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naturopathy

Vitamin C as a Supplement to Prevent Illness

Vitamin C as a Supplement to Prevent Illness

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Vitamin C supplements are probably the best way to prevent common illnesses like colds and the flu.

However, most people don’t know that Vitamin C supplements can also help with other serious illnesses like cancer, lung disease, and heart disease. In fact, new studies from many of the leading medical institutions in the world continually indicate that Vitamin C, even in low doses, can give your life expectancy a major boost.

Most people may think that they get enough Vitamin C from the foods they eat, like vegetables and fruits, but they don’t. In fact, one-quarter of Americans don’t get the recommended daily amount of 60 milligrams of Vitamin C that their cells need to perform basic bodily functions.

The National Cancer Center urges people to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, which would supply from 200 to 300 milligrams of Vitamin C, but only 9% of the American population accomplishes this.

Vitamin C supplements are potent, water-soluble antioxidants that trap and disarm free radicals in the watery part of your body’s tissue. Vitamin C supplements also help replenish Vitamin E and help enzymes destroy other free radicals in your system. Free radicals are the toxic molecules that eat away at healthy cells and turn them defective, which over time can cause more serious diseases like cancer.

Over 120 studies show that Vitamin C supplements work as a form of immunization against cancer. It was found that people who consistently took Vitamin C supplements were only half as likely to develop cancer as those who didn’t. Vitamin C supplements were particularly effective on cancers of the stomach, esophagus, pancreas, cervix, rectum, and breast. In one study, doctors recommended taking 2,000 to 3,000 milligrams of Vitamin C supplements per day to effectively prevent cancer. This is far above the suggested daily dose recommended by the National Cancer Center, so anyone attempting this kind of regimen should talk to their doctor first.

Vitamin C supplements taken daily can prevent other kinds of conditions like heart disease.

The correct doses can suppress high blood pressure, raise good-type HDL cholesterol, clean deposits from artery walls, and reduce the chances of heart-attack-inducing vascular spasms.

Vitamin C supplements taken regularly can also reduce breathing problems like asthma, prevent periodontal disease, and improve the immune system.

Improving the immune system is the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think about taking Vitamin C supplements. Of course, Vitamin C supplements do a great job of this, in addition to working on all the other disorders they prevent. Vitamin C supplements work with your immune system to gear up your body to fight infectious bacteria and viruses. Vitamin C supplements do this by boosting the white blood cells and raising the body’s level of antioxidants. Taking 500 milligrams of Vitamin C supplements per day during flu and cold season may prevent or at least lessen the likelihood of being ill during this time.

Vitamin C supplements work on so many levels to prevent disease.

However, Vitamin C may be plentiful in the foods you eat; it’s really the supplements that put you over the top when it comes to preventing disease and increasing the length and quality of life. Vitamin C supplements have been shown to help people who take them live about 6.3 years longer.

Natural Remedies To Help Prevent Heart Disease

Natural Remedies To Help Prevent Heart Disease

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Heart disease is now the number-one health threat facing women. However, dozens of studies show that keeping your heart in good shape can be surprisingly easy!

Have a pomegranate shot.

This juice is more effective than red wine at shielding your heart against several different dangers and sipping just 1 oz. each day cuts your risk of dangerous blood clots and your production of bad artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.

Pomegranate gets its power from the same pigments that give it its color, polyphenols, which thin the blood and help your liver break down cholesterol. Pomegranate contains another important nutrient, ellagic acid, which is so great at strengthening two skin-supporting proteins (collagen and elastin), it slows skin aging.

Eat roasted peanuts.

Eating a half-cup of humble peanuts daily proves your heart disease risk will drop. Peanuts are a top source of monounsaturated fats, which your liver needs to make artery-clearing HDL cholesterol.

Get a houseplant.

Just keeping your heart pumping slowly and calmly is enough to lower your lifetime risk of heart disease. Looking at greenery reduces your level of the stress hormone epinephrine, which reduces your heart rate five points or more. Spend several minutes each day strolling in a park or in any other green space, and your heart rate will drop as much as 15 points.

Listen to soft music.

Listening to relaxing background music for 30 minutes twice a day can decrease the number of stress hormones circulating in your system. Keeping your blood pressure in check helps prevent damage to artery walls and reduces plaque buildup, keys to ensuring that nutrient-rich blood flows easily to all your organs, including your heart. Tune your radio to an easy listening station or listen to calming background music for free online.

Up your intake of herbs & spices

Cinnamon, thyme, cayenne, cloves, garlic… Adding any of these to your recipes can transform an “okay” meal into something delicious and cut your heart disease risk. The antioxidants in these flavor enhancers block the formation of harmful inflammation inside blood vessels while also reining in the amount of artery-clogging triglycerides that your liver churns out. The recommended dose: 1-1/2 tsp. Daily.

Source: Woman’s World Specials: Reverse Aging

How To Boost Your Happiness Hormones to Live Longer

How To Boost Your Happiness Hormones to Live Longer

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The happiness hormones serotonin and oxytocin don’t only help fight depression. They also cut heart disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s risk by strengthening arteries, so nutrient-rich blood quickly reaches your organs.

Send some love.

Taking one minute to let someone know that you’re thinking about them can bring about an increase in your oxytocin production 

Take a scented soak.

Relaxing in a warm bath scented with rose, vanilla, jasmine, or lavender can keep your blood levels of serotonin and oxytocin elevated by soothing your brain’s anxiety center. And when your brain is relaxed, it needs less serotonin and oxytocin to function, so more of those hormones are available to cells in the rest of your body.

Take 5-HTP.

Taking 100 mg. of 5-HTP increased serotonin levels, improving mood, energy, immunity-and even fat-burning. Want to sleep more deeply? Taking 5-HTP 30 minutes before bedtime can help. Cutting calories a priority? Take 5-HTP 30 minutes before your biggest meal each day.

Consume protein at breakfast.

After a night of not eating, blood levels of amino acids- the building blocks of serotonin and oxytocin- are low. The fix: Eat a meal containing 2 oz. of amino acid-rich protein, such as eggs, meat, or cheese. It’ll rev the enzymes that keep serotonin and oxytocin levels up, cutting your risk of the blues and blood sugar woes 33%.

Eat berries and kale.

Eating two cups each of berries and leafy greens (like kale) weekly could up your serotonin levels. Both foods are rich in anthocyanins, nutrients that encourage your brain to produce and release this “happy” hormone.

Watch TV.

Getting caught up in a fun, romantic, or emotionally gripping program-enough to make you root for one of the characters- will send your oxytocin levels soaring. Your brain processes movies as if they’re happening, and the empathy you feel for a character stimulates oxytocin release.

Source: Woman’s World Specials: Reverse Aging

Natural Remedies To Stop Thinning Hair

Natural Remedies To Stop Thinning Hair

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By age 50, two-thirds of us have thinner, more brittle hair. Thankfully, at-home remedies can stop it in its tracks and help reverse it if it’s already occurred! Here’s what may be causing your hair loss and how to fix it.

Wash your hair daily.

When scalp cells absorb testosterone, the waste product produced can damage follicles and trigger male pattern baldness, even among women, research shows. Most women cut back on them as their hair thins, hoping that handling their hairless will help. To fix, first, give your scalp a thorough shampooing daily. 

Up your iron intake.

Your ability to absorb iron can plunge after age 55 due to a gradual slowdown in the production of stomach acid and digestive enzymes-and one of the first signs of dipping iron levels in women is all over hair thinning. Eat four oz. of iron-rich beef, chicken liver, shellfish, turkey, chicken, or pork daily paired with something acidic, like tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, or orange juice. To maximize the benefit, avoid drinking coffee or tea or consuming calcium-packed dairy with meals containing iron-rich foods.  

Lower your stress level.

Try doing 15 minutes of relaxing yoga twice daily. Gentle stretching and rhythmic breathing help reduce the production of hair-wrecking stress hormones for up to 12 hours.

Watch your vitamin A.

You need vitamin A, but taking in more than 40,000 IU daily can trigger patchy hair loss. The ideal dose for vitamin A is 10,000 IU daily, but many multis have 10,000 IU per pill to add up fast. Get it from orange produce (such as carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potatoes) as beta carotene, a building block of vitamin A that is 100% safe.

Get your thyroid checked.

Losing the hair from your scalp and your eyebrows can signal an out-of-whack thyroid. People think they’ll be exhausted or gain weight if their thyroid isn’t functioning well, yet one of the earliest signs of thyroid trouble is often thinning head and eyebrow hair. Treating a sluggish thyroid can reverse hair loss in as little as ten weeks.

Source: Woman’s World Specials: Reverse Aging

How To Finally Be Pain Free the Natural Way!

How To Finally Be Pain Free the Natural Way!

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Do you have chronic pain? These easy natural remedies are proof that you don’t have to put up with troublesome pains and other irritants anymore.
 

Practice slow exercise.

Tai chi, yoga, qigong, or doing any form of gentle, low-impact exercise for 25 minutes daily could reduce your aches and pains better than even prescription pain medications can provide. Relaxing motion decreases your production of cortisol, a pain-producing stress hormone that also delays the healing of damaged tissues.
 

Try Massage

Massaging sore spots with a lotion, including Celadrin, can reduce pain and swelling. This lotion is so safe you can use it as frequently as you need! Apply your Celadrin lotion after a warm bath. Hot water boosts the flow of its healing nutrients to damaged muscles and ligaments.
 

Try OMT.

Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) uses rhythmic stretching and gentle pressure to speed healing and make joints less tender. As little as 15 minutes of OMT weekly can decrease stiffness and pain, even for people whose pain is so critical that they’ve been thinking about surgery.
 

Get your fish oil.

Including 12 oz. of fish or seafood in your weekly diet could cut stiffness and achiness. Fish is rich in healthy fats that reduce fluid buildup and help repair hurt muscles, nerves, and tendons. Even easier: Take a daily 2,000-mg. dose of fish oil that contains DHA and EPA.
 

Eat a rainbow salad.

There’s no need to eat even more fruits and vegetables to feel great. Just focus on eating a mixture of products with eye-catching colors. For example, try eating top lettuce with red onion, orange carrots, yellow mango, and purple cabbage. Eating colorful produce, rather than greens alone, triples your intake of carotenoids, plant pigments that soothe pain nerves, tame inflammation, and regenerate damaged tissues. This step is so effective that eating only two “rainbow” salads or other colorful dishes daily could reduce the ouch and ache in four weeks.
Acid-Base Balance 

Balance Your PH, Get Healthy & Lose the Weight! (Part 2)

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Check out Part 2 on how to maintain your acid-base balance, what can cause an imbalance, how to get healthy and lose weight for good! First, let’s start with microforms.

Click here to read Part One and Part Two!

Microforms

One of the most damaging results of an overly acidic body is the beasties that thrive therein, including bacteria, yeasts (or fungi), and molds. They can be seen very clearly in live blood.

Dietary and metabolic acid waste also set the stage for the potentially devastating development of a host of microscopic organisms in your body, starting with Candida. Candida is the Latin name for what is commonly known as a yeast in the human body but is a fungus. Yeast and fungus (and the closely related mold) are single-celled forms born out of plant, animal, and human matter. 

Where are Mocroforms Found?

They are everywhere-earth, air, water. For example, Candida is usually found in the gastrointestinal tract due to the breakdown of food matter. (We’d die without it.) However, it can quickly become drastically overgrown, causing a wide variety of symptoms, from annoying to chronic to fatal. This is the bug all too many women are familiar with as a yeast infection, and parents may have experience with if their infants ever had thrush (which is just Candida growing in the throat).

While mainstream medicine recognizes these and a handful of other

medical problems stemming from bacteria, yeast, and fungus, the truth is that on the typical American diet, the vast majority of people develop out-of-control growths within their bodies—and the effects are disastrous. Further, mainstream medicine has no solution for these acidic conditions other than toxic drugs. 

Excess Candida is just one of the villains. We are living in a plague of evolving microforms, including bacteria, yeasts/ fungi, and molds, as well as all of their metabolic waste products. We are victimized not only by the microforms themselves but also by their poisonous excretions, or mycotoxins and exotoxins (from myco, meaning “fungus,” exo, meaning “bacterial,” and toxin, meaning, of course, “poison”). 

The microforms produce these acidic wastes when they ingest and digest (ferment, really) energy in electrons from carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. The same substances our bodies are looking to use for energy.

Candida and other microforms take advantage of the body’s weaker areas, poisoning and overworking them. In an acidic environment, they get free rein to break down tissues and bodily processes. They live on our body’s energy, electrons and use our fats and proteins (even our genetic matter, nucleic acids) for development and growth. These organisms are eating us alive! They then send their waste products (acids) out into the bloodstream and inside the cells, further polluting the system. 

How Do They Affect Us?

To give you a little perspective on just how daunting the potential damage is, consider that yeast, fungus, and mold have been on earth over hundreds of millions of years. They have developed into more than five hundred thousand different identifiable forms. And they’ve undergone little genetic change. 

They haven’t needed to because they are great opportunists and survivalists, perfectly suited to what they do. They can go from explosive growth to thousands of years of dormancy. (Living spores have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs only recently excavated.) Furthermore, more than a thousand toxins are produced by bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold.

Bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold do not produce symptoms in the body-their toxic wastes do. Nor do they initiate disease or dis-ease. They only show up because of a jeopardized internal environment that causes body cells to transform into bacteria, then yeast, and finally mold. As Rudolph Virchow wrote, “Mosquitoes seek the stagnant water, but do not cause the pool to become stagnant.” 

These organisms-biological transformations from your body cells—and their wastes contribute directly or indirectly to a vast list of symptoms. Most diseases, especially chronic and degenerative ones from chronic acidity, give rise to microform transformation and then overgrowth. Between the extremes of athlete’s foot and AIDS are the underlying symptoms such as diabetes, cancer, atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), osteoporosis, chronic fatigue, and more—including infections that appear to be transmitted person-to-person. 

Signs of Over-acid

The general signs of over-acid that lead to the transformation of body cells and then overgrowth include:

  • pain
  • infection
  • fatigue
  • body malfunctions such as adrenal/thyroid failure
  • indigestion
  • diarrhea
  • food cravings
  • intestinal pain
  • depression
  • hyperactivity
  • antisocial behavior
  • asthma
  • hemorrhoids
  • colds and flu
  • respiratory problems
  • endometriosis
  • dry skin and itching
  • thrush
  • receding gums
  • finger/toenail fungus
  • dizziness
  • joint pain
  • bad breath
  • ulcers
  • colitis
  • heartburn
  • dry mouth
  • PMS and menstrual problems
  • irritability, puffy eyes
  • lack of sex drive
  • skin rash and hives
  • lupus
  • mood swings
  • hormonal imbalance
  • vaginal yeast infection
  • cysts and tumors
  • rheumatoid arthritis 
  • numbness
  • hay fever 
  • acne
  • gas/bloating
  • bowel stasis
  • low blood sugar
  • hiatal hernia
  • headaches
  • lethargy/laziness
  • insomnia
  • suicidal tendencies
  • coldness/ shakiness
  • infection
  • over-and underweight conditions
  • chemical sensitivity
  • poor memory
  • muscle aches
  • allergies (airborne or food),
  • burning eyes, 
  • multiple sclerosis
  • malabsorption
  • bladder infections

Whew! And that’s not even including that general, just overall lousy feeling so familiar these days. You can blame that on out-of-control evolving microforms from body cells and their toxic acid wastes as well.

Microforms are biological transformations of you and live and thrive in … acidity! They love to swim in their waste products. They also

like the low oxygen levels that occur with acidity. On top of that, the wastes they create are strong acids themselves. So just in case you need further convincing about the importance of getting your body back to basics, try the mental image of your body cells swimming in a pool of acid swarming with bacteria, fungus, and mold.

Maintaining Your PH: Acid-Base Balance 

Still, the good news is that eating correctly and using alkaline supplements wisely is all you need to do to let your body use and control the dietary and metabolic acids that cause body cells to transform, giving birth to microforms without risking the development of overgrowths or their dangerous negative forms. Maintaining your acid-base balance through lifestyle and diet provides the optimal environment for the exclusive growth of vibrant body cells and a decrease or elimination of all levels of microforms.

The pH of the blood and urine is an essential factor in determining microorganisms in the blood. Everyone needs to be concerned about excess acidity leading to microforms development, even if they are not (yet) experiencing outward signs of overgrowth. That’s because overgrowth happens in two stages. In the first, initial developmental phase, microforms grow in small colonies and, although they are most likely visible in the blood, are probably not detectable by physical sensations or symptoms. In the second, acute or chronic symptomatic phase, the complications and discomforts become apparent.

Things are now bad enough that your body is complaining, throwing up warning signs, and pleading for help. A second-stage overgrowth may happen relatively quickly or take years to develop.

Even in this second, more severe stage, all you need to do to reverse it is to create an internal alkaline environment in your body that won’t support the transformation and development of microforms. All that requires is alkalizing your blood and tissue pH with appropriate nutritional supplements and an alkaline lifestyle and diet like the one detailed in later chapters. Of course, it would be better still to stop them in their tracks before they ever get that bad, which is why anyone will benefit from this program.

When your body goes from acid back to base, bacteria, yeast, fungus, and mold stop developing and can once again become benign. Their leftover toxins can then be bound up by certain fats and alkaline minerals and eliminated from the body.

WHEN THE FISH ARE SICK, CHANGE THE WATER

Imagine your body is a fish tank. Visualize your cells and organ systems as the fish, immersed in fluids (including blood) that carry food and eliminate wastes. If I back up a car and put the tailpipe up against the air intake filter that provides oxygen to the tank, the water becomes filled with carbon monoxide, making it acidic. Then I throw in too much food, or the wrong kind of food, and the fish cannot consume or digest it all, so it begins to decompose. Toxic acid wastes and chemicals grow as the food breaks down, which makes the water more acidic.

How long before the fish are goners?

You’d never do such things to the most ordinary of goldfish. Yet every day, we humans do that same equivalent to our bodies, our blood, and tissues, fouling them with pollution, excessive intake of food, acidic foods, and more. The fish are floating belly-up, but it is as if we can’t see them or don’t know what it means.

Now, back to our polluted fish tank. If you’ve reached such a sorry state of affairs, what’s the best thing you could do to fix it? Would you treat the fish for the illnesses they would no doubt develop? No-you’d change the water.

Do your body the same favor. Change the water. Clean up the internal environment. Then keep it clean. The diet and lifestyle program in this book shows you how.

Acid-Base Balance 

Balance Your PH, Get Healthy & Lose the Weight! (Part 1)

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ACID

We’re starting from the assumption that of all the balances the human body tries to maintain, the most important is between acid and base (or alkaline). Mainstream medical texts all agree: The pH balance of our bloodstream is one of the essential balances of all.

Mainstream medicine does not know how our body turns itself inside out and upside down to maintain that balance. The human body is meant to be alkaline. The body will go to great measures to maintain the slightly basic nature of its blood and tissues. However, all body functions create acidic effects; it is all too easy for blood and tissues to become acidic. The human body is alkaline by design and acidic by function. The body needs alkaline fuel, and those acids are created as a by-product of all human activity.

Add to this activity a huge acidic dietary imbalance, and you have massive over-acidification of cells, tissues, organs, and eventually blood. That opens the door to sickness and disease.

For one thing, it’s only when it is acidic that the body is vulnerable to germs–in a healthy base balance, germs can’t get a hold.

Acids are the representation of all sickness and disease. Good health needs a body in proper acid-base balance. Proper diet and lifestyle choices are the only way to guarantee that.

The relationship between acid and base is scientifically quantified on a scale of 0 to 14, -which stands for “potential hydrogen.” On that scale:

7 is neutral
Below 7 is acid
Above is basic (or alkaline)

Each number up (or down) the scale represents a tenfold difference in value. A pH 5 acid is ten times as acidic as something with a pH of 6; a pH of 8 is ten times as alkaline as a pH of 7. Higher numbers–more alkaline numbers-meaning there’s a greater potential for absorbing more hydrogen ions or acids.

Lower numbers indicate less potential. But you don’t need to understand the details of the chemistry. Just know that these two kinds of chemicals-acids and bases-are opposites, and when they meet in certain ratios, they cancel each other out, creating a neutral pH in the blood and other fluids in body tissue. However, it takes about twenty times as much base to neutralize any given amount of acid, so it’s better and easier to maintain balance than regain balance when the body gets seriously out of whack!

BLOOD

Just like our body temperature needs to be at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, our blood is ideal at 7.365 pH- which is very mildly basic.

Different areas of the body have different specific pH specifications, but our blood needs to stay within a pretty tight range. It is a good sign of internal conditions in general. Keeping the alkaline pH of the body’s fluids, including blood, urine, and saliva, is critical for good health.

Prime among these is the blood.

Physiological diseases are almost always the result of too much acid stressing the body’s pH balance, to the point where it prompts the body into creating the symptoms that we call disease.

Disease can also be the toxic effects of an outside source, such as exposure to air pollution from smoke, cars, or planes, or poisons from a toxic dump site, but that is much rarer. Symptoms can be the representation of that stress, but it can also be a sign of your body’s attempt to balance it. Depending on the level of the stress, symptoms may not be visible or even obvious.

Excess acid is something we do to ourselves, thanks to the choices we make. The good news is that we can make different choices once we recognize that fact. But we need to be ready to take responsibility for our acidic lifestyle and diet before we’ll be able to make the healthy changes.

All of our body’s regulatory mechanisms, including breathing, circulation, digestion, and glandular function, work to support the delicate internal acid-base balance. Our bodies cannot tolerate long acid irregularities.

Acidity shows itself in our bodies in seven stages:

* Loss of energy,
* Sensitivity and irritation (as in IBS),
* Mucus and congestion.
* Inflammation.
* Hardening of soft tissue (“induration,” including lupus, Lyme, fibromyalgia, hardening of the arteries, plaque).
* Ulceration.
* Degeneration (cancer, heart disease, stroke, AIDS, ALS, MS, diabetes).

In the early stages of an imbalance, the symptoms may not be very serious and could include skin eruptions, headaches, allergies, colds and flu, and sinus problems. As things get worse, more serious conditions occur. Weak organs and systems start to give way, which results in dysfunctional thyroid glands, adrenals, liver, and so on. If tissue pH strays too far to the acid side, oxygen levels decrease, and cellular metabolism will stop. In other words, cells die. You die.

To stop it, the blood starts to pull alkaline minerals out of our tissues to counterbalance. A family of base minerals is especially suited to neutralize or detoxifying strong acids, including sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. When these minerals react with acids, they create much less harmful substances, which are then discharged by the body.

A healthy body keeps a reserve supply of these alkaline minerals for emergencies. But if there are inadequate quantities in the diet or the reserves, they are obtained elsewhere and may be taken from the blood, the bone or cartilage, or muscles —where they are, of course, needed. This can easily lead to deficiencies—and the various symptoms that come with them.

If the acid overload gets too great for the blood to balance, excess acid is deposited into the tissues for storage. Then the lymphatic (immune) system has to neutralize what it can and try to get rid of everything else.

Unfortunately, getting rid of acid from the tissues turns out to mean dropping it back into the blood, creating a bad cycle of drawing more basic minerals away from their normal functions and stressing the liver and kidneys. Moreover, if the lymphatic system is burdened or its vessels are not functioning correctly (a condition often caused by lack of exercise), acid builds up in the connective tissues.

This imbalance in the blood and tissue pH leads to irritation and inflammation and sets the stage for sickness and disease. Acute or recurrent illnesses occur from either the body trying to assemble mineral reserves to prevent cellular breakdown or emergency efforts to detoxify the body.

For example, the body may get rid of acids through your skin, presenting symptoms such as eczema, acne, boils, headaches, muscle cramps, soreness, swelling, irritation, inflammation, and general aches and pains. Chronic symptoms show up when all possibilities of neutralizing or eliminating acids have been tried.

When acid builds up in the body and invades the bloodstream, the circulatory system will try to get rid of them in gas or liquid form, through the lungs or the kidneys. If there is too much waste, they are dropped in different organ systems, including the heart, pancreas, liver, colon, or stored in fatty tissue, including the breasts, hips, thighs, belly, and brain. We know these deposits by names such as polyps, fluids, cysts, acid crystals, tumors, warts, bumps, growths, masses, blemishes, moles, blisters, sacs, and so on.

This method of acid waste breakdown and disposal is also called the aging process. Eventually, it will lead to degenerative disease, including cancers.

And all this is caused by dietary, metabolic, and environmental acids. On the other hand, healthy alkaline blood and tissues create a healthy body.

Alkalize and Energize

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We are in the midst of an uncertain time in history.  While there is so much fear surrounding COVID-19, we must do our part when it comes to self-care to boost our immune system to fight and prevent our risk of contracting the virus. This means doing everything you can to stay healthy.

Have you wondered why cancer, heart disease, obesity, and diabetes rates are skyrocketing throughout the United States?  Have you ever still felt hungry after eating a large meal?  Do you exercise daily and still not able to shed a pound?  Do you see yourself aging right before your eyes and feel tired more often than not?  Are you overweight?  The answer is quite simple –ACID OVERLOAD.

Many of the foods we buy in the grocery store today are actually forming ACID in the body and include:

  • Meat
  • Cheese
  • Eggs
  • Bread
  • Coffee
  • Chocolate
  • Sugar
  • White rice
  • Milk
  • Cereal
  • Cookies
  • Cakes
  • Crackers
  • Just to name a few….

All these foods form acid and over-acidification of body fluids and tissues are linked to every known disease including COVID-19, that dragged out, fatigue feeling many complain about every day, not to mention the endless list of digestive disorders and medical health problems.

Regardless of the pandemic that is happening right now, when your body is overly acidic, you become vulnerable to germs, yeast, bacteria, molds, and fungi which thrive in acidity.  Many people today live on highly processed, over-cooked foods and this is why we see and hear so many TV and radio commercials for anti-acids.

What is the opposite of ACID?  Alkaline. The relationship between acid and alkaline is scientifically quantified on a scale of 1 to 14 known as the pH where –

7 is NEUTRAL

Below 7 is ACIDIC

Above 7 is ALKALINE

Alkaline foods include fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds which are always available in the produce section of your favorite grocery store. Most of us eat 80% acid foods and 20% alkaline foods which is what gets us into trouble with our health. What we should be eating is 80-90 % alkaline foods and 10-20 % acidic foods.

Health Insurance – Raw Fruits and Vegetables

Your best health insurance is raw fruits and vegetables because they will do the following:

  • Help your body return to a healthy pH balance
  • Regulate blood sugar levels
  • Maximize your energy all day, every day
  • Increase your mental clarity
  • Help you reach your ideal weight
  • Restore clear, bright eyes
  • Rejuvenate your skin
  • Improve your digestive tract

The human body is alkaline by design, but the demands from our daily routine, exposure to stress, exercise and how we digest our food all form acid.  The more acid you produce in your body, the more acidic you become.  Foods we might consider minor or not having much of an impact on our bodies like coffee, a glass of wine, or even an annoying phone call can increase our acid production.

When your body’s pH is in the acidic range of below 7, it retains water to dilute the acid in the blood, storing fat in the arteries as protection from this acid build-up. When you have too much acid in the body, blood sugar balance is impaired, and energy can diminish greatly.  You feel run down because your cells are run down. If you eat more protein and starches, the vicious cycle never ends.  When your body is dealing with acid overload, it will hold onto fat no matter how much you exercise or restrict your diet.

Eating more raw fruits and vegetables can actually shift your body to a healthier pH so your body will naturally and safely release fat and water in the shortest time possible and keep it off.  Raw fruits and vegetables let your body break this acid overload cycle because they carry off the acids and flush them through your kidneys.  When you flush acids, you minimize the acid overload allowing your body to keep a strong immune system, lose body fat, and keep optimum energy levels all day.

Putting alkalinity back into your body helps neutralize the daily acid production and helps your body fight any virus or bacteria, prevent illness, and reduce food cravings and food intake.  Keeping a high alkaline balance in the body is the first line of defense against fatigue, illness, and disease.

For more information on becoming more alkaline, please visit www.abbelang.com or write to Abbe by email at abbe@abbelang.com

Alkaline VS Acidic Foods

Alkaline VS Acidic Foods 952 543 Abbe Lang

           Over the past few decades, thousands of man-made toxins have been introduced into our environment, changing it dramatically. The long-term effects of toxic chemicals can be found in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe, and in the products we use. In addition, there are plenty of internal toxins that have become more prevalent as a result of modern diets, unhealthy lifestyles, prescription drugs, and other medical treatments. Our bodies are not designed to deal with all these toxins accumulated in our tissues faster than our bodies can get rid of them. Add stress, allergic reactions, and other sources to the mix, and it can cause more malfunctions that lead to disease.   

           The human body is amazing in that it can tolerate some chemicals and naturally wants to eliminate harmful substances; however, it cannot remove all the chemicals. The type, amount, and length of time you are exposed to harmful chemicals or substances will determine if you are at risk for negative side effects to your health. You must do all you can to limit exposure to toxins and give your body what it needs to detoxify itself daily to prevent or reverse deterioration and premature aging.  

The first step is to understand that your body needs foods that do not harm it, and that means eliminating most processed foods that contain unnatural additives. Healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables will help do the following:

  • Cleanse and balance the body by making it more alkaline (as opposed to acidic)
  • Provide healthy nutrients
  • Stabilize blood sugar levels

           Making changes in your diet if you are used to eating highly processed foods may leave you feeling deprived, overwhelmed, and still craving sugar, for example. You may initially experience some withdrawal symptoms when eliminating addicting foods from your eating plan. A more practical approach would be to gradually eliminate them as you incorporate healthier, whole food options. You should notice that you feel better and have more energy while naturally eliminating those old cravings. Over time, you will find that your tastes change, and the foods you used to love are no longer appealing. When you have more energy, you are more apt to exercise, and as a result, will continue to make more positive changes.

It is important to pay attention to acidic foods that can cause or promote illness in the body. The normal pH of blood should be around 7.4, and the way to keep it at that level is by eating alkaline foods. Measuring pH is done on a scale that ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 representing the highest level of acidity and 14 representing the highest alkaline level. Your body works hard to maintain that pH level of 7.4, but when it becomes too acidic, it will leach calcium from the bones to maintain that proper level for your internal organs, body fluids, and tissues, which can result in osteoporosis. 

What is Acidosis?

Many people end up living years with systemic, toxic health conditions because mentally, they cannot process the simplicity of how to heal the body. You don’t ever want to label yourself with something that can easily be fixed when you learn how to restore and regenerate your body. 

If we eat the foods that are designed for us, the body can heal itself. Fruits and vegetables, both fresh and raw, will provide the body what it needs to start the healing process. Unfortunately, many ‘diets’ recommended for diseased conditions include foods that caused the condition in the first place. You will often hear a medical doctor, holistic doctor, and even a naturopath recommending a high-protein diet to help manage the symptoms. However, you can’t manage the symptoms on a high-protein diet. All you are doing is creating acid in the body, also known as acidosis.

When you consume a lot of acidic foods, the body has to work twice as hard to remove excess acidic waste. If you don’t pay attention to the foods that you eat, it can lead to the following symptoms of acidosis.

Symptoms of Acidosis

  • Compromised immune system
  • Osteoporosis – fractures, tenderness, and bone pain
  • Muscle weakness
  • Acid reflux
  • Fluctuating weight loss
  • Rapid breathing
  • Yeast/Candida overgrowth
  • Severe anxiety or stress
  • Abdominal or Chest pain
  • Low blood pressure
  • No energy

Eat More Alkaline Foods

           Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of a lot of acidic foods such as meat, dairy, eggs, soft drinks, coffee, and sugar. You can reduce the acid in your body by reducing or eliminating these foods and increasing your alkaline food intake. You can actually fight off disease and strengthen your immune system by eating more alkaline foods. Build your meals around fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains. These plant-based foods contain plenty of protein to support a healthy lifestyle. 

For example, nuts and legumes contain more vegetable protein than other alkaline food sources and support a healthy lifestyle.

Other Factors to Consider

A diet that includes too many acid-producing foods, such as protein or sugar, can cause acidity in your urine as well as other negative health effects. Other contributing factors include an unhealthy lifestyle, sitting for long hours, lack of exercise, and negative emotions such as depression, stress, anger, and anxiety. Your blood’s pH is controlled by your built-in buffering system that includes your lungs, kidneys, and bones to keep it at the ideal range of 7.35 to 7.45.

Take a look at the chart below: any pH reading below 7.0 is considered acidic, with 1.0 being the highest acidity level. Conversely, any pH reading above 7.0 is considered basic or alkaline, with 14.0 as the highest level of alkalinity or basicity. The pH balances of all our bodily fluids (especially blood) are all measurable.

Eating a diet high in acidic foods is often why a pH level might be high. It can also be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle, sitting for long hours, lack of exercise, and negative emotions such as depression, stress, anger, and anxiety. Your blood’s pH is controlled by your built-in buffering system that includes your lungs, kidneys, and bones to keep it at the ideal range of 7.35 to 7.45.

When acid accumulates in the body, your buffering system works hard to bring it back into a healthy range. However, you make this process more difficult with an unhealthy diet and lifestyle. Your lungs, kidneys, and bones rely on the minerals you get from what you eat, and when they don’t get enough, this stresses them out.

Guess what? For your body to maintain your body’s pH, your ‘buffering’ system robs those alkalizing minerals from your internal organs and tissues to neutralize that acidic waste. Your bones, tissues, joints, and other parts of your body will be deprived of these minerals. As a result, your body will be at an increased risk for free radicals (toxins, chemicals, and pollutants) to attack your healthy cells.  

The problem comes about when these free radicals destroy your cells’ integrity that can attack your bones, joints, arteries, and digestive system. When you eat a diet made up of grains, meat, and dairy, you will develop a deficiency of the minerals that can keep your body alkaline to heal your body naturally. Alkalizing minerals from your bones and kidneys are used to neutralize any excess acid from your diet. Without these important alkalizing minerals, your immune system will be compromised.

First Step – Alkalize Yourself

           The first step is to alkalize yourself by including more alkalizing and natural superfoods in your diet every single day. It is the best way to boost your immune system and protect your body from illness and disease. Take a look at the alkaline food chart below and classify the foods you currently are eating. 

Record it in a food journal and make a note of how you feel after a meal. Were there too many acidic foods? Start eating more alkaline foods today.

           All viruses need an acidic environment to survive. It all goes back to acidosis. Drink hot water and lemon first thing in the morning because it will alkalize the body and help the liver detox throughout the night. When you wake up and go to the bathroom to eliminate, the minute you eat something high in fat or highly processed, the liver stops detoxing and has to go back to work instead of having time to rest and relax. Eating a big breakfast first thing in the morning can be taxing on the liver. Instead, enjoy some hot water with lemon for maximum absorption and benefits.

Here are some more helpful tips:

  • Drink hot water with lemon first thing in the morning
  • Sip on dandelion root tea throughout the day
  • Eat broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts for their liver supporting properties
  • Let dinner be your lightest meal of the day and before 7 pm.
  • Turn off your phone, computer, or iPad at least one hour before bedtime. 
  • Charge your cell phone and/or iPad in the kitchen.
  • Enjoy a good book, journal, or meditate before bed
  • Avoid caffeine after 3 pm.

Bottomline

You must understand that disease thrives in an acidic environment and is less likely to survive in an alkaline body. If you are eating predominantly acidic foods, you run the risk of developing acidosis. Your body becomes too acidic and is forced to use alkaline minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium from the bones to maintain proper pH levels. As a result, your body has to strip away these minerals from itself to neutralize the large quantities of acid and safely eliminate them from the body.  

A build-up of acid in the cells decreases energy production in those cells resulting in acidosis. Decreased energy production makes it more difficult for your body to repair damaged cells and detoxify heavy metals, making you more susceptible to chronic fatigue and increased disease incidence.

For example, if you drink one can of soft drink, it takes 32 (8-ounce) glasses of water to neutralize the acid that one soft drink creates in your body. Think about what happens if you don’t drink enough water; your body has to neutralize that soft drink. How does it do that? Since calcium is high in pH levels, it will pull that calcium from your bones if you do not eat enough mineral-rich, alkaline foods. This is what leads to a decrease in bone density, osteoporosis, and arthritis. Think of your body like your car; if you don’t put the right fuel in it, it won’t run properly. The same is true for your body. Nix the soft drinks.

Sleep and Adrenal Fatigue

Sleep and Adrenal Fatigue 1200 806 Abbe Lang

Why is sleep important?

Most of us understand the importance of a good night’s sleep. There is scientific evidence that sleep is essential to healing and repair, delaying chronic disease, preventing premature aging, and more.

The benefits of sleep have to do with our growth hormones.

Growth hormones help us grow when we are young but also support healing after we stop growing. If we don’t sleep, we start to decline in function and health.

For you to heal, you need to sleep. The issue for most people is that to fix the sleep problem, we have to fix the Adrenal Dysfunction, which is the major cause of sleep issues.

What happens if you’re not getting enough sleep?

Your sleep is determined by your cortisol levels created by your adrenals. Cortisol creates your circadian rhythm by delivering high amounts into your body in the morning, meant to get you up and motivated for the day. Then, as the day goes on, cortisol release slows until it’s at its lowest levels right before bed, helping you to sleep.

Cortisol has many jobs because it’s your main stress hormone. With chronic stress over a period of time, cortisol levels become unpredictable: high where they ought to be low and low where they should be high. Cortisol suppresses melatonin and growth hormone. Too much or too little cortisol is going to influence your sleep cycle.

Cortisol & adrenaline, the other adrenal stress hormone, if used sparingly, can be life-saving when we need them. When used excessively, these hormones cause a lot of wear and tear on your whole body. Some of this occurs in the brain in a small organ called the hippocampus, which is our sleep architecture’s central location. Too much damage and not enough healing and repair is not a recipe for good health and well being.

What do you need to do to get good sleep?

  • Stop damaging the sleep centers in your brain with too much cortisol and adrenaline. 
  • Fix the damage in the brain/hippocampus from excess cortisol and adrenaline.
  • Reduce any evening raised cortisol and/or adrenaline. 
  • Restore the amounts of soothing neurotransmitters & hormones, which were suppressed from high cortisol and adrenaline.
  • Fix the buffering systems of the body that have been weakened by stress over time.
  • Guarantee the proper creation of melatonin and growth hormone.

How can you fix it?

  • Recreate good sleep practices that may have worsened over time.
  • Decrease any elevated evening cortisol.
  • Fix the sleep architecture in the brain (limbic and hippocampus): Options are meditation, Baicalin, Berberine, Tanshone, Genistein, Paeoniflorin, Resveratrol, Quercetin, Cod Liver Oil, etc.
  • Repair the primary buffering/insulating system, the endocannabinoid system.

If you’re waking between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM, that may mean you have low blood sugar occurring from low glycogen reserves in the liver, low adrenal function, and cortisol, or both. This is often the culprit when you have panic or anxiety attacks, nightmares, or restless sleep between 1 and 4 AM.

If low blood sugar is disturbing sound sleep, maintaining healthy adrenal function and dealing with adrenal fatigue may help you get better sleep. 

Also, having a healthy snack before you go to bed can help strengthen your body’s energy reserves at night. The snack should be one or two bites of food with protein, unrefined carbohydrate, and high-quality fat, like half a slice of whole-grain toast with peanut butter or a piece of cheese on a whole grain cracker. 

Eating or drinking sugary foods will only make the problem worse. Sometimes exercising before you go to bed can help because exercise raises cortisol levels.

Sleep, diet, and regular exercise are essential components of a healthy life. People on alternating shifts with less than three weeks between shift changes are constantly pounding their adrenal glands and may become very susceptive to adrenal fatigue.

Research and clinical observation have concluded that it’s essential to sleep an average of eight hours per day. Some people need even more when recovering from adrenal fatigue. A saliva cortisol test can be done at night and compared with daytime levels will help determine if high or low cortisol may be preventing you from sleeping.