The significance of maintaining balanced pH levels for disease prevention and optimal health is FAR from a new concept!
As a matter of fact, medical textbooks have explored this area of physiology for more than a century now. The popular Textbook of Medical Physiology, written by Arthur C. Guyton specifically states “the regulation of hydrogen ion concentration is one of the most important aspects of homeostasis”
In 1923 Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted and Thomas Martin Lowry, both independently devised the concept that acids are proton (H+) donors while bases are proton acceptors. The was an advancement on Arrhenius’s theory, who in 1903 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the dissociation of molecules into ions or electrolytes.
Max Planck, Nobel Laureate in physics, in 1918, expressed, “For new ideas to be accepted, one has to wait for a generation of scientists to die off and a new one to replace it.” So it is with the “New Biology” theory — there is only one disease and one sickness — the over-acidification of the blood and tissues due to an inverted way of living, thinking and eating.
Back in 2000 Dr. Jurgen Vormann, a pH researcher, put together a scientific conference called Acid-Base Metabolism: Nutrition-Health-Disease. At this time, researchers from all over the world documented the serious impact of chronic low grade metabolic acidosis on specific health issues even as early childhood growth and bone issues.
Dating as far back as the late 1870’s, a scientist named Marcellin Berthelot invented a device called the Bomb Calorimeter to determine the amount of heat manufactured or absorbed during chemical reactions. This discovery by Berthelot led to a published paper in 1912 by Sherman and Gettler that showed calculations for the pH of different foods like meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. after they were burned and turned into ash. When the resultant ash was mixed with water it was discovered that substances with a more alkaline pH were fruits and vegetables, while those with a more acidic pH were meats.
There has been a tremendous amount of changes in regards to pH and the net acid load in the Homo sapiens diet from the hunter gatherer civilization to modern day. Since the start of the agricultural revolution 120000 years ago, and much more so with modern day industrialization, there has been a decrease in potassium (K) in comparison to sodium (Na), and an increase in chloride compared to bicarbonate in diets. So instead of the K/Na ratio being 10/1 on the high end, it’s more like 1/3! Reason being, today’s foods of convenience are high in processed sodium chloride (iodized table salt), while at the same time very low in the alkalizing, buffering, balancing minerals magnesium and potassium. Far distant in comparison to the pre-agricultural period, resulting in dangerous mineral imbalances that promote disease.
Researchers today continue to explore this more than obvious relationship between acid-alkaline imbalances and modern day diseases.
Dr. Anthony Sebastian, senior author of a study that looked at the net acid load in 229 worldwide historically studied hunter-gatherer societies determined that the clear majority of our ancestral diets were alkaline-forming due to the higher intake of potassium from fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, in comparison to contemporary Homo sapiens diets rich in saturated fat, simple sugars, sodium, and chloride and POOR in fiber, magnesium, and potassium.
His study executed back in 2001 found that the average NEAP (Net Endogenous Acid Production or net systemic acid load) for 159 retrojected ancestral pre-agricultural diets was -88 milliequivalents per liter (87% were net base-producing), whereas the predicted NEAP for the average American diet as +48 milliequivalents per liter, which is far more acid producing. Needless to say, modern day diets are severely lacking the balance of alkaline forming foods required to maintain health and prevent disease! (Cordain et al. 2005).
We have known the power of pH for some time now, yet this indispensable life saving information is still disregarded and suppressed by the allopathic community because it doesn’t follow the pharmaceutical drug models!
http://www.phmiracleliving.com/Articles/2006-11-29-AcidAlkalarianTheory.html
(http://www.jbc.org/cgi/reprint/11/4/323.pdf )