Levels of internal acidity are normally kept within very tight confines because this impacts cellular function to such a great degree. This is one of the clearest examples of ‘homeostasis’ in the human body – where products are leached from bone to balance out acidity if it rises too high.
Our bodies are SUPPOSED to never let this change to any great degree. Yet if we continually eat the wrong foods or maintain negative, highly stressed or stressful lives, an ‘allostatic’ load can change these ideal setpoints, leading to all kinds of challenging outcomes…
The acidity levels in our cellular environment (interstitial spaces, tissue fluids and blood) are in many cases metabolically acidic compared to our ancestors for a range of simple reasons.
Mostly this relates to how we live our lives now, and how this markedly differs to the lifestyle of many years/generations ago.
- Our ancestors got more exercise (and spent less time sedentary)
- They ate a very different ‘menu’ that included use of whole animal parts (offal, etc), fermented foodstuffs – which contribute to better populations of microorganisms in our gut.
- One of the primary differences in menu was a completed lack of dairy and cereal grains which are both highly acidifying.
- Sugar is also a huge contributor to increasing acidity.
It has been shown that cancer cannot develop or thrive in an alkaline environment.
There are many suggestions out there for how to promote a more alkaline environment inside one’s body – from foods that we eat, how we combine certain foods, when and how much we eat (or whether we fast) and the types of fluids we drink (and are these filtered in specific ways).
Physiological Consequences of high metabolic acidity are:
If acid-base (pH) levels in your body are too highly tipped toward acid, this is quite literally an ‘interference with life itself’ so it becomes an immediate focus of the body’s ‘alarm’ reaction to attempt to normalise.
One result is the removal of alkaline minerals out of body tissue to ‘buffer’ the blood acid levels.
This means a chronic removal of Calcium from the bones (leading to weakening of bone, and possibly Osteoporosis), and a chronic removal of Magnesium from its various storage sites in the body (causing muscle cramping and high blood pressure through constricted blood vessels).
Dealing with this leads to a huge strain on the liver and kidneys which can lead to disease or failure of these organs.
Another major problem is that an acidic environment strongly favours the growth of unhealthy bacteria, fungi, yeasts and moulds – which in turn cause all kinds of physiologic impacts upon the body including inflammation, release of toxic by-products and interference with absorption of critical nutrients (just to name a few!)
Your internal environment and the internal chemistry contained therein is critical to an optimal life. For more on the biological needs relative to our internal chemistry, read about Vital Life Key #2.
