|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Diseases caused by an acidic condition
In Part II of this aricle about illnesses due to an acidic condition, we look at those diseases that are less obviously linked to over acidity. Click here to read Part I, which looks at more obvious cases of problems caused by an overly acidic condition, such as gastric pain, ulcers, gout and acidosis.
This article forms part of a series based on macrobiotic lectures that Herman Aihara gave in Singapore in 1995. Following that, I published an entire issue of The Good Life, summarising his key teachings in Singapore. Herman Aihara passed away on 25 February 1998 and Cornelia Aihara passed away exactly eight years later, on 25 February 2006.
Aren’t infections caused by bacteria and viruses? Not totally. It is true that there are bacteria and viruses associated with colds and flus, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, malaria, polio, hepatitis, Aids, etc. But every day, millions of these micro-organisms enter our bodies – through our food, drink and breath, through the skin, through sexual contact, and so on. Yet we don’t fail sick everyday. Why not? It's because these pathogens thrive only in a mildly acidic condition. If you keep your body environment alkaline, bacteria and viruses will not flourish and your immune system can easily deal with them. There are basically two ways to fight infection. One approach is to use strong acids, since bacteria and viruses thrive only in weak acids. So doctors prescribe antibiotics, or sometimes vitamin C. Chemical compounds whose names end with “in” – like aspirin or vitamin – are usually acidic. This approach does works in short term. Most bacteria and viruses get destroyed. A more effective approach is to make the body alkaline instead. Traditionally, salt is used for this purpose. That’s why we gargle sore throats with salt and water and why we preserve food in salt.
Insect bites may seem like minor irritations. But they can be major problems. Diseases like malaria and haemorraghic / dengue fever are transmitted by mosquitoes. Plague is transmitted by fleas. Well, insects are more likely to bite if your blood is sweet and has an acidic condition. If you don’t take sugar or alcohol, mosquitoes won’t bother you very much. Macrobiotic teacher Adelbert Nelissen survived many trips to Africa where, once the windows are open, the room ceiling gets covered black with mosquitoes. But he dislikes sleeping in an air-conditioned room. So he avoids getting bitten by keeping an umeboshi plum (yang/alkaline) in his mouth all night long. Herman Aihara got badly bitten by mosquitoes when he went fishing after twice eating cheesecake (acid-forming).
Osteoporosis Osteoporosis or calcium loss in the bones, is commonly blamed on hormonal changes after a woman has menopause. The standard advice from doctors and nutritionist is to take more milk and dairy foods, since they are rich in calcium. This seems logical. Except that it does not work. The average American or Northern European consumes 800 mg to 1,200 mg of calcium per day. Yet they suffer most from osteoporosis. In contrast, people in rural Asia and Africa consume just 300 mg to 500 mg of calcium per day. And they hardly get osteoporosis. The primary cause of osteoporosis is an overly acidic condition from eating a modern diet with plenty of meat, sugar and chemicals. To nuetralise the high acidity, the body dissolves calcium (alkaline) from the bones. The problem of osteoporosis is not that people don’t take enough calcium. The problem is that they lose calcium. Pumping the body with more calcium is therefore not the answer. Not when you keep losing what you pump in. When the extra calcium comes from high-protein foods like milk, cheese and ice cream, it worsens the problem further. Because these foods are acid-forming. They make the body lose more calcium. The real solution is to make the body more alkaline. Eat more vegetables and avoid acid-forming foods like meat, sugar and chemicals. By the way, doctors, nutritionist and milk companies are wrong when they say that milk is nature’s best source of calcium. A lot more calcium can be found in seeds (especially sesame seeds) and seaweeds (especially hijiki). They contain up to 14 times as much calcium as milk. Best of all, they are alkaline forming. They supply calcium without forming acids which remove calcium from the bones.
Tired? Go out for some fresh air, do some light exercises and you will feel refreshed. But if you exercise too strenuously, you will feel more tired. This has to do with your intake of oxygen, which is needed for the combustion of glucose. Glucose gives energy. When you don’t get enough oxygen, the combustion of glucose is incomplete. So you don’t feel energetic. Incomplete combustion of glucose also can result in the production and accumulation of lactic acid. As the blood becomes more acidic, one of the first symptoms is fatigue. Moderate exercise will increase your intake of oxygen, complete the combustion of glucose, and you make feel better. But strenuous exercise further increases your need for oxygen. So again, glucose combustion is incomplete and you feel more tired. Over working and over eating can also make your blood acidic. And make you feel tired.
More people are needing psychiatric help and being admitted into mental institutions. But this represents just the tip of an iceberg. The much greater problem is with “ordinary” people who are constantly depressed, frustrated, angry, indecisive, insecure, cynical, arrogant, kiasu... These are all symptoms of the brain and nervous system not working well. In serious cases, the person is said to be mad. But nearly everyone today is mildly “mad”. Actually, they are all suffering from acidosis or an overly acidic condition. Acidosis affects the nerves. The sufferer first become delirious or disoriented, that is, “mad”. In milder cases, an acidic condition of the blood results in the inability to think well or act quickly, clearly and decisively. An alkaline condition will help you to think and act with a clear mind.
Cancer Among other things, cancer has been blamed on: cigarettes, viruses, food chemicals, radiation, sunlight, stress, faulty genes... But Herman Aihara believes that one of the primary causes is an overly acidic condition. When the blood becomes too acidic, some cells die. Others adapt to the new environment by changing into abnormal cells. This is cancer. Click here to read Herman Aihara's interpretation of cancer, and why he calls the macrobiotic diet a "cancer starvation diet". |
||||