Upbeat Living: Beat Acidosis to Beat Illness and Feel Great!

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Acidosis, beating fatigue, breath, Eating, Eating right, energy, exhaustion, fatigue, Feeling energized, Health, pH balance, stress, Stress Management, tired, UpBeat Living

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

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The Upbeat Living philosophy is to encourage people to switch little habits that will lead to big results, to feel our best and enjoy life the most. And little changes often can help you have a lot more energy, plus feeling and looking younger!  Would you consider making one or two easy changes in your daily habits, if you could feel much better as a result?

Here are some points to ponder regarding a condition affecting many people and causing silently deteriorating health, yet which you can easily and inexpensively control. It’s called acidosis, meaning excess acid in the body’s fluids.  Stress, eating habits, lack of exercise, and too little sleep all contribute to this condition.  And dealing with stress, changing your eating habits, exercising, and sleeping more—these can all help correct the condition.

Relative acidity is measured on the pH, or potential hydrogen, scale that indicates hydrogen  ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 1 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely basic, or alkaline). The body operates best when its acid balance, or pH, is between 7.35 and 7.45, ideally at 7.4. Yet diet and stress tend to acidify the body’s fluids. More biochemical waste in the body can also lower pH, making the body more acidic.  To see some beautiful graphics of the pH scale, put “pH scale” in your search bar and enjoy.

While the condition is simple, the symptoms are many. A person with acidosis may experience frequent fatigue, allergies, bronchitis, colds and flu, foot fungus, acne, boils, eczema, age spots, arthritis, diarrhea and/or constipation. Effects less easy for the individual to see are serious internal processes, such as the inflammation of veins, arteries, and the muscle tissue of the heart. This creates cardiac system issues that result in elevated blood pressure, which in turn increases heart deterioration.

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Acidosis also leads to premature aging via accelerating free-radical damage to cells. Cells are actually poisoned by inefficiently eliminated cell waste. An acidic pH prevents the proper storage and release of cellular energy, meaning that the body cannot respond fully to stress or infection.  This means you’re tired! Red blood cells clump together, which limits their oxygen-carrying capacity and leads to fatigue and weakness. Cancer cells thrive in lower-oxygen  (acidic) environments such as acidosis can create. Other mechanisms caused by acidosis may lead to pancreatic dysfunction, diabetes, weight gain, and osteoporosis.

The body has natural mechanisms for monitoring and controlling its acid-base balance. When plasma is too acidic, the respiratory system speeds breathing, and the kidneys can produce substances that turn the pH around. The body also uses intracellular absorption of hydrogen atoms by molecules of protein, phosphate, and carbonate in bone, thus raising the pH to less acidity.

So what can you do to help yourself beat acidosis? First, get litmus paper from your pharmacy and test your saliva. The litmus paper will turn color to show the acidity of your saliva. If your saliva’s pH is too low/acidic, re-assess your current stress, exercise (or lack thereof), sleep, and diet. Consider these dietary changes:

1. Stop drinking any sodas or sugared drinks, or any artificially sweetened products. Switch to juices or filtered water.
2. Stop eating sugared desserts and foods made mainly with white flour and yeast, such as pizza and bagels.
3. Eat dark-green leafy salads, other green vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, celery, parsley), and root vegetables (carrots, yams, daikon radish).
4. Eat fruits, especially fresh fruits, such as apples, apricots, bananas, cantaloupe, dates, figs, grapefruit, peaches, and grapes. For dried fruit, try raisins.
5. Eat rice and buckwheat, almonds, dairy products, and eggs.

Try changing your diet for a week, and add exercise and sleep more. Check your pH again. Notice if these changes make you more relaxed, clear-minded, and vital. If so, you are making a major investment in your long-term health. Why not feel your best, starting now?  That’s Upbeat Living!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

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UpBeat Living: Your Perfect Breath

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Acidosis, breath, exhale, pH balance, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Courtesy of Fotolia

How many times have you been asked to “take a deep breath now”?  I remember being asked to take a deep breath absolutely every time I have ever had a physical.  The doctors always have asked for a deep breath, to expand the lungs, so they can hear various sounds that may be good or not so good.  But wait!  I have different advice!

Hands up, everyone who is currently breathing!  Oh good.  You brought your breath with you.  Breath allows life.  And if you’ve ever held your breath too long, you know you don’t feel well or think well.

About 6 times per minute, we breathe in oxygen, which is distributed into little collectors in the lungs, where the air and the blood actually meet, across a respiratory membrane.  The oxygen, from the air you’ve inhaled, goes into the blood, and the carbon dioxide comes out of the blood, into the breath.  And we breathe out carbon dioxide.  Then it takes only seconds for the oxygen you’ve inhaled to start circulating to the brain and body, through the blood system.  The oxygen/carbon dioxide balance is crucial to your body chemistry. It maintains your acid/base balance.  So this matters WHY?

This matters because you can only inhale, and get that good oxygen, if there is room in your lungs.  So exhale first.   Here’s a way to get a perfect exhale:  sing “ha” on any note you choose, and keep going until you completely run out of breath.  At the end of your breath, you’ll naturally gasp, quickly taking in a wonderful gulp of new air.  Terrific!  And how much did you take in?  That full exhalation emptied the bottoms of your lungs, pushing out all that stale urban air and pollution you don’t usually get to, in normal breathing.  Now when you inhale, you are inhaling into much more space, and you’ll get much more oxygen.

In about 30 seconds after you force the exhale and allow the gasp, you’ll notice a rush up the back of your head.  This is oxygen!  The stranger it feels, the more stale air you know you were storing in your lungs.  And now your brain and body are working much better.  You can think more clearly now, and all systems are more vital. This trick is absolutely free and the equipment is always with you.  So don’t take the regular advice!  Exhale first, for your perfect breath and health.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). ● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

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● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Don’t Wait to Exhale

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Breathwork, Exhaling, peace within, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Today’s headline in The Arizona Republic, Phoenix’s main regional newspaper, riveted me.  It read, “BOSTON EXHALES.”  I was so riveted by the headline that I took a photo of it (here, to the left).  Everyone knows what this headline means.  It means the worst is over and Boston can now relax, with the first bombing suspect dead, and the second in hospital custody.

We have a number of expressions about breath, in this country.  We talk about “holding our breath” while waiting eagerly for something.  In a strong attraction, we may say, “[S]/he takes my breath away.”  After a big event, sometimes we say, “oh, now I can breathe easy, knowing it’s all taken care of.”  We sometimes talk about being “just a breath away” from some desired goal.  A Buddhist-oriented 12-Step program is called One Breath at a Time.

Many well-meaning people advise others who are stressed to “take a deep breath”.  A popular 1995 movie is called, Waiting to Exhale.  In that movie, the 4 main characters each reached points in life where they were now relieved that the suspense was over, and they were better able “to exhale”.  So during most of the movie, they were “waiting to exhale” as they were “up in the air” as to where their primary relationships were going.  And by the way, it was a great movie!

As a practitioner who teaches the power and practice of therapeutic breathing, I want to boldly suggest that you never wait to exhale!  You need to breathe, right?  So why not make your breath work well for you?  In a minute or so, your inhalation takes oxygen to your blood through the lungs, and the blood circulates the oxygen all around your body.  Carbon dioxide is picked up by the returning blood, and the process begins again.

At the bottoms of your lungs resides a build-up of residue from urban pollution.  So, while most people take only relatively shallow breaths, all can benefit from deeper breathing and expelling that residue.  To make more room for new air, exhaling is key.  Try this:  pick a note, and sing “haaaaaaaa…” out to the end of your breath.  You will know you have found the very end of your breath when you reflexively gasp as your inhalation.  Do this three times and then return to ignoring your breathing.  Notice how much better you feel.  You may feel a little “high” for a few minutes—that’s oxygen!  When you want to relax, don’t “take a breath”, have an exhale, and then inhale into the lungs that have made room for new air.

Do you want to live alert and energized?  Take charge of your breath.  See what happens.  And don’t wait to exhale!

 

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● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .