Bio pH Overview

Bio-pH Ingredient Overview 

Intentional Health products with Bio-pH deliver a group of alkalizing products that supports the body’s strong buffering systems and reduce overall body acidity. The human body functions best when arterial blood is slightly alkaline (7.35 to 7.45 pH). The aging process is increasingly being linked to a decline in the ability of the body to maintain an acid-base balance in the ideal range. The objective of our products is support the pH balancing systems so the body is only minimally stressed to stay in the middle of the healthy alkaline range. Normal body functions and healing processes are optimized when the body maintains a healthy arterial blood pH. The products help neutralize the heavy acid loads most of us experience in our normal Western diets. This is some of what we have learned from the research:

Modern Diets Induce Low-Grade Metabolic Acidosis

Dietary changes over the last two centuries have resulted in a mismatch with genetically-determined nutritional requirements in humans.  Excess dietary acids in our foods are not mediated by dietary alkali and lead to wide-spread, chronic low-grade metabolic acidosis. Estimates of the net systemic acid load on contemporary humans, when compared to the diet of pre-agricultural Homo sapiens, leads researchers to conclude that contemporary diets generate diet-induced arterial blood pH that ranges in the lower levels of “normal” and are referred to here as low-grade metabolic acidosis.

What is Low-Grade, Chronic Metabolic Acidosis?

Chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis is a process whereby excess acid load is placed on the body over long periods of time due to excess acid generation or diminished acid removal by normal homeostatic mechanisms.  It has long been known that chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis is associated with aging.  There is a significant increase in the steady-state H+ ion indicating a progressively worsening low-level metabolic acidosis that reflects the normal decline with increasing age.  Much of the age-induced increase in H+ ions has been traditionally associated with the normal decline in renal function as we age.   Physiological aging of the lungs also impact the acid-base balance.   Various drugs, like diuretics, also negatively impact the acid-base balance and increase H+ ions in the elderly.  So, chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis is a normal part of the aging process that appears to be encouraged by Western dietary habits and some drugs.

What are the Effects of Low-Grade Metabolic Acidosis?

We are all living longer and chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis is normal as we age.  So what are the consequences of this acidic stress?  Acid-base homeostasis exerts a major influence on protein function, thereby critically affecting tissue and organ performance.  Deviations in body acidity can have adverse consequences and, when severe, can be life threatening.  The body’s homeostatic response to acidic swings is very efficient and blood pH is usually maintained within the “normal” range.  It’s just that “normal” gets more acidic as we age.  These efficient, compensatory mechanisms lead to a progression of debilitating conditions often linked to aging such as kidney stones, renal disease, bone disease and similar conditions.,,   Even the loss of muscle mass associated with the aged appears to be linked to increasing acidity in the aging body.  Most recently, it has been reported that metabolic acidosis exerts a major influence on all protein functions, thereby critically affecting tissue and organ performance.   Even mild degrees of low-grade acidosis, such as that occurring by ingesting a high animal protein diet, are being linked to alterations in the endocrine systems, including hormone insensitivity, hypo-thyroidism and hyperglucocorticoidism.,  Chronic, low-grade metabolic acidosis is clearly linked to the metabolic and endocrine effects most often associated with aging, including osteoporosis and the loss of lean body mass.,

Attempts to Mediate Low-Grade Metabolic Acidosis

Oral administration of large doses of alkali additives in foods and radical changes in diet have been shown to neutralize the endogenous acid balance.,  There are no accepted or even effective treatments for low-grade metabolic acidosis.

pH Sciences’ Product pH Balance™

Bio-pHTM is a licensed ingredient from PH Sciences Holdings, Inc., whose technology is controlled by several issued and pending patents. The formulation has been tested and is proven to be a strong body alkalizing agent and is very effective in relieving urinary tract conditions that are associated with metabolic acidosis. Further anecdotal evidence indicates the formulation improves bone health by increasing osteoblastic bone formation and reduces osteoclastic bone resorption as would be expected from a product that mediates metabolic acidosis. In-house studies also show that moderate amounts of the Bio-pHTM formulation, when taken daily, reduce the overall acidity of urine. The U.S. FDA has reviewed the Bio-pHTM ingredients and has issued two letters recognizing the ingredients as safe. The products have shown no negative side-effects. Other Applications Numerous unpublished studies indicate the Bio-pHTM derived products are very effective in relieving the exercise fatigue-induced symptoms such as muscle cramps and muscle soreness. Muscle recovery also appears to be very rapid for people taking Bio-pHTM derived products. The physiology of intense exercise is also known to produce acidosis and is far more complex than originally thought. REFERENCES

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2. Frassetto, L.; Morris, R.; Sellmeyer, D.; Todd, K. and Sebastian, A. Diet, evolution and aging: the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet, European Journal of Nutrition 40:5 200-213, 2001.

3. Sebastian A, Frassetto L, Sellmeyer D, Merriam R and Morris R.Estimation of the Net Acid Load of the Diet of Ancestral Preagricultural Homo sapiens and their hominid ancestors, Am J of Clin Nutr 76:6 1308-1316, 2002.

4. Alpern, R. and Sakhaee, K.TThe clinical spectrum of chronic metabolic acidosis: homeostatic mechanisms produce significant morbidity, American Journal of Kidney Disease 29: 291-302, 1997.

5. Frassetto, L. and Sebastian, A. Age and systemic acid-base equilibrium: analysis of published data, Journal of Gerontology, Advanced Biological Science and Medical Science, 51: B91-99, 1996.

6.  Krapt, R. and Jehle, A.Renal function and renal disease in the elderly, Schweizerische Medizinische Wochenschrift, 130:11 398-408 2000. 9. Nabata, T. supra.

7. Adrogue, H. and Madias, N.Management of life-threatening acid-base disorders, New England Journal of Medicine 338: 26-34, 1998.

8. Alpern, R. and Sakhaee, K. The clinical spectrum of chronic metabolic acidosis: homeostatic mechanisms produce significant morbidity, American Journal of Kidney Disease 29: 291-302, 1997.

9. Frassetto, L. and Sebastian, A.Age and systemic acid-base equilibrium: analysis of published data, Journal of Gerontology, Advanced Biological Science and Medical Science, 51: B91-99, 1996.

10. Alpern, R. Trade-offs in the adaptation to acidosis, Kidney International 47: 1205-1215, 1995.

11. Bushinsky, D.  Acid-base imbalance and the skeleton, European Journal of Nutrition 40: 238-244, 2001.

12. Meghji, S.; Morrison, M.; Henderson, B. and Arnett, T. pH dependence of bone resorption: mouse calvarial osteoclasts are activated by acidosis, American Journal of Physiological and Endocrinological Metabolism 280: E112-E119, 2001.

13. May R, Kelly R and Mitch W.   Metabolic Acidosis Stimulates Protein Degradation in Rat Muscle by Glucocordcoid-Dependent Mechanism, Journal of Clinical Investigation 77:614-621, 1986.

14. Adrogue, H. supra.

15. Wiederkebr M and Krapf R.  Metabolic and Endocrine Effects of Metabolic Acidosis in Humans, Swiss Medical Weekly 2001:131, 127-1432, 2001.

16.  Maurer, M.; Riesen, W.; Muser, J.; Hulter, H. and Krapf, R. Neutralization of Western diet inhibits bone resportion independently of K intake and reduces cortisol secretion in humans, American Journal of Physiology and Renal Physiology 284: F32-40, 2003.

17.  Meghji, S., supra.

18. Lonergan, E. Aging and the kidney: adjusting treatment to physiologic change, Geriatrics 43: 27-30, 32-33, 1988.

19. Maurer, M. supra.

20. Adrogue H and Madias N. Supra

27. Brown S. Excessive Acidity May Aggravate Urinary Disorders, Tot Hlth 25(3): 22-23, 2002.

22. Bushinsky, D. supra.

23. Robergs, R.Exercise-induced metabolic acidosis: where do the protons come from?, Sport Science 5(2) sportsci.org/jour/0102/rar.thm, 2001.