“Youth is alkaline, old age acid” is a saying heard from doctors who work with urine and saliva pH in clinical practice. As I studied pH, I learned why this is true. Healthy babies and children normally have a good supply of “alkaline reserves” including the alkaline elements calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium that support pH balance and blood buffer systems. Healthy young bodies also produce the important bicarbonate ions created from CO2 discharge from cells that have to be in a proper ratio 20:1 with hydrogen ions for blood chemistry to work right. This system is powered by carbonic anhydrase enzymes that have zinc as a nucleus, one of many reasons zinc is a key element in human health.
Why is “old age acid?” As the years go by, the standard American lifestyle creates deficiencies in the alkaline reserves mentioned above besides adding to the acid overload problem. One of the major causes of these deficiencies is stress. Under stress “magnesium is the first to go, followed by potassium,” according to Robert J. Peshek D.D.S. author of books written for doctors on balancing body chemistry with nutrition that I bought and began studying in 1980. Another major factor is a white flour diet that takes wheat germ and bran out of the picture, both of which are the only sources of the alkaline elements mentioned in a whole grain of wheat. To t ...
