The Alkaline Body and pH Balance

Posts Tagged ‘Bone Diseases’

pH and osteoporosis are intimately linked together.

Osteoporosis affects an estimated 75 million people in Europe, USA and Japan

• Osteoporosis causes over 1.5 million fractures each year in the USA (National Osteoporosis Foundation, 2004)
• Osteoporosis causes over 300,000 hip fractures each year in the USA (National Osteoporosis Foundation, 2004)
• Osteoporosis causes over 700,000 vertebral fractures each year in the USA (National Osteoporosis Foundation, 2004)
• Osteoporosis causes over 250,000 wrist fractures each year in the USA (National Osteoporosis Foundation, 2004)
• Osteoporosis accounts for 70% of all fractures for people over 45 in the US (NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases – National Resource Center)

The body’s pH levels play an important fundamental role in the development of osteoporosis. The blood had an alkaline pH of 7.365. AS the body becomes more acidic it will take measures to keep the blood alkaline. One of these measures is it will begin pulling alkaline minerals from the bones, tissues, joints and organs and dumping them into the blood to keep the blood alkaline. in the meantime the bones become weaker and weaker eventually leading to the condition called osteoporosis.

As a part of normal metabolism, the body produces acids. When the body has an excess of acid it can’t get rid of at the moment (due to acid excess or a lack of alkaline reserve minerals), the acid can get stored. Where does it get stored? Mostly in the interstitial spaces, also called the extracellular matrix – this is the space around the cells. It also gets stored in fat tissue and will cause a person to gain weight, particularly around the mid section.

As way of illustration, it can be said that when the body stores this acid in the extracellular matrix, it believes that one day, the acid is going to be removed. Therefore, in order to be in balance, it knows that for every molecule of acid that gets stored in the tissues and fat, an equal molecule of bicarbonate or base substance needs to be put into the blood because one day it will need to escort the acid out of the body.

This is the body’s amazing compensatory mechanism at work. What we see here is the pH interplay between the blood and the tissues. If the body has an acid overload, it stores the acid in the tissues (the tissue pH decreases) and the blood compensates and becomes alkaline (the blood pH increases).

As the body degenerates further into ill health, the blood pH often will turn from it’s overly alkaline condition and then start to move down. When that happens, the body is losing it’s compensatory mechanisms. If the proper intensive intervention is not engaged, physical death will often ensue.

As more acid accumulates in our body, it gets stored and pushed further, and ultimately it can get pushed into the cell. When it gets pushed into the cell, the first thing it does is displace POTASSIUM and then MAGNESIUM and then SODIUM.

Those are three critical minerals in our body. The potassium and magnesium will leave the body. As potassium leaves it needs phosphate in the process and the body will get that from bone, the result is calcium is released and ends up as free calcium in the system. (As a preservation mechanism the sodium will be retained through the operation of the kidney). This calcium leaving the bone as phosphate is released to bind with potassium is something you don’t want and it is a big part of what’s behind osteoporosis, arthritic pain, etc. It has just recently been brought to light by scientists that high serum calcium levels can be an indicator of a propensity to get prostrate cancer. It is brought about by the body compensating for an ever increasing tissue acidosis and potassium loss somewhere in the body.

What you might not want to do in this case is take more calcium supplements that won’t be utilized down at the cellular level. With that said, you can now understand why most generic calcium products, antacids, etc. are one of the most over-prescribed supplements. In these situations what the body really needs is more of the right alkalizing minerals to put potassium back in its place, more magnesium, and possibly zinc – like zinc picolinate – which lends help to the whole digestion process for making adequate levels of HCL in the gut so minerals can be broken down to begin with when you eat.

With a good understanding of the pH interplay in the body, natural answers can be derived for good health, including good bone health. Taking high quality organic alkalizing mineral supplements on a daily basis can provide a great degree of protection against the ravages of acid in our bodies.