A Response to Dr. Andrew Weil

Dr. Andrew Weil states the following:

"Home water ionizers, which I’ve seen offered for sale on the Internet, are just the latest twist in the ongoing effort to promote the notion that alkaline water is somehow protective of your health. The underlying idea is that you can prevent disease by balancing your body’s pH. …None of these claims are true. Furthermore, your body needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH. Normally, the pH of blood and most body fluids is near 7, which is close to neutral. This is under very tight biological control because all of the chemical reactions that maintain life depend on it. … The health claims for [electrical] water ionizers and for alkaline water are bogus. Save your money."

Let’s apply basic common sense here:

Dr. Weil: “Your body needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH. Normally, the pH of blood and most body fluids is near 7, which is close to neutral.”

It is correct that the blood pH remains fairly constant even if you eat only acidic junk-food. However, saliva and urine pH indeed vary. We must look at the whole and not a half truth. Dr. Weil’s comments just above exclude some basic pH facts. For example, Dr. Weil omits that saliva pH can wildly vary from 4.5 pH to 7.5+ pH, a well-documented medical fact with health implications for everybody. (This will be addressed in detail below.)

If you are eating a high acid diet of 20 Cola drinks a day and red meats, your blood will indeed maintain its pH. However, there will be a price to pay in added stress to one’s organs. Your body does not technically need help in adjusting the pH of the blood . You can eat a high acid or junk-food diet which will indeed be harmful to your body but your blood pH will remain fairly constant. So what! The notion that the body as a whole, including not just the blood pH but the urine and saliva pH needs absolutely no help in adjusting its pH is inaccurate. And yes, an alkaline diet helps to balance pH. The correct view begins by looking at the big picture. If we eat a life-negative, high acid diet, we add undue stress to the body and lower our immunity. Why do that?

Water is one of our most essential elements. It is part of our daily dietary intake. Water with a high pH and measurable negative ions occurs at only a handful of places on earth! In North America, it occurs naturally at Trinity Springs in Ketchum, Idaho and nowhere else. It is very rare. Just as alkaline vegetables are beneficial to the body, the same holds true for higher pH negative ion alkaline water. It is beneficial.

Yes, the body needs help otherwise it would be okay to live on a high acid diet of Colas and hamburgers alone. This is common sense and common knowledge. Think about this for yourself.

Dr. Weil: The underlying idea is that you can prevent disease by balancing your body’s pH. …None of these claims are true.”

Moderation is important. If you eat a high acid diet, this creates stress in the body. Does Dr. Weil or any other health professional claim that diet is really irrelevant to your health? Does anyone claim that a high acid diet has absolutely no effect on one’s health? Let's look into this further.

When you eat acidic junk-food, the body has to work much harder to maintain blood pH, Is that good for your health? Urine and saliva pH are not constants as is blood pH. Yes, diet is important including the water we drink. In fact, diet is one of the best avenues of sustaining the health of the body and preventing disease. Yes, diet obviously helps the body and that includes not indulging in an unhealthful high acid diet. Alkaline foods are good for you.

It is fairly common knowledge that a more alkaline diet including green leafy vegetables broccoli, products like E3Live and the like are indeed beneficial to the body and can effect, for example, saliva PH if not blood pH. If we consider the whole body, blood is not the only thing to look at. We must expand our focus to look at the big picture and give the body, our temple, the foods that best support life including pH balancing and antioxidant foods. This is not for the blood pH alone but applies to other indicators too like urine and saliva pH. pH strips to measure urine and saliva are available at most drug stores. Yes, there is a reason that people use pH strips.

Let's focus in on pH. pH strips are everywhere sold for a good reason. Healthy blood pH is around 7.4. Healthy spinal fluid pH is around 7.4 and a healthy pH saliva is around 7.4. Saliva pH corresponds with extra cellular fluid. For one example, the well-known pH test for saliva is used as a sign for healthy or deficient ionic calcium. This is pure medical fact.

A healthy person's saliva without a deficiency typically ranges from pH 7.1 to pH 7.5. When saliva goes to 4.5 pH to 6.5 pH (Yes, pH indeed varies.), this represents a range from a strong to a mild deficiency respectively. It turns out that most children are in the 7.5 pH range, very healthy. 50% of adults however are in the 6.5 pH range. This reflects a calcium deficiency tied to natural aging and to lifestyle defects such as eating and drinking unhealthy foods. You can answer for yourself if the body needs help.

Ionized alkaline water in mammal studies in Japan showed that its ionized calcium - which the unit produces from ordinary tap water - was better absorbed in the tissues and increased bone mass in the tibia bone, one of the first places osteoporosis shows up in the body. There have not been human stuides. However, the mammal study with Wistar rats is a strong indication that ionized alkaline water with its ionic calcium could be quite helpful for ionic calcium deficiency.

What we eat and drink makes a big difference. Incidentally, as regards saliva pH, terminal cancer patients may have a pH of 4.5. We sincerely do not wish to imply that alkaline water of itself is a cancer cure although many have greatly benefitted from a raw, alkaline diet. We do wish to point out some key facts on how pH can vary and the importance of proper diet including what you drink. Diet is critical to all of the body's regulatory systems.

Both alkaline food and antioxidants are important to our health. This is not news. Dr. Weil has likely not contextually considered this carefully or long enough. That is understandable. When he elsewhere debunks alkaline water as a cancer cure or the like, we indeed agree with him. If someone claims that Vitamin C does not cure Diabetes, that does not mean that Vitamin C is thus entirely worthless. That is bad logic. The same goes for the good doctor’s comments on ionized alkaline water. Presenting things in the proper scientific context is key.

We shouldn’t be too simplistic in either condemning or affirming the very real benefits of antioxidant, alkaline water. A balanced view is better. No, this is not the cure for cancer. However, it is part of an overall intelligent system-wide approach to sustaining and maintaining health. Ionized alkaline water has measurable antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are well known to be helpful in neutralizing free radicals which cause organ damage and are linked to disease states. Likewise, an alkaline diet is equally well known to be beneficial. Ionized alkaline water offers both alkaline and antioxidant properties. All this is beneficial to maintaining your health. That’s the whole point.