. These rotting things in the gut
just don't make you feel well. It's why there are constipation
headaches, sleepless nights from food eaten too late to digest (nights
where undigested food just ferments and rots all night, makes bad
dreams). The skin also tries to expel such toxins, pimples, rashes and
other skin problems develop.
With t