as alkaline water a miracle cure or a
waste of money stay tuned
talk about here today is just
information this is not medical advice
if you want medical advice talk to your
doctor your nurse practitioner your
physician’s assistant don’t get medical
advice from some random dude on the
internet today we’re talking alkaline
Will Alkaline Water Change Your Blood pH
water and alkaline water is everywhere
I’m sure you’ve been tempted to buy
alkaline water in the store or maybe
you’re a devotee into alkaline water and
buy it every chance you get and I truly
understand why the claims for alkaline
water are pretty incredible depending on
where you look alkaline water has claims
to prevent cancer it has claims to help
your kidneys it has claims to lower your
risk of osteoporosis it has claims to
help your acid reflux symptoms
these are all great things that would do
well if it were actually true so today
we’re going to bust some myths and get
to the truth about alkaline water .
alkaline water is water that has been
treated so that instead of a neutral pH
of about seven it increases to between
eight and ten so one claim you may hear
about alkaline water is it helps to keep
the blood pH
closer to the alkaline levels or more
basic so the theory is that if you’re
drinking this more basic water it will
keep your blood more basic and that will
be better for a lot of the functions in
your body including lowering the risk of
cancer and all this other nonsense
because that’s what it turns out it is
it’s nonsense
when you drink that alkaline water at a
higher pH it goes down into your stomach
which has a pH of about two to three
very acidic it’s got to be acidic to
digest that food
but when that alkaline water gets down
there the acid in the stomach
neutralizes it
so that pH between 8 and 10 becomes
neutralized .
so any idea that that alkaline water is
going to get into your blood and change
the pH of your blood
gets out the window as soon as that
alkaline water gets into your belly but
let’s just imagine for a second let’s
fantasize that that alkaline water that
higher pH that basic water gets into
your blood what is going to happen even
if that alkaline water Were Somehow to
get into your blood your body is
excellent at keeping that pH at a very
tight range in fact the pH in your blood
if everything is working well will stay
between 7.35 and 7.45 and you may think
well maybe you’re closer to 7.45 or 7.5
would be better for you turns out it’s
not the case so how important is that
regulation of the pH in your body
well if I’m working in the hospital and
somebody calls me the kidney doctor and
says somebody has a pH of 7.0 instead of
7.35 or 7.4 it may not sound like much
to somebody who doesn’t know much about
the body and pH but for me that is
throwing off all kinds of alarms that is
telling me that that person is
critically ill
just because that pH has gone down to
7.0 from 7.35 to 7.45 so even a tiny
drop
means you’re critically ill so the
bottom line is that alkaline water has
zero impact on the pH of your blood it
is neutralized in the stomach and the
body works really hard even if it were
absorbed into the blood to keep the pH
at a perfect range so
check that one off the list another
Does Alkaline Water Help Acid Reflux?
claim that you may hear is that alkaline
water will lower your acid reflux
symptoms and this one makes the most sense when you look at the physiology of alkaline
water and the body of all the claims
that are made about alkaline water so
the thought is that alkaline water with
that higher pH goes down into your
stomach and neutralizes that acid so not
only does the alkaline water get
neutralized but the acid in your stomach
gets neutralized and if that acid gets
neutralized the thought is that it will
cause less symptoms of acid reflux
now this is something that has not been
studied on a wide level in a human
population so we don’t know if it’s true
it makes sense theoretically
but how much alkaline water would you
have to drink would you have to drink it
all day would you have to keep a glass
by your side and just drink it would it
be one glass three times a day there are
all these things that we still would
need to figure out with that
neutralization of the stomach acid by
the alkaline water actually cause
difficulty in the way you digest food
these are all questions that would need
to be figured out before a claim like
that is verified and before any doctor
would recommend alkaline water to treat
acid reflux a third claim that you might
Does Alkaline Water Prevent Cancer?
hear is that alkaline water can lower
your risk of cancer we can knock this
one off the bat right away there is no
way as we discussed before that that
alkaline water will get into your blood
and change the pH of any tissues and
because of that it won’t change the acid
or base environment where any cancer is
trying to grow
and so therefore there is no way that
drinking alkaline water will lower or
increase your risk of a tumor growing
even if that tumor is more prone to grow
in acidic environments next number four
Does Alkaline Water Prevent Osteoporosis?
if I’m counting correctly is that
alkaline water will lower your risk of
osteoporosis but again it turns out
that’s not exactly how the body works
and there’s no data to support that
alkaline water will lower your risk of
osteoporosis or bone breakdown finally
Is Alkaline Water the Same as the Alkaline Diet?
number five and I think this is where a
lot of the confusion comes from is the
difference between an alkaline diet and
alkaline water
so alkaline water is that treated water
that goes down in your stomach and right
away is neutralized
an alkaline diet in fact is different an
alkaline diet is full of foods that do
not produce an acid load in your body so
certain foods like red meats or some
hard cheeses and processed foods are
digested in the body and then release a
lot of acid
now that acid doesn’t change the pH of
your blood but it does make the kidneys
work a little bit harder to get rid of
that acid and if your kidneys are
working a little bit harder to get rid
of that acid there’s a Cascade of
advance that puts you a little bit more
at risk for progression of your chronic
kidney disease
now we’re still trying to sort through
the basics of that but the bottom line
is a diet that is more acidic versus
alkaline
may put your kidneys at a little more
risk and that’s why I do recommend that
people who are at risk for kidney
disease eat a more alkaline diet but an
alkaline diet has nothing to do with
alkaline water an alkaline diet is a
diet that is high in things like
greens and vegetables and herbs and
spices and whole grains less red meat
that is an alkaline diet there is no
alkaline water in an alkaline diet
bottom line is an alkaline diet is good
for you alkaline water
who cares alkaline water is an expensive
Alkaline Water Conclusions
way to keep you hydrated there is no
benefit to that alkaline processing of
the water stick with regular water and
keep yourself hydrated that way your
body won’t know the difference I’m Dr
Blake Schusterman thank you so much for
watching today come join us again next
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disease and we will see you next time.