There are two basic scientific facts we need to know in order to understand human health and longevity.

1) As we age, we build up acidic wastes in our body. Acid comes from foods that we eat, some foods producing more acid than others. Acidic wastes are formed in our cells as we burn nutrients to get energy to live. Our body tries its best to dump the acidic wastes through urine, perspiration, and breathing out carbon dioxide (CO2). Unfortunately, we cannot get rid of 100% of these acidic wastes. We gradually accumulate these leftovers somewhere within our body. This is an important contributor to the process of aging.

2) Acid coagulates blood. It is a necessary property of blood to stop bleeding when we have a cut. Because of this life-saving property, blood gets thick as we age (or as we accumulate more acid), causing poor blood circulation. Poor blood circulation is the primary cause of adult degenerative diseases.

When we understand the above scientific facts, we see that one obvious solution to maintain youth and health is to reduce the acids in our body. How can we reduce the acids? There are three conventional and one lesser-known methods.

1) Diet: Reducing food intake forces the body to use up stored fats.
2) Exercise: Burn more calories and sweat more acids.
3) Physical removal: Liposuction or surgery.
4) Neutralization of acids: Drink alkaline water to dissolve acids for safe discharge through the kidneys.

Diet and exercise do work to a certain extent; but to be effective and long lasting, we must follow through for an extended time, which is not that easy. Since we build up acids gradually and the entire body adjusts to the changes accordingly, we must, therefore, reduce slowly, giving all parts of our body time to adjust to the change. It is risky to rush this process. Liposuction or surgery is not only painful and expensive, but both are also unnatural. These methods can only remove fatty acids but not other deeply imbedded acids such as uric acid, kidney stones, sulfate, etc.

Drinking alkaline water is the cleanest and most effective way to reduce acids. The Japanese have been drinking alkaline water for over half a century. They developed the water ionizer which electrically splits tap water into alkaline water and acid water. At the end of World War II, Americans lived longer than the Japanese by about six years. Today, more than half a century later, Japanese people live longer than Americans by about six years. In fact, they now have the longest life span on earth.

How can we get alkaline water? A water ionizer is one method. However, depending on the mineral content of the tap water, the ionizer may not produce high pH alkaline water. A simple and effective way to make alkaline water is with alkaline water drops. Two-three drops of Alkalife® liquid drops in a glass of ordinary drinking water (8 to 10 oz.) changes the water to alkaline water ( pH of 10). Alkalife comes in a portable 1.25 oz. bottle, making it very convenient to drink alkaline water anywhere anytime. The recommended dosage is 5 glasses a day for the average person. A bottle has approximately 360 drops and should last about 2 months.

Alkaline water does not burn fatty acids away but dissolves them. When we touch chicken or meat fat, our hands become sticky. Washing the fat off our hands with regular tap water does not work unless we use soap. Soap liquefies the fat and makes it easier to clean. Fat is acid and soap is alkaline.

Of the four methods to reduce acids in our body, drinking alkaline water is the cleanest, easiest and most effective. Alkaline water neutralizes acids, liquefies them and discharges them safely through the kidneys. Burning acids away by diet and exercise is the hard way, melting acids away by alkaline water is the easy way. Alkaline water is not a quick weight loss scheme. Yes, many lose weight but very slowly and it requires a steady drinking regimen. We recommend a combination of good diet, moderate and steady exercise, and daily intake of alkaline water for best results.

Alkaline water helps neutralize and eliminate the excess acids in our body, thus improving blood circulation. When blood circulation improves, we feel more energetic and many disease symptoms diminish. In a sense, Alkaline water is indeed the proverbial ‘fountain of youth’. Since alkaline water is so beneficial, it is easy recognize the damaging effects of highly acidic soft drinks, especially those with phosphoric acid.

‘ ‘Life is a struggle, not against sin, not against the money power, not against malicious animal magnetism, but against hydrogen ions.’ These words, written by H. L. Mencken about the meaning of life and death, may also apply to the struggle of the healthy skeleton against the deleterious effects of retained acid.’ (Dr. Jeffrey A Kraut, M.D., The New England Journal of Medicine, page 1821, Vol. 330 No. 25, June 23, 1994).

Mr. Mencken wrote these words in 1919. Indeed life’s struggle is against retained acids (hydrogen ions are acid radicals). The most effective scientific weapon against acid is alkaline water.

So you’ve determined you want to begin gaining all of the benefits of drinking alkaline water, but you’re not sure how to make it a part of your daily routine. Well, there are several ways to make alkaline water using common water sources, and we’re going to detail them here.

One method of creating alkaline water is passing it through an ionizer. A water ionizer is an electronic device that uses electrolysis to separate acid and alkaline minerals from the water. The ionizer requires that minerals be present in the water for separation, so depending on the source, some limits may apply to the pH that can be attained. These devices are difficult to travel with as the connections are usually plumbed to a household faucet. And from a cost perspective, ionizers may also be out of reach for some.

Another method of making alkaline water is using media from minerals which can reach a pH of 9+. These minerals are often contained in a chamber that the water passes through or can be agitated around. The media does have a specific life expectancy and should be replaced. So the water should be tested periodically. Often silver is added to the media to reduce the risk of bacteria forming on the media.

Finally alkaline drops can be added to filtered or bottled water. Regardless of the source water’s mineral content, the desired pH can be attained by adding more drops to the water. These drops are usually packaged in portable containers which should be made of glass or medical grade plastic. Consideration should be made when selecting supplements as to what ingredients are used to increase the pH. Arsenic can raise the pH of water, but would be highly inappropriate to ingest. Some supplements use bicarbonates. Bicarbonates in water combined with hydrochloric acid create salt that never reaches the bloodstream. The only effective way to ingest a bicarbonate, would be to protect the bicarbonate from the stomach acid. This could be done in a pill through enteric coating.

Over the last several years, more and more research has emerged touting the benefits of an alkaline lifestyle. Good, lasting health is a direct consequence of a well-balanced pH state within the body. Likewise, when a body is overly acidic, a condition known as acidosis, it becomes susceptible to a host of degenerative diseases and health issues. Furthermore, the ongoing accumulation of non-disposed acidic waste within our bodies invites the onset of premature aging as well as accelerated muscle loss.

Alkalife founder Sang Whang, an early champion of alkaline water, wrote about the consequences of poor diet, stress and the environment on our bodies in his classic book Reverse Aging. And according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, increasing evidence suggests that persisting, low-grade acidosis results in numerous injurious effects on the body including dissolution of bone, muscle wasting and kidney damages.

Today, the benefits of a lifestyle centered around alkaline-forming foods and high pH water are widely known and accepted. Here we present, in no particular order, our list of the top five.

1) Combat against fatigue

Excess buildup of acid in the body diminishes oxygen supply to the body’s cells and tissues. This results in a hampered ability of bodily cells to repair themselves, resulting in greater fatigue. Lack of oxygen also contributes to fatigue by decreasing the body’s ability to utilize nutrients obtained from food. Being alkaline is a useful way to fight against these conditions and set the stage for more energy and a more active life overall.

2) Improved immunity

When a body’s pH is unbalanced, it’s ability to fight off bacteria and viruses decreases. When the bloodstream is rich with oxygen, it becomes far more difficult for pathogens to survive. Acidosis lowers the oxygen in the bloodstream, creating an environment where pathogens are more likely to thrive. Being alkaline means your body is equipped to effectively eliminate them, and therefore you have a better chance of avoiding disease.

3) Reduced inflammation

Over-acidity in the body can increase inflammation, setting the stage for a variety of health issues. Disease conditions including arthritis, colitis and bronchitis are predicated by persistent inflammation. A diet that is rich in alkaline-forming foods and alkaline water can serve to help keep inflammation in check.

4) Stronger bone formation

Many years of a meat and processed foods diet with an insufficient amount of vegetables and fruits creates acid imbalance, and the body gradually becomes more acidic. As we age, the body extracts calcium from the bones to balance the blood and body pH, and the bones become brittle, developing osteoporosis. Consistent mineral withdrawal from bones, teeth and organs can ultimately lead to negative consequences in terms of health.

5) Weight loss

This last part is a bit of a no-brainer and somewhat of a bonus for alkaline dieters. When changes to your diet involve eating more fruits and vegetables (especially leafy greens) and reducing your overall intake of fatty meats, dairy and processed grains, not only will you feel better but you are also practically guaranteed to lose weight. Alkaline-forming foods just so happen to be many of the foods doctors and nutritionists have been telling us to eat more of for years. Furthermore, reducing (or eliminating) highly acidic and sugary carbonated soft drinks in favor of alkaline water not only amounts to a daily gram slam in terms of your health, but the reduction of calories will have you slim, fit and feeling better than ever.

Do you have more that aren’t listed here? Please feel free to add to this list in the comments below.

In tap water, there are alkaline minerals and acid minerals; alkaline minerals are positively charged and acid minerals are negatively charged. A water ionizer converts regular tap water into alkaline water and acid water by electric separation means.

In the ionizer, there are two chambers with opposite polarity electrodes. Alkaline minerals in the positive electrode chamber migrate into the chamber with negative electrode; the positive electrode repels positive charges and the negative electrode attracts positive charges. As these positively charged alkaline minerals enter the negative electrode chamber, they combine with hydroxyl ions (OH-) in H2O, kicking out hydrogen ions (H+). These hydrogen ions then travel to the negative electrode and give up their positive charge and become electrically neutral hydrogen molecule (H2).

The opposite process takes place with acid minerals. Acid minerals migrate into positive electrode chamber and combine with hydrogen ions (H+) in H2O, kicking out hydroxyl ions (OH-). These hydroxyl ions then travel to the positive electrode, lose negative charge and become water (H2O) and oxygen (O2). In the ionizer, oxygen gas is released from the acid water chamber and hydrogen gas is released from the alkaline water chamber. Both chambers remain electrically neutral.

Alkaline water created by a water ionizer is relatively acid free and, depending upon the alkaline mineral content of the tap water and the setting of the ionizer, the pH value of the alkaline water can range from 8.5 to 10.5. The main alkaline minerals of tap water are calcium and a small amount of magnesium.

Alkaline drops are designed to turn ordinary drinking water into strong alkaline water with a high pH value similar to that of alkaline water made by a water ionizer. Alkaline drops do not eliminate acid minerals in the original drinking water; they simply add more alkaline mineral hydroxides to increase the pH value of the water. However, as long as both types of alkaline water have the same pH value, the number of hydroxyl ions (OH-) in them is the same. These hydroxyl ions will be looking for the same number of acid radical, hydrogen ions (H+), in the body to reduce the body’s acidity.

The patented ingredients in Alkalife® are potassium hydroxide (KOH = K+ + OH-) and a lesser amount of sodium hydroxide (NaOH = Na+ + OH-) in the proper ratio so as not to upset the ratio of potassium and sodium minerals in the human body. As stated, the predominant alkaline minerals are potassium and sodium. In the pecking order of ion exchange of the four alkaline minerals in water, potassium is the strongest, next is sodium, then calcium, and the last is magnesium. Stronger minerals can replace weaker minerals, but not the other way around.

For example, sulfur in food creates sulfuric acid. Since sulfuric acid is dangerous to the human body, the body robs calcium from the skeleton and combines it with the sulfuric acid to form sulfate, a weaker acid salt that doesn’t dissolve well. Calcium or magnesium cannot kick out calcium from sulfate, but potassium or sodium can, thus releasing calcium back to the skeleton. Sulfuric acid combined with potassium or sodium is more soluble for the kidneys to process and discharge.

Potassium and sodium are better than calcium or magnesium in reducing sulfate, urate, phosphate, and other acidic salts. Webster defines uric acid as “a white colorless crystalline substance found in urine, being one of the products of nuclein metabolism. It is nearly insoluble in water, alcohol, and ether, but soluble in solutions of alkaline salts.” Here also, potassium will work better than calcium. Many people reported relief from gout (which is caused by uric acid) after drinking alkaline water.

Some people add Alkalife drops to the alkaline water made by an ionizer to get the benefits of acid-free alkaline water and strong alkaline minerals such as potassium and sodium. But when water ionizers and alkaline drops are compared side by side, alkaline drops win hands down in terms of cost and convenience. For example, one bottle of Alkalife can make as much as 300 8oz. glasses of alkaline water with a pH of 10. Furthermore, the portability of the 1.25 oz. bottle can’t be beat, making these drops a great companion accessory while at work, travelling or spending any time away from home.

The following text is an excerpt from Reverse Aging, Alkalife founder Sang Whang’s classic text on alkalinity and wellness. For a copy of the book, follow this link.

In the early days when I was just starting to drink alkaline water, I had to go to the Colorado mountains for business. Since it was a two week trip, I decided to take an ionizer and make alkaline water in the hotel room. Since I had the machine, I wanted to use the acid water to rinse my whole body after showering. That’s when I realized that mountain spring water from the rocks contained no acid minerals. The pH of the water in the add side chamber would not go below 7 no matter how long I had the machine on.

On the other hand, hot spring water is nothing but acid. You cannot smell phosphorus but you can definitely smell sulfur, the rotten egg odor near any hot springs. We know that people like to bathe in hot springs to get healthier skin. As I mentioned earlier, human skin is acidic in order to kill bacteria and viruses. Taking a bath in a hot spring is not just to restore skin acidity but also to melt out the old wastes into the blood so that they can be discharged from the body.

Nature provides two distinctively different waters: acid free alkaline water for drinking to wash out acid wastes within the body, and alkaline free acid water for bathing. Man-supplied city water has both kinds of minerals mixed together. I guess that it is easier to dump in chemicals than to extract them.

In the early days of man’s history, we didn’t eat so much acidic food nor drink so many acidic soft drinks; therefore, the amount of alkaline minerals in mountain spring water was sufficient. With our life style today, we need a higher concentration of alkaline minerals in the drinking water than what nature provides in mountain spring water.
The pH values of the ionized alkaline water made from mountain spring water are about 8.7 to 8.9. The pH values of the original mountain spring water before ionization are 8.4 to 8.6. Assuming that there are no add minerals, each time you double the amount of alkaline minerals in the water the pH value increases by 0.3.

The pH values of typical city supplied water are also 8.4 to 8.6; however, the pH values of the alkaline water made from city water range from 9.3 to 10.5. This means that man-made alkaline water has 10 to 100 times more alkaline minerals than natural mountain spring alkaline water.

For a copy of Sang Whang’s classic book on Acid-Alkaline balance, Reverse Aging, follow this link.

An alkaline diet can be a helpful protector against illness and disease. Why? Due to modern lifestyles, our bodies tend to veer toward improper pH balance. What this means is that we are living in an overly acidic state. Physicians have recognized for decades that an acid-alkaline imbalance is linked to disease and a lack of good health in general.

Looking at the global picture, there are three major categories of diseases. The first is contagious diseases caused by the invasion of foreign live substances. Today’s medical science is effective in isolating these invaders and finding the killer agents or developing immune shots.

The second category is degenerative adult diseases caused by the accumulation of non-disposed acidic wastes within our body. Whether the wastes are distributed evenly throughout the body or concentrated in some specific area, they can cause different diseases such as diabetes, digestive problems, constipation, arthritis, gout, cancer, osteoporosis, wrinkles, etc. The best way to get rid of acidic wastes through urine is to drink alkaline water and follow an alkaline diet in general.

The third category is mysterious diseases caused by nutritional deficiency. This category is more common among health-conscious people who eat exclusively “healthy foods” and exclude all “unhealthy” ones. After an extended time, some develop nutritional deficiency. Nutritional deficiency could be the result of special diets, which cause some people to exclude some foods or over-indulge in others. Over-indulgence in one kind of food could cause nutritional deficiency/imbalance. Our body needs all kinds of nutrients since certain nutrients are needed to maintain proper ratios with other nutrients.

A health food store owner from Sweden visited Alkalife founder Sang Whang after reading his book and told of an interesting phenomenon. When people start a vegetarian diet, they definitely feel health improvement. After a few years, their health deteriorates due to nutritional deficiency. However, their memory of health improvement is so vivid that they think they should eat more vegetables, thus making the situation worse.

When it comes to health and diet, there are two schools of thought. Professional hospital dieticians advocate a balanced diet for their patients, making sure that the needed carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fiber are supplied. They are not necessarily concerned with the types of waste products that these foods produce. On the other hand, health food specialists are more concerned with waste products that the foods produce; they recommend certain kinds of food while excluding others. They are not necessarily knowledgeable about our body’s minimum daily requirements of certain nutrients.

When Alkalife founder Sang Whang originally developed Alkalife’s patented formula, he made 10 different ratios of potassium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide combinations and had them tested on 200 people over a period of two months. The test results showed the ratio of 75% potassium to 25% sodium to be the most optimal for the majority of people.

When it comes to diet, our recommendation is to enjoy the food that we like with an emphasis on fruits and vegetables, but do not over eat or exclude any food. Eat in moderation following professional dieticians’ balanced diet concept. Do not use food to cleanse the wastes, thus running the risk of creating nutritional deficiency and/or imbalance. Instead, let alkaline water do the job of cleansing acidic wastes.

Aging, as described by Alkalife founder Sang Whang in his book Reverse Aging, is the accumulation of acidic wastes within our body. Our body must maintain slightly alkaline pH levels to survive. Our blood pH value is 7.4 at the artery and the cellular fluid pH value is 7.2 to 7.3. In spite of the fact that our cells produce acidic wastes constantly, the body fluids maintain this alkaline pH. Our body is an amazing surviving machine.

Our body tries very hard to dispose of acidic wastes. Most of these wastes come out of our body through urine and perspiration. That’s why urine is acid in general (the pH value fluctuates between 4.6 to 8 depending upon what the body is dumping) and the skin surface is acidic. The acidic skin surface kills most of the germs and viruses that it comes in contact with, including the AIDS viruses.

In order to reduce acidity of the blood, our lungs remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) and exhaust it through breathing. Carbonic acid H₂CO₃ becomes water H₂O when CO₂ is removed. This is perhaps the fastest way to reduce blood acidity. The pH value of blood in the veins fluctuates widely depending upon the waste products dumped into them. That’s why we only talk about the artery blood pH value, which is fairly constant.

With all these efforts to dispose of acidic wastes, we still make more wastes than our body can get rid of. In the meantime, the body must maintain alkalinity in the body fluids to survive. The secret is to convert some of the liquid acid into solid acid. If substance is not dissolved into water, it does not influence the pH value of the water. Some examples of these solidified acidic wastes are: cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, kidney stones, urates, phosphates, etc. Cholesterol is incompletely burnt carbohydrate. Cows don’t eat cholesterol-rich food yet they are full of cholesterol because they don’t exercise and don’t burn carbohydrates completely.

Acid coagulates blood! This is the fundamental problem that comes from the accumulation of acidic wastes. Buildup of acid clogs up capillaries and prevents smooth blood circulation. Body organs create all kinds of problems when blood circulation is cut off. It is amazing how the various body organs recover once blood circulation is restored, unless permanent damage is done. Even if the circulation is not completely cut off, when the amount of blood supplied is reduced, the organs function poorly and aging symptoms appear. Buildups of too much cholesterol and plaques in the artery can cause stroke, as we know very well.

Most of the degenerative diseases are caused by too much acidic wastes somewhere in our body that slows down blood circulation. Depending upon where our body accumulates the acid, disease symptoms are different. However, the causes are the same: too much acid. Modern medicine is concerned with the treatment of symptoms rather than the elimination of the causes of diseases.

The primary place where we accumulate solid acidic wastes in our body may depend on the individual’s genetic makeup. This may explain why some of the degenerative diseases are hereditary. Diabetes itself is not hereditary. What is hereditary is the accumulation of solid acidic wastes around the pancreas. If we do not allow wastes to accumulate around the pancreas, there will not be diabetes in that family even if family members reach the age of 50 or 60.

Cancer cells are acidic while healthy cells are alkaline. Cancer is clearly the result of acidic wastes accumulation. Cancer and acidic environment will be discussed in other articles on Science and Health Series. Uric acid crystals in the joints cause gout. Uric acid comes from nitrogen in proteins. In Korea, gout is referred to as “the rich man’s disease”. At one time in Korea only the wealthy could afford to eat meat.

When phosphoric acid or sulfuric acid is created by the oxidation of nutrients that contain phosphor and sulfur, the strength of the acid is too strong for the body to take. To overcome this problem, our body removes calcium from our skeleton to make phosphate or sulfate which is a much weaker acid. Urates and phosphate in kidney stones are the combination of acid and calcium. This is how osteoporosis develops. Simply taking calcium pills does not help much because calcium does not dissolve well. Vitamin D helps dissolve calcium.

Dr. Sebastian has successfully treated osteoporosis by administering potassium bicarbonate (KHCO₃) to his patients¹. Our lungs remove CO₂ from potassium bicarbonate and potassium hydroxide (KOH) remains. Potassium hydroxide is a strong alkaline, which kicks out ionized calcium from urates, phosphates and sulfates to restore calcium to the skeleton. (Diluted potassium hydroxide is the major ingredient of the patented Alkalife)

We take vitamins, mineral supplements and trace minerals with the hope of improving our health. However, if the body acid/alkaline balance is not maintained well, the body cannot absorb these things well and we wind up throwing them out. One way to help your body combat deteriorating health caused by aging is to drink alkaline water and maintain an alkaline diet rich in vegetables and fruits. It is too simple for modern medicine to understand.

1 Drs. Sebastian et al ” Improved Mineral Balance and Skeletal Metabolism in Postmenopausal Women Treated with Potassium Bicarbonate”, New England Journal of Medicine June 23, 1994

In human artery blood, there are two blood buffers: an alkaline buffer (e.g. sodium bicarbonate, or more commonly known as baking soda) and an acid buffer (e.g. carbonic acid, or more commonly known as club soda).

These two buffers control and maintain the pH values of the blood, so that even if one drinks low-pH acidic cola drinks or high pH alkaline water drinks, the pH level is brought back up (or down) to a healthy level.

As long as there are plenty of supplies of both buffers, the blood can maintain the proper pH values, and we feel fine. The trouble is that as we get older, the alkaline buffer begins to run out, while the acid buffer remains in full supply. This imbalance threatens our health. While our blood still manages to maintain a healthy pH level, acid begins gradually accumulating in our bodies. Acid accumulation leads to diseases such as gout, arthritis and osteoporosis. To remove acid from our bodies, our blood needs a bicarbonate “recharge.”

The fundamental solution to these issues is to increase the alkalinity of the blood by increasing the bicarbonates in the blood. Doing so reduces the acid solids without the use of pharmaceutical medicine.

We live in a century of highly accelerated advancements in science and technology. At the turn of the century, man began to fly. Today, we can even fly to the moon. Isn’t it reasonable to expect that science today should discover the technology of reverse aging? This article explains scientifically the simple truth about the process of aging, how to combat the aging process and going further, how to attempt to “reverse” this process.

Here is the simple process of aging. Every living cell within our body creates waste products. The nutrients from our food are delivered to each cell and they burn with oxygen to provide energy for us to live. The burned nutrients are the waste products. Whether you eat gourmet or junk food, all food generates waste products. The food that is either good or bad for you is determined by the amount and quality of the wastes produced: toxic, acid, alkaline, etc. Most of our cells go through metabolism and old dead cells become waste products

These waste products must be discharged from our body. In fact, our body tries its best to dispose of them through urine and perspiration. Virtually all waste products are acidic; that is why urine is acidic and skin surface is also acidic. The problem is that, due to several reasons, our body cannot get rid of 100% of the waste products it produces.

The main reason for this is our life style. We stay up late and get up early. We do not take time to rest; some of us work more than one job. We, therefore, spend more time producing waste products than processing and discharging them.

The second reason is food. Most of the food we like is mainly acidic. Acidic food does not necessarily mean that it tastes acidic, but that the wastes it produces are acidic. Grains and meats are mainly acidic; fruits and vegetables are alkaline. Citric fruits may taste acidic but they are considered to be alkaline because they contain alkaline minerals.

The third reason is our environment. More healthy cells are killed by air, water and soil pollution than the natural death of cells caused by normal metabolism. Thus, more waste products are created.

The question is: “What happens to those non-disposed acidic waste products?” The answer is simple. These waste products become solid wastes, such as, cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, kidney stones, urates, phosphates, sulfates, etc., and, unknown to us, they accumulate and build-up somewhere within our body. This accumulation of non-disposed acidic wastes within our body is the aging process.

Alkaline neutralizes acid. Drinking alkaline water helps our body dissolve acid wastes and make it easier for the body to dispose of them safely. Since the accumulation of acid wastes is aging, the reduction of acid wastes is reverse aging. Alkaline water is not a medicine to cure any disease. However, if consumed regularly, alkaline water gradually reduces the accumulated acid wastes.

We hear so much about a ‘Balanced Diet’. However, everyone has something different to say to define what that means. Some say it means having certain percentages of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fibers in your diet. The percentages vary so much that it can be more confusing than helpful. The trouble is, with the diversity found in people’s intake of food, everyone’s individual nutritional needs are uniquely different and may be impossible to define.

The human body, the most amazing survival machine, does a natural balancing act to survive, as long as there are sufficient nutrients available in the blood. Among these things, the most critical function of balancing is the maintenance of constant pH value of the arterial blood (7.365). We can die if the pH value is too high or too low. This balancing act is conducted by two buffers in the blood: alkaline buffer (NaHCO3, KHCO3 or Ca(HCO3) 2) and acid buffer (H2CO3). As we age, we lose alkaline buffer.

In 1996, Dr. Lynda Frassetto of UCSF published (in the Journal of Gerontology) the artery blood hydrogen ion concentration (H+) and plasma bicarbonate concentration (HCO3-) as a function of age groups. A noticeable decline begins at the age of 45, and by age 90 we lose 18% of bicarbonate in our blood. Dr. Frassetto’s study clearly states that the pH value of the artery blood at the beginning of the sampling used is all the same.

Since the pH values are the same and the bicarbonate contents are decreasing, the hydrogen ion density must also be decreasing. But we know that the foods digested in our blood are constantly adding hydrogen ions. How is that possible? The answer is that the acid solution as liquid acid is constantly being changed to solid acid such as lipids, plaques, cholesterol, fatty acids, etc.

These solid acids cause problems such as clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes. This is the process of aging and eventual death. The solution to health maintenance is to add more bicarbonate to the artery. True balancing acts are done by the body. We must supply bicarbonate to the artery so that the blood can balance hydrogen ions and bicarbonate in the artery.

Here is our list of the most alkaline foods you should be eating (and drinking!) in order to help your body remove acidic waste. These foods and beverages are highly alkaline-forming and should be part of any alkaline diet.

1. Asparagus

2. Blackberries

3. Ginger Tea

4. Cantaloupe

5. Celery

6. Tangerines

7. Collard Greens

8. Mangoes

9. Yams

10. Water w/Alkalife pH booster drops (pH 10)

Many people either do not understand or overlook the natural scientific fact that fat is acid. Here is a simple experiment that anyone can conduct quite easily at home.

Go to the meat department of your supermarket and ask for a piece of beef fat (about 6 oz). (If they ask you what that is for, tell them you are conducting a scientific experiment!)

Cut the piece of fat into several smaller cubes of approximately the same size. Divide them into two groups of equal weight.

Prepare two glasses: fill half a glass with high pH water, pH of 10 or higher. (For high pH water, add alkaline booster drops such Alkalife®.) Fill the other glass with the same amount of acid water, pH of 4 or lower. (For water with a low pH, Ginger Ale or Club Soda will do.)

Put each group of fat cubes into the two glasses with high alkaline water and acid water as prepared above.

Observe how the fat cubes in acid water retain their shape while those in alkaline water slowly disintegrate. The smaller the size of the fat cubes, the sooner a change would be noticed. The higher the pH value of the alkaline water, the sooner the changes. In general, we should begin to notice changes in about a week.

This experiment demonstrates that fat melts in alkaline water and not in acid water.

We are familiar with the concept of the reduction of fatty acid by burning it away with exercise, while in Japan most health-conscious people know about reducing fatty acid by melting it through drinking alkaline water, the clean and easy way. Diet and exercise certainly help the body get rid of acidic wastes, but drinking alkaline water will enhance the process.

If we stop drinking high acidic carbonated beverages and drink alkaline water instead, we will be able to reduce excess weight gradually.

The end result of drinking alkaline water is to add bicarbonate to the blood, and this added alkalinity helps neutralize and melt away fatty acid. Drinking acidic carbonated beverages (including diet sodas) inhibits the addition of bicarbonate to the blood, thus allowing fatty acid to remain in the bloodstream.

We have received some inquiries about baking soda and whether it has the same effect as using Alkalife. While there have been studies that show increases in athletic performance as a result of ingesting baking soda, we do not recommend it. This post will attempt to explain why Alkalife pH booster drops, aside from being far more convenient, make more sense.

The purpose of drinking alkaline water is to add bicarbonate to the blood. Many people think that it is equivalent to drinking sodium bicarbonate water (baking soda water).

Drinking sodium bicarbonate water is the same as drinking a combination of salt water and carbon dioxide.

Sodium bicarbonate is NaHCO3. Since the stomach contains hydrochloric acid (HCl), the following reaction occurs in the stomach when we drink alkaline water:

NaHCO3 + HCl = NaCl + H2O + CO2

Drinking water with AlkaLife® results in water and salt (KCl) or (NaCl):

KOH + HCl = H2O + KCl

or

NaOH + HCl = H2O + NaCl

It is this combination of water and salt that is neutral. Drinking sodium bicarbonate water looks similar, but it has CO2 which behaves as an acid in the stomach. Drinking water containing AlkaLife® results in creating a neutral solution in the stomach. The stomach does not like that and produces hydrochloric acid to restore the original acid condition. In doing so, the stomach produces and injects sodium bicarbonate to the blood.

High pH alkaline water is better for health because it delivers more bicarbonate to the blood than weak alkaline water.  An 8 oz. glass of water with one teaspoon baking soda has a much lower pH (around 7.8) than high pH alkaline water produced with only three drops of AlkaLife®, which has a pH value of 10.

Many different forms of arthritis and gout are the result of acid accumulation in the joints. Heavy people add more pressure on their joints, thus speeding up wear and tear; however, a young person seems to do fine even if he or she is heavy. It is the accumulated acid that damages cartilages and irritates the joints. Unfortunately, the joints are where the blood cannot carry out wastes easily.

Gout is the accumulation of uric acid in the joints. According to Webster, gout is a disease resulting from a disturbance of metabolism, characterized by an excess of uric acid in the blood and deposits of uric acid salts in the tissues around the joints, especially of the feet and hands: it causes swelling and severe pain, especially in the big toe.

In today’s medicine, there is no effective treatment for gout. Because it is painful, one instinctively takes painkillers; however, aspirin types are acidic and they can further irritate the joints. The sooner we accept the fact that gout, arthritis and other acid-induced diseases are the result of too much acidic waste, the sooner we will find the cure for these problems.

If getting old and sick is a result of excess acid accumulation in our body, and alkalinity neutralizes acid, then drinking alkaline water makes sense. But do we know how alkaline water works in our body? Some doctors say that our stomach acid will kill the alkalinity and, therefore, drinking alkaline water is useless. How do we answer that? Have you thought about that?

This is what happens in the stomach.

The stomach maintains its pH around 4.0. When we drink high pH alkaline water, the water pH comes down; but stomach pH goes up as a result. How high it goes up is a function of the amount and the pH of the alkaline water we drink. When the stomach pH rises above 4.5, the stomach will produce more hydrochloric acid and put it in the stomach to bring the stomach pH down to below 4.0.

How the stomach produces hydrochloric acid is not well known to medical doctors, except pathologists. The chemical formula of hydrochloric acid production is:

H2O + CO2 + NaCl = HCl + NaHCO3

Water, carbon dioxide and sodium chloride (table salt) produce hydrochloric acid and sodium bicarbonate. The hydrochloric acid goes into the stomach, and the sodium bicarbonate goes into the bloodstream.

[Note: An interesting fact is that the formula above looks simple, but no scientist in a laboratory can produce hydrochloric acid and sodium bicarbonate from water and carbon dioxide and salt. Only living cells can do that. In the lab, the reverse is easy: adding hydrochloric acid to sodium bicarbonate will instantly produce water, carbon dioxide and salt.]

Sodium bicarbonate is an alkaline buffer in our blood. In our blood, there are alkaline buffers and acid buffers constantly monitoring the blood pH to maintain a constant blood pH of 7.365. When the blood becomes too alkaline, the acid buffer works to bring the pH down; and when the blood becomes too acid, the alkaline buffer works to raise the pH.

Alkaline buffers are bicarbonate (HCO3-) mated with alkaline minerals. Examples of them are sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3), potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), calcium bicarbonate (Ca(HCO3)2) and magnesium bicarbonate (Mg(HCO3)2). Acid buffer is mainly carbonic acid (H2CO3), a water and carbon dioxide combination. Carbohydrate completely burnt becomes carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O); therefore there is no shortage of acid buffer.

In 1996 Dr. Lynda Frassetto at the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that as we age, starting around age 45, we lose the alkaline buffer – bicarbonates – in our blood. By the age of 90, we lose 18% of bicarbonates in our blood.

Insufficient amount of bicarbonates in our blood reduces our capabilities to manage (neutralize and dump) the acid our body produces. This is the cause of aging. The age of 45 is the average age when human beings start to show symptoms of diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis and many other adult degenerative diseases. And since we cannot manage the acid, we accumulate acidic wastes in our body. These wastes show up as cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, urate, sulfate, phosphate, kidney stones, etc.

Which is the most important property of alkaline water?
There are many properties in alkaline water, such as surface tension, structure of water, molecular size, oxygen reduction potential, pH value, which alkaline minerals are used to sustain the pH value, etc. However, with the exception of the water’s pH value, nothing else helps the blood receive bicarbonates. Also, all the other properties change as the water reaches the stomach and interacts with the stomach acid. Even the pH value changes in the stomach. However, the change of pH value causes the stomach to produce hydrochloric acid that goes into the stomach, and the bicarbonates go into the bloodstream. The most important function of alkaline water is to increase bicarbonates in the blood because we lose bicarbonates as we age.

When we say that we alkalize our body, we don’t necessarily mean increasing our saliva pH or urine pH; it means increasing the bicarbonates in our blood. The blood pH does not change, but the ability of our blood to neutralize acid in the body increases.

In the January/February 2003 issue of American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, Dr. Gospodinka R. Pradova published the result of a 10-year study of industrial pollution in Bulgaria. The study compares two groups of people in a plastic manufacturing plant: one group working in the plant with chemical pollution, the other in the non-polluted office environment of the same company. The conclusion shows that people living/working in a polluted environment have less amount of bicarbonates in their blood than people working in a clean environment.

We live in a world that was changed from an agricultural environment to an industrial environment, which produces more pollution. Our stressful lifestyles create more acid, which causes us to use up more bicarbonates. Some foods are more acidic than others, especially high protein meat products and highly acidic soft drinks. These are the reasons why we lose bicarbonates in the blood as we age.

The medical society considers the reduction of bicarbonates in the blood as an inevitable fact of aging. Evidence argues that the reduction of bicarbonates in the blood is the cause of aging and diseases, not the result of aging. Further evidence shows that as long as we can replenish bicarbonates in the blood, we can slow down the process of aging. This is the good news about alkaline water!

Life ends when oxygen supply is cut off. The irony is: this life-giving oxygen also produces acidic waste after burning the nutrients to give us energy.

The acidic waste coagulates blood and blood circulation becomes sluggish. As a result, all kinds of health problems develop unless the acidic waste is neutralized and removed naturally. These problems include diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer and even death. So-called “natural” death is the result of oxygen deprivation in the brain caused by the stoppage of blood circulation.

Our survival rate under adverse conditions is very much enhanced if we have more bicarbonate in the blood. That is why a two-year-old baby can survive a week under the debris of an earthquake.

Placing an oxygen-deprived victim in an oxygen chamber is an obvious solution. However, there should always be a plan to reduce the acidic build-up already present plus additional acid the added oxygen produces.  Otherwise, the oxygen supply is counterproductive. Supplying oxygen without the acid reduction plan is like going into battle without an exit strategy.

There are so many so-called oxygenated energy drinks with caffeine to boost energy. With a proper breathing method one can intake more oxygen to the body than what is dissolved in the bottle. To remove the acidic waste that oxygen produces, bicarbonate must be supplied to the blood. The best way to increase bicarbonate in the blood is to drink high pH alkaline water or to take a bicarbonate supplement in the form of an enteric-coated tablet.

We often receive very good questions about alkalinity and the body from Alkalife customers, and today we will answer two in particular on the topic of carbonated beverages. Here is the question:

Could adding Alkalife drops to a carbonated drink make it alkaline and could that make it as alkaline as water?

Carbonated drinks typically have very low (acidic) pH values. The most organic carbonated drink is typically Orange soda. In experiments, we use carbonated water as our acid sample. Carbonation is done with compressed CO2 which is an acidic waste product that our body is constantly trying to remove by exhaling. Drinking compressed CO2 is especially counterproductive as it releases the gas into our body over a prolonged period of time. In this, we are defeating the concept of removing waste and forcing it into our blood. Although adding Alkalife might make the pH measure as alkaline, the compressed CO2 would still time release into both the body and bloodstream as a waste product.

The pH of water varies depending on the source, but if you want to make a carbonated drink alkaline you must consider that you would need to drink ten 8-oz. glasses of alkaline water to undo the acidity of one glass of cola! It would therefore be possible to neutralize the acidity of the carbonated drink with approximately 30 drops of Alkalife, but that would be similar to borrowing garbage from 10 neighbors and buying a garbage truck to deal with the excess invited waste.

In short, we recommend avoiding carbonated soda altogether and drinking plenty of alkaline water! Three drops of Alkalife turns an 8 oz. glass of ordinary drinking water into alkaline water with a pH of 10.

When we talk about weight loss, we often talk about the number of calories in food. We believe the fewer calories consumed, the less weight gained. It’s the same with drinks: diet drinks are preferred over regular (higher-calorie) drinks when it comes to weight loss. Consumption of diet soda today has skyrocketed because of this.

Everyday drinking water can help remove weight more than diet soda can, because although club soda may have no calories, it is highly acidic and has low pH. Plain drinking water has a higher level of pH which stimulates a unique process in the stomach.

Stomach cells work to keep the stomach acidic for the breaking down of food. When high pH water enters the stomach, the stomach produces hydrochloric acid to bring the pH level back down (see diagram, Fundamentals of Anatomy & Physiology by Frederic H. Martini, page 881). A byproduct of this chemical reaction is bicarbonate, which increases the blood’s bicarbonate level, and this bicarbonate dissolves excess acid (i.e. cholesterol and/or fatty acid) in the body. When we drink club soda or any carbonated drinks, our stomach does not produce any hydrochloric acid, and as a result, our blood does not receive any bicarbonate.

If drinking regular water can melt away excess acid, can you imagine what drinking alkaline water can do?

Regarding weight loss, what is commonly taught is to burn off fat, but there is a way to neutralize and melt it away. Alkaline buffer (bicarbonate) reduces fat cleanly and easily.

The human body must maintain a fairly constant blood pH value to survive. When the pH value increases or decreases, we feel sick. In extreme cases, we die.

There are many things the body does to maintain the blood pH value. One is to remove carbon dioxides from the blood as they pass through the lungs. (The removal of CO2 from carbonic acid H2CO3 reduces the carbonic acid into water H2O.)

Another process is neutralizing acid minerals by utilizing the alkaline minerals that enter the body. This process takes longer than the first, since it takes time to extract the alkaline minerals from foods.

A third process, the extraction of calcium from the bones, neutralizes any extra poisonous acid minerals in the body, but is costly on the body; Osteoporosis is often a result of this process.

When all the above processes are not enough, the body uses an even more costly process, converting liquid acids into solid acids to reduce the acids. When this happens, solids like triglyceride, cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, kidney stones, plaques and lipids are formed. Although these solid build-ups can take a long time to develop, they can also cause greater long-term damage.

The fundamental solution to these issues is to increase the alkalinity of the blood by increasing the bicarbonates in the blood. Doing so reduces the acid solids without the use of pharmaceutical medicine.

One question often asked about alkaline water is, “What happens to the alkaline water once it reaches the stomach, which is highly acidic?” People who have some knowledge of the human body, including medical doctors, ask this question. Let’s answer that question once and for all to erase any doubts about the health benefits of alkaline water.

In order to digest food and kill the kinds of bacteria and viruses that come with the food, the inside of our stomach is acidic. The stomach pH value is maintained at around 4. When we eat food and drink water, especially alkaline water, the pH value inside the stomach goes up. When this happens, there is a feedback mechanism in our stomach to detect this and commands the stomach wall to secrete more hydrochloric acid into the stomach to bring the pH value back to 4. So the stomach becomes acidic again. When we drink more alkaline water, more hydrochloric acid is secreted to maintain the stomach pH value. It seems like a losing battle.

However, when you understand how the stomach wall makes hydrochloric acid, your concerns will disappear. There is no hydrochloric acid pouch in our body. If there were, it would burn a hole in our body. The cells in our stomach wall must produce it on an instantly-as-needed basis. The ingredients in the stomach cell that make hydrochloric acid (HCl) are carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and sodium chloride (NaCl) or potassium chloride (KCl).

NaCl + H2O + CO2 = HCl + NaHCO3, or
KCl + H2O + CO2 = HCl + KHCO3

As we can see, the byproduct of making hydrochloric acid is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) or potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3), which goes into the blood stream. These bicarbonates are the alkaline buffers that neutralize excess acids in the blood; they dissolve solid acid wastes into liquid form. As they neutralize the solid acidic wastes, extra carbon dioxide is released, which is discharged through the lungs. As our body gets old, these alkaline buffers get low; this phenomenon is called acidosis. This is a natural occurrence as our body accumulates more acidic waste products. There is, therefore, a relationship between the aging process and the accumulation of acids.

By looking at the pH value of the stomach alone, it seems that alkaline water never reaches the body. But when you look at the whole body, there is a net gain of alkalinity as we drink alkaline water. Our body cells are slightly alkaline. In order for them to produce acid, they must also produce alkaline, and vice versa; just as a water ionizer cannot produce alkaline water without producing acid water, since tap water is almost neutral.

When the stomach pH value gets higher than 4, the stomach knows what to do to lower it. However, if the pH value goes below 4, for any reason, the stomach doesn’t know what to do. That’s why we take Alka-Seltzer, which is alkaline, to relieve acidic stomach gas pain. In this case, hydrochloric acid is not produced by the stomach wall, therefore, no alkaline buffer is being added to the blood stream.

Here’s another example of a body organ that produces acid in order to produce alkaline. After the food in the stomach is digested, it must come out to the small intestine. The food at this point is so acidic that it will damage the intestine wall. In order to avoid this problem, the pancreas makes alkaline juice (known as pancreatic juice). This juice is sodium bicarbonate, and is mixed with the acidic food coming out of the stomach. From the above formulae, in order to produce bicarbonates, the pancreas must make hydrochloric acid, which goes into our blood stream.

We experience sleepiness after a big meal (not during the meal or while the food is being digested in the stomach), when the digested food is coming out of the stomach; that’s the time when hydrochloric acid goes into our blood. Hydrochloric acid is the main ingredient in antihistamines that causes drowsiness.

Alkaline or acid produced by the body must have an equal and opposite acid or alkaline produced by the body; therefore, there is no net gain. However, alkaline supplied from outside the body, like drinking alkaline water, results in a net gain of alkalinity in our body.

We live in a century of highly accelerated advancements in science and technology. At the turn of the last century, man began to fly. Today, we can even fly to the moon. Isn’t it reasonable to expect that science today should discover the technology of reverse aging? Well, it has! This is the first of a series of articles that explain scientifically the simple truth about the process of aging and how to attempt to reverse this process.

Here is the simple process of aging. Every living cell within our body creates waste products. The nutrients from our food are delivered to each cell and they burn with oxygen to provide energy for us to live. The burned nutrients are the waste products. Whether you eat gourmet or junk food, all food generates waste products. The food that is either good or bad for you is determined by the amount and quality of the wastes produced: toxic, acid, alkaline, etc. Most of our cells go through metabolism and old dead cells become waste products.

These waste products must be discharged from our body. In fact, our body tries its best to dispose of them through urine and perspiration. Virtually all waste products are acidic. That is why urine is acidic and skin surface is also acidic. The problem is that, due to several reasons, our body cannot get rid of 100% of the waste products it produces.

The main reason for this is our life style. We stay up late and get up early. We do not take time to rest; some of us work more than one job. We, therefore, spend more time producing waste products than processing and discharging them.

The second reason is food. Most of the food we like is mainly acidic. Acidic food does not necessarily mean that it tastes acidic, but that the wastes it produces are acidic. Grains and meats are mainly acidic; fruits and vegetables are alkaline. Citric fruits may taste acidic but they are considered to be alkaline because they contain alkaline minerals.

The third reason is our environment. More healthy cells are killed by air, water and soil pollution than the natural death of cells caused by normal metabolism. Thus, more waste products are created.

The question is: “What happens to those non-disposed acidic waste products?” The answer is simple. These waste products become solid wastes, such as, cholesterol, fatty acid, uric acid, kidney stones, urates, phosphates, sulfates, etc., and, unknown to us, they accumulate and build-up somewhere within our body. This accumulation of non-disposed acidic wastes within our body is the aging process.

Alkaline neutralizes acid. Drinking alkaline water helps our body dissolve acid wastes and make it easier for the body to dispose of them safely. Since the accumulation of acid wastes is aging, the reduction of acid wastes is reverse aging. Alkaline water is not a medicine to cure any disease. However, if consumed regularly, alkaline water gradually reduces the accumulated acid wastes.