Are you acidic?

Are you acidic?

Almost everyone over 40 years old is. That’s about the age when the body’s first line of defense against acidity (buffering) becomes depleted.

Obviously, the stomach and the upper intestinal tract should be acidic. That’s critical for proper digestion.

But the rest of the body works best in a neutral to slightly alkaline condition. An acidic environment in these areas reduces oxygen and water to the cells.

Are you susceptible to infections? Low oxygen and water levels are conditions favorable to viruses, bad bacteria, and the development of cancer cells. Frequent and prolonged infections may be signs that the body is acidic.

The body has a backup system to counteract acidity. It dissolves bones. Ignoring acid buildup in the body will lead to weak bones—osteopenia and osteoporosis.

Our lifestyle creates acidic conditions. Most of our foods are acidic to the body. With few exceptions, everything but vegetables is acidic. Most of the liquids we drink are acidic. Sodas are highly acidic. So is coffee. Exercise and physical labor generates lactic acid, the source of the aches and soreness we feel after hard labor and exercise.

Take me, for example. I drink a couple mugs of coffee in the morning. (I call it my starter fluid.) I love cheeses. And even though my wife and I eat a lot of raw vegetables, I still enjoy occasional meats. And sugar. I sweeten my coffee with honey. We almost always have something sweet after our evening meal. We usually eat a piece of dark chocolate.

So I fight acidity every day! We bias our foods toward vegetables. For breakfast, we have what I call a scrambled omelet. We’ve been doing that for over eight years and we have yet to tire of it. We dice low glycemic vegetables, sauté them in coconut oil, grapeseed oil, and water, add some favorite spices and seasalt, and then scramble eggs into them. For lunch, we usually eat raw vegetables with peanut butter, hummus, or cream cheese. For dinner, we may have a salad along with some kind of protein.

We also take alkaline nutritional supplements. Our favorites are spirulina, phyto powders, and Microhydrin.

How can you tell if you are acidic? Check your urine with a pH strip. We do it several times a week. If you’re just starting to fight acidity, test yourself at least once a day. Your pH will vary throughout the day, so you may want to test several times a day.

You can also test your saliva, but a urine test gives you a truer indication of the pH of your organs.

Where can you buy pH strips? A good health food store will carry them. If not, you can purchase them online. 

Insomnia

Insomnia? Not me! I can fall asleep on command. Well, almost. I’m asleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. I can fall asleep during TV commercials. Or listening to people blather on about insignificant things.

My wife? That’s different. She sometimes would read in bed for hours before falling asleep. Or I’d discover her reading in the middle of the night because she couldn’t go back to sleep.

But that’s in the past. We’ve discovered how to change that.

A friend of ours who happens to be a naturopathic doctor informed us that people who have trouble going to sleep are often deficient in minerals, and people who have trouble staying asleep are low in B vitamins. Another problem could be low blood sugar. Guess what? Spirulina is rich in minerals and B vitamins. And, of course, it will also raise low blood sugar levels.

So  my wife started taking Spirulina at bedtime and her insomnia was gone, that is, almost gone. Sometimes she still struggled.

That is, until one of our customers, a nurse who had sleep problems all her life, said that she sleeps like a baby when she takes Stem-Kine at bedtime.

Of course, Dottie tried it immediately and IT WORKED! Now Dottie rarely reads in bed. She takes Spirulina and Stem-Kine at bedtime and goes to sleep almost as fast as I do, and she sleeps through the night.   

We told this to a lady who claimed that she could never sleep more than four hours a night. She tried the Stem-Kine at bedtime and called us elated with the news that she now gets a full night’s sleep!

I have no idea why Stem-Kine works. I suppose there can be any number of reasons for insomnia. But I know at least two natural supplements that can help.