Health

Factors Affecting Health and Aging

Nature provides us with a strong metabolism that is set to function at peak capacity through to sexual maturity, ensuring ideal conditions for the reproductive process and the survival of our species. After that, nature begins to lose interest. Protective mechanisms start to fade, many critical systems enter a state of decline, and we age at varying rates depending upon how we choose to influence the various factors involved.

Chronic diseases, disability, and frailty were once thought to be inseparable from the aging process. However, this view has been changing rapidly as one age-related condition after another joins the ranks of those that can be avoided, and research confirms that we are able to retain our vitality well into old age.

The question for each of us is – how do we influence the systems involved if we are to ward off premature or excessive deterioration?

Your Body’s pH Level

Over the course of your lifetime, a long-term decline into acidity is taking place in your body. Although this health condition is not well known by the general public, it has been studied by researchers for decades. Your body’s inevitable pH decline provides an ideal environment for chronic diseases to get started, and the resulting acidic condition has been connected to a wide variety of serious health problems.

This problem is so fundamental to achieving good health that it deserves a more extensive discussion, which can be found at pH and Health.

Chronic Inflammation

Scientists agree that one of the most significant factors contributing to aging is chronic inflammation. In a normal, healthy person there is a balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory systems, which assist in repelling unwanted invaders and repairing tissue damage.

As we age however, factors such as a poor diet, acidity, and auto-immune states can cause the inflammatory response to get out of control. This sort of rogue inflammation can be very damaging. In addition to well known inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, chronic inflammation causes damage in the cells of our brain, heart, arterial walls, and other bodily structures. Heart disease, stroke, asthma, and even cancer are just a few of the “diseases of aging” that have a dangerous inflammatory component.

There is also a very dangerous type of uncontrolled inflammation that largely goes unnoticed. Recently, low-grade chronic brain inflammation has been recognized as playing a central role in the debilitating decline that characterizes neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Huntington’s disease is also characterized by chronic brain inflammation caused by the immune system’s misguided attempts to eliminate a defective protein that results from a genetic defect. And although their inflammation triggers are different, diseases such as Parkinson’s, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), and even multiple sclerosis are also characterized by chronic inflammation of the neural tissues.

Oxygen Radicals

Demolishing proteins and damaging nucleic acid bases (the building blocks for DNA), oxygen radicals are thought to be the primary villain in the day-to-day life of cells. The free radical theory of aging holds that damage caused by oxygen radicals is responsible for much of the deterioration and diseases associated with aging.

An oxygen free-radical is a byproduct of normal metabolism, produced as cells turn nutrients into energy. The quality of the nutrients we provide, from sources such as the food we eat, the water we drink, and how much sun we get, all contribute to the volume of free radicals in our system. In need of a mate for its lone electron, the free-radical takes an electron from another molecule, which in turn becomes unstable. A chain reaction then ensues – called oxidative stress – resulting in a series of compounds that can damage proteins, membranes, nucleic acids, and cause DNA strand breaks.

Essential Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids (EFAs) come in two categories – omega-3 and omega-6 – and are termed “essential” nutrients because the body cannot manufacture them and must get them through food or supplements. Every cell in the body has a fat component made up of essential fatty acids. Essential fatty acids support the cardiovascular, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems, as well as the brain. EFAs also produce derivatives that regulate functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood clotting, fertility, conception, and aid in immune function.

It is estimated that the human species has existed on a balanced EFA diet for the past 400,000 years. It has only been within the last 100 years that our dietary fatty acid composition has changed for the worse. Many studies now show that EFA balance in our bodies is completely out of whack – and this has been associated with a variety of health problems.

EFA balance may be one of the most critical factors influencing our general health. See Oils & Fats for more information on this topic.

Immune System

As we get older, our immune system becomes progressively weaker. We have fewer NK (natural killer) cells to deal with unwanted organisms, and our immune cells can even start to mistake our own tissues for foreign invaders, and start attacking them (the auto-immune diseases).

The human immune system is extremely complex, consisting of a multiplicity of cells, substances, and organs that work in harmony to support one another. The thymus, spleen, bone marrow, and lymphatic system all pitch in to produce, store, and transport a host of substances – including B-cells, T-cells, antibodies, interleukins, and interferon, just to name a few. But time, overwork, and our own benign neglect combine to send the immune system into an exhaustive functional decline, that unchecked will lead to illness and disease.

T-cells are prominent players in this protective system, and have intrigued researchers ever since it was discovered that they decline markedly with age. While their total numbers remain about the same, the proportion of them that function declines significantly. Studies have also shown that in older people, T-cells destroyed by trauma (such as burns) take longer to renew than in younger people. Most research on the aging of the immune system now centers on T-cells.

Another focus of research is the interaction between hormones with the immune system. Some hormones have been shown to revive the immune response in aging subjects. Declining estrogen levels depress interleukin-2 levels. And two pituitary hormones, prolactin and growth hormone (GH), have been linked to the immune response.

Insulin Sensitivity and Glucose Cross-linking

The modern western diet has created an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. As many as 50% of Canadians and Americans may be walking around with high insulin levels and insulin resistance, which is caused by carbohydrate excess.

Suppose a person’s entire bloodstream contains only 40 grams of sugar. Imagine the shock to his or her system from drinking, in only a few minutes, a soda containing 40 grams of sugar. Then add the hundreds of grams of carbohydrates in pizza, pasta, chips, cookies, and candy. This type of diet over extended periods leads to a state called insulin resistance, which is directly related to aging and the many diseases of aging – such as obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and cancer.

Diabetes, in fact, is sometimes considered an accelerated model of aging. Not only do its complications mimic the physiologic changes that accompany old age, but its victims have shorter than average life expectancies.

One of the elements involved in cellular deterioration is excessive blood sugar or glucose. In a process called glycation, glucose molecules attach themselves to proteins, setting in motion a chain of chemical reactions that lead to the proteins binding together – or cross-linking – altering their biological and structural roles.

Glycation and cross-links (also called “advanced glycation endproducts” or “AGEs”) toughen tissues and have been implicated in age-related deterioration including vascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, and hardened arteries), Alzheimer's disease, other neurological diseases, diabetes, kidney disease, stiffness of joints and skin, cataracts, impaired wound healing, urinary incontinence, and congestive heart failure.

Cross-linking contributes to the rigidity and loss of elasticity in tissues, and to the thickening of capillary walls observed in diabetes and during the aging process. The glycation of nucleic acids may play a role in DNA damage, limiting the capacity of the DNA for replication and transcription.

The rate of AGE accumulation and the onset of associated diseases is directly proportional to the degree of blood glucose elevation and the length of time it persists. People with diabetes show substantially larger amounts of AGEs in their tissues. However, even mildly higher blood sugar promotes the aging process. This condition, called carbohydrate intolerance (or glucose intolerance) means that one's blood sugar tends to be higher than normal but not high enough to warrant the diagnosis of diabetes. Carbohydrate intolerance is extremely common, affecting up to 50% of the population in developed countries. The main risk factors for carbohydrate intolerance are being overweight and over age forty.

The body has its own defense system against glycation and cross-linking. Guardians in the immune system seek out AGEs, break them down, and eject them into the blood stream where the kidneys can eliminate them in urine. However, as the immune system becomes less functional with age, the level of AGEs can increase rapidly.

Hormonal

System Hormones have a pronounced influence on almost all important bodily functions. They do so by controlling enzymes that drive thousands of chemical reactions inside our cells. The production of several important hormones such as melatonin, GH (growth hormone), thyroid hormones, DHEA, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone all begin to decline after we have attained sexual maturity. Some decline as early as age 15 (melatonin), others decline as late as age 45 (estrogen).

These hormones are essential for a vigorous mind and body. They maintain our lean body mass, prevent fat accumulation, keep our skin firm and our bones strong. They sustain our hearts, our minds, our immune systems, our productivity, and our sexual desire and performance.

Hormones influence other substances that are also involved in regulating cell activities. Known collectively as growth factors, these substances include the insulin-like growth factor IGF-1, which mediates many of the actions of GH, and growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH), which stimulates the release of GH. The action of growth hormone itself may be connected to other factors – such as exercise, which stimulates a certain amount of GH secretion, and obesity, which depresses production of GH.

Extensive research has proven that when levels of these critical declining hormones are increased, various signs of aging diminish.

DNA Deterioration

Throughout the normal wear and tear of cellular life, the DNA suffers continual damage. Attacked by oxygen radicals, ultraviolet light, and other toxic agents, it suffers destroyed sections and mutations in the sequence of the DNA bases that make up the genetic code. Researchers believe that DNA damage, which gradually accumulates as we age, leads to malfunctioning genes, proteins, cells, and as the years go by, deteriorating tissues and organs.

The body must have sufficient of the DNA nutrients to repair and replace our cellular structure. The body has built-in systems to repair DNA, but their effectiveness is limited by an age-related decline in supply of the necessary DNA building blocks.

Nucleotides are the key substances in DNA production. There are six different nucleotides which link together to form the DNA molecule – the famous double helix configuration. The arrangement of our DNA spells out our genetic code, and also provides a blueprint for manufacturing all our body’s chemicals. Each of our cells houses a DNA molecule, and this molecule is reproduced more than a trillion times during a person’s lifetime. Each time one of our cells divides and multiplies, it must produce new DNA. Nucleotides are necessary for this to occur. In fact, just one replication of all the cells in our body requires ten trillion nucleotides, so an abundant and continuous supply is vital.

In a separate process, methyl groups (specific carbon/hydrogen molecules) bond to the DNA and provide the building blocks for organizing the function of every cell in the body. At birth, each cell has about 90 million methyl groups, but as we age that number gradually declines. Certain cancers tend to occur at about a 20% DNA methyl group loss. Autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis have been associated with certain immune cells that experience a 50% methyl group loss. Death from degenerative causes usually occurs when about 40% of total cellular methyl groups have been lost from DNA.

Several accepted “theories of aging” – such as oxidative stress, environmental toxins, nutrient deficiencies, and activation of harmful genes – all have the common element of accelerated methyl group loss.

An average loss of 1,800 DNA methyl groups per cell per day would limit human lifespan to about 60-65 years, whereas reducing the loss to only 1,200 groups per cell per day would result in a lifespan of about 90-95 years. Clearly, providing the building blocks to support these methyl group transfers to DNA is a critical process in extending the human lifespan.

It has long been theorized that DNA deterioration may be a major factor in aging, health, and longevity. Not surprisingly, numerous cellular systems have evolved to detect, repair and replace damaged DNA. The effectiveness of this process can determine how fast we age, and how long we live.

Toxic Buildup - Heavy Metals and other Toxins

We are constantly exposed to toxic metals such as mercury, lead, aluminum, cadmium, and arsenic in our environment. How likely is it that you have been absorbing at least some of these toxins into your body? A study conducted by the Centre for Disease Control examined 2,500 people for a list of 116 different contaminants – and in each person found every single contaminant. These toxic substances can interfere with enzymatic reactions, disrupt cellular function and cause free radical formation. The leads to multiple problems including behavioral disorders, neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, kidney disease, chronic fatigue, and cancer. They are also implicated in a general acceleration of the aging process.

Nutritional Therapy – Overcoming nutrient deficiencies

What is the relationship between the nutrients you consume and the state of your health?

Think of it this way, each cell of the body is like an individual household. It monitors its needs, distributes its resources, and does what it has to do in order to survive.

A recent study examined what happens when cells are deprived of an important nutrient – in this case iron. The cells immediately began to ration the available iron, making sure the most vital functions received what little iron was available. At the same time, the cells cut back on the iron supply to the more than 80 different genes that also needed iron to function. The nutrient-starved genes included genes responsible for protecting the cell from free radicals, genes that copy the cell's DNA for long-term survival, and genes that generated energy.

This rationing process goes on throughout the body’s entire cellular structure whenever nutrient levels are insufficient. Many studies have shown that if your body is deprived of nutrients such as vitamins, essential fatty acids, individual minerals such as magnesium, calcium, or selenium, or any number of micronutrients, the functions normally carried out by these nutrients are curtailed. In other words – good health is soon out the window.

And if these nutrient deficiencies carry on for too long, the health consequences can be grim.

In North America today, over 60% of all deaths occur as a result of degenerative diseases, largely related to nutrient deficiency. Former US Surgeon General Dr. Everett Koop stated flatly that “nutritional deficiency is responsible for more than 70% of all diseases”. Dr. John Rowe, president of Mount Sinai Hospital, acknowledged that “genetics accounts for only 1/3 of physical health…the other 2/3 relate to lifestyle”.

Despite abundant food supplies, the rate of degenerative disease among Canadians continues to grow. Although we are generally aware that our bodies need things like protein, carbohydrates, and fat (the "macronutrients"), we simply have not taken sufficient steps to provide our bodies with the array of micronutrients they need in order to function properly. As a result, many of us slowly fall into a form of “malnutrition” and then, if things are not corrected, into a disease state.

The implication is clear – if you wish to avoid degenerative disease, you must avoid nutrient deficiency.

What causes nutrient deficiency?

• Agriculture: Shortsighted agricultural methods have resulted in a long-term decline in food quality. Many studies confirm that most fruits and vegetables provide significantly less vitamins and minerals than they did in the 1950s – as much as 40% less.
  
• Food processing: Mass food processing techniques completely eliminate many important nutrients from our food, and often result in the inclusion of dangerous additives.
  
• Fast food: Consuming fast or processed foods provides little if any nutrients. Even so-called “healthy” canned or packaged foods can be quite “dead”, with little nutrient value left in them.
  
• Poor Digestion: Part of the aging process is that our digestive functions enter a state of severe decline. After the age of 40 this decline accelerates, and can result in the loss of as much as an 80% of our digestive capacity by age 60. So even if you eat a healthy diet, the inability to absorb will eventually deprive you of critical nutrients.

Many people know that nutrition is important, and so try to avoid poor quality food, get some exercise, and take a supplement or two. But even with those precautions, many people still wind up with degenerative disease conditions. Why? There are several important factors to consider:

• Biochemical individuality: Each of us is metabolically and biochemically unique, and the micronutrient requirements for one person may be quite different from what another person requires.
  
• Aging: Our micronutrient requirements at age 30 are quite different from our requirements at age 40, 50 or beyond.
  
• Lifestyle: Alcohol, drugs, smoking, stress, under-exercise, over-exercise, dietary deficiencies, and aging all have an impact on the body’s micronutrient demands.
  
• Absorption: Although you may eat correctly and take supplements, if you do not absorb essential micronutrients properly, you will have deficiencies.
  
• Insufficient nutrients: Even with an adequate diet, optimal nutrient needs can often only be met by taking supplements. These supplements must be appropriate to each person’s specific biochemical requirements, and must have a high level of bio-availability.
  

The Solution – Nutritional Therapy

Due to biochemical individuality, inadequate health strategies, and the stresses of daily life, many people assume they are getting appropriate levels of nutrients but are not. The essence of naturopathic medicine is that the body can heal itself if given the right tools. Providing you with the right tools is an essential part of our service to you.

The professional diagnosis you receive from one of our clinic’s naturopathic doctors will reveal what your nutrient requirements are and where you are deficient. Then an effective strategy of Nutritional Therapy can be designed to meet your specific metabolic needs.

This personalized strategy can bring about excellent results, making significant changes to your overall body chemistry. In addition to an adequate diet, the key to this strategy is an appropriate prescription of professional supplements. The supplements that we prescribe come from specialized manufacturers and deliver exceptional quality. This type of quality may not be found in retail products, and provides our patients with the best possible results (see Clinic Products). These supplements:

• Are highly therapeutic, manufactured specifically for use by licensed health professionals only.
  
• Are superior in terms of purity and potency and have been formulated to target specific health issues.
  
• Are prescribed to bring about specific biochemical changes and/or enhance cellular function in response to each individual’s specific requirements.
  

Staying healthy and avoiding disease is not simply a matter of chance. When your cells have access to the proper quantity and variety of nutrients, they can function at their peak level. That is the foundation of good health. (see more about Personal Health Strategies

pH & Health

Acidosis: A root cause of the diseases associated with aging

It is said that we are born alkaline and die acidic. When you are born, your body has its highest alkaline mineral concentration and also its highest pH level. From birth onward however, the process of life causes you to gradually acidify, and this inevitable deterioration in the body’s pH level leads to a dangerous build-up in acidic wastes.

What is pH?

Acidity or alkalinity is measured in terms of a value known as "pH" (potential for hydrogen). On the pH scale, which ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), a solution is neutral if its pH is 7. Because pH is calculated on a logarithmic scale, a difference of 1 in the pH means a tenfold change in the acidity or alkalinity. In other words, alkaline water with a pH of 9 has ten times the alkalinity of pH 8 water, and one hundred times the alkalinity of pH 7 water.

Should I be concerned about my pH level?

Since all liquids have a pH that determines their character, and the human body is about 60-70% water-based, the pH level of our internal liquids has a profound effect on how well our body operates. Extended pH imbalances (either too acidic or too alkaline) are not well tolerated by the body. In fact, the management of pH is so important that the body has strict procedures to monitor acid-alkaline balances in every cell. And all regulatory mechanisms, including breathing, circulation, digestion, and hormonal production, serve the purpose of balancing pH by removing caustic acid residues from the body’s tissues. If the cells deviate too far from their optimum pH range, they become poisoned by their own toxic waste and die.

How does a dangerous pH condition come about?

The human body contains about ten gallons of fluid, so the body’s cells are suspended in an ocean of fluid that is either alkaline, neutral, or acid. Although most cells live in an almost pH neutral environment, they all produce acid as a by-product of converting food into energy to perform normal functions. The weak acid produced in this fashion is easily eliminated by the respiratory system (lungs and breath). This is the most natural source of acid in our bodies, and the easiest to eliminate.

However, the North American diet is largely acid-forming – refined flour and sugar products, meats, dairy, fried foods, sucrose, coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol are among the worst offenders – and is a major source of acid residues in the body. This residue, or “ash”, is left over after the body has used up as many nutrients as it can from the food we eat. Acid ash builds up and produces a much stronger acid, so it must be eliminated by the kidneys. This acid is so strong that it would burn the urinary tract if it was eliminated “as is”. Consequently the body buffers it with alkaline minerals – calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. This converts the strong acid into a very weak acid that is excreted as urine.

However if a person’s alkaline mineral reserves are depleted, the body is forced to buffer the strong acid by “borrowing” minerals from whatever source it can find. This usually means that minerals are borrowed from bones and vital organs. Over time this weakens the organs, muscles, and bone structure.

Ultimately, the quantities of acidic waste build up beyond the ability of the kidneys to deal with effectively. The body is then forced to use another option to protect the integrity of the blood pH. This consists of directing the acids not towards the organs of elimination, which would discharge them, but into the tissues, which are able to withstand much greater fluctuations in pH than the blood or organs. For people with highly acidic diets and lifestyles, this process is constant, and forces acidic wastes deeper and deeper into the tissues over a period of time.

Some of the common health problems that result from this pattern of chronically high acidity include:

• Accelerated free radical damage
• Bladder and kidney problems
• Cardiovascular weakness
• Immune system weakness
• Lactic acid buildup in joints resulting in joint pain
• Low energy
• Osteoporosis, resulting in brittle bones and hip fractures
• Weight gain

Stress, both physical and mental, also creates acid deposits in the body. Under tension, we burn more nutrients in less time, creating a lot of excess acid wastes that need to be disposed of. And unfortunately, stress can be a chronic condition that goes on for months, even years, contributing to an accelerated and constant formation of acid wastes in the body. In addition, although exercise is generally healthy, chronic over-exercise is a physical stress that produces an over-abundance of lactic acid.

Our bodies have an elegant system for getting rid of acidic waste products through the liver and kidneys, lungs and breath, and through a natural buffering system in the pancreas and blood. However, even a generally healthy lifestyle can generate a volume of waste products much greater than the body’s capacity to eliminate – and they start to accumulate. Poor diet, stress, mineral deficiencies and toxins all contribute to the waste build-up, until the problems associated with premature aging and chronic disease begin to appear.

Who is susceptible to acidosis?

Just about everybody. Studies show that probably greater than 90% of the population has an acidity problem, but most don’t know it. The process of acidification also explains why the so-called “adult-onset” diseases do not occur when you are young. They generally occur after the age of 40, when sufficient acid wastes have built up to disrupt the system. Health problems begin to occur as the body becomes unable to cope. These wastes are stored in the form of fat, cholesterol, gallstones, kidney stones, calcium deposits, and arterial plaque, just to name a few.

Whenever acidic deposits enter our blood-stream, the blood tries to maintain its narrow pH range (between 7.3 and 7.45) by storing these acids somewhere else. First, liquid acids are transformed into solid (fatty) acids – cholesterol and crystallized uric acid are examples of these solidified acids. As time goes on and these acidic deposits grow more voluminous, they are eventually stored around organs and tissues, which reduces the nutrient supply to these areas and ultimately results in cell damage.

What can all this lead to?

When the amount of acid entering the body exceeds the body’s ability to neutralize and eliminate it, acidification or “latent acidosis” begins. Latent acidosis is the first step on the road to many chronic diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, arthritis, chronic fatigue, and cancer. Here is how some conditions of acidosis affect you:

Lack of Energy

An acidic pH greatly affects body’s metabolism by interfering with cellular communications and functions. Each cell has a “sodium-potassium pump” which regulates its energy reserves. In an acidic environment, less sodium is present, slowing down the intake and processing of nutrition within the cells. So the pump slows down, burning less fat for energy and making it difficult for the body to access its stored energy reserves – ultimately leaving us feeling lethargic.

Premature Aging

Acidosis causes breakdowns that accelerate free radical damage within cell walls and the intracellular membrane structures, which then start to deteriorate. This is the first step in premature aging, leading to interference with eyesight and memory, along with wrinkling, age spots, dysfunctional hormonal systems, and a host of other age-related phenomena.

Acidosis also decreases the oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin in the blood. All biochemical functions in living tissues are severely compromised if oxygen supplies are decreased. An acidic pH decreases the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the tissues, with the result that normally healthy cells begin to shrivel, cease functioning, and die.

Obesity

An overweight condition arises from the overeating of calories, in most cases as carbohydrates and fats. When their volume is greater than the body’s ability to burn them away, the blood must do something with the fatty acids so that its pH level is not dragged down. It first stores them under the skin, around the waist in men, around the hips, thighs, and breasts in women. Then it deposits wastes around organs and tissues, which chokes off the supply of nutrients and ultimately leads to cellular damage or death.

A habitually acid pH can cause immediate weight gain by triggering a condition known as “Insulin Sensitivity”, which causes an erratic and increased insulin production. When the body is flooded with insulin it diligently converts as many calories as possible into fat. These extra fats are then stored away from pH sensitive areas.

High Blood Pressure and Arteriosclerosis

Your blood is your body’s transport system. It carries nutrients and oxygen to the tissues, and carries waste products away from them. Acidification of the body starts in the blood. Researchers have found a high correlation between patients with high blood pressure and chronic acidosis.

Research has also shown that simply reducing the amount of cholesterol in the diet isn’t enough to reduce plaque formation. In an acidic environment there is a malfunction of the body’s sodium-potassium pump, resulting in a sodium/calcium buildup within the blood plasma. This excess is then available to bond with LDL-cholesterol (the “bad” cholesterol), forming plaque which lines the walls of the vascular network at an accelerated rate.

Heart Disease

The cardiovascular system is designed to work normally with a blood plasma pH that is slightly alkaline, with a pH from 7.35 to 7.41. When blood plasma becomes chronically more acid, with a pH constantly less than 7.35, it acts like a chemical irritant that slowly eats away at the inner walls of arteries, veins, and the heart itself. Like acid eating into marble, this acidity erodes the cell wall membranes of the heart, arteries and veins, weakening their structural composition and causing microscopic tearing of the heart tissue.

Acidic pH in the blood is now thought to be a critical factor in the development of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), aneurysms (widening and ballooning of the artery walls), arrythmias (abnormal rhythms of the heart), heart attacks, and strokes. In addition, this structural weakening creates irregularities of blood pressure, further exacerbating these problems.

The activity of the body’s electrolytes is also compromised in an acidic environment, impairing the heart’s ability to pump efficiently and rhythmically, and increasing the possibility of a heart attack. Inhibition of electrolyte activity also affects the way we feel and behave, and is intimately tied to the energy levels we experience.

Cancer

Cancerous cells thrive and grow in an acidic environment. If the blood becomes over-acid, the resulting acidic wastes are inevitably deposited around tissues and organs so that the blood can maintain an alkaline condition. If this unhealthy process continues year after year, areas around these deposits steadily increase in acidity, and their cells begin to die. However, other cells may adapt in this environment. In other words, instead of dying – as normal cells do in an acid environment – some cells survive by becoming abnormal cells. These abnormal cells are called malignant cells. Malignant cells do not respond to brain commands. They undergo a cellular division that is out of control. They grow indefinitely and without order. This is cancer.

Almost 75 years ago Dr. Otto Warburg was awarded two Nobel prizes for his theory that cancer is caused by impaired cell respiration – a lack of oxygen at the cellular level. According to Dr. Warburg, damaged cell respiration leads to a process of fermentation that radically lowers cellular pH, destroying the ability of DNA and RNA to control cell division. He postulated that this hyper-acidity at the cellular level results in the formation of cancer cells, which begin to multiply unchecked.

Diabetes

In a healthy body, the pancreas produces insulin which manages the use of sugar and carbohydrates. With the adult disease diabetes, the output of insulin from the pancreas is too irregular for the body to carry out its management process properly.

Because a chronically acid environment can trigger erratic insulin production (Insulin Sensitivity), acidosis is thought to be an important precursor to Diabetes Mellitus. In fact, before the advent of synthetic insulin, diabetes was historically treated by buffering the system with alkaline powders. As the pressure to continually produce insulin increases, cellular communication degrades and the immune system begins to over-respond. Stress within the cells increases, making it difficult for them to perform adequately or even survive. In a very real sense, they simply burn out.

Osteoporosis

During the multi-year decline into an acidic environment, the body struggles to adjust. One way that the body compensates, and attempts to maintain optimum pH levels, is to extract the alkaline-forming mineral calcium from the bones and other parts of the body. This can lead to the pain associated with chronic back, leg, and joint problems, gum disease, and osteoporosis. The body’s skeletal structure is like a “calcium bank”. When the body become too acidic, it frequently makes compensating withdrawals of calcium from the bones, teeth, and joints in an attempt to normalize the pH.

Arthritis

Many different forms of arthritis and gout are the result of an accumulation of acid wastes in the joints. Ointments simply cover-up the symptoms. Aspirin and other pharmaceutical drugs, being acidic, offer temporary relief but can be detrimental over a longer period.

Kidney Disease

As the body consumes toxins, the kidneys become over-burdened with acid wastes. Nephritis, uremia poisoning, and bladder diseases are all acid related conditions. Kidney stones are a solid buildup of acidic salts.

Contagious Diseases

Studies indicate that increased alkalinity can result in better immunity against contagious diseases. When the body is invaded by foreign bacteria or viruses, white blood cells declare war against the invaders. This war creates casualties on both sides. Those casualties are dead cells, which are acidic. A person with abundant alkaline minerals can dispose of these acidic wastes quickly and recover more rapidly. For example, a bout of the flu drains alkaline minerals, which is why physicians tell us to eat bananas to replace lost potassium.

What Can You Do?

Amending your diet is the first priority, which will help to deal with the body’s current need for alkaline substances. However, alkaline diets, even strict ones, will not bring in enough alkaline substances to dispose of the accumulation of acid wastes that have built up over years. For this you need to ingest alkaline substances in addition to those taken in through food. An appropriate highly alkaline drinking water and mineral supplement are therefore high priorities. Here is a summary of the steps you can take:

Decrease Acidic Foods

Acidic foods include junk foods, fried foods, meats, sugar, soft drinks, coffee, and alcohol. Some people’s diets consist almost entirely of acidic foods. Acidic food intake should not amount to more than 25% of your total diet.

Increase Alkaline Foods

Alkaline foods include fruits, vegetables, as well as many nuts and beans. Lemons, limes, and oranges are acidic, but are loaded with alkaline minerals like calcium, so they actually help to alkalize your system. Apple cider vinegar is alkaline forming, and cayenne pepper, which has long been lauded as a cure for all sorts of health problems, is extremely alkalizing on the system.

Care about the Source of Your Foods

Commercial corn, barley, soybeans, legumes, and whole grains tend to be acid forming. This may reflect breeding selection over the past 50 years that have emphasized higher fat and carbohydrate content, or may be the result of inadequate mineral content in commercial fertilizers. Traditional organically or bio-dynamically grown forms of these grains and grasses may be much less acid forming.

Drink Alkaline Water

About 60-70% of your total body weight is water. In fact, the body contains over 100 trillion cells that must be “bathed” inside and out with water. So the water you drink every day provides the medium for keeping your cells healthy, and for the billions of chemical reactions that keep your body running.

In order to provide a solid foundation for healthy operation, drinking alkaline water is essential. However, most filtered water is acid, particularly water that has undergone cleansing by reverse osmosis or distillation. This type of water is clean, but it is also devoid of minerals and should be avoided. Bottled mineral waters can range in pH from about 6.0 to 8.0. Any mineral water with a pH above 7.0 will have a predominance of alkaline minerals (sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium) and will help to provide your body with an alkaline environment. However, most carbonated mineral waters are acidic. (Acidic minerals include sulfur, fluoride, chloride, and phosphorus). (See Drinking Water).

Supplement with Minerals

No matter how diligently you follow an alkaline diet, you are unlikely to obtain enough minerals to maintain your body’s buffering system. Minerals are essential for a number of reasons. They generate billions of tiny electrical impulses that enable proper brain and muscle function, and they regulate hormones, enzymes, amino acids, and the immune system. Vitamins are useless without the presence of minerals. However, the food sources we depend upon to replenish our mineral supplies are not delivering. Most (if not all) agricultural soils have been badly depleted of many minerals that the body requires. As a result, large segments of the population are deficient in one or more minerals, most often magnesium, iron, calcium, chromium, and selenium. Minerals are critical to generating and maintaining an alkaline environment in your body.

Supplement with Digestive Enzymes

Past the age of 40, the digestive system starts to decline. Most adults don’t produce enough digestive enzymes to properly digest food, so partially digested food enters the intestines or sits in the stomach and becomes more acidic. In addition, the nutrient value from the food you do digest is poorly absorbed under these conditions. Enzyme supplementation helps to overcome this problem.

Drainage Remedies

The two main organs involved in acid elimination are the kidneys and the liver. By taking remedies that can assist in drainage, you increase the flow of excretion through both organs. A simple remedy is to drink more water. The volume of liquid that travels through the body encourages the elimination of toxins, because it can easily dilute and transport numerous acids and salts without causing the urine to become overly concentrated. The bed of a stream is much cleaner if large quantities of water flow through it, as opposed to a small, sluggish current.

Helpful herbs to promote drainage for the kidneys are dandelion root, horsetail, nettles, golden rod, corn silk, juniper berries, parsley, and asparagus. For the liver, there is chelidonium, yellow dock, artichoke, dandelion, berberis, and echinacea. See a physician who specializes in this area and can set up a program that will work for you.

Another way to eliminate toxins is through the skin. Hot baths and saunas are an excellent means of helping to drain toxins through the sweat glands.

Lymphatic Drainage

The lymphatics are open channels between the cells that carry waste products and metabolic acids back to the blood and liver. They are like open ditches that carry waste away form the cells to the central waste-processing center, which is the liver. Physical movement is needed to move the lymphatic fluid through the body. Exercise, massage treatments, or heat detoxification through the use of saunas are all effective methods to improve drainage.

Deep Breathing

Increased oxygenation of the body through deep breathing is an excellent method of eliminating the weak acids of the body by breathing out carbon dioxide. Deep breathing can be achieved through learning “diaphramatic breathing” or through aerobic exercise. Just keep in mind that exercise, while eliminating weak acids, will also create new acids in the muscles in the form of lactic acid. Like everything else, exercise should be done in a balanced way. Do not over-exercise. Deep breathing can also be achieved through the various breathing techniques associated with yoga and meditation practices.

Stress Release

Stress is one of the main causes of excess acidity. It is insidious and can turn the most diet-conscious vegetarian into a highly acidic being. Learn how to keep a balanced perspective on life. Laugh, walk lightly, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Be the best and happiest person you can, and acknowledge the free will of others by allowing them to be who they are. It is often the people who try to control the events and people around them who suffer the most. Life is a journey, flow with it easily.

Drinking the Right Water

During the 1960s the Japanese Ministry of Health conducted a major longevity study. They were curious about the small communities around the world where the average life span was 100 years or more, like the Hunzas in the Karakoram Mountains of northern Pakistan. Visiting these communities, they found that the one thing they had in common was the type of water they drank. The Japanese studied the high mountain stream water from these communities and found that it was a strong antioxidant, was rich in alkaline minerals like calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, and had a high pH level.

In short, it was clean, mineral rich, alkaline water.

What is pH?

Acidity or alkalinity is measured in terms of a value known as "pH" (potential for hydrogen). On the pH scale, which ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), a solution is neutral if its pH is 7. Because pH is calculated on a logarithmic scale, a difference of 1 in the pH means a tenfold change in the acidity or alkalinity. In other words, alkaline water with a pH of 9 has ten times the alkalinity of pH 8 water, and one hundred times the alkalinity of pH 7 water.

Living things are extremely sensitive to pH levels. In human beings, most interior matter has a pH of about 6.8. Blood plasma and other fluids that surround the cells have a pH of 7.2 to 7.45. Numerous special mechanisms aid in stabilizing these fluids so that the cellular structure will not be subject to appreciable fluctuations in pH.

What kind of water does the body need?

More than 60% of our body weight is water. And over 75% of that water is found within individual cells as intracellular fluid. The intracellular fluid is the medium for every complex chemical reaction that the body must carry out in order to maintain life and good health. In fact, the body contains over 100 trillion cells that must be “bathed” inside and out with water. Blood, which is 90% water, circulates throughout the body distributing nutrients like oxygen, while collecting wastes and carbon dioxides. All of the water in our bodies must be replaced every 5 to 10 days. Without water, we would die in three days.

Most people believe that water is water. It is either clean or it is dirty. But it is much more than that. The chemical reactions that support life in all plants and animals take place in a water medium. In short, the chemistry of life is water chemistry, and the water that we provide our bodies in order to conduct these chemical reactions is absolutely critical to the state of our health.

The decline into acidity

Maintenance of the body’s pH level is essential for its continued operation. Our blood system, for example, is always working to keep itself in a narrow range between pH 7.3 and pH 7.45. Should our blood’s pH level fall much below 7.0, we would die. In fact, all bodily fluids are alkaline except stomach fluids.

Over a period of years, the general pH condition of the body tends to deteriorate. A bad diet, either present or past, causes acid wastes to build up. And unfortunately, the North American diet is largely acid-forming. Refined flour and sugar products, meats, dairy, fried foods, sucrose, soft drinks, and alcohol all cause the body to become more acidic.

When acid wastes enter the bloodstream, the blood will take action to maintain its narrow pH range by storing these acids somewhere else. Cholesterol, crystallized uric acid, and what we normally call “body fat” are examples of these solidified acids. Often these acidic wastes, by having to be stored away from the blood flow, can remain in the body for decades.

When we drink popular soft drinks like colas, which have an extremely acidic pH level near 2.5, the bloodstream reacts quickly to deal with the potential pH crisis. Sucrose and other elements in the drink are processed by the blood into acid wastes – some are eliminated, and others are stored at various locations throughout the body. In order to neutralize a single glass of cola, we would need to drink about 32 glasses of high pH alkaline water. That rarely happens, so the body attempts to neutralize these acids by itself, and performs a similar balancing act with everything that we consume.

It is worth noting that many foods with a reputation for being healthy also happen to be alkaline-forming. The water inside most fruits and vegetables is alkaline. Lemons, limes, and oranges are acidic, but are loaded with alkaline minerals such as calcium, so they actually help to alkalize your system. Apple cider vinegar is alkaline forming, and cayenne pepper, which has long been lauded as a cure for all sorts of health problems, is extremely alkalizing on the system.

The better foods are the ones that generate the least acidic waste products, and the most acid neutralizing byproducts. However, all food, whether healthy or junk, produces at least some acidic waste products that our body must dispose of.

Stress, both physical and mental, can also create acid deposits in the body. Under tension, we burn more nutrients in less time, creating a lot more wastes than the body can dispose of. And unfortunately, stress can be a chronic condition that goes on for months, even years, contributing to an accelerated formation of acid wastes in the body.

Alkaline Water – The right water

Water is the universal solvent. Its molecular configuration enables it to break down the bonds in larger, more complex molecules. To illustrate this, consider the simple example of putting a small amount of table salt into a glass of water. The attraction of dry salt’s electropositive sodium (Na+) and electronegative chlorine (Cl-) is very strong until it meets the water molecule’s electronegative oxygen and electropositive hydrogen.

If we want to stay healthy, we must help our bodies dissolve and dispose of acidic waste products. Since waste products are carried out by the blood and disposed of in liquid form, drinking sufficient amounts of the right kind of water is essential. As drinking acidic water simply accelerates the decline into acidity - the right kind of water is alkaline water.

In an attempt to create “pure water”, some people promote distillers and reverse osmosis filters. While these devices result in water that is clean, they take everything out of the water, including important minerals necessary to maintain health. Unfortunately, this “pure water” is not healthy. It’s dead water. Fish, algae, and plankton cannot live in it. It is also very acidic – with a pH as low as pH 5.5.

Drinking this acidic water for long periods of time increases the body’s need for alkaline minerals – such as potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium – in order to balance the acidic condition. As the body becomes more acidic, one way that it attempts to compensate for the lack of alkaline minerals is to leach them out of your bones and teeth. This withdrawal from the body’s “mineral bank” is one of the causes of osteoporosis and dental problems.

You would not expect a high performance car to operate anywhere near peak efficiency on low octane gas. In fact it would sputter and die. The same is true for your body. Water that is merely “clean” is simply not good enough.

One of the primary causes of disease is chronic cellular dehydration, a condition that leaves the body’s cells in a perpetual state of weakness and defense. Most people simply do not drink enough water to keep their bodies properly hydrated and therefore healthy. In fact, as years go by the average person’s percentage of body weight attributable to water tends to decrease. At birth, an infant’s body weight is 75-80% water. By 40 years of age this has declined on average to 60-70%. In later years human body weight often drops to only about 50-55% water. At this stage the skin wrinkles and dries out.

Therefore, many people as they age are becoming chronically dehydrated with a decreased ability to re-hydrate. However, the loss of intracellular water that accompanies the aging process may be minimized or totally negated by mai
ntaining proper hydration.

Conclusion

Drinking the right water, and plenty of it, can play a key role in maintaining your health. When you are choosing your drinking water, here are some helpful tips:

1. Avoid water that has undergone cleansing by reverse osmosis or distillation.
   
2. Choose natural spring water that has abundant alkaline minerals (potassium, magnesium, sodium, and calcium).
   
3. Ensure that your drinking water has a pH above 7 – as much as 8 or 9 is optimal.
   
4. The pH of spring water will vary widely by brand. Many are actually acidic because they do not contain enough alkaline minerals. Buy a pH tester kit and test various bottled brands. You can use either pH strips or drops (available at pet stores, usually for use in testing aquarium water).

Is Vitamin E Safe

Yes, vitamin E is very safe. Like all vitamins, it is by definition essential for life. Your body needs it to protect against damage caused by free radicals, oxidized substances that can be associated with heart disease and cancer. In addition, many studies over several decades have shown that vitamin E boosts the immune system, reduces the risk of developing various vision disorders (including cataracts or macular degeneration), and improves brain function – enhancing short-term memory while reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Yet the authors of the “HOPE-TOO” study (published in the March 16, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association) suggested that Vitamin E could actually increase your risk of heart attack and stroke. Why?

Well, the study involved people who already had heart disease or very strong risk factors, and who were taking numerous medications. The average age of the study participants was over 70. A variety of factors could be at play here. The authors of the study themselves said that their “unexpected” results “cannot be confirmed at this time by other trials” and “could be due to chance.” In addition:

• The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) urged caution in weighing the results of the study, noting that the isolated findings applied only to an older group of patients with a history of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. CRN president Dr. Annette Dickinson, PhD stated that “there is certainly no evidence that these kinds of effects would occur in healthy populations.”
  
• The study participants were high-risk patients, all of whom were on numerous powerful medications that deplete the heart of essential nutrients needed for proper function. It’s difficult to imagine how 400 IU of vitamin E would be beneficial when so many potentially cardio-toxic drugs were being employed. Statin cholesterol-lowering drugs and beta blockers, taken by 30-40% of the patients in this study, deplete the heart muscle of coenzyme Q10, an essential antioxidant needed to boost energy levels in heart muscle. Aspirin, taken by 75% of the study participants, depletes the body of vitamin C, folic acid, potassium, and sodium. Beta blockers produce such undesirable side effects that most patients stop using them, but the “science” says they reduce mortality rates, so they are often prescribed by MDs.
  
• The study utilzied the synthetic form of vitamin E, called dl-alpha tocopherol, which is known to be far less effective than the naturally occurring mixed tocopherol (beta, delta and gamma) vitamin E.
  
• The pumping ability of the heart muscle is known as the ejection fraction. A healthy heart pumps at least one-half of the amount of blood in the left ventricle with each heartbeat. In the HOPE study, the vitamin E patients saw their ejection fraction decrease by 1.66%. Is this significant? Apparently the researchers thought so. Is this enough to warrant worldwide headlines that at-risk patients stop taking vitamin E? Hardly.
  
• According to the Third National Health and Nutrition Survey, 27% of the US population has a low vitamin E blood concentration which puts them at increased risk for heart disease and cancer [American Journal Epidemiology 150: 290-300, 1999]. In fact, a recent survey shows that only 8% of men and 2.4% of women in the US meet the new Estimated Average Requirements for vitamin E intake from foods alone, and need to take supplements [Journal American Dietetic Assn 104: 567-75, 2004]
  
• In the landmark Nurses’ Health Study, involving more than 87,000 women, the Harvard Medical School reported a 41% reduction in risk of heart disease among nurses who had taken vitamin E for more than two years.
  

In summary, the HOPE-TOO study does little to undo the positive results from hundreds of studies over several decades concerning vitamin E. Do not be persuaded by splashy newspaper headlines that are designed to be dramatic and “newsworthy" – inciting hysteria without a proper examination of all the facts.

If facts were relevant, there would be a huge public outcry against pharmaceutical drugs, which kill over 200,000 people a year in the US alone. Can you imagine the reaction if vitamin E or any other natural product produced results like that?

Your Personalized 1-Week Cleanse

Many common health problems can be traced back to impaired digestive function and exposure to accumulated toxins. Often, however, these dysfunctions do not cause obvious symptoms and so they can go undetected. Over a period of time, however, damage can accumulate and lead to more serious health issues.

For most people, food is the main source of exposure to toxins. Over 300 chemicals are used by the food industry during processing, and an additional 12,000 chemicals are used in food packaging materials. Pesticide residues are found in the vast majority of food samples.

In addition to external sources of toxins (exotoxins), we also produce toxins within our own bodies (endotoxins) through the processes of digestion, metabolism, elimination, fighting infections, and dealing with stress.

The best nutrition strategy in the world cannot keep us healthy if toxic waste is allowed to accumulate in our bodies.

Everyone has their own level of tolerance when it comes to toxins. However, once you reach that tolerance, a number of different symptoms can begin to appear. Think of your body as a water glass. You can fill it up, but sooner or later, if you add enough water it will spill over. If toxins continue to be added into your system when there is no more room, the body becomes overwhelmed and dysfunction and negative symptoms begin to set in. This can eventually lead to degenerative diseases.

“Detoxification” is a natural neutralizing and removal process that occurs in the body to eliminate these toxic materials from cells and organs. In it, the body processes toxins through the liver and kidneys, and then eliminates them through the bladder, bowel, lungs, and skin.

Many patients are amazed at how many of the symptoms and conditions they have been struggling with simply disappear after a good cleanse.

A Spring/Summer Cleanse is your means of helping your body to detoxify and eliminate unwanted toxins more thoroughly. You are exposed to toxins every day, all year long. Taking one week out of 52 to cleanse the body is a gift that can bring about great benefits.

Unloading this accumulation of toxins and achieving optimal health can be much easier than you might think. Although the basics are the same, the program can be personalized to each individual to safely bring about the most optimal benefits. The basic components of this Personalized Cleansing Program include:

A Special Diet:

• 2 days of a liquid diet (spring water, lemon water, herbal teas)
• 5 days of vegetables (including potatoes or yams), fruits, rice, salads, vegetable juices, and water or herbal teas in any comfortable quantity.

Nutritional Supplementation:

• A combination of vitamin C, antioxidants, and supporting and detoxifying nutrients prescribed individually to provide you with the optimal benefit from your cleanse.
  

Hydrotherapy:

• A program of hot and cold showers or baths once each day to assist in the detoxification process.
  

Exercise:

• A program of brisk daily aerobic exercise, such as power walking, bicycling, jogging, swimming, hiking, jumping rope or rebounding on a mini-trampoline – any activity that raises your heart rate for 10 to 15 minutes.

The benefits of cleansing in this way are many, and can include:

• Increased vitality, energy & stamina
• Reduction of allergic symptoms
• Improvement of digestive functions
• Better concentration, clarity and mental focus
• Enhanced mental performance
• A sense of calm and ease
• Increased resistance to illness
• Reduction in risk to many chronic diseases
• Reduced symptoms of chronic toxicity
• Weight loss

The Spring and Summer seasons are the time to get your cleanse underway. Call the Clinic to arrange an appointment with one of our naturopathic physicians, who will work with you set the parameters of your Personal 1-Week Cleansing Program.