Acidity - Alkalinity

How do they affect human health?

What are Acidity and Alkalinity how do they affect human health?

This subject is of vital importance!

Scientists report that over 150 degenerative diseases are caused by high acid levels in the body. Knowing this fact, we should begin by understanding what acidity and alkalinity are and how they relate to our health.

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 being extremely acidic, 14 being extremely alkaline and 7 being neutral. Body fluids range between 4.5 and 7.5 pH (blood must maintain 7.35 to 7.45 pH). A one point drop on the pH scale is 10 times more acidic; for example from 7 to 6 is 10 times more acidic, from 7 to 5 is 100 times, from 7 to 2 is 1,000,000 times more acidic. Most plants and fish thrive in waters of pH values from 6.6 to 7.4. This is a good rule of thumb to use for humans as parasites, viruses, bad bacteria, and degenerative diseases are more prevalent in an acidic system. In order for the body to remain healthy, it keeps a delicate and precise balance of blood pH at 7.365, which is slightly alkaline. The body does whatever it has to in order to maintain this balance. The problem is that most people have incredibly acid-forming lifestyles. Acid is produced in your body whenever you have stress, upset emotions and when the food you eat is acid-forming.

The human body is composed of 78% water. The cells in the body are 98% water. Even our bones are 20% water. We can live for thirty days without food but only 3 days without water. If all the water is removed from a 150 pound person, the residue left would weigh less than 35 pounds. We know that the body fluids of healthy people are slightly alkaline while the same fluids of those who are sick are acidic, either very acidic or slightly. Generally speaking, the more acid your body is, the more serious the illness you have. The degree of acidity significantly affects the body's ability to prevent and/or reverse illness and disease (including such degenerative diseases as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and others). Individuals that have severe health challenges almost invariably also have high acidity. Unfortunately, acidity has become a national epidemic that is one of the most ignored or unknown underlying causes of many of the degenerative diseases of the western world.

High systemic acid levels contribute or cause directly, numerous health problems;
· Acid systems can’t use calcium effectively.
· They can’t maintain proper blood oxygen levels and cancer can only develop in an oxygen poor, acidic environment.
· Acidic blood can’t circulate properly creating extra strain on the heart.
· It adversely affects the digestive system and the lymphatic system.

How is this condition created?
Our acid problems are due to a combination of two chronic habits:
· What we eat and drink and
· What we are not taking in [nutrients, vitamins, minerals, water, etc.]

Whatever comes into contact with our skin, lungs and digestive system is absorbed into the body very quickly. To achieve and maintain a healthy alkaline body, we must eat foods and drinks that produce an alkaline body.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of fast food, high protein, fat, sugar and carbohydrates, which contribute to an overly acidic body. In addition, Americans eat next to no vegetables and the vegetables that are eaten are often cooked thereby creating another acidifying food whereas raw, unprocessed vegetables are alkalizing to the body. In general, it is important to eat a diet that contains both acidic and alkalizing foods. People vary, but for most, the ideal diet is 75 percent alkalizing and 25 percent acidifying.

Dr. Bruce Ames, noted biochemist at the University of California at Berkeley at a 1998 conference of the Society of Toxicology, told the audience of researchers that nutrient deficiency may explain why the 25% of the population that eats the least fruit and vegetables has double the cancer rate in comparison to the 25% of the population that eats the most fruits and vegetables.

“Lack of Vitamins may cause Cancer” Reuters, October, 28, 1998

It is probable that the population that eats higher amounts of vegetables and fruits is also more alkaline than the rest of us. It only makes sense. It isn’t just the nutrient content of the food; it is the acid vs. alkaline ratios that are positively affected as well.

The National Health and Nutrition Survey reported that;
· Less than 10% of Americans consumed five daily servings of fruit and vegetables
· 40% ate no fruit or fruit juice
· 50% ate no vegetables
· 70% have no dietary vitamin C
· 80% didn't eat anything that had carotenoids
· The number one vegetable in the United States is French Fries and that comprises 25% of all vegetables eaten.
· Number two is Iceberg Lettuce and a close third is Ketchup.

If we can’t even eat the minimal amount of alkalizing foods it is no wonder we have such nationwide issues with degenerative diseases caused by acidity.

Dehydration is rampant often because the average American thinks that drinking soda or coffee is the same as drinking water. As well as acting as a diuretic, soda has an acidic range around 2.5 pH. It takes an incredible amount of “good” water to counteract the effects of soda. You may have to drink nearly 32 glasses of 7.0 pH water to eliminate the bad effects of 1 glass of soda. In addition to soda, coffee, caffeine, and smoking all contribute to raising the acid levels in one's body, thereby contributing to serious health problems. It is important to understand that raising the body's pH does not cure disease. It does however, allow the body to heal itself by normalizing cellular function and ridding itself of toxins. Also fruits and vegetables will be adding the minerals that are so important to maintaining good health.

Alkalizing Supplements
We can reduce the acidifying effects of our diet in the short term with Coral Calcium and Greens Blend, but most importantly we need to choose a diet which is balanced on the side of alkaline-forming foods. All natural, raw, vegetable and fruit juices are alkaline-producing. Fruit juices become more acid-producing when processed and especially when sweetened. A food's acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic; however the end products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so in fact lemons are alkaline-forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming.

A severe acid condition forces the body to borrow minerals - including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from organs and bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid to safely remove it from the body. This is a primary cause of osteoporosis. Acidic conditions can also cause such problems as:

Cardiovascular damage
Weight gain, obesity and diabetes

Bladder conditions
Kidney stones

Increased propensity for depression
Acceleration of free radical damage

Hormonal problems
Premature aging

Aching muscles and lactic acid buildup
Osteoporosis and joint pain including arthritis

Low energy and chronic fatigue
Slow digestion and elimination

Yeast/fungal overgrowth
Lack of energy and fatigue

Lower body temperature
Escalation of tendency for infection

Immune deficiency
Loss of drive, joy, and enthusiasm

Easily stressed
Pale complexion

Headaches
Gastritis

Loose and painful teeth
Inflamed, sensitive gums

Mouth and stomach ulcers
Cracks at the corners of the lips

Inflammation of the corneas and eyelids
Impaired digestion and excess stomach acid

Nails are thin and split easily
Hair looks dull, has split ends, and falls out

Dry skin
Skin easily irritated

Low blood oxygen levels
Leg cramps and spasms


Coral Calcium is called the great alkalizer. Dr Linus Pauling recommended taking L-Lysine with your Vitamin C. Also consider these other great alkaline-producing products we have ready to ship: Alfalfa, Bladderwrack, Broccoli, Kelp, Spinach, Spirulina and the new Greens Blend.

L- Lysine, Vitamin C and heart disease prevention.

Heart Disease is the Number 1 killer in the United States .
14 million Americans have heart disease and more than 2,600 die daily from heart attacks in the United States alone. 15% of adults in their late 30s to 40s are afflicted by cardiovascular disease, about 50% of 55 to 64 year-olds, and 65% of those will be afflicted in the next decade. The media would have you think that if you live long enough, it is inevitable that you will be affected by heart disease to some degree or another.

Is this true or not? Judge the evidence for yourself.

After 20 years of aggressive drug therapy and promotion of low-fat diet, the number of deaths attributable to cardiovascular disease has not reversed. Obviously, this elusive condition is far more complicated than we had ever imagined.

OR IS IT?
For decades, the public at large has been taught that the key culprit to heart disease is high cholesterol in our blood that comes from a diet that is high in cholesterol. This is not true and the research shows it.

Consider the following:
>Polar bears maintain a total blood cholesterol of over 400 mg/dl and they seldom have heart attacks or heart disease.
>Eskimos are relatively free of heart disease and yet they eat more animal fats from fish and marine animals than almost anyone else.
>The Okinawans are the longest living population group in the world. The average life span for an Okinawan woman is 84 years. The diet consists of fish 2-3 times a week and high intake of vegetables. The cholesterol intake on the whole is more than most with very few issues regarding cardiovascular disease.
>People in North India consume 17 times more animal fat but have 7 times fewer incidences of heart disease compared to people in Southern India .

Vitamin C and Heart Disease: A Chronology

The role Vitamin C plays in heart health.

“The medical profession itself took a very narrow and very wrong view. Lack of ascorbic acid caused scurvy, so if there was no scurvy there was no lack of ascorbic acid. Nothing could be clearer than this. The only trouble was that scurvy is not a first symptom of a lack but a final collapse, a premortal syndrome and there is a very wide gap between scurvy and full health. ” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel-prize winner for his discovery of vitamin C in 1927.

Vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rises by 300%. Coincidentally mortality from heart disease decreases by 30% in the U.S. This is the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities.

Two Canadian medical doctors, Drs. Paterson and Willis, suspected that the heart disease process is related to the stability of arteries. They noticed that atherosclerotic plaques are not randomly distributed. Plaques usually develop at the same locations in places where blood vessels are stretched or squeezed, i.e., where mechanical forces and stresses are great, for example in the coronary arteries. In other words cholesterol acts as a bandage or repair kit and is present at all blood vessel areas where damage has occurred.

1937- Canadian cardiologist Dr. J. C. Paterson reported that more than 80% of his heart disease patients have low Vitamin C levels compared to other patients.

1954- Dr. G. C. Willis showed that Vitamin C supplementation can reduce arterial deposits. Makes first claim that atherosclerosis is reversible.

1967- Dr. Boris Sokoloff studied the effects of 1 to 3 gm doses of Vitamin C on sixty patients over the age of 60 yrs. with CVD. Not a single vascular event occurred during the year long study period when 6 to12 heart attacks were expected.

1986- Dr. Pauling summarizes the evidence for vitamin C against heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases in his book “How to Live Longer and Feel Better”, which becomes a bestseller.

1989- Dr. Pauling discovers that optimum dietary vitamin C prevents the deposition of lipoprotein(a) in arterial walls.

1991- Dr. Pauling published “Solution to the Puzzle of Human Cardiovascular Disease”. This scientific paper concluded that Vitamin C deficiency is the direct and most frequent cause of heart attacks.

1992- Dr. Enstrom and colleagues (UCLA) showed in a study involving over 11,000 Americans, that increased intake of Vitamin C reduces the death rate from heart disease by nearly half and prolongs life for more than six years. Enstrom EE, Kanim LE, Klein MA: Vitamin C intake and mortality among a sample of the United States population. Epidemiology 1992;3(3):194-202.

1997- American Heart Association press release reported on German studies that credit Vitamin C in the blood stream with “almost completely reversing endothelial dysfunction” in smokers. In other words, ascorbic acid may prevent damage to the walls of blood vessels caused by smoking that eventually leads to cardiovascular disease.

A variant of the so-called “bad” LDL cholesterol called lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) for short, was studied and found to be a major player in the heart health story. Lp(a) is a substance that consists of an LDL “bad cholesterol” part plus a protein (apoprotein a), whose exact function is currently unknown.

New research has shown that people with high levels of Lp(a), have a much higher risk of heart disease.

Lp(a) is sticky because of receptors on the surface of the molecule called lysine binding sites. Work that led to the 1987 Nobel Prize in medicine discovered that lysine (and proline) binding sites cause the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.

Beisiegel et. al. in Germany examined plaques during autopsy and found only Lp(a), not ordinary LDL cholesterol were present in plaques.

Those with the highest Lp(a) and cholesterol levels were 14 times as likely to have obstructed blood vessels as those with the lowest levels.

Analyzing the findings from 27 studies, British researchers found that those patients with high levels of Lp(a) had a 70% higher risk of developing heart disease over a period of 10 years.

Despite previous conflicting results concerning the importance of Lp(a), researchers maintain that this study shows that Lp(a) has a “clear association” with heart disease risk.

Researchers also maintain that a person's Lp(a) is largely governed by genetics. For example, people of African decent tend to have higher levels than Caucasians. While this may be true we also know that the formula Dr. Linus Pauling created works to lower Lp(a) dramatically and has been used to reduce and in some cases remove the blockage from arteries throughout the body.

According to the Pauling/Rath 1994 United States patent, the amino acid lysine (lysine analogs), along with vitamin C and other antioxidants (e.g. Co-Q10, vitamin E and vitamin A), can, in sufficient concentration, inhibit Lp(a) binding to exposed lysine residues. Proline residues are also exposed by lesions in blood vessels. Later experiments showed that proline as well as lysine, with vitamin C, other amino acids and antioxidants, in oral amounts well past what is needed for prevention, becomes a solvent by inhibiting the binding of Lp(a). A binding inhibitor augmented with vitamin C can stop and apparently even reverses some plaque formations. Pauling and Rath even have a second U. S. patent for using these binding inhibitors as solvents to melt atherosclerotic plaques from human organs during organ transplants. The organ is dipped in the Lp(a) Binding Inhibitor solution and the plaques melt away.

The Lp(a) binding inhibitors become the Pauling Therapy for heart disease to be used only at high dosages, between 3 to 18 grams of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and 3 to 6 grams of L-Lysine. The first cases where this high Vitamin C and L-Lysine therapy were used quickly resolved advanced cardiovascular disease in humans. The effect is so pronounced, and the inhibitors are so nontoxic, that Pauling doubted a clinical study was even necessary. Recently, the amino acid proline was found to be an even more effective Lp(a) binding inhibitor than lysine in vitro. Adding between .5 and 2 grams of proline may be of significant additional benefit.

New Research
Avoid trans fats in the diet and take a quality Omega 3 Essential fatty acid with 10%DHA and EPA.

“Research has shown that an Omega-3 index of 8 % to 10 % reduces a person's relative risk of death from coronary heart disease by 40% and from sudden cardiac death by 90 %.” This benefit probably results from restored insulin-mediated glucose/vitamin C uptake into cells.

New research confirms Dr. John Ely's 30-year theory that sugar (glucose) competes with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) for insulin-mediated uptake into cells. Taking sugar can effectively crowd out the ascorbate part of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). The effect of the Pauling Therapy is reportedly much more pronounced and immediate when sugar is eliminated.