Body Acidity: What’s Your Emotional pH?

Your body pH is a major key to living a long and healthy life. Balancing your body pH means regulating your acid-alkaline chemistry. This is a huge part of your health and protective immunity to every known disease be it cancer or the common cold. When your body pH is acidic, you’ll feel “off”. We can easily maintain an alkaline pH if we first understand the root factors that affect it. And these might surprise you! I do not wish to downplay the importance of fresh foods, optimal digestion, good sleep, sufficient water, and exercise. However, the SECRET factor that may have even more influence on your pH is HIDDEN in plain sight in your mind, your emotions, thoughts, and beliefs! That’s right! These are the deep source of ALL stress. Ha Ha!

The #1 key to optimize your pH and improve your health,
is to love and accept yourself completely.

You can eat and drink alkaline all day, but if you suffer from negative thoughts and self-defeating core beliefs, you will destroy all your well-intentioned efforts to be healthy. Your pH balance is very much determined by stress and emotions. Emotions cause body acidity that lowers your pH, leading to sickness and disease.

Changing our behaviors is no easy task. However, it can be extremely rewarding to tackle negative core beliefs and undesired thought patterns. This can vastly reduce the emotional distress we experience every day. It can eliminate the triggers that send our mind into a spinning program like a repeat of past unpleasant experiences. Here’s how to do that.

How to stop negative beliefs and thoughts?

With dedication and determination, you simply observe yourself and NOTICE THEM. When you become aware of your thought patterns, automatically they will occur less and less frequently. Forget about shame, just face them, recognize them, and they’ll start to disappear. You can identify a pattern of defeatist thoughts, recognizing when your anger is triggered. Observe yourself and all your reactions. This is an internal discipline. Think of it as your personal game. You examine each negative thought and ask WHY you experienced it. It’s fun!

Being totally honest in observing yourself is an interesting way to jump-start your total healing. The negative qualities in us are seen clearly by everyone around us, often even better than we perceive them ourselves. We can’t hide from ourselves or others. And why should we want to obscure anything? Fortunately, your utter honesty is a sure sign that your path is going to be successful. Ha Ha!

On the positive side, every time you have a happy or empowering thought, you stimulate the fun-loving endorphins in your body, you boost your metabolism, and raise your alkaline pH. Ha Ha! Now your game begins to really bring big benefits! This means to “try to be positive” can be very beneficial. Yep. Pretty soon you start to believe yourself. Rather than riding the downward roller-coaster of your emotions all day, you’re suddenly in the “UP” elevator of a high-rise tower. And your game is already a huge success!

Whenever you feel panic or fear closing in, try to change your focus. It helps to pay attention to your breathing by taking slow, deep breaths. This can help return your blood pH back to normal. It can also help prevent you from hyperventilating in fear, which tends to make panic attacks worse.

Panic attacks and fear linked to pH acidity in the brain!

A growing body of research suggests that even slight changes in pH balance may be linked with panic disorder and other psychiatric conditions. Recent findings provide more evidence that such links are real—and they may include schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy to detect biochemical changes, scientists have consistently found higher levels of lactic acid, and hence lower pH in these individuals’ brain tissues.

Yes, negative thoughts and beliefs strangle self-esteem and make your body more acidic. This in turn makes you more susceptible to become “locked into a pattern” of fear-fight-flight in the autonomic nervous system. That’s a habitual pattern of permanent fear that we call a “panic disorder”. A recent study from the laboratory of John Wemmie at the University of Iowa revealed an important new clue to the underlying cause of recurring panic attacks. She suggests it may be a problem of pH — of excessive acidity at key junctures in the limbic brain.

In general, the pH of our brain is carefully regulated. The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain, has a critical role in regulating the experience of fear. Any increase in acidity and disruption of pH balance in the brain can lead to fear and panic. In other words, the amygdala is an acid vs. alkaline chemosensor, and whenever it senses increased acidity, it senses FEAR!

The Iowa study also shows that these very basic metabolic factors, namely brain pH and body acidity, have an essential role in fear and panic. This new research also indicates that pH rise and fall can be found in specific synapses between brain neurons.

A consistent finding in panic disorder is that these patients are especially sensitive to carbon dioxide inhalation and anything else that increases brain acidity. Most patients with panic disorder experience a panic attack if they inhale air high in carbon dioxide, while most healthy volunteers will not. Hence, a pattern of panic attacks and fear response is not just “in their head” — it is related to the pH levels in the brain channels.

What are the symptoms of a panic attack?

A panic attack may have the following signs:

• Rapid heartbeat
• Dizziness
• Difficulty breathing
• Intense anxiety
• Chest or arm pain
• Numbness or “pins & needles” in fingers and toes.
• Partial paralysis

Panic attacks often occur in families with intense emotional issues. What if you could eliminate panic attacks by controlling your pH?

Unexpressed Emotions and Brain pH imbalance contribute to Alzheimer’s disease

A growing body of evidence points to emotional roots and pH imbalance as factors in disease. For example, Louise Hay’s guide to emotional clearing You Can Heal Your Life, suggests that Alzheimer’s disease is linked to the emotions of “Refusal to deal with the world as it is. Hopelessness and helplessness. Anger.” Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine recently found that Alzheimer’s disease may be linked to an acid-alkaline imbalance—or pH—chemistry inside brain cells. They discovered new evidence in mouse brains, where astrocytes work to clear the spaces between neurons. Researchers found that when the clearing process functions poorly, amyloid proteins pile up around neurons, leading to the characteristic plaque and brain cell degeneration of Alzheimer’s disease.

Unexpressed emotions do affect our health. “Holding things in can cause a constant state of elevated stress hormones that the body is not meant to sustain for long periods of time,” says Lisa Rene Reynolds, PhD, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy graduate programs at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY, and the author of Parenting Through Divorce: Helping Your Kids Thrive During and After the Split. She says that constantly elevated stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol “can weaken your immune system and bring on many ailments.”

Eventually these emotions are expressed through the body chemistry through pain and/or disease. According to Juan Romero Lopez, author of “Knowing Ourselves”, specialist in transpersonal psychology and bio-decoding, holds that Alzheimer’s disease is the result of “unresolved repetitive emotional conflicts, causing emotional scars that are so intense they are unbearable.” When we pay attention to the voices of the body and listen to our emotions, we can resolve internal conflicts to enjoy health and wellness in a long, healthy life.

Baking soda can to jump-start your day with a high pH!

That’s right! Old-fashioned baking soda is a key ingredient to help alkalize your entire system. Baking soda is extremely alkaline. It neutralizes stomach acids quickly and alkalinizes your whole body. It can even help burning pains of acid reflux. To take it, mix 1/2 teaspoon baking soda in an 8-ounce glass of clean water and drink immediately. It tastes bitter, but it’s so beneficial. I take baking soda every morning, and feel an immediate balancing effect. (However, this is NOT for everyone, as it may exacerbate hypertension.)

Balance your Body pH with Pranayama and Meditation

Breathing deeply alters your body pH. WOW! This means one of the most effective ways to optimize your pH and your health is absolutely FREE! When you breathe deeply you simultaneously alkalize your body, increase oxygen intake, relieve stress, improve digestion, and cleanse your body of toxins!

Breathing too fast can cause an imbalanced pH condition by stimulating the nervous system, causing an overactive stress response. On the other hand, shallow breathing may cause imbalance by leaving the body oxygen-deprived and acidic.

The BEST way is to do deep diaphragmatic breathing. This is the medicine for healthy pH balance. Take full breaths into the belly to increase oxygen and balance your emotional chemistry.

Does Yogic breathing reduce blood acidity?

What is yogic breathing?

This means deep, cleansing breaths that are not shallow or fast. This relaxes the autonomic nervous system and normalizes you body pH. Rapid, hyperventilation-type breathing can cause alkalization of the blood. But the opposite is also true. Shallow breathing over time will accumulate high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in your blood, which lowers your pH and leads to blood acidity. Proper deep Yogic breathing improves circulation, aids digestion, relieves stress, and cleanses your body of toxins.

Practice alternate nostril breathing

Nadi Shodhana is alternate nostril breathing, a type of Pranayama that helps to settle the body chemistry and calm the nervous system. Do it whenever you feel stress or any discomfort relating to apprehension or fear. For a relaxation response, it’s best to use a longer count for exhale than inhale. On the other hand, for an energizing, quickening effect on the nervous system, use a longer inhale and shorter exhale – but this one is not recommended for relaxation. Here’s a good video with Jimmy Hickey, yoga teacher: Click for breathing instructions.

The important role of aerobic exercise on body pH

One way of removing acidity from the brain and body is through exercise. There is solid evidence that exercise training has powerful anti-anxiety and anti-panic effects. Your body needs to move. Exercise increases the efficiency of active tissues, especially the brain, which becomes more efficient in removing lactic acid. It is a proven technique that exercise helps reduce pain, depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. Exercise helps to sustain and restore the alkaline balance of tissues, blood, and cellular fluids. A daily boost of movement is a boon to your entire pH balance.

What happens when you exercise?

Aerobic exercise allows acid to be released from the tissues into the bloodstream. It activates buffers that neutralize acids and eliminates them through the kidneys in urine. It allows toxins to be released out through pores of your skin in perspiration. Acidity can be released through the lungs when you exhale carbon dioxide. Aerobic exercise flushes the lymphatic system and circulates body fluids, which carry acidic waste from intercellular fluids. The best kinds of aerobic exercise for pH balance are those that work the active tissues but do not deplete them. This includes, walking, cycling, ellipticals, steppers, swimming, and aerobic dance.

Conclusion: It’s all about LOVE vs. FEAR!

The take-away message today is this: When we choose LOVE over FEAR, we can balance our emotional pH. We can alkalinize our body to be healthy and resistant to disease. Food is not the only approach. The simplest and most economical way to keep the body pH alkaline and healthy is to clear your inner thoughts every day. We need to be AWARE of our thoughts and core beliefs. We can use gentle breathing techniques and exercise to balance our physical chemistry every day. After that, if you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, drink plenty of clean water, get sufficient sleep, and manage your stress levels, you can fully enjoy optimum pH balance. By implementing these simple strategies into your lifestyle, I hope you will enjoy emotional balance, great joy and happiness!

Resources:

• https://fullerlife.com/2020/03/19/emotions-physiology/
• Can stress change your pH balance? https://www.betterbones.com/emotions-and-bone/stress-affects-bodys-acidity/
• EMOTIONS CAUSE ACIDITY THAT LEADS TO SICKNESS AND DISEASE, https://phoreveryoung.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/emotions-cause-acidity-that-leads-to-sickness-and-disease/
• Panic Attacks as a Problem of pH, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/panic-attacks-as-ph-problem/
• PRANAYAMA AND COVID-19 – Rajen Vakil, https://www.3stepbreath.com/article/pranayama-and-covid-19/
• Health Impacts of Yoga and Pranayama: A State-of-the-Art Review, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3415184/
• How to Identify Negative Core Beliefs and challenge them once and for all, https://www.angermanage.co.uk/how-to-identify-negative-core-beliefs-and-challenge-them-once-and-for-all/
• Can your thinking make you less ALKALINE?, https://phountain.com/blog/can-your-thinking-make-you-less-alkaline/
• Rhythmic Breathing, https://www.3stepbreath.com/rhythmic-breathing/
• Just Breathe: Body Has A Built-In Stress Reliever, https://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131734718/just-breathe-body-has-a-built-in-stress-reliever
• Alkaline Diet: The Key to Longevity and Fighting Chronic Disease?, https://draxe.com/nutrition/alkaline-diet/
• In the Brain, Acidity Means Anxiety, https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/in-the-brain-acidity-means-anxiety
  The alkaline diet: What you need to know, https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/the-alkaline-diet–what-you-need-to-know.h18-1592202.html
• The ‘Doctor’ Behind the Alkaline Diet Popularized by Celebs Is Facing Jail Time, https://www.health.com/celebrities/alkaline-diet-creator-jail-time
• Chemical Equilibrium and Panic Attacks, https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/chemical-equilibrium-and-panic-attacks
• Balance Your pH for Better Health, https://chopra.com/articles/balance-your-ph-for-better-health
• Panic Attacks and pH Balance, https://igozen.com/panic-attacks-and-ph-balance/
• 6 Surprising and Simple Ways to Alkalize Your Body, https://sunwarrior.com/blogs/health-hub/3-surprising-simple-ways-alkalize-body
• Are Some Psychiatric Disorders a pH Problem?, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-some-psychiatric-disorders-a-ph-problem/
• Alkaline Blood! What is all this fuss about?, http://www.yogaandbreathing.com/alkaline-breathing/
• Alkalize Your pH With This Amazingly Easy Trick, https://saveourbones.com/alkalize-your-ph-with-this-amazingly-easy-trick/
• RESPIRATORY SYSTEM AND PH, https://www.phfocused.com/ph-balance/respiratory-system-and-ph/
• Aerobic or Anaerobic – Which One Maintains Body’s Ph Balance?, https://thealkalinediet.org/blog/aerobic-or-anaerobic-which-one-maintains-bodys-ph-balance
• PH Imbalance Triggers Panic Attacks: https://ezinearticles.com/?PH-Imbalance-Triggers-Panic-Attacks&id=4554581
• pH Imbalance in Brain Cells May Contribute to Alzheimer’s Disease, https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/ph-imbalance-in-brain-cells-may-contribute-to-alzheimers-disease
• EMOTIONAL AND MENTAL CAUSES OF ILLNESS. THE LIST BY LOUISE HAY, https://www.heartlandhealingarts.com/blog/2018/6/19/emotional-and-mental-causes-of-illness-the-list-by-louise-hay
• Alzheimer, Emotional and Spiritual Meaning, https://www.emotionsandbody.com/2016/11/alzheimer-emotional-causes-of.html
• “Knowing Ourselves: What does the body want to tell us with diseases?” by Joman Romero Lopez
• The Dangers of Holding in Your Emotions, https://www.qualityhealth.com/depression-articles/dangers-holding-emotions?

PRANAYAMA AND COVID-19