Note:
According to Dr Lark, the results you get show tendencies, not necessarily
actualities.
Look
at them in relation to how you feel and make your own decision.
There
are ample markers here for your to self-assess with reasonable accuracy,
but without expert medical advice you cannot rule our a pre-existing
health condition that may be causing the trend you see in this test.
Between
the ages of thirty and fifty
at least several of your vital chemical/metabolic functions cease
operating at peak efficiency due to accumulative effects of the wear
and tear of daily life. It is rare to have only one symptom; you will
almost always identify a number of markers in the above test, if not
a breakdown in several areas.
Symptom
variations are limitless.
A fifty year old man may have a high frequency of allergy symptoms,
low libido and high blood pressure. His female partner on the same
diet may have digestion problems, an overly acid stomach, increasing
fatigue, hot flushes and other transitional menopausal symptoms.
It's important to understand that change has to occur holistically
rather than symptom-by-symptom. We need to change the way our body
functions at its most basic level rather than find yet another antidote
for the latest symptom, which may just be another manifestation of
pH imbalance.
This is why alkaline water is so effective; with water comprising
60-70% of a middle aged body, changing water pH has the ability to
reduce acidity almost immediately. The advantage of using an Jupiter
alkalizing water ionizer is that you always have the choice of alkalinity
level, so you can use the alkalizer as a complete balancing tool.
An extended acid-producing activity (excess work or physical activity,
stress etc) can be responded to immediately.
Peer
Reviewed Articles on Alkaline Water
Research
on the need for maintaining the body's acid/alkaline balance is now
beginning to surface in the West. In Japan there is a large
body of scientific evidence from the last 20+ years as to the importance
of body pH to good health and well being, and the challenges our bodies
face in keeping it in balance. And now in the USA independent
researchers are making some significant discoveries.
Here
is a selected list of some of the peer-reviewed articles.
1.
Lonergan, E. Aging and the kidney: adjusting treatment to physiologic
change, Geriatrics 43: 27-30, 32-33, 1998.
Changes in renal physiology and function with aging put the elderly
patient at risk for adverse effect of drug therapies due to the incidence
of common problems like metabolic acidosis.
2. Frassetto, L. and Sebastian, A. Age and systemic acid-base equilibrium:
analysis of published data, Journal of Gerontology, Advanced Biological
Science and Medical Science, 51: B91-99, 1996.
Authors examined peer-reviewed literature to determine whether systemic
acid-base equilibrium changes with aging in normal adults humans.
Using linear regression analysis, they found that with increasing
age, there is a significant increase in the steady-state blood H+
indicating a progressively worsening low-level metabolic acidosis
in what may reflect, in part, the normal decline of renal function
with increasing age.
3. Alpern, R. and Sakhaee, K. The clinical spectrum of chronic metabolic
acidosis: homeostatic mechanisms produce significant morbidity, American
Journal of Kidney Disease 29: 291-302, 1997.
Chronic
metabolic acidosis is a process whereby an excess acid load is placed
on the body due to excess acid generation or diminished acid removal
by normal homeostatic mechanisms. Excessive meat ingestion and aging
are two clinical conditions often associated with chronic metabolic
acidosis. The body's homeostatic response to this pathology is very
efficient. Therefore, the blood pH is frequently maintained within
the "normal" range. However, these homeostatic responses engender
pathologic consequences such as nephrolithiasis, bone demineralization,
muscle protein breakdown and renal growth.
4. Bushinsky, D. Acid-base imbalance and the skeleton, European Journal
of Nutrition 40: 238-244, 2001.
Humans
generally consume a diet that generates metabolic acids leading to
a reduction in the systemic bicarbonate and a fall of pH. Chronic
metabolic acidosis alters bone cell function; there is an increase
in osteoclastic bone resorption and a decrease in osteoblastic bone
formation. As we age, we are less able to excrete metabolic acids
due to the normal decline in renal function.
5. Frassetto, L.; Morris, R.; Sellmeyer, D.; Todd, K. and Sebastian,
A. Diet, evolution and aging: the pathophysiologic effects of the
post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride
ratios in the human diet, European Journal of Nutrition 40:5 200-213,
2001.
Dietary changes over the last two centuries have resulted in a mismatch
between genetically-determined nutritional requirements in humans.
Excess sodium chloride, a deficiency of potassium and excess dietary
acids that are not mediated by dietary bicarbonates lead to chronic
low-grade metabolic acidosis that amplifies the age-related pathophysiological
consequences in humans (such as loss of bone substance, increase in
urinary calcium, disturbance in nitrogen metabolism, and low levels
of growth hormone).
6. Frassetto, L.; Morris, R. and Sebastian, A. Effect of age on blood
acid-base composition in adult humans: role of age-related renal functional
decline, American Journal of Physiology, 271: 1114-22, 1996.
Otherwise healthy adults manifest a low-grade, diet-dependent metabolic
acidosis, the severity of which increases with age at constant rate
described by an index of endogenous acid production, apparently due
in part, to the normal age-related decline of renal function.
7. Alpern, R. Trade-offs in the adaptation to acidosis, Kidney International
47: 1205-1215, 1995.
Excessive
dietary intake of protein with consequent increase in metabolic acid
production result in compensatory mechanisms that lead to progression
of kidney stones, bone disease, renal disease and a catabolic state.
8. Krapt, R. and Jehle, A. Renal function and renal disease in the
elderly, Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift, 130:11 398-408
2000.
Age-induced decline in renal functions explains, at least in part,
clinically important age-related conditions including metabolic acidosis.
9. Adrogue, H. and Madias, N. Management of life-threatening acid-base
disorders, New England Journal of Medicine 338: 26-34, 1998.
Acid-base homeostasis exerts a major influence on protein function,
thereby critically affecting tissue and organ performance. Deviations
in body acidity can have adverse consequences and when severe, can
be life-threatening.
10.
Maurer, M.; Riesen, W.; Muser, J.; Hulter, H. and Krapf, R. Neutralization
of Western diet inhibits bone resportion independently of K intake
and reduces cortisol secretion in humans, American Journal of Physiology
and Renal Physiology 284: F32-40, 2003.
The
acid load inherent in the Western diet results in mild chronic metabolic
acidosis in association with a state of cortisol excess. An alkali
balanced diet modulates bone resorption and the associated alterations
in calcium and phosphate homeostasis.
11.
May, R.; Kelly, R. and Mitch, W. Metabolic acidosis stimulates protein
degradation in rat muscle by glucocorticoid-dependent mechanism, Journal
of Clinical Investigations 77:614-621, 1986.
Chronic
metabolic acidosis increases net muscle protein degradation in rat
muscle tissue.
12.
Meghji, S.; Morrison, M.; Henderson, B. and Arnett, T. pH dependence
of bone resoption: mouse calvarial osteoclasts are activated by acidosis,
American Journal of Physiological and Endocrinological Metabolism
280: E112-E119, 2001.
Osteoclast
activity is modulated by small pH changes and is a key determinant
of bone resorption in mouse calvarial cultures.
13. Nabata, T.; Morimoto, S. and Ogihara, T. Abnormalities in acid-base
balance in the elderly, Nippon Rinsho 50: 2249-53, 1992.
Decline
in the ability to adjust acid-base balance is a feature of aging.
Regulation of pH ultimately depends on the kidneys and lungs, however,
the ability of these organs is decreased with physiological aging.
Renal insufficiency and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and
various drugs, such as diuretics, often affect the acid-base balance
in the elderly.
14. Robergs, R. Exercise-induced metabolic acidosis: where do the
protons come from?, Sport Science 5(2) sportsci.org/jour/0102/rar.thm,
2001.
The
physiology of intense exercise that produces acidosis is far more
complex than originally thought. In the transition to higher exercise
intensity, proton release is even greater than lactate production
which indicates acidosis is only partially related to production of
"lactic acid."
15.
Sebastian, A.; Harris, S.; Ottaway, J.; Todd, K. and Morris, R. Improved
mineral balance and skeletal metabolism in postmenopausal women treated
with potassium bicarbonate, New England Journal of Medicine 330:25
1776-81 1994.
Endogenous
acid produced by the metabolism of foods in ordinary diets abundant
in proteins may contribute to the decrease in bone mass that occurs
normally with aging. The oral administration of potassium bicarbonate
at a dose sufficient to neutralize endogenous acid improves calcium
and phosphorus balance, reduces bone resorption and creases the rate
of bone formation.
16. Sebastian, A.; Frassetto, L.; Sellmeyer, D.; Merriam, R. and Morris,
R. Estimation of the net acid load of the diet of ancestral preagricultural
Homo sapiens and their hominid ancestors, American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition 76:6 1308-1316, 2002.
Estimates
of the net systemic load of acid in ancestral pre-agricultural diets
as compared to contemporary diets reflect a mismatch between the nutrient
compositions of the diet and genetically determined nutritional requirements.
The result is that contemporary diets generate diet-induced metabolic
acidosis in contemporary Homo Sapiens.
,
Adjunct Professor, City College, New York
