Sports Training and Recovery Potential – your body pH effects EVERYTHING!
All biochemical reactions, intracellular activity and electrical (life) energy are under pH control and therefore it is one of the most important biochemical balances in all of human body chemistry.
pH controls the speed of biochemical reactions including the way our bodies utilise enzymes, minerals, vitamins and food supplements. It does this by controlling the rate of enzyme activity as well as the speed that electricity moves through our body.
And you guessed it – over training or lack of appropriate recovery and provision of nutrients affects your pH which in turn affects your sporting performance, recovery capacity and your ability to reach your goals.
That is why pH is one of the first things we look at if you are experiencing recurrent injury or other symptoms of disease and is tested for in your first consultation with us. Mineral status is also commonly measured with our Oligoscan device.
Most health problems are due to acidity. Unless the body’s pH level is slightly alkaline, the body’s ability to heal itself is very limited. So, no matter what type of healing therapy you choose, it won’t be as effective until the pH level is corrected.
What we eat and drink will directly impact our pH level (more on this follows) but it really is so simple! And when your pH is correctly addressed and balanced, the results are staggering in effect.
Understanding pH and why it is important
pH is the acronym for “Potential Hydrogen”. By definition, it is the degree of concentration of hydrogen ions in a substance or solution. It is measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 14. Higher numbers means a substance is more alkaline in nature and there is a greater potential for absorbing more hydrogen ions. Lower numbers indicate more acidity with less potential for absorbing hydrogen ions. Distilled water is neutral with a pH of 7.
Changes in pH are exponential – i.e. for every point you moves up the scale it is to the power of 10, so a change in pH from 5 to 6 is a 10 fold change; a change from 5 to 7 is a 100 fold change.
The higher (more alkaline) the pH of a substance or solution, the more electrical resistance that substance or solution holds. Therefore, electricity travels slower with higher pH so if we say something has an acid pH, we are saying it is hot and fast. Alkaline pH on the other hand, biochemically speaking, is slow and cool. Yes, you can be too alkaline!
The pH Equation and Health
The human body strives to maintain the pH of the blood at around 7.3.
When your body’s pH and basic metabolic processes are out of balance, it sets up an internal environment that becomes a new playground for opportunistic “bugs” – bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc. The good bacteria needed to overcome Candida albicans require a specific alkaline environment (whereas yeasts and fungus survive in broad pH range so they can spread and go unchecked in an acid environment).
The body becomes unable to process or cleanse itself of toxins and other food additives when it is in an acidic state (acidosis). Many of these toxins can be resting in our bodies for a very long time before they create or cause any problems.
An imbalanced diet high in acidic-producing foods such as animal protein, sugar, caffeine, and processed foods puts pressure on the body’s regulating systems to maintain pH neutrality. The extra buffering required can deplete the body of alkaline minerals such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, making the person prone to chronic and degenerative disease. Many of you would have already experienced the benefits of taking Magnease daily.
Minerals are borrowed from vital organs and bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid and safely remove it from the body. Because of this strain, the body can suffer severe and prolonged damage – a condition that may go undetected for years.
An acidic pH can occur from an acid-forming diet, over-training, emotional stress, toxic overload, and/or immune reactions or any process that deprives the cells of oxygen and other nutrients. If the diet does not contain enough minerals to compensate, a build-up of acids in the cells will occur. Acidosis can cause such problems as:
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The simple solution
Your food intake should ideally focus on an organic whole food diet based on your genetic inheritance – what did your grandparents, grandparents, grandparents eat, how did they prepare it and in what way did they consume it?
Barring that information, a diet based on organic fruit, vegetables, small wild fish, pasture fed meat products and mineral water as well as removing strong acid forming foods such as sugar products and processed grains should serve you well.
Other tricks include the use of specific mineral compounds, organic apple cider vinegar, Himalayan salt and lemon juice. These act as buffers to high acidity, however the diet choices listed above are the true regulators/balancers of pH.