Apple Cider Vinegar: Uses, Health Benefits and FAQ - Ted's Q&A

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Should Urine Be Acidic or Alkaline?

Posted by Loranda (Long Pine, NE) on 01/28/2007

ACV: I have been using it for 2 weeks now and feel great, but I am so confused. D.C. Jarvis, M.D. author of Folk Medicine, says when our urine ph is alkaline we are in danger of getting sick and a balance more toward the acidic is needed to be healthy. Which is correct?

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
391 posts

An alkaline responses it the body's first line of defense in killing off the unwanted pathogens.

Basically the body has several protective mechanism against an unwanted pathogens, first is the increase in alkaline response to kill the pathogens. Most pathogens are acid resistant, not alkaline resistant! It is rare that I found the otherwise. The second line of defense is fever, which in alternative medicine we call it hyperthermia. Basically the body heats up to 103 degrees fahrenheit to kill the organism. Most pathogens are not heat resistant, which is why in microbiology we use heat to kill them. The body's other natural line of defense in digesting the bacteria is two fold, the serum zinc rises appreciably in response to a pathogen and the body's white blood cell production digests the pathogens by producing hydrogen peroxide. Another avenue the body produces is nitric oxide also. In the event of a cold or a coming of a flu or cold. The first line of defense is for you to take plenty of baking soda to increase the alkalinity. In fact the body consumes 4 to 8 times more bicarbonates than usual whenever I am sick. There is a lot of misinformation by the author mentioned, but I can't blame him, that information is 50 years old and a recovery is always quick if you understand how natural responses to kill pathogens work. Basically, alkalinity, peroxide, zinc, hyperthermia and nitric oxide. Before a person gets sick his urinary pH will always be below pH of 6, with an average between 5-6. However a person whose pH value averages about 7, will always be the last person to catch a flu. I recently ask a student to take baking soda enough to get urinary pH of 7. The flu breakout was so bad, more than half the students were home sick. Of those who did came, most of them are sick. The student who took baking soda was one of the very few students who was NOT sick. Of course he was not taking it for the benefit of flu protection. He was trying to reduce his weight.

Raising the body's pH from 5 to 7, reduces the food spent in the gut by 1/2. It is very much like stomach stapling to reduce weight by cutting out half of your stomach. So the healthy person need not increase his alkalinity response to protect the invading pathogens, his body is ALREADY alkaline. Pathogens just won't have a chance.

It should be noted that if the body does not have any response to an invading pathogens. Usually I have seen the duration of colds and viruses to be deadly. By suppressing the body's natural line of defense by doing the opposite is one easy way to really cause a simple conditions to be deadly. So a very easy way to make yourself sicker is to cause your pH to be acid. Eating sugar and drinking plenty of acid forming foods, such as chlorinated water, and fluoridated toothpaste, steaks, and bread are all acid forming substances. Going out in cold weather despite a fever temperatures is one way to make the sickness much worse. Completely avoiding zinc rich foods, eating rich foods and fried foods necessary to reduce nitric oxide are other possibilities. Those are not I will ever recommend anyone to do if the person is sick! Apple cider vinegar IS NOT an acid forming food. It is alkaline forming from the mineral contents. Initially the body will encounter acetic acid yes, but once they are reacted with the body's bicarbonates (if any) it becomes a pH acetate buffer, which is also alkaline. The problem exists that if the body's available bicarbonates is low already that makes it worse and the body cannot metabolize the acetic acid. As a result, acid tongue condition occurs for people who take acetic acid straight and the body's available bicarbonates is depleted. I have seen such extreme conditions of pieces of tongue got loose. As a result, it is best to metabolize the acetic acid or apple cider vinegar first by adding baking soda. I am not even asking a lot. The 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar plus 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda is about pH value of 7, which is neutral. If the reaction is somewhat complete, it is actually closer to about 7.4 - 7.5. The pH of your blood is about 7.35. It is more biologically friendly besides the fact that it won't dissolves the enamel either to take apple cider vinegar with baking soda. Oxidation Reduction Potential of a simple apple cider vinegar is actually oxidizing, not reducing antioxidant, which the body invariable needs more. The blood is actually quite reducing rather than oxidizing. In fact most foods, especially preserved foods have ORP of 200 to 400 which is very oxidizing. A very good mineral water is about 100 ORP. However baking soda with ACV has a negative ORP of about -150 to -175 ORP, which is an antioxidant. You just have to understand that my philosophy of treatment of baking soda added is so well entrenched into the treatment of great many conditions that it is almost impossible to try to remove baking soda from the many therapies that I posted, which can number at least several hundred postings. So if I am wrong, several hundreds of those postings are wrong too.

Replied by Diane
Muskegon, MI
09/03/2009

Acid/alkaline balance of the body - seems to be controversial/confusing with conflicting theories and schools of thought. The majority of the information out there says we need to alkalize... maybe that idea was used to sell products and it has been believed as truth. I have been wondering about this recommendation for a long time. I walk in the health food store and overhear customers being told that we are just sooooo very acid - we need this product to alkalize... So, the customer accepts it as truth and makes the purchase. Curiously, the one giving the recommendation often looks like "death warmed over" - so is it really working for them???

The pieces of the puzzle that I am putting together for a paradigm change on Acid/Alkaline balance are:

CLUE #1 started in the Prescription for Nutritional Healing book under the heading "Candida." One paragraph states that all citrus fruits should be eliminated from the diet for one month as they have an alkalizing effect... and that Candida thrives in an alkaline environment.

Clue #2 for me was when I noticed that a very reputable whole food nutritional company came out with a supplement for Candida that was nothing but wholefood cranberries. Cranberries are acidic.

A well-known cure for bladder infection also is to ACIDIFY the urine with cranberries and/or Vitamin C.

Doing further research, I learned that degenerative disease takes place in an alkaline environment on the cellular level. Every disease and cancer-causing substance thrives in an alkaline medium on the cellular level. The healthy human body is a tad acidic : Urine and saliva pH should be around 6.4. The key to digestion is acid - we need HCl to digest food. Overalkalinity interferes with the ability to metabolize calcium (which needs an acid medium to be metabolized)... ailments such as arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney stones, etc. may develop. Aging is associated with alkalinity also, as people age they become more alkaline.

A high percentage of children nourished on mother's milk enjoy good health and a stronger immune system when compared to bottle-fed infants. The acidic colon condition of breast-fed babies remained within a constant range of pH 5.5 to 6.5. Studies have demonstrated that the presence of sufficient levels of lactic acid in the colon of infants creates this acidic condition. It is mainly the organic acids, produced by the lactic acid bacteria present in the colon, that prevent the survival of harmful bacteria in the baby's intestinal tract. This inherent condition forms the first line of defense for the baby against illness. So, even our good bacteria, our immune system, need an acidic environment to flourish.

Interesting...


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