Natural medicine is all about catching an imbalance in the body. Often before it is considered “outside of the normal range” by standard medical norms. But surely, this is the point at which you want to catch that imbalance, and correct it, before it causes a serious medical condition?

The same is true when considering acidosis. We want to pick it up and intervene early so as to prevent more serious health conditions.

Acidosis occurs when the body accumulates acid more quickly than it can eliminate or buffer it. This sends the PH of the blood lower, towards the more acidic end of the narrow range it likes to maintain.

pH measures how acidic or basic a substance is. pH ranges from 1 to 14 with 1 being highly acidic, 7 being neutral and 14 being highly alkaline (or basic). Water pH is generally 7. The body works to keep blood in a very narrow range of 7.35 to 7.45 which is just slightly alkaline. This is so important that death can occur if blood pH falls as low as 7.

The body constantly produces waste by products from the simple act of living. For example, digestion, breathing and using our muscles all require chemical reactions to occur in the body and these produce acidic by products. Therefore, the body has to constantly buffer the PH to push it back into the correct range.

Certain foods are considered acid forming because they produce more of these acidic by products. This puts extra pressure on the body’s regulatory processes and makes it harder to keep the PH in range. Lifestyle practices also influence this acid base balance.  For example, eating processed foods, drinking alcohol, drinking soft drinks, taking drugs (both recreational or pharmaceutical), being overweight, high protein diets, extreme physical exercise, being constantly stressed, not drinking adequate water, and not getting good sleep send the body towards a more acidic PH.

Many of the body’s cellular activities don’t work as well at lower pH levels (i.e. more acidic). This includes enzyme activity, detoxification, metabolism, and DNA synthesis. An acidic environment also increases susceptibility to infection and makes it easier for cancer cells to grow. It increases susceptibility to pain, causes fatigue, increases inflammation and can even inhibit insulin signalling. Over time this increases your likelihood of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

One of the main ways the body buffers blood PH is to extract alkaline (or basic) minerals from elsewhere in the body. For example, it takes calcium from the bone and puts it into the blood. This increases the blood pH (to be more alkaline). Over the long term, this causes osteoporosis. It also potentially increases cardiovascular risk because this calcium can deposit into the arteries.

You can get a good idea of how well your body is maintaining blood pH from a simple blood test. The following suggests an acidic state.

A low bicarbonate level, under around 28 mmol/L
A high anion gap of 20+ (calculated using the formula (sodium + potassium) – (chloride + bicarbonate)).

You can also get pH strips to test your saliva or urine. The pH of saliva should be 6.2 – 7.6 and urine should be 6.0 – 7.5.

1. Eat more alkaline foods such as fruit and vegetables. Eat less protein, dairy and grains. Ask me for a copy of the PRAL (potential renal acid load) table. It allows you to calculate your dietary intake and see if it is acidifying or alkalising.
2. Take alkaline minerals such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and sodium.
3. Reduce your stress exposure or employ strategies to help you better manage stress.
4. Regular exercise can boost overall health and assist the body to better buffer pH (but not too extreme or it can add to metabolic acidosis).
5. Regular deep breathing. The lungs remove acid by exhaling CO2.
6. Drink lots of filtered water. Kidneys health is important because acid is excreted via urine.
7. Get good sleep, again to boost the body’s ability to manage and balance blood H.
8. Drink at least 1.5 litres of filtered water daily.

Being acidic can obstruct weight loss because it hinders release of fat from fat stores. In addition, when fat stores are mobilised, it causes low-grade acidosis. This hinders further weight loss and can even encourage rebound weight gain. Furthermore, restricting calorie intake and increasing physical exercise increases those body functions which produce acidic by products. This can become a further barrier to weight loss, causing frustrating weight loss plateaus.

So, if you are trying to lose weight, take a good alkalizing supplement and follow an alkaline diet to remove acidosis as a hurdle and make your weight loss efforts as effective as possible.