Keep Phit part 1 By Daley Colwell Any gardener can tell you that before you plant a seed in the ground, you must first measure your soil’s relative acidity or alkalinity. Some plants require a more acidic soil and other plants a more alkaline soil. Yet others require a more neutral soil. Any knowledgeable gardener would never invest money in nutrients, fertilizers or fungicides and pesticides before testing the soil’s pH. Plants and crops grown in an environment that is either too acidic or too alkaline for the species will stand an excellent chance of succumbing to diseases. “Feeding” these plants and crops with good nutrition is no guarantee that the plant will thrive if the soil is not biochemically balanced. So it is with humans. Just like the gardener has soil “terrain” humans have blood “terrain. Every one of us possesses some degree of acid/alkaline imbalance which can be minimized through the process of good nutrition, or balance. The greater the imbalance of pH, the greater the extent of your problem or symptom or disease. What is pH and how does it affect our health? PH is potential hydrogen, the degree of concentration of H ions in substance or solution. PH controls the speed of our body’s biochemical reactions. Acid pH is hot and fast and alkaline pH is cool and slow, similar to a flashlight battery vs. a car battery. What you eat directly affects your pH. That has an impact on every metabolic function in your body. Our saliva, urine and blood all have a measure of pH. Saliva pH tends to be slightly erratic, urine pH gives a better estimate of what’s happening with the body’s tissues and blood pH is really the only accurate gauge of internal conditions. There is much controversy over the ideal blood pH. One author states 7.3, another states 7.43, the American Medical Association is accepting 7.4 and yet another 7.356. In spite of the controversy, if blood shifts outside this range, the microorganisms in the blood must change in order to survive. Traditional medicine theorizes that disease is caused by germs, some disease causing microbe or some unexplained occurrence. Alternative healing teaches that disease is brought about by imbalance. This imbalance is primarily a nutritional, electrical, structural,  toxicological or biological equation. To get well, we must then re-establish balance in the body. The pH affects everything. When the pH is out of balance microbes in the blood can change shape, mutate, and/or become pathogenic. Enzymes that are constructive can become destructive. Oxygen delivery to cells suffers. Organs of the body can become compromise, (like your brain or your heart). Mineral assimilation can be thrown off. Body mineral content and balances control the quantity of electricity in our bodies. The speed at which the electricity flows is controlled by its pH. So your disease is in perfect harmony with your body. Hydrogen in the body equals potential acids, bicarbs-bases/alkaline substances. Acids are normal by-product of metabolism. If the body can’t get rid of the acids, it stores them. Tissue spaces go acidic. When acids accumulate within the tissues, the blood compensates to bring our bodies into an alkaline state, often at the expense of other organs and tissues. So where does all this abnormal pH condition ome from? We get it from our lifestyle, the foods we eat, pollution, drugs, lack of exercise, lack of spirituality, our thoughts, deeds, “acid rock”, just to name a few. These things disturb the central balance of organized matter which then leads to cellular disorganization, which leads to bacteria, yeasts, molds, fungus, which leads to debilitating acids like uric acids, lactic acids, acetic acids, just to name a few. These and other acidic wastes give rise to the shift in pH and are the cause of sickness and disease. Our body pH is maintained just around 7.3 for optimal health. Note that 7.0 is the pH of water, which is neither alkaline nor acidic. The pH is kept in balance by a variety of mechanisms, which produce acid by-products. The alkaline mineral buffers, found in fruits and vegetables, help keep us healthy. Keeping pH at optimal levels helps many disease conditions. By manipulating your foods, you can bring this into an optimal range, which will give support to your body’s own innate healing and balancing capabilities. How we mutate our internal environment, destroy our digestive systems, drain ourselves of minerals and create mucoid plaque is directly connected to pH, with what we put into our bodies being the biggest factor. Every breath we take, and even the beating of these human hearts depends upon our bodies maintaining a permissively balanced pH in the blood, and in other critical elements. The more hydrogen ions, the more acid. Regulation of pH is an activity of controlling the hydrogen ion concentration. Anything from 0-6.9 indicates acidity. The lower the number, the greater the acidic level. Anything from 7-14 indicates alkalinity. The higher the number, the greater the alkaline level. To a large degree, the body uses electrolyte minerals to control pH. An electrolyte is a compound that in solution conducts  electricity and is decomposed by it. Heart disease, cancer, aids, diabetes and bowel problems are all associated with electrolyte deficiencies. Every enzyme system and the entire electrical functioning of our bodies are reflected in the body’s pH. This means that without proper pH, cells cannot receive the nutrients and energy they need to stay healthy. As cells weaken, they cannot perform well. If this persists, tissues and whole organs begin to malfunction. This then impairs the functioning of the whole body’s systems, and serious dis-ease begins to evolve. Excluding accidents and genetic eaknesses, disease most often begins to occur after we have altered our normal pH balance by becoming deficient in minerals, especially electrolyte minerals. Not minerals from rock, but minerals from organic atter (plants). The body cannot use rock minerals. It must use the minerals that have passed through the plant kingdom. Minerals from the plant kingdom are rock minerals that have been chelated to a protein molecule by the magic of photosynthesis. Anytime our pH is off balance even to a small degree, it is usually a sign that we have depleted ourselves of valuable electrolyte minerals. A lack of organic minerals anywhere in the body means a decrease in enzyme function and a corresponding deterioration in cell health. When this occurs many organs and glands may be under great stress, for only slight changes in pH from normal levels can cause extreme alterations in the rates of chemical reactions-inside and outside the cells. Some cells will be depressed, others will be accelerated. This is why the regulation of pH is one of the most important physiological functions in maintaining homeostasis. When people become too acidic, they are likely to die in a coma, and when they become too alkaline, they are likely to die of tetany or convulsions. At a certain point between the two, we have health, but if the pH of any organ or cell moves toward one of these extremes, dysfunction is always the result. Most Americans have already lost this delicate balance and are moving toward these extremes. However, long before they come close to death, they usually have contracted various disease conditions, which most people are totally unaware of until the disease has advanced to pain, fatigue or some other symptom. Variations of as little as 0.01 are extremely significant and often spell the difference between a healthy motivated and well adjusted person and a person who is sick, tired, and maladapted. Please see the Spring 2004 Edition of Art of the Warrior for the complete article.