Eating Your Way To Health- The Alkaline Lifestyle

When I decided to write a blog for the Patch, one of my primary goals was to focus on health education.Because of advances in communication and access to information, the internet has provided us with so much information it can be difficult to weed through the data and make sense of it all.
My hope is that I can give you some tools to provide clarity and guidance for your lifestyle change.
Due to the brevity of this blog, I will speak in generalities and leave the specifics for your questions and an upcoming educational class.
When we think of food groups we usually think of the 3 classic food groups, Proteins, Carbohydrates and Fats.
Proteins for tissue repair, Carbohydrates for energy and nutrients and Fats for cell membrane and nervous system repair.
We also need to be aware of how much of each group we consume for a healthy balanced lifestyle. One critical factor I haven't mentioned is pH.
pH is an acronym for "Potential Hydrogen" which is a scale that measures the acidity or alkalinity of a solution or food.
With the overload of acidic foods in our diets,( soda, sugar, bread, pasta,juices, meat, dairy, coffee and alcohol), just to name a few,
our bodies are frequently overwhelmed by our acidic lifestyle. Our internal buffering systems allows the body to borrow minerals from body tissues, the lymphatics or from bones in order to neutralize excess acid. In addition, various organs, including the kidneys, lungs, colon and skin help excrete acids, assuming they are functioning reasonably well. It should also be noted that the body can store excess acids in the tissues, muscles and arteries. How many times have you heard how stiff and sore someone is on an frequent basis? Over time, acid/alkaline imbalances can weaken organs, tissues and bones and lead to a variety of health issues.
Another important fact is that our pH controls the speed of our biochemical reactions.This is accomplished by controlling the speed of enzyme activity as well as the speed electrical impulses travel through the body. All biochemical reactions and electrical energy are under pH control.
We live and die on a cellular level. If our cells are healthy then we are healthy, if our cells are unhealthy then we are not healthy, it's as simple as that! The human body contains about 10 gallons of fluid so our cells are swimming in a sea that is either neutral, acid or alkaline. The body's systems work best in an environment that is neutral to slightly alkaline.
You can easily check your pH with litmus paper which indicates the acidity or alkalinity of your saliva or urine.
For example, saliva pH reveals the pH of the interstitial fluids, or lymphatics and is also associated with digestive function whereas urine pH indicates what is being removed from the blood  and is linked to kidney function. "Normal" pH can range from around 6.5 to 7.5 which is considered fairly neutral and urine pH will be 6 to 6.4 in the morning and 6.4 to 7 in the evening.
Your pH is something that is easy to evaluate and can help you monitor one aspect of your health and physiology.
In the big picture, your body is constantly rebuilding itself.You are not the same person you were last year or last month for that matter. The body replaces the lining of the stomach every five days,the skin in about a month, the skeleton about every three months, the liver about every six weeks and the red blood cells circulate for about 120 days before being replaced by new cells.
The choices you make today directly affect your health and well being tomorrow. The new body you are building today is directly affected by what you eat and the waste that you eliminate, or don't eliminate, the air you that you breathe, the liquids that you drink and the stress you encounter and how you deal with it.
Everything you do affects the new body you are building on a daily basis. The long term acid lifestyle you may be living creates a toxic environment on a cellular level and remember, if you live in  a toxic environment your cells can't function at an optimal level which means your health will be compromised.
If you have any questions please address them to my blog or contact me at my office.
Hoping you have a happy and healthy Holiday Season!
Sincerely,
Dr.W