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Restore
Your Body’s Health
and Build Your Immune System with pH Balance
By Unamarie Clibon, Pharm.D., M.D.
Medical
Oncologist, Hemotologist, and Internist
(Page 2 of 4)
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Panel 2
Acids, Bases,
and Buffering Systems
The body has three
major buffering systems:
the bicarbonate buffering system; the
base buffers mobilized from bone; and the
nitrogen base buffer from muscle breakdown. The
first
line of defense against acid decreasing pH is
the bicarbonate buffering system.
Bicarbonate (HCO3-,
a negatively charged ion) is a
base
that will neutralize acid (H+, a
positively charged ion).
When this bicarbonate system is used up,
then other sources of base have to be found.
This is where the
second and third buffer
systems come into play. Base
substances are mobilized from the bone to
buffer acid. Each negatively charged ion (-) in
the body has to travel with a positively charged
ion (+).
So, when the negatively charged bases are
mobilized from the bone to neutralize the
positively charged acid, they travel out of the
bone with potassium (K+), magnesium
(Mg2+) and calcium (Ca2+),
positively charged ions.
After the bases leave the bone, they let
go of the Ca2+, Mg2+, K+
and join with the H+ (the acid), thus,
neutralizing it.
The remaining Ca2+, Mg2+,
and K+ are removed from the
body through the kidneys into the urine. The
essential thing to remember here is that as the
bases from bone are mobilized to buffer the acid
in the blood,
the bone
is losing potassium, magnesium and calcium in
the urine. This can contribute to
osteoporosis, which occurs when the mineral
deposits that make up bone are reduced, bone
architecture is weakened, and there is increased
risk of fractures. The body’s third system of
buffering acid is to breakdown muscle protein to
a base
(NH3) so the kidney can add acid (H+)
to it and excrete it as ammonia (NH4+)
in the urine. The third system is activated with
the second system.
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The Wisdom Master had stated one
could keep their pH balanced with potassium gluconate,
and here was the data to support it. (Gluconate is a
base metabolized by the liver to bicarbonate.) The
referenced data was from an article published in 1994 in
The New England Journal of Medicine. It discussed
the chronic metabolic acidosis induced by the modern
western diet and a study showing how the reversal of the
acidosis with potassium bicarbonate not only reversed
the acidosis but stopped the loss of calcium in the
urine. The fact that calcium stopped being lost in the
urine is evidence that if there is enough bicarbonate,
the second buffering system does not have to be
activated. A buffering system neutralizes acid.
(See
Panel 2
on right) The study showed that
acidosis can contribute to osteoporosis, and treatment
(potassium bicarbonate) reversed the calcium loss. This
article was published in 1994 by a group from the
University of California, San Francisco, a prestigious
medical research university. It is now 2008, and the use
of an alkaline diet
and
supplements to reverse acidosis to help prevent and
treat osteoporosis is still
not a part of the usual recommendation to patients.
Even
though this group was primarily studying calcium loss
and osteoporosis, what was important for my research was
that the data from their studies was
scientific
documentation that our diet is usually
acidotic. On a
daily basis, the bicarbonate buffer system is used up,
requiring the buffering system from the bone to be
mobilized to neutralize the acid created from the food
we eat. Even more exciting was the fact that giving the
study participants’ alkaline base, such as potassium
bicarbonate, reversed the acidosis of the diet enough
that breakdown of bone for bases stopped, and therefore,
calcium losses in the urine stopped.
The study group did
not have to
take extra calcium to reverse the calcium loss, which is
one of the treatments for osteoporosis; only the
acidosis needed to be treated with a supplemental base,
potassium bicarbonate. Approaches to reversing
osteoporosis have been limited so far, but few have
addressed the reversal of this chronic metabolic
acidosis in addition to the accepted treatment. If I had
osteoporosis or wanted to prevent it, I would not wait
even one more day without addressing the state of my pH
balance.
A Root Cause?
If we
go through decades of chronic acidosis in our blood,
undoubtedly, the health consequences would not be
limited to our bones.
I was now quite excited as my research continued.
Could this chronic metabolic acidosis from the
contemporary Western diet be a root problem to body
imbalance?
If it is,
then diet changes and supplements to correct the
imbalance would be the
root
treatment, instead of waiting for the imbalances to
become disease! Fortunately, we can evaluate ourselves
for pH balance and institute changes in diet and
supplements to achieve balanced pH without prescription
medications.
I read
many subsequent articles; all published in reputable
peer review journals by the group at the University of
California and others. However, it seemed the data was
being ignored. I attended 2 national nutrition courses
by reputable faculty in 2004 and 2005, and the state of
a chronic metabolic acidosis from diet and subsequent
use of an alkaline diet and its benefits were not
discussed.
Since 1994, there have been several other articles
introducing data that link chronic metabolic acidosis to
the dysfunction of other body organs in addition to the
detrimental effects on the bones.
The
third buffering system (see
Panel 2
above right) involves muscle
protein breakdown for nitrogen (NH3) to be
used by the kidneys to excrete acid as ammonia (NH4+).
This daily breakdown of muscle to buffer our
acid diet causes weakness and fatigue. Since
many have lived decades with this chronic metabolic
acidosis, it is now considered to be a cause of the loss
of muscle mass that occurs with aging.
Continued...
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