Rhiza Labs FluTracker Forum

I don't know... Aren't TUMS and other Antacids pretty alkaline? They have to be to neutralize Acid. Well, NOBODY takes more TUMS and Rolaids than Pregnant women because they usually suffer from Heartburn. LOL.... and Pregnant women are hit pretty hard by this virus. Doesn't that negate the theory a bit?

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"Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander, would ride through the air on a very fine gander."
1916
"Mother Goose had a house,
'Twas built in a wood,
Where an owl at the door
For sentinel stood."

Couldn't you put some TUMS in water and check its alkalinity.

I was only kidding anyway... the stomach is so acidotic that nothing you eat will/can alter that environment.

here's an interesting article on all of this alkalinity/acid disease theory:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRel ... oral2.html

_________________
"Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander, would ride through the air on a very fine gander."
1916
"Mother Goose had a house,
'Twas built in a wood,
Where an owl at the door
For sentinel stood."

Your body pH is very tightly regulated to STAY within a certain homeostatic range. Your body actively fights any change that would take you out of this range by doing two things 1) increasing or decreasing your respiratory rate, and 2) increasing or decreasing your excretion (in urine, stools, exhaled, via skin) of certain ions.

The pH of your urine or your spit or your stool is NOT the pH of your body tissues or your blood, nor is it even a good measure of what your body pH is in most cases, so seeing a litmus paper that shows alkaline when dipped in urine or touched to the tongue does not indicate that your blood/body pH is alkaline. If it did, we wouldn't need to be doing ABGs in the hospital to make the determination.

As far as the so-called alkaline diet, WHATEVER you eat as your diet, your body adds HCl (hydrochloric acid) to in the stomach to make it acidic. When the partially-digested food leaves your stomach and enters your intestines, it gets buffered with bicarbonate to make it alkaline. The pH changes are done by your body to help specific digestive enzymes work best and to chemically break down the food. You can, to a limited degree, change the pH of your URINE by diet, and this helps with certain kidney conditions; but once again, it doesn't mean you've changed the pH of your body itself (just an excretory fluid).

In reality, perturbing your body's homeostatic mechanisms by ingesting excess alkaline in an attempt to "alkalinize" your body and "protect" yourself from flu is a very bad move, a dangerous move even. If you were perchance successful in actually alkalinizing your body, your body would DECREASE your respiratory rate to compensate for the pH disturbance...not a good thing if you have influenza, aren't oxygenating all that well, and need your respiratory rate to stay up to keep your blood oxygen level up.

Littlebird has the right of it on this one.

The two products are different. TUMS is a pill that you take and alkaline water is a product you drink.

TUMS doesn't turn the acidotic environment in the stomach into an "alkaline" environment. It just helps neutralize "some" of the acid that might be splashing up into your esophagus... Influenza doesn't normally gain entrance via your stomach, so why start there when trying to prevent it?

I was going to ignore this topic because I didn't think it was worth my time, but my conscience won't let me. Did you even read my link that I posted? Because I read the links that other people have posted in these acid VS alkaline environment articles.

I'm not doubting that influenza might shy away from an alkaline environment... influenza probably shys away from any pH that is not normal to the human body. The big myth is that WE can change the "alkalinity" or "pH" of our bodily fluids by what we eat. Your body works double overtime trying to maintain a NEUTRAL pH.

Your lungs and your kidneys do a great job of maintaining this acid/base balance.... THAT's why your urine can reflect extra alkalinity (buffer) OR extra acid ~ because our bodies are trying to get rid of. You're pissing OUT what your body does NOT want.

You are assuming that the alkalinity of your urine is a reflection of the alkalinity or pH of the rest of your bodily fluids. THAT is not true. Whoever told you that is not being honest with you, and they have their OWN agenda. Urine is in your bladder......... it is Waste (Stuff your body cannot use) so of course if you take in alkalotic foods or drinks.........you will piss out the same, because your body doesn't need it. Our bodies are experts at maintaining a NORMAL pH. Wanna know what happens if you get extra acid in your blood? Just hold your breath. Carbon Dioxide is an acid in your blood.... within seconds you are going to feel VERY uncomfortable.... That's not about a lack of oxygen, that's all about your blood pH changing outside of its normal value. (That's why they have to TRAIN fighter pilots to recognize signs of oxygen deprivation, because those signs are subtle) Carbon dioxide is what makes you immediately air hungry, NOT a lack of oxygen. Your body wants to gasp for air due to a rapid pH change in your blood/body.

For all of those folks who believe that their bodily pH fluctuates according to what they eat... if it did, we'd all be dead. Our bodies, our enzymes, our cellular functions ONLY work within a narrow pH range. Our bodies will suffer and cause us extreme discomfort when we are outside of that normal blood pH.

Did you EVER blow up a raft and get dizzy? The reason you get dizzy is because you are breathing OUT (in large quantities) carbon dioxide (an acid) in your blood, and you are rapidly changing your blood pH into an alkalotic state.

When you do this... the blood vessels in your brain constrict (because they are very sensitive to carbon dioxide..
Why? Because the opposite holds true... when you cannot breathe, your blood vessels (in your brain only) dialate... so that in any suffocating event, the blood is shunted to the most important organ in your body, (your brain.)

I've written this in another thread.... our bodies cannot function outside of a neutral pH for long. We are NOT designed to be "alkalotic" neither are we designed to be "acidotic" ....... we are Designed to be within the narrow margin of "Neutral" .

WHERE do you think we got the definition of "neutral" ? (From that place in which life exists.)

I make my living helping people breathe. I draw blood gases to check for blood pH many times a day, and I've done this for the last 20 years. I've never seen an individual with a blood pH outside of normal (either acidotic or alkalotic) who did not have symptoms of extreme distress. That's my 20 years of clinical observation.

It's my opinion that the people who are writing these articles are ONLY trying to cash in on society's fear of the Pandemic, just like individuals have for the last 91 years. And this is a very complicated topic, and it is easily twisted and distorted to make a buck.

I'm SURE there are a lot of folks who believe in this theory,

But I am done with it. I think it's a crock of sh*t.

Life is SACRED..... we are not products "only" of everything we eat. Our bodies are designed to sift through the garbage we take in, and pick out (within reason) what is essential, and to discard the rest.

There are monkeys in the depths of the deepest jungles on this planet who have viruses. Are they ALL eating junk food? Are they all consuming pollutants? Is somebody somewhere trying to convince them to eat differently? No... because they know monkeys don't have bank accounts. YOU do.

Viruses have been on this planet WAY longer than we have. Viruses may even be the REASON That evolution began in the first place. The fragments of Viruses are intertwined into the double helix of our DNA.

Viruses are an evolutionary equalizer... they bring things back into balance. They don't care "who" has been good or bad, or who is a vegetarian and who is not, or who is eating "right" or "wrong". They target a species, without judgement.

That's just Mother Nature,

and that's how she rolls.

(I guess she lets God sort the souls out in the end.)

Now I'm done with this topic. for good.

(This wasn't directed at you CML, only towards the marketers who keep pushing this philosophy.) If you try it, and it works... then more power to you.) All's fair in love and Micro-War.

_________________
"Old Mother Goose, when she wanted to wander, would ride through the air on a very fine gander."
1916
"Mother Goose had a house,
'Twas built in a wood,
Where an owl at the door
For sentinel stood."

Littlebird, your entire posting was very, very well-said and spot-on! I surely wish people would pay attention to it. At the least, they are going to waste their money. At the worst, they are going to do themselves harm.

BTW, I take care of quite a few patients each year who successfully changed their body's normal pH (which by the way is NORMALLY kept slightly alkaline at 7.35 to 7.45) to one that is more alkalotic than this normal range. It isn't a pretty picture. Symptoms of metabolic alkalosis (more alkaline pH than is normal):

http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/39/Me ... losis.html

Also BTW, the treatment is to correct to pH back to where it should be in the first place.

I gather from Littlebird's posting that he/she is either a respiratory therapist, a pulmonary nurse specialist, or a pulmonologist. A pretty good person to pay attention to when it comes to a pulmonary disease.

Practical application of this. One of the normal complications of cystic fibrosis is pancreatic insufficiency. That is, the pancreas is not able to produce enough, or a working, group of enzymes called the lipases. These enzymes are necessary for the digestion and absorption of fat, including the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. (If you want to find out what pancreatic insufficiency is about just read up on the weight loss drug Ali, orlistat.)In people with pancreatic insufficiency it is necessary to take supplemental enzymes. These are taken orally or through a feeding tube. These enzymes are broken down in an acidic environment and so they are encapsulated in a shell called an enteric coating to enable passage from the stomach to the intestines. One brand even adds bicarbonate to the mix to help keep them viable for longer. My point to this being, having your pH level out of whack can present all sorts of issues.

And BTW, don't waste your money on enzyme replacements you find in healthy living section of the grocery store. Their efficacy is questionable at best, and if they did work they only make you gain weight by increasing fat absorption. For some reason I've seen people talk about using them as a weight loss aid.

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I am not a doctor, virologist, or any of type of medical/life sciences professional.

I am a layman with a background in the physical sciences.

I thought the way as you did, however after reading reports about patientis that have been hospitalized for taking too much baking soda, or too many tums that went into alkalosis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1611 ... d_RVDocSum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1198 ... d_RVDocSum

So I disagree. You can change your blood alkalinity.
THat being said, go too far into alkalosis and you have another slew of issues.
It is a very delicate balance.

YES, You CAN take things to alter your bloods acidity. Just look up alkalosis on pubmed for more reports.
As far as H1N1 People with pre-existing state of acidosis seem to be suffering the most, as this virus has a preference (like many viruses) for slight acidity. That is my hypothesis anyways.

It is simple and it goes like this.
The virus infects your lungs.
You cant breath as well.
Higher CO2 in blood creates a more acidic environment
virus is happy
your body carriers a greater viral load
you die.

Although you are correct, your body is on a very tight balance to keep in the "ideal range".
Who is first on the line? Yes the kidneys. They are going to work as hard as they can to maintain the balance of the blood.
They will work until they fail? What else fails in acidosis? Cardiac issues?
Think about it.
And what do pregnant people in late trimester get many times?
Diabetic ketoacidosis?
What other groups are at high risk for pre-existing acidosis? Asthmatics?
Diabetics? Obese people? People that consume a lot of sugar and alcohol?
People with metabolic disorders, such as has been documented in many aboriginal cultures?
Espessially those in Canada?
Hmm those groups sound familiar for some reason?
.. they should they are the hardest hit mortality groups for this bug.

My gut, says help them help their kidneys, help them remain slightly alkaline and the viral load will be less.

I wish I could prove it on ferrets, but I do not have an animal lab.

Dont rule it out even though it seems like such a simple explanation. Sometimes the most obvious is what it is.