Alkalising to Fight Chronic Fatigue (CFS/ME)

Burping, bloating and reflux have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  It wasn’t until I started investigating health and CFS/ME that I found out that it isn’t actually normal!  To think I’d gone along my merry way all this time thinking these was normal bodily functions – my poor friends and family.  LOL.  Well normal they may be, but definitely not necessary!

Overall health I think is about holistic health, and I’ve used digestive supplements and many other alternative health therapies to help me along my healing journey, however, finding out about acid and alkaline forming foods has been a major eye-opener, and an effective learning curve for my own self-help management.

Measuring your own pH and boosting your alkalinity is one of the simplest things you can do to help improve your health.

So what are Acid and Alkaline Forming Foods?

Once food has been eaten and digested it leaves either an acid or alkaline effect (ash or residue) within the body.  This has nothing to do with whether it is an acidic food or not, it is totally how it effects the body after digestion.  If it is an acid forming food it contributes hydrogen ions to the body and if it is an alkaline forming food it removes hydrogen ions from the body.

Basically most fruit and vegetables are alkaline forming foods and all the good stuff we associate with having a good time – such as alcohol, coffee, sweets, chocolates, pastries, cakes, cigarettes, drugs, fizzy drinks, meat, pasta and breads – are all acid forming!  And of course fast and convenient foods such as tinned, microwaved and processed foods are also extremely acid forming!

And it’s not only foods that affect the pH of your body – negative emotions such as fear, stress, anxiety, anger and jealousy are also extremely acid forming, whereas positive emotions such as kindness and love are extremely alkaline forming.  Hmm, yet another reason to live a stress free life!

Unfortunately I seem to have been paying homage to acid forming foods and lifestyles most of my life!

Why focus on Acid and Alkaline Forming Foods?

With our fast paced lifestyles, the emphasis on alcohol, wheat, coffee, meat and fast foods, many of us are lacking in the fruit and vegetables that we need in our everyday diet and are putting way too many acid forming foods into our body, not to mention the stress overloads.  Over time our blood has to draw additional minerals from throughout our body to keep the acid alkaline balance.  This can lead to many health problems including chronic diseases.

If you check out many of the sites that promote alkaline diets you’ll also pick up that many of the symptoms of over acidity are also common to CFS/ME symptoms such as fatigue, aches and pains, agitation, sensitivity to noises, depression, dizziness, chemical sensitivities, bloating, low immunity, loss of memory and concentration etc.  You can read more symptoms on these sites Care to make a difference, Academy Health Services of New Jersey, Balance pH Diet and Health News NZ.

So is your body in balance?

Acidity and alkalinity refers to pH.  The pH scale goes from 0 (most acidic) to 14 (most alkaline).  7 is neutral.  To be in balance your blood, urine and saliva should be within acceptable pH ranges.

You can test your saliva or urine at home with a home pH testing kit, or you can get a blood test to check your pH by a doctor.  The blood test is the most accurate, then urine and then saliva.

I use the pHion Balance Strips to test my urine and saliva at home.  The pH increments are generally 0.25 which helps to make observations more accurate.

I checked my urine and saliva a few times a day, before meals, for a couple of weeks to get a good idea of my natural variations.  Now I just check every now and then to see how I’m going.

Urine should be between pH 6.75 and pH 7.25 – I have been as low as pH 5.5 but I’m averaging around pH 6.5 now so definitely getting better!

Saliva should be between pH 7 and pH 7.5 – I’m still only around pH 6.5 but continuing to work on it!

Herbal Doc (above) gives a quick demo of how to use pH strips to test your saliva.

Other Food charts to check out: Balance pH Diet website food chart, Angel Fire food list, Essence of Life and the Alkaline Sisters Chart.

Boosting Alkalinity

There are also some things you can do to give yourself an alkaline boost by drinking:

• green powders like wheat grass, alfalfa, barley etc,
• soda water (but not with food as interferes with stomach acids for digestion),
• bicarbonate soda mixed with water (same as above, not with food, and/or
• lemon in alkalised water, or filtered tank water, or at the very least filtered town water.

Of course these cannot replace good fresh fruit and vegetables, organic and local where possible, and there are also products on the market to help you along such as the alkaline minerals below by pHion.

Alkaline recipes: Balance pH Diet website recipes, AcidAlkalineDiet.com, Alkaline Diet Health Tips with a free downloadable recipe Ebook and The Alkaline Sisters Recipes.

Other Great Alkalising Sites to check out

The Alkaline Sisters Blog very cool site by two lovely ladies

Food combining Chart additional information on food combining for improving digestion

Good luck on your journey.

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