In this post I wish to "copy&paste" two write-ups by two opposing experts on the subject of alkalinity in our body. The first writer insists that whatever goes into our stomach will be turned to acidic before passing through the intestine, which means that it is useless to drink alkaline water which will be turned into acidic. The other write-up explains how our body will become less acidic when we drink alkaline water.
Whatever the experts may say, my opinion is that the most important factor is whether the ionized alkaline water really works on people who have taken it. The best place to look for this is from personal testimonies from people you know who have benefited from taking this alkaline. My elder sister and my wife have benefited from drinking the ionized alkaline water. So my two sisters and I have installed the water ionizer appliance. My wife's sister and a cousin have also followed suit.
Ok, below are the two "copy&paste" write-ups.
Acid/Alkaline
Theory of Disease Is Nonsense
by
Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
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.
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.
Dietary modification 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.
A healthy lifestyle
─ exercise
and rest, diet, etc ─
YES !
And now the answer to the above opinion
Alkaline Water and Stomach Acid
Among the people who question the validity of alkaline
water, the biggest question is, "What happens to the alkaline water once
it reaches the stomach, which is highly acidic?" People who have some
knowledge of the human body, including medical doctors, ask this question. Let
me answer that question once and for all to erase any doubts about the health
benefits of alkaline water.
In order to digest food and kill the kinds of bacteria
and viruses that come with the food, the inside of our stomach is acidic. The
stomach pH value is maintained at around 4. When we eat food and drink water,
especially alkaline water, the pH value inside the stomach goes up. When this
happens, there is a feedback mechanism in our stomach to detect this and
commands the stomach wall to secrete more hydrochloric acid into the stomach to
bring the pH value back to 4. So the stomach becomes acidic again. When we
drink more alkaline water, more hydrochloric acid is secreted to maintain the
stomach pH value. It seems like a losing battle.
However, when you understand how the stomach wall
makes hydrochloric acid, your concerns will disappear. A pathologist friend of
mine gave me the following explanation. There is no hydrochloric acid pouch in
our body. If there were, it would burn a hole in our body. The cells in our
stomach wall must produce it on an instantly-as-needed basis. The ingredients
in the stomach cell that make hydrochloric acid (HCl) are carbon dioxide (CO2),
water (H2O), and sodium chloride (NaCl) or potassium chloride (KCl).
NaCl + H2O
+ CO2 = HCl + NaHCO3, or
KCl + H2O + CO2 = HCl + KHCO3
As we can see, the byproduct of making hydrochloric
acid is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) or potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), which
goes into blood stream. These bicarbonates are the alkaline buffers that
neutralize excess acids in the blood; they dissolve solid acid wastes into
liquid form. As they neutralize the solid acidic wastes, extra carbon dioxide
is released, which is discharged through the lungs. As our body gets old, these
alkaline buffers get low; this phenomenon is called acidosis. This is a natural
occurrence as our body accumulates more acidic waste products. There is,
therefore, a relationship between the aging process and the accumulation of
acids.
By looking at the pH value of the stomach alone, it
seems that alkaline water never reaches the body. But when you look at the
whole body, there is a net gain of alkalinity as we drink alkaline water. Our
body cells are slightly alkaline. In order for them to produce acid, they must
also produce alkaline, and vice versa; just as a water ionizer cannot produce
alkaline water without producing acid water, since tap water is almost neutral.
When the stomach pH value gets higher than 4, the
stomach knows what to do to lower it. However, if the pH value goes below 4,
for any reason, the stomach doesn't know what to do. That's why we take
Alka-Seltzer, which is alkaline, to relieve acidic stomach gas pain. In this
case, hydrochloric acid is not produced by the stomach wall, therefore, no
alkaline buffer is being added to the blood stream.
Let
me give you another example of a body organ that produces acid in order to
produce alkaline. After the food in the stomach is digested, it must come out
to the small intestine. The food at this point is so acidic that it will damage
the intestine wall. In order to avoid this problem, the pancreas makes alkaline
juice (known as pancreatic juice). This juice is sodium bicarbonate, and is
mixed with the acidic food coming out of the stomach. From the above formulae,
in order to produce bicarbonates, the pancreas must make hydrochloric acid,
which goes into our blood stream.
We experience sleepiness after a big meal (not during
the meal or while the food is being digested in the stomach), when the digested
food is coming out of the stomach; that's the time when hydrochloric acid goes
into our blood. Hydrochloric acid is the main ingredient in antihistamines that
causes drowsiness.
Alkaline or acid produced by the body must have an
equal and opposite acid or alkaline produced by the body; therefore, there is
no net gain. However, alkaline supplied from outside the body, like drinking
alkaline water, results in a net gain of alkalinity in our body.
About The
Writer
Sang Whang is an engineer, scientist
and inventor with many U.S. patents. His fields of expertise span many
different areas such as data communication devices (modem), electronic filters,
chemistry, water, cornea measuring devices, multi-focal soft contact lenses,
etc. An improvement and maintenance of his own health caused him to investigate
the phenomenon and led him to the discovery of his theory of Reverse
Aging. He wrote the best selling book “Reverse Aging” in 1990
which has since been translated to Spanish, Polish, Chinese, German, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, and Russian.
