In Part 1 of this series, I talked about why the basic premise of the acid-alkaline theory is flawed, and I showed that the evidence doesn’t support the idea that a net acid-forming diet is harmful to bone health. Now I want to look at the effect of dietary acid load on other health conditions.
Can the acidity or alkalinity of your diet affect your risk for muscle loss, cancer, and more?
Muscle Wasting
There is some research claiming that acid-forming diets cause muscle wasting, and the proposed mechanism is similar to that of the acid-ash hypothesis of osteoporosis. Some researchers hypothesize that in order to eliminate excess acid and maintain homeostasis, the kidneys must steal amino acids from muscle tissue. (1, 2) Just as a higher acid load increases calcium in the urine, it also increases nitrogen in the urine, leading some to believe that an acid-forming diet causes net nitrogen loss. However, some of these studies neglect to measure nitrogen balance, so this is not necessarily true. (3, 4) In fact, one study showed that a higher acid diet improved nitrogen balance! (5) This theory also does not acknowledge that protein, although it’s acid forming, actually increases the body’s ability to excrete acid. (6) Finally, the one observational study concluding that alkaline diets improve lean muscle mass didn’t even measure the overall acid load of the diet. (7) Instead, they used potassium intake as an approximate measure, and just assumed that the observed improvement in muscle mass was due to the diet being more alkaline. This, in addition to the limitations that always accompany observational data, makes the evidence less than convincing, especially since the clinical trials have conflicting results.
Cancer
One of the more popular claims of the alkaline diet is that it can cure cancer. Proponents say that because cancer can only grow in an acidic environment, a net-alkaline diet can prevent cancer cells from growing, and can eliminate existing cancer cells. This theory is incorrect for a few reasons. First of all, the hypothesis depends on the ability of food to substantially change the pH of the blood and extracellular fluid, which I’ve already shown is not the case. (8, 9, 10) Second, cancer is perfectly capable of growing in an alkaline environment. The pH of normal body tissue is 7.4, which is slightly alkaline, and in almost every experiment done with cancer cells, they are grown in an environment at that pH. (11)
Now, cancer cells do tend to grow better in an acidic environment, but the causality is reversed. Once a tumor develops, it creates its own acidic environment through up-regulated glycolysis and reduced circulation, so the pH of the patient’s blood no longer determines the pH of the cancer. (12) It’s not the acidic environment that causes the cancer; it’s the cancer that causes the acidic environment. To top it all off, the only comprehensive review on ‘diet-induced’ acidosis and cancer did not even acknowledge this as a valid mechanism by which an acid-forming diet could increase cancer risk. They discuss a few biological pathways that could potentially link dietary acid load and cancer, but they admit that it’s mostly speculation and there’s no direct link. (13)
Other Effects
There are a few observational studies attempting to link acid-forming diets with hypertension, but the results are mixed. (14, 15) There’s also limited observational data associating higher acid loads with things like high cholesterol, obesity, and insulin resistance, but there are no proposed mechanisms or clinical studies to validate the hypotheses. (16, 17)
There are a few review papers examining the effect of acid-forming diets and health, but as you’ve seen above, the evidence they have to review is sparse. (18, 19, 20, 21, 22) If you read these papers, you’ll notice that whenever they cite trials showing the deleterious effects of acidosis, those trials were done on patients with chronic kidney disease or diabetes-induced acidosis. In the studies done on healthy people, they’re given ammonium chloride to induce acidosis. What you won’t see are clinical trials showing health consequences from purely ‘diet-induced’ acidosis. (Perhaps because ‘diet-induced’ acidosis doesn’t exist!) You’ll also notice that the strongest two hypotheses deal with osteoporosis and muscle wasting, and that links with other diseases are speculative or based on observational data. And although conflicts of interest don’t necessarily mean their conclusion can’t be trusted, it’s interesting to note that one of these reviews was funded by “pH Sciences®,” which “develops and manufactures patent-protected ingredients that safely and effectively manage biological pH levels.” (23)
In sum, I am not convinced that an acid-forming diet has negative effects on healthy people, based on the science. But just to be sure, it’s always a good idea to observe healthy cultures to see if there’s any anthropological evidence to support or refute the hypothesis.
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Evolutionary Data
There are a few studies where researchers attempted to approximate the net acid load of Paleolithic diets. One estimated that 87% of pre-agricultural people ate net-alkaline diets, and proposed this discrepancy with our modern diets as a possible reason for our declining health. (24) However, a more recent study estimated that only half of the world’s hunter-gatherer societies eat net-alkaline diets, while the other half are net acid-forming. (25) They reason that the other estimate is likely accurate for our earlier ancestors, because their tropical habitat would’ve provided ample fruits and vegetables. This idea is confirmed by another analysis that showed increasing acid load with increasing latitude. (26) Even without the study, it stands to reason that as humans moved into less hospitable environments, the animal content (and acid load) of their diet increased.
Given the subpar clinical science on this topic, I think the evolutionary argument is far more convincing. If half of the world’s hunter-gatherer populations avoid the ‘diseases of civilization’ on an acid-forming diet, it would seem that acid load has little to no bearing on overall health. For some case studies, we can always look to Weston Price’s work to see quite clearly that acid-forming diets are not detrimental to health. Based on Price’s descriptions, many of the traditional diets he studied would have been primarily acid-forming, including the Swiss, the Masai, and the Inuit. Yet despite their high intake of animal foods or grains and their comparatively low intake of fruits and vegetables, they maintained excellent health.
Conclusion
I don’t deny that many people have seen significant health improvements when switching to an alkaline diet, but there are many possible reasons for this not having to do with pH balance. Eating more fresh produce is rarely a bad idea, especially when it displaces nutrient poor processed foods. A person switching to an alkaline diet would significantly reduce their consumption of grains, which could cause dramatic health improvements for somebody with a leaky gut or gluten sensitivity. Dairy would also be minimized, which would help those with dairy sensitivities. And although pure sugar isn’t an acid-forming nutrient, many laypeople claim that it is, so alkaline diets tend to contain far less sugar than a standard Western diet.
Between the scientific evidence (or lack thereof) and the anthropological research, I think we can be confident that the acid load of our diets doesn’t negatively impact healthy people. For those with renal failure or similar conditions that affect kidney function, it’s a different story—there’s certainly room for manipulation of urine pH in the treatment of those conditions. But for someone with functioning kidneys, there should be no concern that an acid-forming diet will harm health.
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James wrote:
“And no, diet plays virtually no role in pH regulation. Respiration is the body’s main method of pH regulation. And there are still various other mechanisms the body uses beyond respiration that the body uses to maintain pH.”
Organic acids from diet in stomach are directly absorbing into the blood due to the low surface potential as vitamin C (ascorbic acid) does, change the blood pH causing Bohr’s effect. The same effect can be achieved by respiration – Buteyko method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_effect
James wrote:
“If acidosis does occur, which is a very rare thing then IV bicarbonate is used. This is a controversial procedure though as the use of bicarbonate can paradoxically cause acidosis. The reason is the neutralization of acids by bicarbonate yields carbonic acid.”
Bicarbonate dissociates in blood creating carbonic acid. Carbonic acid acidifies blood and Bohr’s effect explains paradox.
James wrote:
“Raising pH DOES NOT kill cancer cells. I really wish people would stop reading bogus propaganda sites and repeating this myth.
Fact: Cancer cells have a more alkaline pH than healthy cells.
Fact: Research has shown that excess alkalinity of healthy cells causes them to convert in to a cancerous state.
Fact: Cancer cells require an alkaline internal pH to survive and thrive. Studies have shown when the proton transporters of cancer cells are blocked their internal pH goes acidic killing the cancer cells.”
True.
The pH of brain tumors (pH=7.10±0.03) was more alkaline than that of normal brain (pH=6.99±0.01). We conclude that the metabolite concentrations and pH in human brain tumours differ significantly from normal brain.
http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ctr1/50575403.html link is not opened any more
Here a food pH by FDA.
http://www.foodscience.caes.uga.edu/extension/documents/fdaapproximatephoffoodslacf-phs.pdf
Look at that table and find out how many foods recommended by official medicine as alkalized have pH above 7.
The question is. What is a mechnizm of alkalizing our blood by acidic food?
It seems to me that same practitioners do not understand simple chemical reactions. Professor N.G. Druzyak in his book «Как продлить быстротечную жизнь» conducted a research in the oases of longevity and find out that people have blood pH 6.9 and below.
Low level of calcium (8-20mg ions per litre) in the drinking is a panacea for their health. According to his scientific proof excess of calcium in our diet is the main culprit of our diseases. The optimal pH of our blood should be 6.9 and he submits scientific proof for that figure.
correction:
In the drinking water
Jan: “Organic acids from diet in stomach are directly absorbing into the blood due to the low surface potential as vitamin C (ascorbic acid) does, change the blood pH causing Bohr’s effect”
Ascorbic acid is absorbed from the intestines, not the stomach.
And no, it DOES NOT change the pH. First of all the acidity of the ascorbic acid will be neutralized by intestinal bicarbonate. Secondly, as pointed out so many times the body’s main pH regulator is respiration followed by kidney ion excretion or retention. So any shift in the blood pH will simply be corrected immediately to maintain the proper blood pH the body requires to survive.
Jan: “Bicarbonate dissociates in blood creating carbonic acid. Carbonic acid acidifies blood and Bohr’s effect explains paradox. ”
You are still overlooking how the body maintains pH. Even as the bicarbonate forms carbonic acid the excess will simply be utilized or eliminated immediately to maintain proper blood pH. This is why sodium bicarbonate therapy does not always cause acidosis. It depends on whether you overwhelm the buffering systems or not.
Jan: “Look at that table and find out how many foods recommended by official medicine as alkalized have pH above 7.”
It does not matter what the pH of the food is. As pointed out the pH of the food DOES NOT affect the pH of the blood.
Jan: “The question is. What is a mechnizm of alkalizing our blood by acidic food?”
Virtually none. Again, diet does not alkalize the blood. Blood pH is maintained almost exclusively by respiration followed by ion retention or excretion by the kidneys. The only role diet will play is very minor such as phosphate buffering.
Jan: “Professor N.G. Druzyak in his book «Как продлить быстротечную жизнь» conducted a research in the oases of longevity and find out that people have blood pH 6.9 and below.”
Below 6.9 these people would probably be dead since the body has a very narrow pH range in which it can survive And 6.9 is already well below normal.
Jan: “Low level of calcium (8-20mg ions per litre) in the drinking is a panacea for their health. According to his scientific proof excess of calcium in our diet is the main culprit of our diseases. The optimal pH of our blood should be 6.9 and he submits scientific proof for that figure.”
Again, below 6.9 can cause coma and death.
And excess calcium is simply excreted from the body in most cases.
@ James,
If, as you say, “experience” has taught you that “caffeine” crashes the adrenals, why is it we do not see massive numbers of cases of extraordinary proportions of adrenal fatigue and adrenal failure in the populations in all the coffee-consuming countries around the world ?
Who says were aren’t? How common are the symptoms of adrenal exhaustion? These include fatigue, hypothyroidism, allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, decreased ability to deal with stress, increased inflammatory responses, water retention, bone loss, etc.
Why are people so dependent on coffee to keep awake? If the adrenals are working properly they maintain our energy levels naturally. As people crash their adrenals their energy levels drop and they rush to take more caffeine to artificially up their energy and attention span. In severe cases though the adrenal fatigue can become so bad that the coffee no longer works to keep them awake as I explained in this post:
http://medcapsules.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2995
James,
While I respect both your knowledge base and intelligence, you did not answer my question… WHERE is the EVIDENCE (even epidemiological) that coffee consumption causes adrenal dysfunction ?
Coffee, like any other :substance” on this planet, has “two-sides”… http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2011/May/ChemistryInEveryCup.asp
I enjoy my daily ONE cup of dark-roast, expresso-grind, organic coffee, and I have NO adrenal problems that I am aware of. I do not “crash”, nor do I have problems staying awake. And I don’t stick it up my butt… Nor do I recommend coffee enemas to my clients…
What do you drink, TEA ? No caffeine there… lol..
I am just hazarding a guess, but if you were to combine
all the people who consume coffee or tea on a daily basis (and have for CENTURIES), that would easily be what, at least 75% of the Earth’s population ?
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE….
Mr Paleo: “While I respect both your knowledge base and intelligence, you did not answer my question… WHERE is the EVIDENCE (even epidemiological) that coffee consumption causes adrenal dysfunction ?”
Look how easy it was to look up the effects of caffeine on the adrenals:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=caffeine+adrenals+pubmed
Keep in mind that the adrenals are designed for short term surges during fight or flight. They are not designed to be run for hours on end with stimulants.
So why are you ignoring the prevalence of adrenal dysfunction symptoms I posted for you?
Mr Paleo: “I enjoy my daily ONE cup of dark-roast, expresso-grind, organic coffee, and I have NO adrenal problems that I am aware of.”
That you “are aware of”. That is one of the big problems. Most people are not aware of what the symptoms of adrenal fatigue are and don’t realize there are varying levels of adrenal fatigue. Even if they are aware people tend to ignore symptoms as is often done in cases of other drug addictions.
By the way the article you linked also left out another very important problem with coffee consumption, which is tannin and oxalate binding. Tannins can bind various beneficial compounds in food as well as medications rending them totally useless to the body. Oxalates can also bind various nutrients such as calcium also rendering them useless to the body.
Mr Paleo: “What do you drink, TEA ? No caffeine there… lol..”
ROTFMAO!!!! You think Camellia sinensis is the only “tea” in the world? I RARELY drink caffeinated teas, even green tea.
During the summer I drink jiaogulan tea almost exclusively. Jiaogulan tea DOES NOT contain caffeine and it supports the adrenals. During the winter my favorite tea is nettle leaf with a little lemon grass and stevia steeped overnight. Again, NO caffeine and very supportive to the adrenals.
So unlike coffee the teas I primarily drink do not crash the adrenals and do not contain various carcinogenic compounds like coffee. Also unlike coffee my teas do not bind nutrients or medications so they are much safer for people to consume.
Mr Paleo: “I am just hazarding a guess, but if you were to combine
all the people who consume coffee or tea on a daily basis (and have for CENTURIES), that would easily be what, at least 75% of the Earth’s population ?”
And again, what is the prevalence of adrenal fatigue symptoms among this population? Why are you ignoring that? Probably for the same reason people ignore the side effects they experience from addictive drugs like caffeine.
Pharmacokinetics of Caffeine following a Single Administration of Coffee Enema versus Oral Coffee Consumption in Healthy Male Subjects
Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the pharmacokinetics of caffeine after single administration of a coffee enema versus coffee consumed orally in healthy male subjects. The study design was an open-label, randomized two-phase crossover study. Eleven healthy subjects were randomly assigned either to receive 500 mL of coffee enema for 10 minutes or to consume 180 mL of ready-to-drink coffee beverage. After a washout period of at least 10 days, all the subjects were switched to receive the alternate coffee procedure. Blood samples were collected immediately before and at specific time points until 12 hours after coffee administration in each phase. The mean caffeine content in both the coffee solution prepared for the coffee enema and the ready-to-drink coffee beverage was not statistically different. The Cmax and AUC of caffeine obtained from the coffee enema were about 3.5 times significantly less than those of the coffee consumed orally, despite having slightly but statistically faster Tmax. The t1/2 of caffeine obtained following both coffee procedures did not statistically differ. In summary, the relative bioavailability of caffeine obtained from the coffee enema was about 3.5 times significantly less than those of the coffee consumed orally.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3603218/
Caffeine Stimulation of Cortisol Secretion Across the Waking Hours in Relation to Caffeine Intake Levels
Abstract
Objective
Caffeine increases cortisol secretion in people at rest or undergoing mental stress. It is not known whether tolerance develops in this response with daily intake of caffeine in the diet. We therefore tested the cortisol response to caffeine challenge after controlled levels of caffeine intake.
Methods
Men (N = 48) and women (N = 48) completed a double-blind, crossover trial conducted over 4 weeks. On each week, subjects abstained for 5 days from dietary caffeine and instead took capsules totaling 0 mg, 300 mg, and 600 mg/day in 3 divided doses. On day 6, they took capsules with either 0 mg or 250 mg at 9:00 AM, 1:00 PM, and 6:00 PM, and cortisol was sampled from saliva collected at 8 times from 7:30 AM to 7:00 PM.
Results
After 5 days of caffeine abstinence, caffeine challenge doses caused a robust increase in cortisol across the test day (p < .0001). In contrast, 5 days of caffeine intake at 300 mg/day and 600 mg/day abolished the cortisol response to the initial 9:00 AM caffeine dose, although cortisol levels were again elevated between 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM (p = .02 to .002) after the second caffeine dose taken at 1:00 PM. Cortisol levels declined to control levels during the evening sampling period.
Conclusion
Cortisol responses to caffeine are reduced, but not eliminated, in healthy young men and women who consume caffeine on a daily basis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2257922/
Coffee enema for preparation for small bowel video capsule endoscopy: a pilot study.
Abstract
Coffee enemas are believed to cause dilatation of bile ducts and excretion of bile through the colon wall. Proponents of coffee enemas claim that the cafestol palmitate in coffee enhances the activity of glutathione S-transferase, an enzyme that stimulates bile excretion. During video capsule endoscopy (VCE), excreted bile is one of the causes of poor preparation of the small bowel. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility and effect of coffee enema for preparation of the small bowel during VCE. In this pilot study, 17 of 34 patients were assigned to the coffee enema plus polyethylene glycol (PEG) 2 L ingestion group, whereas the 17 remaining control patients received 2 L of PEG only. The quality of bowel preparation was evaluated in the two patient groups. Bowel preparations in the proximal segments of small bowel were not differ between two groups. In the mid and distal segments of the small intestine, bowel preparations tend to be better in patients who received coffee enemas plus PEG than in patients who received PEG only. The coffee enema group did not experience any complications or side effects. Coffee enemas may be a feasible option, and there were no clinically significant adverse events related to coffee enemas. More prospective randomized studies are warranted to improve small bowel preparation for VCE.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25136541
Anti-angiogenic and anti-inflammatory properties of kahweol, a coffee diterpene.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Epidemiological studies have shown that unfiltered coffee consumption is associated with a low incidence of cancer. This study aims to identify the effects of kahweol, an antioxidant diterpene contained in unfiltered coffee, on angiogenesis and key inflammatory molecules.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:
The experimental procedures included in vivo angiogenesis assays (both the chicken and quail choriallantoic membrane assay and the angiogenesis assay with fluorescent zebrafish), the ex vivo mouse aortic ring assay and the in vitro analysis of the effects of treatment of human endothelial cells with kahweol in cell growth, cell viability, cell migration and zymographic assays, as well as the tube formation assay on Matrigel. Additionally, two inflammation markers were determined, namely, the expression levels of cyclooxygenase 2 and the levels of secreted monocyte chemoattractant protein-1. We show for the first time that kahweol is an anti-angiogenic compound with inhibitory effects in two in vivo and one ex vivo angiogenesis models, with effects on specific steps of the angiogenic process: endothelial cell proliferation, migration, invasion and tube formation on Matrigel. We also demonstrate the inhibitory effect of kahweol on the endothelial cell potential to remodel extracellular matrix by targeting two key molecules involved in the process, MMP-2 and uPA. Finally, the anti-inflammatory potential of this compound is demonstrated by its inhibition of both COX-2 expression and MCP-1 secretion in endothelial cells.
CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE:
Taken together, our data indicate that, indeed, kahweol behaves as an anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic compound with potential use in antitumoral therapies. These data may contribute to the explanation of the reported antitumoral effects of kahweol, including the recent epidemiological meta-analysis showing that drinking coffee could decrease the risk of certain cancers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21858104
Scientific Basis of Coffee Enemas
Doctors at the University of Minnesota showed that coffee administered rectally also stimulates an enzyme system in the liver called glutathione S-transferase by 600%-700% above normal activity levels. This enzyme reacts with free radicals (which cause cell damage) in the bloodstream and makes them inert. These neutralized substances become dissolved in the bile, are released through the bile flow from the liver and gallbladder, and are excreted through the intestinal tract. A Gerson patient holds the coffee enema in the colon for 12-15 minutes. During this time, the body’s entire blood supply passes through the liver 4-5 times, carrying poisons picked up from the tissues. So the enema acts as a form of dialysis of the blood across the gut wall.
http://gerson.org/pdfs/How_Coffee_Enemas_Work.pdf
The problem with this is that I can’t find the original study by the University of Minnesota. Perhaps it was not peer-reviewed for political reasons. But one hopes that it does actually exist, if the Gerson institute claims that it does! But why no link and no author of the study?
I think I’ve found the study the Gerson Institute was referring to (it was cited somewhere else). But unfortunately, the abstract is not online.
Wattenberg, L. W. 1981. a. Inhibitors of chemical carcinogens. Pp. 517-539 in J. H. Burchenal, editor; and H. F. Oettgen, editor. , eds. Cancer: Achievements, Challenges, and Prospects for the 1980’s, Volume 1. Grune and Stratton, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, and San Francisco.
The person who cited the study said this about it:
“Dr. Lee W. Wattenberg, MD (Univ. of Minnesota/NCI-Designated Masonic Cancer Center) was able to show that substances found in coffee – kahweol and cafestol palmitate – promote the activity of a key enzyme system, glutathione S-transferase. This enzyme is responsible for neutralizing free radicals, harmful chemicals now commonly implicated in the initiation of cancer and needed for detoxification. Consuming coffee orally does not produce the benefits experienced when it is taken as an enema.
Note: Glutathione is a natural sulfur-bearing peptide formed from the linking of three amino acids: glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine. Glutathione acts as an antioxidant and detoxicant and is involved with the selenium-containing enzyme glutathione peroxidase. Glutathione is also involved in amino acid transport across cell membranes and is a powerful free radical scavenger and antioxidant that removes toxic substances from the body.
Other mechanics – The coffee enema causes the liver to produce more bile (which contains processed toxins) and moves bile out towards the small intestine for elimination. This frees up the liver to process more incoming toxic materials that have accumulated in the organs, tissues and bloodstream. In other words, a coffee enema speeds up the detoxification process and minimizes the backlog of yet-to-be-detoxified substances.”
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/09/17/nicholas-gonzalez-response-to-the-failed/
“The coffee enema group did not experience any complications or side effects. ”
Of course not since this was a one time shot. Caffeine over-stimulation problems are with regular use.
It is like the use of aspirin. A single dose is not going to cause bleeding ulcers. But regualr use will by continued inhibition of prostaglandins.
“These data may contribute to the explanation of the reported antitumoral effects of kahweol, including the recent epidemiological meta-analysis showing that drinking coffee could decrease the risk of certain cancers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21858104”
This has nothing to do with the topic of how the caffeine in coffee adversely affects the adrenals. By the way, this leads to increased inflammation that increases the risk of cancer by the increase of reactive oxygen species.
In addition, roasted coffee contains various carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and acrylamide. Short term studies on things like fish do not tell us the cancer risks of coffee.
pbutterfly2000: “Doctors at the University of Minnesota showed that coffee administered rectally also stimulates an enzyme system in the liver called glutathione S-transferase by 600%-700% above normal activity levels. This enzyme reacts with free radicals (which cause cell damage)”
First of all where is any REAL evidence that glutathione S-transferase reacts with free radicals? And if they react with free radicals does this neutralize them or enhance them? Keep in mind that either way the glutathione S-transferase must first react with free radicals to begin with as has been claimed.
Secondly, how do explain the high level of glutathione S-transferases in cancer cells naturally even without the supposed rise by the caffeine in coffee? See:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891584911002395
http://www.academia.edu/4113577/level_of_glutathione-s-transferase_in_esophagus_cancer_after_chemotherapy
And would be the real benefit of elevating glutathione S-transferases when they can interfere with the effectiveness therapies used to treat cancer?
pbutterfly2000: “The person who cited the study said this about it:
“Dr. Lee W. Wattenberg, MD (Univ. of Minnesota/NCI-Designated Masonic Cancer Center) was able to show that substances found in coffee – kahweol and cafestol palmitate – promote the activity of a key enzyme system, glutathione S-transferase. This enzyme is responsible for neutralizing free radicals”
Again, where is the evidence that glutathione S-transferases neutralize free radicals?
pbutterfly2000: “Glutathione is also involved in amino acid transport across cell membranes and is a powerful free radical scavenger”
And? Glutathione is an amino acid. Not the same thing as the glutathione S-transferase enzymes, which are what coffee enema supporters are claiming are proving the beneficial effects.
pbutterfly2000: “Other mechanics – The coffee enema causes the liver to produce more bile (which contains processed toxins) and moves bile out towards the small intestine for elimination.”
Drinking coffee does the same exact thing due to the bitterness of the coffee. Again, bitters cleanse the liver and gallbladder through stimulation of the bitter receptors of the tongue, which in turn stimulates the vagus nerve. But digestive bitters do this safer as they do this without caffeine, which adversely affects the adrenals.
In addition, digestive bitters do not contain the various carcinogenic compounds in coffee and generally do not bind nutrients or dehydrate the body the way coffee does.
Thank you pbutterfly2000 for your effort in finding some studies regarding the coffee enemas.
It will after all be interesting to see what James is going to come up with to shoot down these findings. Keep up the good work!
Sunflower: “Thank you pbutterfly2000 for your effort in finding some studies regarding the coffee enemas.”
Yes, they back up what I was saying all along.
Sunflower: “It will after all be interesting to see what James is going to come up with to shoot down these findings. ”
Why do you insist on always trying to make this personal?!!!
Again, the studies that were posted that would deal with the topic of caffeine absorption and adverse effects on the adrenals BACKED UP what I was saying all along. Coffee enemas absorb more caffeine than oral absorption and the caffeine dangerously DECREASES adrenal function. Therefore, the claim by coffee enema supporters that the caffeine from coffee enemas is somehow magically rendered inert has just been proven BOGUS!!!
“Cortisol responses to caffeine are reduced, but not eliminated, in healthy young men and women who consume caffeine on a daily basis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2257922/”
Yes, cortisol is reduced because the caffeine is suppressing adrenal function. And being that the caffeine is better absorbed through the colon than orally the process that leads to adrenal dysfunction is more pronounced with coffee enemas.
It would help to have the original article, because otherwise all we have is peoples’ analysis of the article, which is not the same thing.
The article on the effect of coffee on cancer is not relevant in and of itself. But taken together with the other studies, which suggest that coffee may be also be a powerful detoxifier, may not be harmful to the body in small quantities, and is 3.5 times less bioavailable to the body when taken rectally rather than orally (causing fewer adrenal effects) it makes sense that coffee enemas make people feel better, and not just due to the caffeine rush.
I would love to know what the study by Wattenberg actually said. That way we would know how his study proved (or failed to prove) the effectiveness of coffee enemas, his theories about glutathione s-tranferase, etc. Perhaps someone could dig up the actual physical copy of the article and post in somewhere (someone from the Gerson Institute perhaps). Without the study, we’re all shooting in the dark. I’ve heard other amazing things about glutathione, and would love to know if this mechanism of the coffee enema actually works to elevate glutathione levels by 600%.
More on the dangers of caffeine and coffee:
Increased risk of heart disease:
Contribution of caffeine to the homocysteine-raising effect of coffee: a randomized controlled trial in humans1,2,3
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/6/1244.full
Note that elevated homocysteine has also been linked to an increased risk of cancer.
Coffee and Cancer of the Pancreas
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM198103123041102
http://www.academia.edu/1472210/The_Caffeine_and_Java_Myth_The_Relationship_Between_the_World_of_Coffee_to_the_Science_of_Diabetes_and_Obesity_in_Public_Health
James said:
“Drinking coffee does the same exact thing due to the bitterness of the coffee.”
Well I’ve finally gotten hold of the Wattenberg study (the Gerson Institute was kind enough to send it to me), and it appears you are right! The study in question was done by feeding mice powdered green coffee beans, which increased GST by 600% in the liver and by 700% in the small intestine. Apparently roasted coffee does not have as strong an effect but does a similar thing, as well as black tea (and I assume also green tea). The study stated that it is not the caffeine that produces this effect, as cocoa beans were inactive. So I’m assuming it must be the tannins, which are also found in tea but not in cocoa.
The study also says that the protective effect of the coffee reduced tumors in the mice by 50%.
The person at Gerson said there was another study about infusing mice with coffee that was done in Germany that she is trying to get hold of. She sent me a PDF on the one study so I can’t copy and paste it, but if anyone is really really interested I can type it out and paste it here (it’s only a paragraph long, albeit a long paragraph).
What really fascinates me about the coffee enema is peoples’ anecdotal reports about things such as being able to keep their hair through chemotherapy when doing daily coffee enemas, and stories like that. Apparently as soon as they stop the coffee enemas their hair falls out again, and when they start them again the hair grows back. I think if we have enough people reporting things like that, a study really should be done. Because chemo patients are one really good example of people who are in such an advanced state of toxicity that we really can measure what’s happening in the body with or without detoxification procedures.
pbutterfly2000: “Well I’ve finally gotten hold of the Wattenberg study (the Gerson Institute was kind enough to send it to me), and it appears you are right! ”
Great, we are finally getting somewhere.
pbutterfly2000: “The study stated that it is not the caffeine that produces this effect, as cocoa beans were inactive. So I’m assuming it must be the tannins, which are also found in tea but not in cocoa.”
Actually cocoa DOES contain tannins. It is the tannins that give plain cocoa an astringent effect.
Here are some studies on the tannin content in cocoa:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pmca.com%2Ffirstpage%2F1983_25.pdf&ei=jAFHVMqZL4OiyQTquoG4BA&usg=AFQjCNFU3xB3MlQIlsHeFGyHulsBExB-uQ&sig2=n0ZKa0ZszpL4HY2OsbRDXA
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf60116a016
http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/1938/an/an9386300027#!divAbstract
pbutterfly2000: “The study also says that the protective effect of the coffee reduced tumors in the mice by 50%. ”
Green coffee used in the study DOES NOT have the carcinogens, such as the polycyclic areomatic hydrocarbons and arcylamide since these compounds are formed during the roasting process of the coffee beans.
pbutterfly2000: “What really fascinates me about the coffee enema is peoples’ anecdotal reports about things such as being able to keep their hair through chemotherapy when doing daily coffee enemas, and stories like that. Apparently as soon as they stop the coffee enemas their hair falls out again, and when they start them again the hair grows back.”
Do you know how we get rid of old medications? They are mixed with coffee grounds. The tannins in the coffee grounds bind with the medications, as they do supplements as well, rendering them useless to the body.
So the answer could be as simple as the coffee enemas are allowing the absorption of the tannins that are binding the chemotherapy drugs rendering the chemotherapy drugs useless.
If these are binding chemo drugs then what else are they binding? Other medications in the body? Supplements? Nutrients that can also be bound by the oxalic acid in the coffee? Again, people are playing Russian roulette with these coffee enemas.
pbutterfly2000: “Because chemo patients are one really good example of people who are in such an advanced state of toxicity that we really can measure what’s happening in the body with or without detoxification procedures.”
Again, the effects you are discussing may have nothing to do with raising glutathione. It may be just from binding of medications rendering them useless. So yes, I agree studies should be done before people do these enemas to find out if they are really providing a benefit or a danger.
And Gerson’s study still needs to be verified or disproven with INDEPENDENT research studies since it is so easy to manipulate studies and this is often done. This is one of the reasons it is important to look at multiple studies and see how they were designed, performed interpreted and to look for financial conflicts of interest.
I’d like to ask James, MR PALEO, Jan and sunflower to please continue this discussion elsewhere.
pbutterfly2000, did you happen to read this part of the study you were quoting?:
“Although our previous study has demonstrated that single or multiple doses of coffee enema do not produce beneficial effects with respect to an enhancement of serum glutathione levels and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity or a decrease in serum malondialdehyde concentrations in the same population reported here [9], documented evidence exists that it might be associated with considerable potential risks”
As well as:
“Some important limitations need to be considered regarding the present study. Firstly, the coffee enema fluid of which its mean caffeine content and the total volume were restricted to 107.24 mg/500 mL. In addition, each subject was requested to retain the coffee enema fluid for exactly 10 min while lying in various postures before defecation. In a real situation, coffee enema users might perform this procedure using different types of coffee with wide variation in coffee concentrations/volumes as well as retaining durations. The variations in these factors might influence colonic absorption and pharmacokinetics of caffeine following enema procedure and warrant further investigation.”
Yes, I did. However, apparently the study that is not online, by Wattenberg, says the exact opposite thing about glutathione. It is not unusual for studies to contradict one another; it depends on the methods used and how they are analyzed. That is why we need more than one study to determine what is going on with any given mechanism. There is a great deal of political bias in studies about alternative therapies, including coffee enemas, such that the majority of the studies on coffee enemas are about ridiculous things such as people making the coffee too hot and burning themselves, because they have tried and can’t find any other real dangers to coffee enemas. The authors in fact seemed miffed that there was anything in the study at all that suggested any positive findings about coffee administered rectally – that is was in fact less potent and therefore less toxic when taken that way.
This really is an important finding, because it explains why people don’t get the jitters the same way with the enema that they do when drinking coffee (unless they make the coffee too strong). As for the ten minute limitation of the study, I don’t see what that would have to do with the results, as it only takes three minutes apparently for liquids in the rectum to reach the liver. Anyway, they wouldn’t have used that duration if they thought it would produce a meaningless result.
But again, if the glutathione mechanism is truly enhanced (we’d have to get hold of the Wattenberg study to see how it was done and how convincing it is to know for sure), the detoxifying effects of a coffee enema would probably be worth the small amount of caffeine ingested for most people, unless they really can’t tolerate caffeine or have really weak adrenals.
By the way, I totally agree with you that it’s irresponsible to say that the caffeine is not going to affect you AT ALL when taken rectally. They should explain that it has LESS of a caffeine effect, not none at all. And there also should be a warning that caffeine can crash the adrenals even in small amounts and even if taken rectally, if the person already has weak adrenals. I don’t know why this information is so hard to come by. The study says that the caffeine is 3.5 times less bioavailable to the body, so that’s what the websites recommending coffee enemas should say. I guess most people can have a cup of coffee and it won’t kill them, so they don’t consider to mention it, but the fact is that it’s the ones with the weakest adrenals that are getting the advice to do it. One naturopath I know of suggested that people start with only a pinch of coffee if they are sensitive. That seems more responsible to me.
Also: if they don’t do studies about coffee enemas crashing the adrenals as a way to discredit them, it’s because they think adrenal fatigue is bogus to begin with!
Ah, reading even more closely I see the potential problem here in this study:
“Although our previous study has demonstrated that single or multiple doses of coffee enema do not produce beneficial effects with respect to an enhancement of serum glutathione levels…”
The key word here is SERUM. Gerson and his advocates do not suggest that the coffee enema increases serum glutathione levels; what they state, per the Wattenberg study apparently, is that the glutathione increase comes directly from the release of bile from the coffee enema, which then detoxifies the liver and sends its contents directly to the bowel for elimination. I don’t see how measuring serum glutathione would account for this process.
pbbutterfly2000: “Yes, I did. However, apparently the study that is not online, by Wattenberg, says the exact opposite thing about glutathione.”
Being that nobody here has actually seen the study there is no way to know what it really does say or if the conclusions were drawn properly.
I have seen all sorts of claims made about a study claimed _______ yet when you read the study it said no such thing. As an example how many times have people posted the baking soda study on cancer claiming that the study proved baking soda killed cancer cells. If we read the actual study though the study NEVER claimed anywhere that the baking soda killed cancer cells. The study found that it inhibited metastases, which IS NOT the same thing. Same for the studies on “oleander soup” which ALL showed it to be a failure for the treatment of cancer yet people are making bogus claims about what the studies found to make it appear it was effective. I have seen the same done with cesium chloride studies although cesium chloride has been found to be not only carcinogenic but also to promote the growth of existing cancers. Therefore, claiming a study says something without providing the actual study for review is ridiculous.
Furthermore, you stated you did in fact see those parts of the study. So those facts should have been included in your post even if they did go against your claim.
pbutterfly2000: “here is a great deal of political bias in studies about alternative therapies, including coffee enemas, such that the majority of the studies on coffee enemas are about ridiculous things such as people making the coffee too hot and burning themselves, because they have tried and can’t find any other real dangers to coffee enemas.”
Or important facts get left out such as:
“Although our previous study has demonstrated that single or multiple doses of coffee enema do not produce beneficial effects with respect to an enhancement of serum glutathione levels and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity or a decrease in serum malondialdehyde concentrations in the same population reported here [9], documented evidence exists that it might be associated with considerable potential risks”
And:
“Some important limitations need to be considered regarding the present study. Firstly, the coffee enema fluid of which its mean caffeine content and the total volume were restricted to 107.24 mg/500 mL. In addition, each subject was requested to retain the coffee enema fluid for exactly 10 min while lying in various postures before defecation. In a real situation, coffee enema users might perform this procedure using different types of coffee with wide variation in coffee concentrations/volumes as well as retaining durations. The variations in these factors might influence colonic absorption and pharmacokinetics of caffeine following enema procedure and warrant further investigation.”
pbbutterfly2000: “This really is an important finding, because it explains why people don’t get the jitters the same way with the enema”
So how do you explain the people who crashed their adrenals from using coffee enemas? Clearly the caffeine in the coffee is still having adverse effects on the adrenals.
And the caffeine is not the only issue. What about the various carcinogens in coffee such as the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the acrylamide?
pbbutterfly2000: “As for the ten minute limitation of the study, I don’t see what that would have to do with the results, as it only takes three minutes apparently for liquids in the rectum to reach the liver”
There are several problems with that comment. First of all just because something is reaching the liver that quick this DOES NOT it is all reaching the liver at the same time. That is like saying if you dump a bunch of rubber ducks in to a river going out to the ocean that in the time one duck reaches the ocean all the rubber duck will have reached the ocean, which of course is not the case.
In addition, the rate of absorption of a liquid is dependent on the saturation of the liquid. Research osmosis. If the concentration of the solution is too great then it can draw in water rather than diffuse out. Therefore, there are other factors involved in the coffee enema including concentration of the coffee AND RETENTION TIME.
pbbutterfly2000: “But again, if the glutathione mechanism is truly enhanced”
That is all based on the big “IF”, which has yet to be proven. So far the only study actually presented shows the coffee enemas DO NOT raise glutathione levels.
And even it did raise somewhat this still would not prove a greater benefit than harm. Again, there is more dangers to coffee than just the caffeine.
pbutterfly2000: “They should explain that it has LESS of a caffeine effect, not none at all. ”
Again, this all depends on the amount of caffeine absorbed, which is dependent on various factors such as coffee concentration, caffeine concentration and retention time. Basically it is a big gamble with no proven benefit to risk ratio.
pbutterfly2000: “The study says that the caffeine is 3.5 times less bioavailable to the body”
It also said there were flaws with the study that could change the amount of caffeine absorbed. So to keep claiming a 3.5 less absorption of caffeine while ignoring what the study showed were flaws is being very and deliberately misleading.
Again, go back and look at some of the factors that I listed that affect the outcome.
pbutterfly2000: “I guess most people can have a cup of coffee and it won’t kill them”
People can have a dose of arsenic and it will not kill them because arsenic is a cumulative poison. Point is that just because something will not kill you with a single dose this DOES NOT mean it is not harmful.
I still prefer small amounts of digestive bitters to cleanse the liver. Much safer, works better and has more benefits in my opinion.
pbutterfly2000: “Also: if they don’t do studies about coffee enemas crashing the adrenals as a way to discredit them, it’s because they think adrenal fatigue is bogus to begin with!”
That is utterly ridiculous. There are a number of reasons why they may not do studies on this including the fact that there is no financial incentive or nobody really cares.
Have you ever seen any studies on whether dog poo or horse manure makes a better fertilizer? If not why? After all this does not change the fact that both can be used as fertilizer!
pbutterfly2000: Ah, reading even more closely I see the potential problem here in this study”
I don’t see any problem.
First of all we still have not seen this actual study to really know what was actually said.
Secondly, to back your claim you would have to show that the glutathione was in the bile to begin with. And even it were then how is the coffee increasing its level suddenly in the bile? Where is that glutathione being produced and coming from?
And on top of the problem that nobody has been able to provide this supposed study I doubt if there are any independent confirmation studies to back it up. Just because someone claims something in a study this does not automatically make it true. Studies are frequently designed or misinterpreted to get a desired outcome. For example, if you look in to the research on cesium chloride for cancer the only study that shows an apparent benefit included giving the person a number of other things that can help with cancer. But in the end the “researcher” gives all the credit to the few surviving cases to the cesium chloride. In the other “research papers” written by this guy he primarily cites his own faulty research as his references.
Is Gerson using the same deceiving tactics?
And how much have we learned about how things really work since Gerson’s time?
And again, wheres is the real evidence backing up the whole glutathione claim?
It’s excellent anyway to know that coffee grounds can bind toxins like that. The study makes me wonder though, why don’t people use green powdered coffee in their enemas if that’s what the initial study used and if they’re not carcinogenic?
You’re right, who knows what else is bound? It would be good to know. But if it’s binding toxic waste products from within and without the body that should be good, since what the body mostly needs to heal itself is to not be too clogged and congested to do so. What some people claim is that the other things that are bound are the by-products of the dead and rotting tumor. I don’t know if medications and supplements are as important as just letting the body do its job. (I know someone who recently died of cancer; but he didn’t actually die from the tumor – he died from his own congested lymph system. He felt immediately better when they sent him home to die and took him off the chemo drugs, but then within a few days his mucus attacked and clogged his system. No immune system left after the chemo probably. If he could have unclogged the pipes, he may have had a chance. When someone is in that state, they obviously don’t give a shit if their adrenals are going to crash)!
And I did type out the study for posterity. Here it is:
EFFECTS OF COFFEE ON GLUTATHIONE S-TRANSFERASE (GST)
ACTIVITY AND 7, 12-DIMETHYLANE (A) ANTERACENE (DMBA)-INDUCED NEOPLASIA. Velta L. Sparnins, Luke K,, T. Lam and Lee W. Wattenberg. University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
The GST enzyme system detoxifies many carcinogens. We report induction of increased GST activity by coffee. Diets containing 20% powdered green coffee beans (Guatemalan) were fed to female ICR/HA mice for 14 days. GST activity increased in liver 6 fold and small intestine 7 fold. With the same conditions, caffeine 5 mg/Gm of diet enhanced liver GST 2.8 fold and small intestine 1.5 fold. Preliminary data show that the major inducing activity of green coffee beans is not due to caffeine. Diets containing roasted coffee beans, instant coffee or instant decaffeinated coffee all induce GST in mouse liver and small intestine, but to a lesser degree than green coffee beans. Green coffee beans from 5 countries, i.e. Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, Salvador and Colombia, all have similar inducing potencies. Powdered black tea leaves in the diet also induce increased GST; cocoa beans are inactive. The effect of green coffee beans on DMBA-induced mammary tumor formation has been studied. A group of 16 female Sprague Dawley rats was fed 10% green coffee beans in a purified diet for 14 days, then purified diet for 18 hours. A second group was fed purified diet only. 12 mg DMBA was given p.o. to both groups. Subsequently, all rats were fed a crude diet without additions. Sixteen weeks after DMBA administration the results were (% rats with mammary tumors, number of tumors/rat): controls – 69%, 1.13; rats fed coffee beans – 38%, 0.56. The data obtained in the investigations reported above indicate that coffee beans contain a constituent or constituents having the capacity to enhance carcinogen detoxification. (Supported by NIH contract CP-85613 and grant CA-09599.)
Thank you for all your effort pbutterfly 2000…its been greatly appreciated.
pbutterfly2000….Just as a note: I have had many coffee enemas over the years…it never affects me the way it does drinking it….I don’t know the last time I had a coffee….no increased heart rate or restlessness …no hyper sensations only a sense of well being, calm and a focused mind. My energy levels are up and I have a spring in my step that lasts all day….and the other good thing is that I don’t crash when it wears off….rather the opposite.
Sunflower: “Just as a note: I have had many coffee enemas over the years…it never affects me the way it does drinking it….I don’t know the last time I had a coffee….”
The adverse effects of caffeine tend to be the effect of long term, regular use. Just like eating a piece of cake every once in a while is not going to have the same adverse effects of eating cake all the time.
But as pointed out before even short term use or single use of coffee as as enema can lead to the adrenals crashing if the person already has weak adrenals to begin with. A danger the coffee enema supporters never seem to warn people about.
And individual testimonials of I have not had……. are worthless. The individual is not everyone else. How many times have we heard smokers claim I have been smoking for ____ years and never got cancer or emphysema. Does this mean smoking is perfectly safe and will not cause cancer or emphysema?
James,
I didn’t say that coffee taken rectally is 3.5 less bioavailable to the bod than coffee taken orally; the study did. For the study then to claim that their own conclusion is bogus because their methods were faulty is not science, it’s the authors of the study trying to skew the results of their own study by saying vague and meaningless things doubt “other potential risks” and so forth, which could just mean that one can burn oneself if the coffee is made too hot, lol.
Apparently according to the Wattenberg study, tumors were decreased by 50% by ingesting powdered coffee beans. That would suggest that cancer patients, who have a lot more to worry about than crashing their adrenals, might find it useful to take a coffee enema in order to get the GST effects of coffee with minimal caffeine effects.
You asked for people to post studies, and I posted a study which claims that coffee taken rectally does not have the same caffeine effects as coffee taken orally, but if you don’t take that study seriously then there’s nothing more I can say.
By the way, it’s not irrelevant to say that doctors don’t claim that coffee crashes the adrenals because they don’t believe in it. Didn’t you get my point? My point is that they are trying very hard to find dangers of coffee enemas, and they are having a hard time doing so. The other point is that they don’t recognize real medical problems if they don’t fit into a certain paradigm.
Ok…I am happy to let it go as admin has suggested. You are skirting the issue as others have said as well….there is no attack towards you but a genuine need for clarification regarding your background to make your statements more credible.
Anyway James I wish you well and once again thank you for your contributions. Over and Out….
Greetings from the future!
“Who says were aren’t? How common are the symptoms of adrenal exhaustion? These include fatigue, hypothyroidism, allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, decreased ability to deal with stress, increased inflammatory responses, water retention, bone loss, etc.
Why are people so dependent on coffee to keep awake? If the adrenals are working properly they maintain our energy levels naturally.”
Actually… this makes a lot of sense and spawns REASONABLE suspicions re coffee/caffeine. And I don’t think James would say that we don’t need more study on this. There have been LOT of studies on coffee/caffeine done but many just spark new questions.
A great resource for the doubting thomases amongst us. This site gives the FACTS of how electrolysis or water happens.
http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/electrolysis.html
Who is doubting electrolysis of water? I have not seen anyone doubting this. In fact, most people have learned about electrolysis of water by 6th grade in school.
What the link does not show is what happens when this electrolysis is done in the presence of minerals, which forms mineral (metal) hydroxides. Nor does it discuss the side effects of drinking these caustic hydroxides nor about the disassociation of these hydroxides, which forms the dangerous hydroxyl radical.
My biology teacher said that the body goes to great lengths to maintain the correct pH of the blood and will even draw minerals out of bones, or deposit minerals from the blood into the bones, to maintain that balance. Since this is the case, bones are evidently involved in helping to maintain safe blood pH levels to avoid the levels dipping too far below or too high above the safe ranges. Doesn’t common sense tell us that if the bones had to deposit lots of calcium into the blood to keep it within its safe pH range, then the bones may suffer detrimentally if the minerals deposited into the blood aren’t replenished back into the bones? Presumably our only sources of replenishing those minerals are food and supplements. Also, I have a book on my knee about the pH diet and there are over 50 references to scientific papers which seem to validate the acid-alkali theory. For example, “Diet Acids and Alkalis Influence Calcium Retention in Bone” Buclin, T. M. et al. Osteoporosis International 12(6) 493-499m 2001
Yes, the body can use minerals from the bone to help with pH balance, but this is ONLY done as a last resort. It would take severe long term acidosis before the bones were used as an alkalizing source.
I have read some of these studies in the past and found they were flawed. The biggest problem with these studies is they never determined where the calcium was coming from. The body eliminates calcium all the time to prevent a very dangerous condition known as hypercalcemia. Adding acids to the diet increases calcium absorption from the diet and thus means more calcium has to be eliminated to prevent hypercalcemia. This DOES NOT mean the calcium is coming from the bones.
If it were coming from the bones then there should also be an increased excretion of other bone minerals, not just calcium. Bones contain a variety of minerals including silica, boron, calcium, magnesium strontium, manganese, copper and zinc. Yet they only tested for calcium, which DOES NOT prove bone demineralization.
The bones do use citric acid for breakdown as part of the remodeling process to keep bones healthy.
James,
I’ve been reading all your posts and really appreciate the time you have taken to inform yourself and others.
I have an off topic but still related to the alkaline diet question:
I’m a 24 year old female and I’ve developed a pilonidal cyst, I have great hygiene, exercise frequently, but I’ve never really followed a diet, but I’ve always been healthy, based on my checkups. My doctor told me that these types of cysts do develop for other reasons but are frequently hereditary, but mostly in males. He suggested surgery and offered a referral.
I went home and of course wanted to read promising stories online about this condition. What I found was mostly horror stories, people who got surgery 10 times because it kept coming back, and so on. The only two treatments that appear to have good results are a cleft lift, which is considered elective by insurance companies and extremely expensive, and the alkaline diet/castor oil treatments.
I decided before rushing into surgery to try the alkaline diet and castor oil. I have consistently applied castor oil to the cyst and I’ve eaten a diet of strictly egg whites, vegetables, fruits, and almonds (although the information on alkaline food levels seems to vary from site to site, so I cross compared and narrowed down to foods that seemed frequently agreed upon). The cyst closed within days and stayed closed for months.
I recently moved home (Southern California), and I wanted to eat my favorite food, In-N-Out. I figured, oh, I’ll just eat it once, what could it hurt? The cyst opened the next day. I went back to a strict diet and it closed again, but three weeks later I decided to see if that was coincidence or not. Went to a different restaurant with my family and ate Italian food/pizza. It opened again.
Now from what I gathered from your many responses on the alkaline diet, eating nutrient dense food is great for you, but the body’s ph does not operate in the way propagandists are claiming. I realize the diet isn’t successful for the reasons I began it, but what do you think about my situation and the success I have when I adhere to it? I’m wondering if maybe the condition is just affected by meat and cheese, but maybe it’s just dairy? I know not to consume dairy when sick because bacteria feeds on it…but also much of what I know is not based in research or practical knowledge (I am unfortunately an English major, well unfortunately for this circumstance) I’d be really grateful for any insight you have into why it might be working/what is unnecessary, so I can illuminate anything I’m doing that’s harmful or useless.
Even if you don’t know anything that would be helpful to my situation, Thank you!
*eliminate…it’s late!
Thanks again!
Hi Sophia,
I think you are on the right track about the meat and dairy. The pilosebaceous gland is sensitive to hormone levels and meats and dairy, even if organic, are loaded with hormones since the animal produces its own hormones.
All plants on the other hand contain varying amounts of phytoestrogens, which are hormone regulating. Same for the flavonoids found in many plants. In particular these compounds will occupy estrogen receptors blocking the effects of excess estrogens and more powerful synthetic xenoestrogens.
I have a write up on balancing the hormones:
http://www.medcapsules.com/info/Hormone_Balance.htm
I recommend focusing primarily on the digestive bitters mentioned in the article. This will help the liver do a better job of braking down excess hormones.
There are various bitters on the market and they all work the same way. Some contain stimulant laxatives though like senna, cascara sagrada or rhubarb root that can lead to a laxative dependence with regular use. And some also contain berberine sources like goldenseal, barberry or Oregon grape root that present additional problems. See:
http://medcapsules.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=6350
Therefore, I recommend ignoring the directions on the bottles of biters and only putting a half dropper full on the tongue before meals. You only need enough bitters to taste them for them to work.
Also remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day when using bitters, but do not take them if you have had your gallbladder removed.
Another suggestion I do not have on the Hormone Balance write up is supplementing with trimethylglycine (TMG), which is a derivative of beet leaves. TMG is a great, inexpensive methyl donor. Methylation is required for about 4,000 reactions in the body including being require by the liver to detoxify hormones. You can find TMG in some health food stores or online. Recommended dose is 1 gram three times daily before or with meals.
James
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I’m going to review those links. 🙂
Sophia, I also developed a pilonidal cyst in my late 20s/early 30s (I’m now 40) and since I started a healthy diet 2/3 years ago, it shrunk and disappeared. By “healthy diet” I mean no processed/refined foods and sugar, just “natural” foods like meat, fish, dairy, eggs, fruit, vegetables and nuts.
I’ve been fine ever since until a week ago, when after trying the keto diet along with intermittent fasting, I decided keto was not for me so, after many months, I reintroduced sweet potato, banana and corn crackers in my diet. The day after, my cyst was back, after dormant for 2/3 years.
For me, at least, meat and dairy are not the trigger. Bananas I’ve been eating them on and off. I think grains (the corn crackers) might have been the culprit here so, I stopped eating all of them for a few days and I’m now reintroducing them one at a time, for a week or two and see if I can pin-point the trigger.
By your examples of In-N-Out and Italian food, your trigger might have been carbs as well (grains, refined/processed wheat, corn, etc.) and not meat and dairy. But triggers may differ from person to person, so, just a suggestion for you to keep an eye on, next time.
Cheers.
My question relates to Colon health and the effect of the meat consumption of the Paleo diet? As meat takes much longer to digest and stays in your colon longer, leading to purification and toxic release causing disease?
Mercedes,
(LOL) I think you mean “putrification”…
Any healthy individual on a “Paleo/Primal” dietary regimen will be eliminating (at the minimum) on a daily basis… your “understanding” of our digestive process is flawed…
The roles meat consumption plays in cancer formation has nothing to do with digestive time.
One role meat plays is the hormones that can activate cancer viruses and promote the growth of existing cancers. There is a misconception that “organic” meats are safe. Even “organically grown” animals still produce their own hormones, which remain in the tissues when the animal is killed.
By the way, this also applies to raw and organic dairy since hormones also go in to milk.
Another factor is that meats increase inflammation liked to cancer possibly by increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS). The inflammatory component of meats is the fatty acid arachidonic acid.
The other factor is that most meats are consumed cooked and during the cooking process carcinogenic compounds can be formed.
Proteins from meat get digested into peptides in the stomach and then those peptides get broken down into amino acids in the small intestine and absorbed. There will be no meat in the colon, considering someones digestive system is working normally. What does end up in the colon is fibre and this fibre is acted on by the flora in our large intestine. Meat/proteins don’t travel all the way down there.
J: “what you eat affects thousands of systems in your body, and the compounds that are resultant from those processes are, undeniably (even acc. to reductionistic ‘modern medicine’) dependent on an alkaline PH balance.”
Not really. The process of digestion also requires stomach acid and flora acids. The production of stomach acid requires carbonic acid. The process of converting those foods in to energy requires various acids. To protect the body from the highly toxic alkaline ammonia produced from the breakdown of proteins requires carbonic acid. Etc., etc, etc.
J: “don’t believe me? skew your arterial PH from 7.2 to 9 and see what happens… you’re dead in a few seconds as the arterial walls dissolve. Is why we get the cholesterol plaque on the arterial walls.. is a defence mechanism against blood acidity.”
A pH of 9 IS NOT acidic, it is highly alkaline.
But yes, a highly alkaline blood pH of 9 and you would be dead.
Arterial plaque formation has nothing to do with protecting us against acidity. It results from inflammation to the arterial wall. This is because cholesterol is a healing agent. When we injure any part of the body the cholesterol floods the area to help with the healing process. When the source of inflammation is consistent the laying down of cholesterol to aid in the healing process is consistent leading to the excess build up of cholesterol on the arterial walls.
So is eating meat bad? Should I stop eating meat? And it is possible for the blood ph level to get to 9? Because all I drink is Alka Trú which has a ph level on 9-10.
*Alka Trú water.
Aaron1212: “So is eating meat bad? Should I stop eating meat?”
Anything can be bad in excess. Meat is no different.
Aaron1212: “And it is possible for the blood ph level to get to 9? Because all I drink is Alka Trú which has a ph level on 9-10.”
If your blood ever reached a pH of 9 you would be dead long before from a lack of oxygen. Alkalosis kills people by inhibiting tissue oxygenation and respiration. And a person cannot liver with a blood pH that high.
So is it possible for my blood ph level to rise dangerously from drinking alot of water with a ph of 9-10?
Aaron…no it is not possible as the body is well equipped to maintain that balance…any pH imbalance in the blood …be it acidity or alkalinity… gets thrown out into the tissue.
Hi Aaron,
Although you can induce a very dangerous and potentially deadly condition known as alkalosis by ingesting large amounts of alkalizers it is not easy to do. And you would never get to a pH of 9 or 10 as you would be dead long before even getting close to that pH.
To induce alkalosis you would have to completely overwhelm the body’s pH buffering systems, which again is not easy to do.
When you drink the alkaline water most if not the alkalinity is going to be neutralized anyway by the stomach acid.
Even if you overwhelm the stomach acid, which is a very unhealthy thing to do to begin with, any alkalinity affecting the blood would simply be met with a decrease in respiration to build up acidity to rebalance the pH. If you overwhelm this system then the kidneys will start retaining hydrogen ions again to build up some acidity to counteract the excessive alkalinity. Same exact reason you cannot alkalize the blood with diet.
Again the biggest danger of drinking highly alkaline waters like that are generally the neutralization of stomach acid. This increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, infections, hormone balance, neurotransmitter imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, decreased cartilage synthesis, etc.
If the water contains caustic hydroxides, as are found in ionized alkaline waters, then the additional risk comes from chemically burning of tissues and the toxic hydroxyl radical formed from the disassociation of the mineral hydroxides in the water.
James
I think you are splitting hairs… you are looking for evidence using a reductionistic (i.e. modern medicine’s flawed and proven un-working) model.
what you eat affects thousands of systems in your body, and the compounds that are resultant from those processes are, undeniably (even acc. to reductionistic ‘modern medicine’) dependent on an alkaline PH balance.
don’t believe me? skew your arterial PH from 7.2 to 9 and see what happens… you’re dead in a few seconds as the arterial walls dissolve. Is why we get the cholesterol plaque on the arterial walls.. is a defence mechanism against blood acidity.
J: “don’t believe me? skew your arterial PH from 7.2 to 9 and see what happens… you’re dead in a few seconds as the arterial walls dissolve. Is why we get the cholesterol plaque on the arterial walls.. is a defence mechanism against blood acidity.”
This is incorrect other than the dead part. But cholesterol deposition on arterial walls IS NOT a defense mechanism against blood acidity.
Cholesterol deposition is the result of inflammation. Inflammation results from injury, which can happen for a number of reasons. Cholesterol deposits on the arterial wall as part of a patch work to cover the injured area. If the source of injury is not removed the plaque keeps forming.
A simple way to prove that this is not due to acidity is to remember that plaque calcifies. And calcium is soluble in acidity and precipitates in alkalinity. Therefore, in order for the calcium to calcify the plaque the pH of the tissue must be alkaline to begin with.
Hmm. When I heard about the acid/alkaline diet it had nothing to do with any of these and everything to do with gut health.
Intestinal pH varies. The first part of the intestine, the duodenum, is kept around a pH of 6-7. Acids from the stomach can lower the pH temporarily, but the bicarbonate from the pancreas quickly brings the pH back up. The rest of the small intestine will have a pH range of 7-8. The colon has a pH around 5.5-7. If the colon starts becoming too acidic the pH is again adjusted by the release of bicarbonate.
Alkalinity is required in parts of the intestines to aid with alkaline digestive enzymes. Acidity in other parts aid with nutrient absorption, killing pathogens and controlling the growth of Candida albicans since it thrives in an alkaline environment.
When referring to the acid-alkaline balance though this is in reference to blood pH. Some people claim that it is actually in reference to either lymphatic pH or tissue pH, which are regulated by blood pH.
This does bring up some important points though.
First is that there is no singular pH for the body.
Secondly, there is no basis for the acid-alkaline diet. Especially considering the fact that people are not even sure what part of the body is being or is supposed to be made alkaline to prevent disease.
There are actually very few diseases an disorders that have anything to do directly with pH. Gout is a problem with excess uric acid. Studies have shown that when healthy cells are made excessively alkaline the healthy cells morph in to cancer cells. Excess alkalinity or acidity of the urine can cause various types of kidney stones. Excess alkalinity of the blood can be caused for various reasons including milk-alkali syndrome and can be very dangerous. Low or absent stomach acid inhibits nutrient absorption, osteoporosis, diverticulitis, increases risk of disease from ingested pathogens, leads to reflux and increases the risk of food allergies from proteins not being completely digested. Low or absent stomach acid also decreases methylation needed for about 4,0000 processes in the body. Decreased methylation can lead to cancer, heart disease, allergies, immune suppression, decreased cartilage formation, depression, hormone and neurotransmitter imbalances, further declines in stomach acid formation, etc.
The list can go on and on, but the point is that there is no singular body pH and either excess alkalinity or acidity in the wrong places can cause disease. This is why the body has so many different methods of pH regulation to maintain its pH levels. When people try to force the pH one way or the other they are fighting the body’s natural pH regulation putting more stress on the body and potentially creating diseases/disorders in the body.
I do not believe that food itself has any effect on blood or organ pH, but I do believe that the quality of the food significantly impacts the body’s ability to regulate its pH. All minerals and gaseous compounds come from somewhere, whether its the air or the food, and without those compounds, the body will have a difficult time maintaining health. I don’t think the ash left behind from food makes a difference, whether it is acidic or alkaline, I think it makes a difference whether that food is empty of nutrition or full of nutrition. Personally, just eating a variety of foods that God (not men) has created and preparing them according to the WAPF recommendations, avoiding allergens, and eating as much organic as I can afford has restored my health. I feel better at 40 than I did at 20, when I was eating a more processed diet full of allergens.
James said that
Cancer cells do rely on this external acidity to metastasize since the acid activates the enzyme hyaluronidase that breaks down hyaluronic acid allowing the cancer cells to migrate through tissues.
so it is clear that eating more veggie and alkaline food to make the blood non-acidic would help fighting cancer?
People drink lots of tea tend not grow cancer as I saw from some sources.
The problem with that claim is that eating vegetables and so-called “alkaline foods” DO NOT alkalize the blood to any significant extent. As pointed out virtually all pH regulation is from respiration and kidney function.
Tea has been found to help with cancer due to the ACIDIC polyphenols, which are antioxidant and antiviral.
James, thanks for your comments. They’re all perfectly logical. They do say that water, shampoos, etc. do not change the ratios very much or at all, but I don’t know how they come up with this. The one thing in your comments I don’t agree with is the recommendation of licorice. I read so many great things doubt licorice that I thought I’d try it. Well within a few days of drinking licorice tea I started to get terrible insomnia, heart racing, etc. and I had to stop. As soon as I stopped the tea, the symptoms stopped. So licorice is not for everyone.
On a related note, I got a hair test which said that my sodium-potassium ratio was inverted which is a sign of adrenal exhaustion. Interestingly, I eat a ton of sea salt but this does not seem to raise my sodium. In fact, it was recommended to me to ingest even more sea salt, which would be difficult without actually drinking salt water since I salt my foods so heavily. According to my hair test, I am not supposed to take licorice which raises potassium, because I am trying to lower potassium in relation to sodium. I don’t know if my intolerance to the licorice was a coincidence, or if it means that the hair test was right and I’m one of those people who have to be careful with potassium supplements.
Anna,
Do you eat bananas ? They are high in potassium, so much so, that I generally recommend no more than 1/2 banana a day…
Also, in America, ALL salt is considered “sea salt”, which is misleading… I recommend a high-quality Himalayan salt.
Potassium levels in bananas vary according to ripeness. In the green state they are generally sold in stores there is not much in the way of potassium. As the banana ripens it pulls potassium from the peel increasing the potassium content of the edible part of the berry. Yes, bananas are berries and the banana “tree” is botanically an herb (plant without woody tissue). Just extra weird useless trivia 🙂
As for Himilayan salt, I agree it is great stuff. But it is not sea salt, it is a mined salt. Just because the salt came from ancient oceans this does not make it sea salt.
Agreed. Most Americans do not eat their bananas green or half-ripe as I do, however, unless they are of Island or Spanish descent… and yes, the banana “plant” is a herb, grown usually by division of the “corm”, or root base. There are over one hundred varieties of bananas, in all shapes, sizes and colors, but only three or four are grown commercially, which lends itself to major problems with disease resistance and nematodes. Even more “useless” trivia… lol…
As for “salt”, in the U.S., FDA regulations allow ANY salt to be labeled “sea” salt, which, as I said, is VERY misleading… I don’t see (pardon the pun) Morton’s being the same as a “quality” Himalayan salt. People should be aware that most, if not all “Himalayan” salt comes from the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world, located in Khewra, Pakistan, about 300 km from the Himalayas….
Anna: “They’re all perfectly logical. They do say that water, shampoos, etc. do not change the ratios very much or at all, but I don’t know how they come up with this. ”
I disagree. Hair is too absorbent that shampoo would have little to no effect on altering these tests.
Anna: “The one thing in your comments I don’t agree with is the recommendation of licorice. I read so many great things doubt licorice that I thought I’d try it. Well within a few days of drinking licorice tea I started to get terrible insomnia, heart racing, etc. and I had to stop. As soon as I stopped the tea, the symptoms stopped. So licorice is not for everyone.”
There are different species of licorice root. Personally I prefer Chinese licorice root (G. uralensis) since it is calming. American licorice root (G. glabra) is slightly stimulating. Not to the point you are talking about though. So I would say that there was either something else combined in that tea or you were having an allergic reaction, which would kick up stimulatory epinephrine release.
Anna: “On a related note, I got a hair test which said that my sodium-potassium ratio was inverted which is a sign of adrenal exhaustion. Interestingly, I eat a ton of sea salt but this does not seem to raise my sodium. In fact, it was recommended to me to ingest even more sea salt, which would be difficult without actually drinking salt water since I salt my foods so heavily. ”
I knew someone who had the same problem. She was taking 2 gram tablets of salt several times a day and salting her foods heavily and still ended up in the hospital numerous times when her sodium bottomed out. I told her to have the doctor check her aldosterone levels, but it does not appear the doctor ever did. Instead they just gave her an outrageously expensive drug that did little if anything.
Aldosterone is secreted by the adrenals and regulates the electrolytes.
Anna: “According to my hair test, I am not supposed to take licorice which raises potassium, because I am trying to lower potassium in relation to sodium. ”
Other way around. Licorice root causes potassium excretion and sodium retention just like steroids such as Prednisone, which it can be used in place of. Prednisone and licorice root both have a reputation for causing water retention and high blood pressure. This is because both of these stimulate the excretion of potassium and cause sodium retention. But it takes a lot of licorice root and a long time to do this. Basically you would have to consume a bottle of licorice root capsules daily for about 6 months to cause a rise in blood pressure in most people. Exceptions would be something like if the person is on steroidal medications like Prednisone since licorice root potentiates these steroids.
Hi James great article,
I was just reading the part about licorice and I wanted to share my personal experience with you. My blood pressure has always been just on the line of being too low. I was having symptoms of low blood pressure so I decided I would take the matter into my own hands. My mother told me that during the war man would take licorice to raise their blood pressure and avoid the draft. I went out and bought licorice monitored my blood pressure when I went to doctor visits or at the pharmacy. Now I was drinking a lot of the tea like three or four times a day and it raised from 59 to 74 in less than a week. Now my lower pressure was at 59 or 60 for years and years. This was the first time I was able to measure the effect of natural medicine.
Hi Rebecca,
Thanks for sharing your story.
Licorice root is well known for raising blood pressure, which is why we so ofter hear to avoid it if you have high blood pressure.
But this is misleading since you have to take massive doses for many months to cause high blood pressure unless you are on a steroid like Prednisone, which has the same effect only significantly stronger. Licorice root though can potentiate the effects of steroids. The rise in blood pressure in this case is from potassium depletion and sodium retention. Therefore the risk of this side effect can be reduced by increasing potassium intake such as oranges, kiwis, papaya, mango, watermelon, ripe bananas, etc.
In your case the effect is not simply increasing your blood pressure but more accurately balancing your blood pressure.
A common cause of chronically low blood pressure is adrenal gland dysfunction. Normally when the blood pressure drops too low the adrenals should secrete epinephrine (adrenaline) to constrict the blood vessels to increase blood pressure. When the adrenals are not working properly the insufficient levels of epinephrine prevent the adrenals from maintaining proper blood pressure.
Licorice root is an excellent adaptogenic herb that helps to normalize blood pressure in moderate amounts by supporting adrenal function.
Another common cause of chronically low blood pressure is hypothyroidism, which is often missed by lab tests. Hypothyroidism has numerous causes including adrenal dysfunction.
James
James, I’m curious as to your feelings about hair mineral analysis testing and nutritional balancing. I know in an earlier comment you bemoaned the practitioners’ use of coffee enemas and adrenal supplements. But what do you think of the science as as whole? Do you know much about it?
Hi Anna,
Anna: “James, I’m curious as to your feelings about hair mineral analysis testing and nutritional balancing.”
Hair analysis is a sales too, not a very accurate diagnostic tool. Think of the growth of hair like the growth of a tree. We know that by looking at the rings of a tree we can tell things about its history such as wet years vs dry years in its history. If we take a cross section of the tree though and grind it all up then analyze it then we lose a lot of the information since a lot of growth time is all mixed up. Hair also grows slowly and has multiple records of not only some of what is in the body but also external exposure. When you take a hair sample you are getting a long history. Often they will try to get a short sample near the scalp to get a more current history.
But still keep in mind that what makes it to the hair shaft does not necessarily reflect what is in the body. This is like with salivary hormone testing, which is a complete joke. Hormones such as estrogen and progesterone get stored in the fat tissues of the body. In order to reach the saliva the hormones would have to circulate through the blood. Although some will circulate through the blood what little does will not reflect what is stored in the fat.
In addition, hair is exposed to all sorts of chemicals from sources such as shampoos, conditioners and other hair products, pools, spas, environmental pollution such as car exhaust and second hand smoke, minerals and chemicals in the water we bathe with, etc. How can they tell if a calcium source for example is from inside the body instead of contaminating the hair sample from the calcium in bathing water?
And again, what is in the body does not necessarily end up in the hair.
Anna: “I know in an earlier comment you bemoaned the practitioners’ use of coffee enemas and adrenal supplements. ”
Coffee enemas definitely. These will crash the adrenals.
But I am not against all adrenal supplements. Just adrenal glandulars, which can shut down adrenal function with long term use.
Otherwise I am a big fan of supporting the adrenals with food and especially with herbal and vitamin supplements such as jiaogulan, licorice root, ashwagandha, suma, acerola cherry, amla, pollen, etc.
James
James….have you ever experienced a coffee enema? Are you speaking from experience ? Did your adrenals crash?
There is abundant evidence to the contrary.
I never really understood why people think someone has to experience something to prove it. Do I have to stick my hand in a fire to know it is going to burn? Of course not. If I asked you if ingesting cyanide is deadly did you experience this personally before answering yes?
No, I have not done coffee enemas nor would I ever do one because they are ridiculous and I already know for a fact that they crash the adrenals. I have warned people about this for years and have had people write me back after they refused to listen to me and they learned the reality the hard way.
Caffeine is caffeine regardless if you swallow it, snort it, inject it or shove it up your butt. Just because you take the coffee as an enema instead of drinking it the caffeine DOES NOT magically convert in to some harmless substance.
If people really want to cleanse the liver in a much safer manner then I recommend a half dropper of digestive bitters on the tongue before meals. Bitters work by stimulation of the bitter receptors on the tongue. This in turn stimulates the vagus nerve increase stomach acid secretion, bile secretion, pancreatic enzyme release, the liver and the intestines. All without crashing the adrenal glands by overstimulation from a stimulant like caffeine.
James….your comparisons are silly….of course we don’t have to ingest poisons that are known for their deadly effects…or place our hand into a flame…..there are thousands of people around the world who have used coffee enemas with amazing success …just look at the Gerson Therapy for example… we have administered many coffee enemas here at the clinic with great results.
Did you know that during the war these enemas were given to soldiers instead of morphine for pain relief….do you think that coffee is better than morphine for patients with cancer to eliviate the pain associated with that cancer?
Sunflower,
Your response was full of hearsay, which means nothing. Do you have any real proof to your claims such as actual medical studies proving this?
I have heard the “thousands of people helped” claims so many times for so many different products and doctors. None of these could ever come up with any real evidence to back these claims and in many cases the claims were proven bogus.
For example, there is some dangerous quackery being pushed on the internet called “oleander soup” for cancer among other things. The main person pushing this quackery claims that Dr. Ozel has cured hundreds of thousands of people of cancer with “oleander soup”. Yet NONE of these supposed people can be found. In addition, EVERY single human study done on oleander found it to be ineffective for cancer and even appears to shorten the lives of cancer patients.
When I brought up these studies showing oleander did not work the response was an excuse of the study was not conducted long enough and that it took at least 2 months to stat seeing results. Yet is the same bogus “testimonials” he keeps posting one of the testimonials claims a complete cure for cancer in something like 11 days. So I don’t take testimonials or unproven claims as the gospel because people frequently fabricate “evidence”. Here is more on the “oleander soup” scam so you can see what I mean:
http://medreview.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/is-oleander-soup-for-cancer-a-scam-part-1/
http://medreview.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/is-oleander-soup-for-cancer-a-scam-part-2-2/
So again, I ask where is the real evidence (studies) backing your claims that the coffee enemas actually do what you are claiming and do this without crashing the adrenals due to the caffeine.
As far as I am concerned it would be just as safe to sit on the espresso machine to begin with so you can steam clean your colon 😉
James,
May I ask a questions please:
Are you in clinical practice and if yes for how long.
If not then I must assume that your knowledge base is purely theoretical and has no practical experiential backing.
When you start dealing with reality…that is real people and their concerns about their health and wellbeing…then you will understand that medical doctrines based upon a science that uses Pharma as a means by which to further poison an already compromised body and mind are not the answer. There are so many modalities available that are helping people recover from their illnesses even though medical science has no idea why. I acknowledge your vast understanding of general science and wish you would be a pioneer in your field rather than be stuck in a scientific dogma that does not allow new innovative ideas to be applied to those desperate for help. All pioneers of the past were ridiculed by individuals like yourself ….only to eat humble pie decades later…may be a little more willingness to be courageous and allowing new ideas to simmer before taking them of the stove would be helpful for all of us.
Sunflower,
You can assume all day long and this still will not make your assumptions true.
Apparently you missed my earlier comment where I mentioned telling people about how caffeine rectally still crashes the adrenals. When they ignored me they learned that fact the hard way and then contacted me again to tell me about how they learned their lesson and to ask my recommendations to deal with their health issues including their now crashed adrenals.
Some people need to learn the simple facts that just because there is a medical claim on the internet this does not mean it is true. And many of these claims such as the “liver flushes” actually passing gallstones larger that the bile ducts can expand or in amounts a real gallbladder can hold prove these “flushes” or bogus. Or the claim that “oleander soup” cures cancer when every human study has proven it to be worthless. Or the claim that cesium chloride cures cancer when again the research has proven differently. Cesium chloride has not only been shown to cause cancer, but also to promote existing cancers. Contrary to the claims made by cesium supporters the areas of the world they claim have high cesium levels in the soil DO NOT have lower cancer rates. The rates are normal to excessively high. There are claims that baking soda ingestion cures cancer when again the studies do not show this and there is no basis for these bogus claims. Cancer cells are already more alkaline than healthy cells and they need that high alkalinity to survive and thrive. Alkalinity actually promotes glycolysis in cancer cells and promotes malignant transformation. But to have any alkaline effect on the body the baking soda would first have to survive the stomach acid, which neutralizes the baking soda forming carbonic acid, and sodium chloride that can induce acidosis. I could go on and on with examples of health quackery being repeated on the internet by people who never took the time to research the chemistry or how the body really works. Will any of the above ever have real evidence to prove otherwise? Not likely since we have advanced a lot in science over the last 100 years and we have such as better understanding of the human body and how it works. This is why modern medicine no linger believes that disease is the result of evil spirits.
As another example look at the very common misconception that Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for proving cancer was caused from acidity. This is just one of the numerous myths that keep getting repeated about Warburg. Warburg won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of an enzyme he called “iron oxidase”. He hypothesized (educating guessing) that cancer cells derived their energy only from glycolysis, which generates a lot of acid. But he did not have access to the equipment we have today so all he could do is hypothesize. With modern equipment and tests it has been shown that cancer cells DO NOT rely solely on glycolysis. They derive at least 50% of their energy from oxidative phosphorylation. In addition, the fairly recent development of microprobes has allowed scientists to prove that cancer cells have a higher than normal alkaline internal pH that allows the survive and thrive.
Point here is that science can also disprove long held quack ideas such as caffeine taken rectally somehow magically is no longer caffeine and therefore will not adversely affect the adrenals.
And before you try using the old it passes right through the liver metabolizing it myth keep this in mind. Before the invention of hyperdermic needles drugs were often given rectally for rapid and direct absorption of the drugs in to the bloodstream. Using the same bogus reasoning the coffee enema supporters give to claim the caffeine does not adversely effect the body this same thing should have held true for the other drugs given rectally. If the liver metabolism destroying the caffeine claim was true then the same should have held true for the other drugs, which would have rendered them useless, which they were not.
Again, it does not matter how the caffeine goes in to the blood. It will still be caffeine and will still have the same adverse effects on the adrenal glands.
Until science proves otherwise we cannot just dismiss known science. Do you dismiss the theory of gravity just because science “may” disprove it sometime in the future? I hope not. Again, we have to go with what is considered proven science until otherwise disproven. We can’t just assume that all the known science or just the science that we don’t wish to believe is bogus and “may” be disproven sometime in the future.
If there is some actual solid scientific proof that rectally adsorbed caffeine does not crash the adrenals as you claim then present it. Otherwise your claim is just a hypothesis, which is not backed by any evidence and therefore should not be presented as a “fact”.
James….you did not answer my question….are you or are you not in clinical practice.
You can teach a mechanic everything about how to fix a car….and he will be an expert when it comes to giving advise….and then you ask the mechanic to actually repair a car and he will most likely fail b/c theory needs to be backed up with practical experience. Once you start working with people you will realize that the theory is often altered because it is at times impossible to translate theory in practice….it sounds good and often does not deliver. I have had to unlearn many theories and so called facts b/c even though they made sense on paper when it came to dealing with individuals and their unique circumstances they failed to deliver. The people that crash after a coffee infusion may well have suffered from detox symptoms or had weak adrenals to start with…how do you know the difference unless you know the whole story of a persons journey. Each person is different and just because one approach does not work for some does not mean it is useless for all….that would be negligent and not in the interest of the client. When you see clients and hear their stories you realize that there is more to health and disease than Theory.
Sunflower,
First of all don’t demand answers if you are not going to answer questions yourself. I don’t play games with people who think they can play by a separate set of rules they set for everyone else. One of my questions for you was “where is the real evidence (studies) backing your claims that the coffee enemas actually do what you are claiming and do this without crashing the adrenals due to the caffeine. This is only one of my questions you have chosen to ignore.
Secondly, I am under no obligation to post personal information about myself. That would be like me asking you to post publicly your address and phone number so I can verify who you are. I seriously doubt you would do this if I asked. And if you won’t then ask yourself why. Why should I reveal personal information at your request when you would not do the same.
What I have said can be easily verified with a little basic research on the chemistry of caffeine and human physiology. Therefore, whether or not I have a clinical practice is irrelevant. This is simply a common tactic when a person cannot address the factual claim. So instead they keep trying to make the issue personal by trying to discredit the person that brought up the facts. Again, I don’t like when people play these kind of games.
So again, where is the scientific evidence that shows caffeine taken rectally does not cause the same adverse effects as oral ingestion? Let’s see the studies proving your claim.
As for your claim “The people that crash after a coffee infusion may well have suffered from detox symptoms or had weak adrenals to start with”, “may well have” is simply a guess. People should not be dealing with health issues with guesses alone, but rather with possibilities that are then backed up with evidence by looking more in to possibilities. And if people already had weak adrenals to begin with then why were they being told to do these coffee enemas in the first place without being warned of the potential dangers? Why weren’t they given other options to safely cleanse their liver, such as digestive bitters, that have no risk of crashing the adrenals?
And why aren’t the coffee enema supporters also pointing out to people the other potential dangers such as the colonic absorption of the carcinogenic herbicides and pesticides on coffee beans? Even if “organic” the roasting of coffee beans produces the carcinogens polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. and acrylamide. Where are the websites or other sources from the coffee enema supporters warning the general public of these dangers as well?
For example, coffee has been linked to an increase in pancreatic cancer in various studies such as this one:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM198103123041102
As we can see, I can back my claims with research. The question is can you? So once again, where are the studies backing your claim that caffeine taken rectally somehow has different effects on the body and does not crash the adrenals as you keep implying?
James….How can you compare my asking for your client based experiential back ground with you giving out your home address…you are obviously avoiding the question which answers the question by default.
Research and science are an essential part of medical progress…there is no doubt…at the same time how can we continue to believe in research that is funded by specific interest groups….Chemo therapy has been around for a long time and it is killing people all over the world….I rather place my trust in thorough investigations, a detailed case study of the individual client and choose the appropriate course of action….after 28 years in clinical practice I have come to learn how to apply science with the client in mind.
How can you say that your “evidenced” based science is actually effective in curing people when we see more and more that the standard approach to practicing medicine is based on principles that have their origin in a science financed by interest groups. I think it is better to agree to disagree than to keep this process going. Evidenced based Therapy is focused on real life realities not theories that have had tests applied to them without the client and their individual needs in mind. We are all unique and as such in need of personal considerations….you can’t apply theories across the board and hope for a positive outcome….chemo for example can kill you or help you live a while longer….how can you call that a generalized principle? It is more a Russian Roulette than science. It would be advisable to test people prior to their toxic chemo treatment whether or not the treatment is going to kill them or help them. This has been possible for a long time now but is never applied.
Sunflower: “James….How can you compare my asking for your client based experiential back ground with you giving out your home address…”
I am sorry you missed my very simple point about giving out personal information on the internet. If you wish to that is your business. I am not you and as I have said so many times in the responses this blog IS NOT about me.
Sunflower: “you are obviously avoiding the question which answers the question by default.”
Not at all. Again you are assuming like you started out assuming and I am sure you continue to keep assuming. But as I pointed out so many times this blog IS NOT about me and therefore I am under no obligation to post personal information that has NOTHING to do with the actual topic to begin with and therefore IS NOT answering by default. Using that same reasoning we would have to conclude by default that you are not who you really claim to be since you refuse to post your address and phone number here publicly so that your information can be verified. See the fault in your reasoning yet?
If you want to stay on topic I don’t have a problem dealing with you. But people try to make another topic about an individual when they have no clue what they are talking about. Since they cannot debate the topic they try to debate the person. I am not going there with that game. Again, if you want to debate the actual topic then you can start with answering my question asked several times “where is the real evidence (studies) backing your claims that the coffee enemas actually do what you are claiming and do this without crashing the adrenals due to the caffeine”?
Sunflower: “Research and science are an essential part of medical progress…”
Then you should have no problem posting the research backing your claims that the coffee enemas actually do what you are claiming and do this without crashing the adrenals due to the caffeine.
Sunflower: “after 28 years in clinical practice I have come to learn how to apply science with the client in mind”
So again where is this science backing your claims? It is not science if there is no real evidence backing it. It is just a hypothesis. Real science is used to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
Sunflower: “How can you say that your “evidenced” based science is actually effective in curing people when we see more and more that the standard approach to practicing medicine is based on principles that have their origin in a science financed by interest groups.”
Again that is a hypothesis. Science IS NOT claiming that all research one disagrees with is faulty based on being funded by groups with a financial interest in the outcome.
Sunflower: “Evidenced based Therapy is focused on real life realities not theories”
A theory is a hypothesis that has been tested and proven by actual research. Basic science.
Sunflower: “chemo for example can kill you or help you live a while longer….how can you call that a generalized principle? It is more a Russian Roulette than science. ”
And yet you gave excuses for why the people I know who crashed their adrenals from using coffee enemas did crash their adrenals. So using your same reasoning coffee enemas are not a generalized principle nor real science but rather a game of Russian roulette since it may or may not crash your adrenals depending on various factors. These can include how strong your adrenals are to begin with, what supplements you are using to support the adrenals, how often you do the enemas, etc. Ironically, you actually admitted that the caffeine can have an adverse effect on the adrenals by saying the people may have had weak adrenals to begin with. Even if they were weak to begin with something would have to have tipped the scale further to cause their adrenals to crash since they were not in that state in the first place. This is where the caffeine from the coffee enemas comes in. So here we have evidence that yes, the caffeine in coffee enemas DOES IN FACT adversely affect the adrenal glands.
This is a great example of why we need real science and not assumptive hypotheses. People tend to see what they want to see even if the evidence is to the contrary. Therefore, they tend to ignore things like side effects or things that science has already proven to prop up their faulty hypotheses.
For example, there was the lady who swore up and down that ionized alkaline water cured her hypothyroidism. It did not matter to her whatsoever that there is absolutely no basis by which ionized alkaline water could treat hypothyroidism. With more questioning though she finally stated she started feeling better not when she started on the water but rather when her chiropractor gave her a magnesium shot. Since then she has been supplementing with magnesium citrate. What has real science taught us about magnesium? Among other things that it supports the thyroid. Again, this is why it is so important to rely on real science and not assumptive hypotheses.
So why play Russian roulette with things like coffee enemas that can crash the adrenals? Especially when there are safer and more effective means of cleansing the liver such as digestive bitters, or bupleurum for people who have had their gallbladders removed.
James….you are a contradiction ….here you say you are not going to tell me about your clinical background b/c it is too personal and then you share with all of us that it is your birthday….that your Mum and partner are coming to pick you to go out for dinner etc,etc….that to me is personal.
Anyway, Happy Birthday….and make sure you skip the coffee after your meal.
Sunflower: “James….you are a contradiction ”
Not at all. No more than you stating you do clinical practice but refuse to provide your real name, address and phone number. When you figure out why then you will have your answer as to why you were wrong.
Now, once again, stop trying to make me the topic.
If you don’t understand the real topic of the acid-alkaline myth then read the article or ask on topic questions. I will be happy to explain things to you so you can catch up.
Susie: “Was having small nerve damage as verified by lab testing. If felt as if my nerves were emitting electrical discharges all over my body. . When a friend suggested I switch to a more alkaline diet, these symptoms completely disappeared.”
First of all there is no such thing as an “alkaline diet”. As pointed out so many times the so-called “alkaline foods” are most often loaded with naturally occurring acids. And ALL foods are eventually metabolized in to acids.
The nerve damage you are referring to sounds like neuropathy from demyelination. There are several causes of this including viral infections and takes an extremely long time to correct since myelin is so slow to regenerate. On the other hand, many of the foods often incorrectly referred to as alkaline contain antiviral acids that would help with the treatment of viral induced neuropathies. The high magnesium levels on various other foods often incorrectly referred to as being “alkaline forming” can not only help calm nerve transmissions reducing neuropathy pain, but also helps in the regulation of blood sugar, which if high is also a common cause of neuropathy.
It is actually lecithin and fatty acids that rebuild the myelin.
Was having small nerve damage as verified by lab testing. If felt as if my nerves were emitting electrical discharges all over my body. . When a friend suggested I switch to a more alkaline diet, these symptoms completely disappeared.
Here we go again. Joseph Mahoney is tired of being proven wrong and being made to look like a complete fool. So instead of posting on topic, which is not me, and arguing the evidence presented he instead attacks the messenger yet once again in a poor attempt to divert attention away from his complete ignorance.
Joseph Mahoney: “Do your homework on this man as several of us have and you too will find his motive. ”
What is my motive? Ah., that’s right to help people as I pointed out to you previously. As I pointed out to you before I posted information on cancer and ozone, including a cancer formula anyone can use. I don’t charge for any of the information, nor do I sell a cancer formula or ozone units. So I don’t make a dime off of the information I post. I do this to help people because unlike you I don’t need to make a profit on every last little thing I do to help people. I realize that my giving FREE information to help people may cut in to your trying to profit off of of conning people but that is your problem, not mine.
James, how exactly did you prove me wrong? Several others and myself have already proven you benefit “profit” from your posts. Yes James we know not literally each post or the “so called” advice you give …figured I should throw that in there because of your lack of common sense and the need to take every last word as if it were stone. Some time ago another member here directed others to the site in which you are the admin…..bla bla bla. Your capsules you sell …. So people, believe as you wish. Opinions are just that! your immune system is the strongest and best cure for virtually anything. Feed it well and it will keep you well. Balance is the key !! Peace all !
Joseph Mahoney “James, how exactly did you prove me wrong?”
Well, for starters you can go back and read your claim and my response on March 1 and then again on March 10. There are a couple of very good examples.
Joseph Mahoney “Several others and myself have already proven you benefit “profit” from your posts.”
LOL!!! You have not proven anything. Prove to everyone that I have made even one sale based on anyone reading what I have wrote here. Otherwise you are simply posting more of your unfounded assumptions.
The fact is that you and the other people who feel that all you can do is personally attack me instead of dealing with the actual topic just keep proving my point of your complete ignorance. Why do people attack me, which is not the subject, instead of addressing the topic of the alkaline myth? Because these people are completely ignorant of the actual subject. Since they can’t fight the evidence they try and fight the messenger. The more you do this the more you prove my point.
Joseph Mahoney “Opinions are just that!”
And fact are just that. Problem is that you want to rely on your opinions rather than actual, proven facts.
Joseph Mahoney “your immune system is the strongest and best cure for virtually anything. Feed it well and it will keep you well.”
This is a great example of my comment above. Clearly you do not understand the simple fact that the immune system IS NOT a singular thing. It is a multitude of things, some of which are highly dependent on acids to function properly. And you cannot simply “feed” the immune system. It is these kind of completely absurd comments that get people in to trouble when they try to follow such ridiculous advice by people who really have no clue what they are talking about.
James you make me laugh. Again I chuckle at your lack of common sense “no offense intended” It’s quite obvious I know the immune system is not just one thing…geesh!! But unlike yourself I do not have the need to write a long drawn out explanation to information people can look up for themselves.
In reguards to health, a person can look up information both to and against anything. Manipulated research to ensure points of view can be found. Yes yes I know you believe that isn’t true. Just shows how closed minded you are James.
People, once again I warn you of James’s insistant need to act as if he knows everything. Alterior motives drives him! Peace all !
Joseph Mahoney: ” It’s quite obvious I know the immune system is not just one thing…geesh!! ”
ROTFLMAO!!! Sure you did. That is why you also thought you could “feed” the immune system. Good try at trying to hide the fact that you don’t have a clue what you are talking about though.
Ah James the character behind the mask …childish response indeed. The word “system” should give anyone with more common sense than yourself the clue it is more than one thing. Anyway back to reality…
James I hope you never have to deal with a potentionally deadly disease etc. Your world will be shattered. (Can just imagine the B.S. he will bring with this)
Cancer cell – a cell that no longer has a specific function and one in which the body has not been able to destroy and get rid of. Mostly due to a low or weak immune system. Ever hear of someone that is potentionally immune to the growth of cancer? Of course we know everyone has cancer …but why is it some never have an issue while others do multiple times should they survive the first…. Their immune system and the ability to rid their bodies of poisons. By limiting the amount of poisons you put in, on, etc. I realize James this is probably too “so to speak” for you and your lack of common sense but bare with me.
On subject …alkaline or acidic …BALANCE ! We have stated numorous times about blood level remaining at 7.4 yet you state hyperventilating raises that causing issues (yes James I could list but why?) So you say ph lvl cannot change yet turn right around and say it can ?? Now when we talk about food ph, saliva ph, etc. it is just a guide … Let’s say James you were outside with tons of chores to do and by the end of the day you had not one min to be inside doing chores…why? Too busy outside? Our bodies are no different, simply exhausting every effort to maintain a blood ph of a body consuming nothing but acidic or all alkaline foods it has no time left to fight off infections, disease, cancer cells, etc. I pretty sure everyone gets it …. A persons health can not be explained in a few words, sentences, or even pages. Everyone is unique, body chemistry different, etc.
Joseph Mahoney: “The word “system” should give anyone with more common sense than yourself the clue it is more than one thing.”
Yet as I pointed out you clearly did not realize this since you erroneously thought you could “feed” this system. Since it is not a singular thing then how exactly do you “feed” the system, or more specifically each of the various parts. This should be fun to hear your answer.
Joseph Mahoney: “James I hope you never have to deal with a potentionally deadly disease etc. Your world will be shattered.”
Not at all. Unlike you I know how most diseases can be easily cured. What a lot of this really takes is simply knowing about and understanding the diseases. When people guess about diseases, such as how you do then I can see where having a potentially deadly disease would shatter your world. As for me the idea does not bother me because again I know what to do and I have seen these ideas applied and how well they worked over and over in the last 23 years I have worked in holistic medicine.
Joseph Mahoney: “Cancer cell – a cell that no longer has a specific function and one in which the body has not been able to destroy and get rid of.”
This is a great example of your lack of understanding of this disease. In fact you also contradict yourself later in your statement, which I will get back to in a moment.
But first of all you claim the cancer cell no longer has a specific function. What about its specific function to grow? And have you considered the fact that just because these cells are dividing more rapidly that they can still perform some of the same functions as their normal counterparts? So you are clearly wrong on that point.
Then you incorrectly claim that the body cannot destroy or get rid of these cells. First of all the immune system can in fact detect and destroy cancer cells in SOME instances. The problem is that the cancer cells have become very adept to evading immune detection in most cases. On the other hand if you were correct in claiming the body is not “able to destroy and get rid of” cancer cells then there would be no such thing as cancer cures from immune boosters such as interferons, interleukins, polysaccahrides, etc. And there would be no such thing as “spontaneous remissions”, even though documents cases of cancer cures have been reported on both levels. So once again you are clearly wrong again.
Joseph Mahoney: “Mostly due to a low or weak immune system. Ever hear of someone that is potentionally immune to the growth of cancer? ”
Amazing, you actually got something right. Yes, this is a big problem with immune suppression such as with the use of immune suppressing drugs such as Prednisone or Cyclosporine, and with immune dysfunction such as with some diseases or immune dysfunction syndromes. I doubt if you know why though.
Joseph Mahoney: ” Of course we know everyone has cancer”
Wrong!!!! This is another myth that people who don’t have a clue what they are talking about keep repeating. If a person really understands the properties of cancer cells then they would understand why. But this is also where you contradict yourself. Earlier you said that cancer cells are cells the body is not “able to destroy and get rid of”. Funny how you claim I don’t have common sense when here you are making such an ignorant statement due to you lack of common sense. I doubt if you even see your BLATANT error since you don’t even know what common sense is, so let me help you out. If you were correct in claiming that the body cannot destroy and get rid of cancer cells and we all had cancer cells guess what? We would all have died from cancer a long time ago.
People who falsely claim we all have cancer cells make this error because they are ignorant of human anatomy and physiology. Therefore, they make the mistake of not being to differentiate between the rapidly diving cells of malignancies and the rapidly dividing cells of non-malignant conditions such as psoriasis or even a growing fetus.
This is why people need to be very careful obtaining their health information on the internet. There are a lot of Joseph Mahoneys running around the internet spouting bogus health information because they are extremely ignorant of the subjects of health and medicine.
Joseph Mahoney: “but why is it some never have an issue while others do multiple times should they survive the first…. Their immune system and the ability to rid their bodies of poisons. By limiting the amount of poisons you put in, on, etc.”
WOW, there clearly is no limit to your ignorance of the subject. You need to learn how cancer actually forms. When you do you will realize how amazingly stupid that statement you just made really is!!!
Joseph Mahoney: “We have stated numorous times about blood level remaining at 7.4 yet you state hyperventilating raises that causing issues (yes James I could list but why?) ”
Right, there is no reason to repeat that since I already explained it to you so you could comprehend the concept..
Joseph Mahoney: “So you say ph lvl cannot change yet turn right around and say it can ?? ”
First of all it is “pH”, not “ph”. Secondly, what is “lvl”? Were you maybe attempting to write “IV”? If so then you are making stuff up AGAIN!!! Here is my quote:
“IV bicarboante can be used to buffer acidity, but it must be used very carefully since IV bicarbonate can cause acidosis through the byproduct formed, which is carbonic acid.”
Joseph Mahoney: “Now when we talk about food ph, saliva ph, etc. it is just a guide”
ROTFLMAO!!! Guide to what? Food pH is irrelevant since all foods are made acidic in the stomach, alkalized in the intestine then eventually metabolized in to acids. And saliva DOES NOT reflect blood pH nor pH of tissues throughout the body. That is just another myth that keeps getting perpetuated by people who are completely ignorant of medicine and human health.
Joseph Mahoney: “Our bodies are no different, simply exhausting every effort to maintain a blood ph of a body consuming nothing but acidic or all alkaline foods it has no time left to fight off infections, disease, cancer cells, etc. ”
Again, there is NO such thing as an acid nor an alkaline food. As has been explained over and over ALL foods are made acidic in the stomach, alkaline in the intestines and are ALL metabolized in to acids in the end. The acid and alkaline food claims are yet another MYTH perpetuated by people who are completely ignorant of medicine and human health.
And there are not reserves being used up to balance pH. If you really understood how the body works you would know why. You can read the article and read back through the comments if you really want to learn why so you can stop perpetuating this myth.
Joseph Mahoney: “A persons health can not be explained in a few words, sentences, or even pages. Everyone is unique, body chemistry different, etc.”
Yet there are numerous aspects that we all share such as how hemoglobin carries oxygen or how the digestive system works, or how muscles contract and relax or how cellular energy is produced, etc. If your bogus claim was true then how could you claim eating junk food all the time is bad since it could be good for some people and eating fruits and vegetables could be dangerous. But the fact is that all people need nutrients, which are best derived from healthy foods. So once again something we all have in common. Some people just need to learn how to use some basic common sense to figure such simple things out!!!
To other members here…Have you ever heard the stories of people who think they know so much about a topic that they miss much of the easy, simple, and obvious solutions? James is one of these people. So obsessed with his own ideas (those ideas he has planted in his mind as being the only correct way or form etc.) A skilled mechanic that overlooks a loose battery terminal, a computer tech not recognizing conflict within programs, etc.
Pointless to argue with you James, you are in your own frame of mind and reluctant to look outside the box, simplify, and bound and determined that only your ideas are correct… Remember our world wasn’t so complicated at one time …one of our main issues is man made poisons that people consume without knowledge ….additives, perscription drugs, even lotions we put on our skin poison the body….wish I had time to explain in detail, but, I do not. Everyone be well !
Joseph Mahoney: “To other members here…Have you ever heard the stories of people who think they know so much about a topic that they miss much of the easy, simple, and obvious solutions?”
Have you heard of people who keep attacking the messenger instead of the message because they have no clue what they are talking about? Joseph Mahoney is one of those characters. He has been disproven so many times that his ego just cannot handle it. So he lashes out over and over against the messenger instead of attacking the message with actual evidence.
Not how he keeps evading my questions such as how does he “feed the immune system” when the immune system is not a singular thing. He has no way to properly respond since he just made this claim up as well.
Joseph Mahoney: “James is one of these people. So obsessed with his own ideas (those ideas he has planted in his mind as being the only correct way or form etc.) ”
I realize you are allergic to facts Joseph, which is why you have such a problem with the evidence I presented. But the evidence IS NOT my own ideas, it is from research proven over and over from various medical studies that have proven how the body really works. This is far from your method of guessing at how the body may work.
Joseph Mahoney: “Pointless to argue with you James”
True when you rely on guessing and propaganda sites to back your claims and I rely on evidence. I just hope you don’t hurt anyone with your bogus claims.
Oh James … “feed the immune system” is a figure of speech. You need a bit of common sense to understand that. If I were to say leukocytes who would know I was talking about white blood cells? How many think of skin or enzymes produced by, or fluid covering the eye, etc. as part of the immune system? When we speak of the immune system most do not totally understand, they don’t need to or so they believe. The fact is cancer is not as complicated as our country makes it out to be…find a study that show why many people are basically immune to cancer….there is our answer !! Now as far as alkaline/acidic …It’s maintaining the correct balance for YOU. What works for one person may not work for another … anyway James ..always interesting to listen to your b.s. Best wishes to everyone…be well !!
Joseph Mahoney: ““feed the immune system” is a figure of speech.”
It’s fun watching you try to skate around your own comment. Let’s assume it is a figure of speech as you are now claiming. Again, how do you “feed” the immune system, figuratively speaking? In case you forgot what you said here is your quote again:
“your immune system is the strongest and best cure for virtually anything. Feed it well and it will keep you well”
Joseph Mahoney: “When we speak of the immune system most do not totally understand, they don’t need to or so they believe.”
So educate all of us. How do you “feed” the immune system figuratively speaking? Be specific though so there is nothing questionable.
Joseph Mahoney: “The fact is cancer is not as complicated as our country makes it out to be…find a study that show why many people are basically immune to cancer….there is our answer !! ”
If you understand cancer and immunity then you would know that people really do not build an immunity to cancer. So you are making things up again.
Joseph Mahoney: “Now as far as alkaline/acidic …It’s maintaining the correct balance for YOU. ”
The body maintains a proper blood pH without assistance except in SUPER RARE instances. You cannot force the pH one way or the other without serious consequences and with putting the body under more stress as the body has to work harder to correct the imbalance the person forced the body in to. For example if they ingest a bunch of backing soda in an attempt to alkalize.
Since you brought up using common sense earlier let me give you a lesson in just that. The body can only live within a very narrow pH range. If the blood was really becoming acidic from diet or if eating food could really alkalize the blood a is being falsely claimed then we would all die from eating since “acidic” foods would push our pH out of range and “alkaline” foods would push our pH out of range. That is COMMON SENSE!!!
“Since you brought up using common sense earlier let me give you a lesson in just that. The body can only live within a very narrow pH range. If the blood was really becoming acidic from diet or if eating food could really alkalize the blood a is being falsely claimed then we would all die from eating since “acidic” foods would push our pH out of range and “alkaline” foods would push our pH out of range. That is COMMON SENSE!!!”
James…No kidding ! I’m shocked ..NOT! We have been through this 100 times. Lets make this simple … Eat only acidic food and see what happens…your body will spend so much time trying to maintain ph it wont have time for many other things. You will be sick frequently, recovery time will lengthen etc. etc. Same if you eat all alkaline…this should be common sense… Maintain a proper diet ..again…proper diet for YOU and your body does much better.
Your so up on facts why don’t you give us the facts on the 100 billion dollars perscription drug companies, etc. made in 2013 off cancer or the fact that even with all your so called research bla bla lung cancer has increased as well as many others. It’s pounded into our heads that mass improvements have been made on the fight against cancer, yet all stats don’t reflect such talk.
“The body maintains a proper blood pH without assistance except in SUPER RARE instances. You cannot force the pH one way or the other without serious consequences and with putting the body under more stress as the body has to work harder to correct the imbalance the person forced the body in to. For example if they ingest a bunch of backing soda in an attempt to alkalize.”
How does the body do that James if you are eating a bunch of junk containing tons of poisons with cancer adding even more acidic poison and then you add some chemo or radiation bla bla bla …simple..It doesn’t whithout help. Help your body rid the poisons and you increase your chance of survival. Help the body maitain ph you also help the body fight off everything else…you always go from one extreme to the other…balance..how many times does that have to be said before you get it? Hyperventilate..you said it yourself raises the ph to a dangerous level yet you say body maitains it all all times….yada yada. I get it James..this is your livelyhood, you need people to believe this b.s. All I’m saying is think outside the box, the percentage of survivors from chemo,radiation, etc. is rediculously low…Poisons, eating habits, exercise, etc. is the key to a much better survival rate. Balance..not all one way or another. Just remember… 100 billion dollars in one year from keeping us sick…..enough said !!!
Best wishes to you James. Someday may your knowledge sway our way…”peace”
Joseph Mahoney: “We have been through this 100 times. Lets make this simple … Eat only acidic food and see what happens…your body will spend so much time trying to maintain ph it wont have time for many other things. You will be sick frequently, recovery time will lengthen etc. etc. Same if you eat all alkaline…this should be common sense…”
Sheesh… I cannot believe that any living human being could be so dense!!! Look at my quote carefully again:
” If the blood was really becoming acidic from diet or if eating food could really alkalize the blood….”
Now, note where the word “if” comes up several times. The word “if” is used to denote that the claims of acidifying and alkalizing by diet are MYTHS!!! I DID NOT say “when” the diet alters the pH, but was stating “if” this really occurred. The ONLY way diet is going to alkalize the blood is if you dangerously overwhelmed the body’s pH buffering systems, which is not as easy to do as it seems because the body has various systems it uses as primary pH regulators and that DOES NOT involve diet.
So the point was that “IF” diet really altered the blood pH as the alkaline supporters claim then we would all be dead, This is because if diet were the primary pH regulator and foods really were acid or alkaline forming then diet would throwing our pH all over the place and outside of the range we could live. Luckily the alkaline and acid forming foods myth is just that, a MYTH!!! Come on Joseph use a few brain cells for once and some common sense!!!
Joseph Mahoney: “Your so up on facts why don’t you give us the facts on the 100 billion dollars perscription drug companies, etc…..”
Why in the hell are you rambling over something that has nothing specifically do with anything being discussed? Are you trying to divert attention away from this question for you I wrote based on your ludicrous earlier statement:
“How do you “feed” the immune system figuratively speaking? Be specific though so there is nothing questionable.”
Or are you trying to cover up for your other ludicrous statement about people supposedly building an immunity to cancer?
Joseph Mahoney: “How does the body do that James if you are eating a bunch of junk containing tons of poisons with cancer adding even more acidic poison and then you add some chemo or radiation bla bla bla ”
ROTFLMAO!!! You really are a piece of work!!! As has been explained over and over the body’s main means of pH regulation is RESPIRATION. Next is the kidney’s retention or elimination of hydrogen ions. These two account for nearly all the body’s pH regulation. There are still various other minor means of pH regulation for the body, but diet has virtually no direct influence on alkalizing the body.
In addition, for some reason you seem to have some weird obsession with acids being poisons. You clearly don’t understand that the body cannot survive, function, detox or even exist without a variety of acids. On the other hand one of the most toxic compounds produced in the body is highly alkaline ammonia. Yes, many poisons, and some of the most toxic compounds known are alkaline!!! Luckily the body has some means to deal with alkaline poisons, although in a more limited capacity. This is why alkalosis is considered more significantly more dangerous than acidosis.
But thanks for proving once and for all that you have absolutely NO clue what you are talking about!!!
Joseph Mahoney: “you always go from one extreme to the other…balance..how many times does that have to be said before you get it? ”
LOL!!!! How many times do you have to be told the simple FACT that the body maintains its own pH in the balance it needs WITHOUT assistance except in EXTREMELY rare cases?!!!! Again, use some simple common sense Joseph Mahoney!!!! If the body was not maintaining this balance then we would all be dead since the body cannot survive if that balance goes outside of that narrowly balanced range!!!! Not a hard concept to understand. In fact, I can sit down and eat a whole gallon of ice cream that you claim is acid forming and it would not kill me even though acidosis can lead to death. Or I can sit a couple pounds of carrots, which you think is alkalizing and again it will not kill me. Why is that Joseph Mahoney when either acidosis or alkalosis can kill? Simple, diet DOES NOT regulate the blood’s pH to any significant level. Again, this is super simple common sense!!!!! Try it for once Joseph Mahoney!!!
Joseph Mahoney: “Hyperventilate..you said it yourself raises the ph to a dangerous level yet you say body maitains it all all times….yada yada.”
Yep, you are denser that lead!!! I also love how you only present a part of what I said to make your point. Just proves how dishonest you are. What you left out is the part of what happens when the hyperventilation causes the alkalosis. The rest of what I said that you deliberately left out is the fact that the alkalosis causes the blood vessels feeding the brain to constrict cutting off the blood supply and causing us to pass out. When we pass out the person;s breathing slows significantly or even stops temporarily to build up carbonic acid to counter the alkalosis that cut off the blood supply to the brain. The increase in carbonic acid restores the pH to normal as well as the blood flow to the brain. Thus the body corrects the induced pH imbalance as it generally does with other forms of pH imbalance.
Maybe you should follow the Yellow Brick Road and see if the Wizard has an extra brain he can spare for you!!!
Once again James you manage to take a few statements and consider them in stone …Thank you for enlightening us on how the body corrects itself after hyperventilating..because I’m sure nobody figured that much out after you stop hyperventilating.
Seriously look at what this man types, so much a waste of time…but then again thats what our gov. and pharmaceutical companies do …pretend ! Thanks James I have enough of what I was looking for.
Members here…. Think about this, Read what James writes, if he knows so much about how the body works then there must be many others that know more..yet no forward progress has been made with cancer and other diseases? How is that possible? James here alone seems to have it all figured out ! Again I remind you 100 billion dollar pharmaceutical company profits of 2013 …. They simply pretend to make advancements, when in reality as “We the People” learn to eat better, stay healthier, they find more ways to keep us sick…. Do your research! You will see for yourself. “peace all”
Joseph Mahoney: “Thank you for enlightening us on how the body corrects itself after hyperventilating..because I’m sure nobody figured that much out after you stop hyperventilating.”
You are welcome. I am glad I could help you to understand that simple concept since you were not able to figure it out on your own.
It is a great example though of how the body maintains its pH WITHOUT outside assistance. The body has actually been maintaining its pH balance without outside assistance ever since humans became present on Earth. This is why the body has so many redundant systems to maintain its pH. The body can only live within a very narrow pH range so the body has various means of pH regulation, respiration being the primary. So we really do not use up alkaline reserves as some people falsely claim.
Joseph Mahoney: “Members here…. Think about this, Read what James writes, if he knows so much about how the body works then there must be many others that know more..yet no forward progress has been made with cancer and other diseases? How is that possible? ”
ROTFLMAO!!!! Members, think about how Joseph Mahoney has to make everything a personal attack. Why is that? Simple, he has no clue what he is talking about and thus he cannot argue the facts presented. So instead he has to attack the messenger with his false claims to divert people from seeing his real ignorance.
For example, here he is falsely claiming that there has been no progress with cancer and other diseases. How about the facts that we now know that cancer cells die if they become acidic? Or the fact that we now know that the vast majority of cancers are caused by viruses so that we now have a new means to attack cancer. For example, all the research showing that betulinic acid kills cancer:
http://medcapsules.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3600
In fact, there is all sorts of research showing the anti-cancer activity of various things from plants to ozone. Here are some more examples:
http://medcapsules.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=151
http://medcapsules.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=83
http://medcapsules.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=548
And more on the allopathic side:
http://medcapsules.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=130
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what is being learned about cancer alone. Just because Joseph Mahoney prefers to get all of his information from paranoia filled propaganda sites rather than investigating all the current research readily available does not mean advances in cancer have not been made.
The fact is that contrary to what the propaganda sites claim we have learned so much about cancer. Again, the fact that most are viral induced and there is only ONE cancer that has shown any potential hereditary factor. That cancer cells are highly reliant on oxygen and increased oxygen levels promote cancer growth. That cancer cells have a highly alkaline internal pH that allows them to survive and thrive. The list of things we have learned goes on and on.
What Joseph Mahoney has not figured out is that advances take long periods of time to become accepted. Look at Helicobacter pylori for example. The scientist that discovered the link between H. pylori and ulcers was ridiculed, blackballed, etc. for over a decade. Ironically, the drug companies were working on antibiotic therapies for H. pylori the entire time. And as soon as the drug companies had their testing completed and their products ready for market all of a sudden the H. pylori link to ulcers was suddenly accepted as fact. This is actually quite common. Many natural substances for cancer and other diseases are often ridiculed until the drug companies find a way to patent the substance then all of a sudden it becomes accepted. Look at angiogenesis inhibition, which was in use for years by the holistic community before it became common in the allopathic community. Podophyllumtoxin was reported as being highly effective against 6 forms of cancer including breast cancer in both the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of the American Cancer Society back in the 50s. It took about 50 years though before it was synthesized and patented then sold to be used a chemotherapy drug. Point is that advances are made all the time. This does not mean it will be made available to the public as long as there is big money being made from the disease.
And this is not just limited to cancer. We now know that the vast majority of diabetes cases DO NOT involve pancreatic failure. In fact, the most serious side effects of type 2 diabetes result from an excess of insulin being released by the pancreas. We know that chromium and magnesium help to keep insulin receptors open. We now know that osteoporosis IS NOT the result of mineral loss, but rather collagen loss. We know why nonsteroidal drugs (NSAIDs) contribute to arthritis. And can cause heart attacks, strokes, liver or kidney failure even with a single recommended dose. We know that acid reflux IS NOT the result of excess stomach acid. Etc., etc., etc. Just because Joseph Mahoney has not put forth any effort to look for the NUMEROUS advances that have been made in medicine this DOES NOT mean they do not exist. Joseph Mahoney is not the all-knowing God he thinks he is!!!
Joseph Mahoney: “Do your research! ”
Irony at its best. Joseph Mahoney telling other people to do their research when he himself has never done this. Reading paranoia propaganda sites and accepting whatever their claim without question or researching the claims does not count as research.
I just want to let you know that the fact that you let this Joe guy entertain you into his Bickering for so long has become the reason why I will no longer read anymore on this page.
Joseph Mahoney,
I am really new to this web site and do not know any of the participants personally.
However, I’m finding your criticisms of James astonishing!
I believe that the only time I have seen a reference to James’ product site was through and answer to a question that and that answer was provided by someone other than James.
After reading probably several hundred of his postings, I can honestly say that he is quite clearly NOT trying to promote any profit making activity. And I respect that within reason it would not poor practice to mention the existence of same by him.
I will continue to read on this site but will admit that the personal attacks are annoying and expecting James to “back up his claims” using his background rather than the actual research results is really frustrating.
While James has provided sufficient personal information to know that he is not a 10 kid, I actually wouldn’t care as long as what is presented is indeed supported by research results. And I do admit that in this subject area, probably more than any other, you have to look very carefully at published research results and look for similar independent supporting research. Among other things.
So amusing watching and reading the people praising James for his long winded responses …He simply tries to confuse you with his B.S.
Do your homework on this man as several of us have and you too will find his motive.
Health … It’s simple, feed the body what it needs and it will cure, correct, and maintain !
Joseph Mahoney,
Within reason, I agree with your last paragraph:
“Health … It’s simple, feed the body what it needs and it will cure, correct, and maintain !”
Research supporting that idea goes back a long way. However, even with an excellent diet sometimes thing still “go wrong.” When that occurs, homeopathic, allopathic, or a combination of both is needed to correct the condition.
I am leaning to the conclusion that terms like “alkaline diet” run James “right up the wall.” Somewhat like “contaminated with radiation” does for me. That is a completely nonsensical statement. You literally can not carry on an intelligent conversation prior to finding out what the person actually meant by “contaminated with radiation.”
If sodium-bicarbonate were a food, then I suppose it would be proper to call it an “alkaline food.” Those to what purpose, I can’t guess.
Body is too complex to reduce that issue on pH. Many important functions are realized in alkaline and many in acidic environment. There is no unique ideal pH that is omipresent in whole body equally.
Secondly, observational studies by their nature/methodology are not sufficient to prove anything whether it is for or against acidic or alkaline environment. They can indicate but not sufficiently argue so complex issues as it is pH.
Thirdly, food can influence some parts of activity of kidneys, but it depends on many factors is that sufficient or not. I am afraidthat we talk here in too general terms with wish to be very precise and distinct.
I have changed my diet several times in an effort to treat my chronic pain. The pain is caused by ehlers-danlos, osteoarthritis and firbo. Here is my experience: Years ago, I tried a clean Vegan diet (net alkiline). I had more energy but no change in pain. At the time my mother was also a vegan, worked out like a feen and was still over weight. As of February 2014, I started eating a ketogenic diet (net acidic), like the inuits, and many good things have happened! My pain was reduced by 50%! I lost 30 lbs (bmi from 33 to 22.5) and my blood pressure and pulse has gone down. Plus, my HDL is up and my LDL and triglycerides are down. Now those are realitive markers! I would encourage anyone that is overweight, has inflammation, fibro or yeast issues to try this way of eating. It has given me my life back!
Marianne,
If you would be so kind as to visit my blog, and leave your testimonial, it would be of benefit to others like yourself…
Please enter your commentary with the preface, ” Although I am not a client…”
Thank you. http://www.misterpaleo.blogspot.com
Hi James, the fact that i can’t tolerate citric acid or anything sour,
Has that to do with acidic body?
Thanks,
Martie.
Hi Martie,
No, this is not a sign of acidosis and has nothing to do with acidosis. If you are referring to this giving you an upset stomach then you likely have an ulcer or at least gastritis.
James
Hey Chris, I’ve enjoyed your 2-part article here. The comments certainly run the gamut, don’t they?
Anyway, a friend of mine is trying to get me to use an alkalizing water machine, and I am skeptical. However, I was just about to drop the subject after reading a bunch of articles when I ran into Ray Kurzweil’s piece on water ionization and alkalinity, here:
http://www.healthalkaline.com/scientist-ray-kurzweil-answers-alkaline-water-questions/
Do his analyses make sense to you? Hope you get a moment for even a brief reply.
Best wishes,
James
In reply to James – I can truly understand you may be skeptical about Alkaline Water, there has been a lot of negative writing on the net over the lasts few years, but if I can tell you, I have been drinking Alkaline Ionised Water for the past 14 years.
When I first started drinking the water I wasn’t really aware that there was anything special about the water other than the lightness and good taste of the water. It was in my opinion back then, like drinking velvet! I had suffered massive neck and thoracic injuries that left me almost crippled.
Within a few short months of drinking the water I noticed that things were changing in my health but attributed them to other factors. Until one day in 2003 when I went on a short trip to South Australia. In the week I was away, I started to feel some of the old health issues arise (arthritis and lack of energy etc) I put it down to the travel. But then, after I returned home and resumed my normal life, all the pains suddenly started disappearing again. So, this had me a little befuddled… and I started experimenting. Within a short time, I realised that it had to be the water, as that was the only thing that really changed for me. I studied as much as I could to understand what it was about Alkaline Water that made is so special, that was when I purchased my own machine, so that I could have a constant and fresh supply of the water. I learned that I only take holidays where I can be assured of my water supply and I live and breathe for this water and nobody will convince me otherwise, I am 56 years old, most people think I am 10+ years younger than my age, I am fit and healthy, my doctor thinks I am boring because there is nothing wrong with me other than my injuries. It seems that most of my friends all have something to complain about… but they still think I am crazy when I tell them to drink the water. I have however had success with a number of friends and family over the years that have been so desperate to find anything to help them with their ailments that they resorted to taking my water in 20 ltr bottles and drinking at least the 2ltrs a day. I have seen what the water has done for IBS, Acid Reflux and much more… I do plan to write a book about my adventure and hope that I can help others along the way.
Very recently I started a new business in partnership with one of my converts… he was a man who was so sick with Chronic Fatigue, and after trying my water, he asked me if I would be interested in going into business with him. I accepted and the result can be found here… if there is anything you want to know this is the place to find it. (even if you don’t buy anything, it is worth finding as much as you can on the subject) Alkaline Ionised Water
Magreth: ” I had suffered massive neck and thoracic injuries that left me almost crippled.
Within a few short months of drinking the water I noticed that things were changing in my health but attributed them to other factors. Until one day in 2003 when I went on a short trip to South Australia. In the week I was away, I started to feel some of the old health issues arise (arthritis and lack of energy etc) I put it down to the travel. But then, after I returned home and resumed my normal life, all the pains suddenly started disappearing again.”
Being that arthritis does not occur that quick this tells me that your arthritis never went away despite drinking the water for 14 years. And if you developed the arthritis after starting on the water this means it did not prevent the arthritis either.
I see no way that the water could really mask the pain of the arthritis either. The change on your trip could have simply been a change in your diet and you went back to a better diet when you returned home. Again, this is an example of why we need controlled studies to determine is something is really helping and if so how it is helping.
As I have pointed out in the past several times people often do multiple things that can help them but attribute the benefits to one thing even if it may not have anything to do with it. For example, many people advocate cesium chloride for cancer and base their belief on one study that showed a remission in a small number of people in the study. What they are overlooking if they read the entire study and not just a synopsis on some propaganda site is the fact that the people in the study were given multiple therapies, some of which are known for being beneficial for cancer. The cesium chloride IS NOT one of them. In fact, cesium chloride has been shown in multiple studies to not only cause cancer but also promotes the growth of existing cancers. So people are reading in to the study ignoring the real beneficial therapies while giving credit to a therapy that is not only dangerous and ineffective, but also cancer forming and cancer growth promoting.
I am glad you are feeling better, but I am not going to accept the claim that the water is what is helping without some type of real proof of how it could help. For example, what is the exact mechanism by which the water is supposedly helping?
On the other hand, as I have pointed out numerous times neutralizing the stomach acid with alkalizers including alkaline water decreases methylation. The process of methylation is required for around 4,000 reactions in the body including helping with cartilage formation. This could explain why you still have arthritis despite drinking the water for 14 years. Therefore, here is proof that there is more evidence that the alkaline water is doing more damage to the body than it is supposedly helping.
Magreth: “I have seen what the water has done for IBS, Acid Reflux and much more…”
Neutralizing the stomach acid is not going to help at all with IBS. In fact, it can actually lead to worse health issues in the case of IBS. The reason is that in cases of IBS there is intestinal inflammation making it more susceptible to absorption of protein solutes in to the bloodstream. These protein solutes form from the lack of stomach acid, which also requires methylation for production. The protein digestive enzyme pepsin cannot function properly without sufficient stomach acid. When the stomach acid is neutralized, and its production decreased by alkalizers the pepsin cannot break down proteins completely leaving the protein solutes. When these protein solutes absorb through the inflamed intestine they act as antigens triggering off allergic responses. This also taxes the adrenals, which further increases inflammation, including aggravating the IBS.
As for the acid reflux, yes alkaline waters will COVER UP the symptoms just like Tums or an acid blocker. This DOES NOT make it safe or beneficial. Most cases of acid reflux result from a lack of stomach acid to begin with, which increases fermentation in the stomach. The gas formation applies pressure on the lower esophageal sphincter until it tires out. When the LES relaxes the gas and TRACES of acid escape up the esophagus causing the “heart burn”. Further lowering the stomach acid by neutralization and inhibiting further acid production TEMPORARILY masks the symptoms but makes the underlying condition worse, which is a major factor on why people become dependent on acid neutralizers and acid blockers to keep suppressing their symptoms as they make the underlying condition worse.
Magreth: “he was a man who was so sick with Chronic Fatigue, and after trying my water, he asked me if I would be interested in going into business with him.”
Chronic fatigue is not a disease or disorder with any specific cause. It is a syndrome, which is a group of symptoms. Again, if you want to convince me then show me exactly how this water can help with any of the things that can lead to the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Hi, Magreth, we sold this brand of water ionizer for 12 years and decided to stop doing so and convert to our own non-electric hydrogen system. I understand you are excited about the possibility of selling ‘alkaline’ water but would suggest respectfully that you take a look at http://www.molecularhydrogeninstitute.com to get the real story about the water you are selling.
Then ask your supplier if the systems you are selling have been tested for hydrogen output.
James take a look at http://www.molecularhydrogeninstitute.com for the truth about ‘alkaline’ water.
My prediction? Within a year you’ll see high H2 output water systems that do NOT alkalize.
Ian Blair Hamilton
alkaway.com