Acid Stress: Manage Your Alkaline (pH) Balance to Prevent Disease

Tags

acid stress, Acidosis, alkaline balance, foods and moods, Kebba Buckley Button, stress

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

 

© Deyan Georgiev – Fotolia

Many people would make one or two easy changes in their daily habits if they could feel much better and less stressed as a result. Are you one of them? 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. 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 pH is between 7.35 and 7.45, ideally at 7.4. Yet diet and stress tend to acidify the body’s fluids. Accumulation of biochemical waste in the body can also lower pH. And a pH too acid can cause you to feel vague stress, to feel ill at ease.

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 the deterioration.

Acidosis also leads to premature aging via accelerating free-radical damage to cells. Cells are actually poisoned by inefficiently eliminated cellular waste. An acidic pH prevents the proper storage and release of cellular energy, meaning that the body cannot respond fully to stress or infection. Red blood cells clump together, which limits their oxygen-carrying capacity and leads to fatigue and weakness. Cancer cells thrive in lower-oxygen environments such as acidosis can create. Other mechanisms caused by acidosis may lead to pancreatic dysfunction, diabetes, weight gain, and osteoporosis.  Aside from all this, acidosis can make you cranky: you have acid stress!  Foods and moods work together!

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.

Microsoft

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 indicate the acidity of your saliva. If your saliva’s pH is too low/acidic, re-assess your current stress, exercise (or lack thereof), and diet. To feel better and have better moods, 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.

Now try shifting your breath, since the oxygen –carbon dioxide balance causes your blood to be more alkaline or acidic.

1. Exhale to a count of 8, and inhale to a count of 4. Notice how calm you feel.
2. Whenever you feel stressed, exhale to the end of your breath. If you do this quietly, you can do it in front of anyone, even at meetings.

Try changing your diet for a week, and add rhythmic breathing practice. 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?

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. 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 ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: calendar@kebba.com .

 

Enjoy National Cheese Day!

Tags

cheese, In-joy-meant, Kebba Buckley Button, peace within, stress

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

 

© volff – Fotolia

 

Cheese! Glorious Cheese! Who knew cheese had its own day? I found out just in time to share it with you: January 20^th is National Cheese Day, except in France, where it’s April. A statistic tossed around is that 7% of a Frenchman’s budget is spent on cheese. Whether that is accurate or not, clearly, cheese is a vital part of French culinary culture. It’s also paramount in the culinary culture of many countries.

 

It is said that there are at least 500 varieties of cheese. That’s the number recognized by the International Dairy Federation. But some identify as many as about 1000 varieties. Some cheese is best sliced and some is best spread on crackers and served with fruit. Some is ideal for sauces—think, fettucine Alfredo. Some bubbles and browns a little on pizza—think, mozzarella blended with Parmesan. Some brightens any sandwich—think, Swiss, baby Swiss, and Fontina.

 

Cheeses vary by a number of factors:

• type of milk used (including cow’s milk, sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, soy milk and almond milk)
• percent fat
• type of coating
• moisture content
• molds for flavoring and coloring
• degree of salt
• add-ins (onion, fruit essences, seeds, wine)

You can see cheeses in terms of how strong their flavors are. Professional categories are: fresh, neutral, mild, understated, pronounced, strong, and very strong. Some cheeses have an intense fragrance, like the famous Limberger cheese. However, the flavor of that cheese is appealing and mild. So if you’re selecting cheeses for meals and entertaining, go and taste them at a cheese market or cheese department of a gourmet grocery store. I repeat: TASTE cheeses before committing to serve them. I found a fantastic aged cheddar from England, infused with onion, this way. Wow!

 

Now, if you didn’t have your menu set already for dinner, what dishes with cheese are you planning to use? I’m serving salad topped with shredded Parmesan. And maybe brie and fruit for dessert.

 

While you’re pondering your menu, here’s a little fun. Take this cheese quiz, to see what cheese you are most like. My results surprised me. The quiz said I’m American cheese, smooth and young at heart. Okay, I’ll take that! (And now I’m craving a lightly buttered grilled cheese sandwich, made with American cheese.) Just click on this link, and look for “What’s Your Inner Cheese?” down to the left.

 

http://homeschooling.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.ilovecheese.com/cheese_guide.asp

I would love to know what YOUR inner cheese is! So enjoy National Cheese Day. And remember, Life is about In-Joy-Meant. When we are enjoying, we have less stress, more Peace Within, and better body- and brain chemistry. Feeling good makes us literally feel better.  Are you in?

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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! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low. Thanks for your help!

 

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. 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 ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: schedule@kebba.com .

 

Upbeat Living: Foods to Lift Your Moods!

Tags

Cathy Guisewite, chocolate, cravings, Eating right, energy foods, food, food and drink, foods and moods, glycemic index, green leafy vegetables, health food, kale, Kebba Buckley Button, stress, UpBeat Living

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

 

© Pamela Hodson | Dreamstime Stock Photos

When you feel stressed or depressed, do you reach for the snacks?  A lot of us do! Remember the cartoon strip, Cathy?  For over 30 years, we watched as Cathy ate an entire cake in one sitting, after her boyfriend did something puzzling or frustrating. After eating a cake, Cathy would be sprawled out on a couch, obviously sick and frazzled.  Did eating like that bring her joy and resolution?  No.  Eating an entire cake when she was stressed—just made her sick and stressed! It was not a successful strategy.  Maybe that’s the very reason award-winning cartoonist Cathy Guisewite made us laugh so much.  We understood.

 

However, there are successful ways to use foods to have the best moods.  Bear in mind that the body has about 70 trillion cells.  And your body has only what you put in your mouth—food and drink—from which to make new cells.  So does it make sense that your cells would function well on a diet of, for example, cake and diet soda?  A well-rounded diet of lean protein, dark green leafy vegetables, other non-starch vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains, will give you a baseline of great nutrition.  Switch to this simple list for a few days, to begin feeling strong and clear-minded.   Vegetarians can use organic beans, including garbanzos, instead of lean meats, in salads and stir-fry dishes.  Of course, coordinate with your doctor before making drastic changes.

 

 If we’re not supposed to have night-time snacks, then why is there a light in the fridge?

 ~Unknown

If you eat out a lot, order the whole grains, egg dishes, other lean proteins, and dark green salads every day.  Of course, gluten-free people, skip those grains!  Kale salad is a current fad food that is available in many restaurants and offers great nutrition.  Grilled chicken- or tuna- Caesar salad is another very nutritious, popular dish that is available at most restaurants.  These dishes will leave you feeling clear-minded and balanced.  And you will be, um, regular, which will also clear your emotions and mind.  Bean dishes contain a phenomenal amount of fiber, so if you like those, they can assist in cleansing your intestines and even help you lose weight.  In Chinese medicine, sadness or depression can be related to the energy of the large intestine.  See if your mood improves when you are eating a high-fiber, low-sugar diet.

 

The only time to eat diet food is when you’re waiting for the steak to cook.

~ Julia Child

Speaking of sugar, the more nutrition you can get for your calories, the better you will feel.  So reach for cherries, grapes, berries, a banana, or a peach.  On the run, keep packets of dried fruits with you.  There are many vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds in fruits.  Fruit without added sugar is now widely available in your grocer’s frozen food section.  And in the canned-food section, it is easy to find fruit in its own juice.  Health food stores even have fruit-sweetened waffles and other baked goods, plus powdered fruit sweeteners.  Switch to fruit and fruit-sweetened foods, and you will be eating at a lower glycemic index.  That index is a measure of how fast a food is metabolized, compared to glucose.  Many people feel better, have a flatter abdomen, and lose weight easily on a low glycemic index diet.

 

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button

For low-calorie snacks, veggie sticks—carrots, celery, jicama, green beans, cucumbers, Chinese pea pods—are very filling and massage your intestines from the inside out.  So, in addition to being satisfying, these leave you more relaxed.  For quick energy snacks, consider going nuts.  Yes, nuts!  Brazil nuts, pistachios, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are great for both giving you energy and supporting your health.  Brazil nuts are very high in protein and also contain selenium, a mineral linked to mood improvement.  Almonds are high in potassium, which is key for metabolic balance, mood and blood pressure regulation.  Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all rich in magnesium, a vital mineral in converting blood sugar to muscle energy, via the Krebs Cycle process.  Low magnesium is also a cause for constipation; so nuts can help by contributing both magnesium and fiber.  When the intestines are well, you will be in a better mood.

 

 

New snack food technology is making some great new options available.  Now you can buy crunchy, flavored freeze-dried veggies in snack packs.  You can get rice-and-bean chips in the chips department. And my current favorite is crisp kale chips!  Perhaps the ultimate energy snack, chocolate covered kale chips, is now available. Just look around your health food store, or the health food section of your regular market, for some great, tasty surprises.

 

So experiment with less sugar and more taste satisfaction.  You’ll be less hungry and have fewer cravings.  Plus, your moods will even out, and your abdomen may flatten out!  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)             

● 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.

● Please comment!

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● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

UpBeat Living: What Are The Rules Your Body Is Trying to Teach You?

Tags

at choice, choices, Dealing with stress, Eating, Effective living, energy, Feeling energized, fulfilled, Health, Stress Management, vitality, What works best for YOU, Your body's rules

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Fotolia

Recently, I was privileged to attend seminars by Dr. Kenneth Muhich of Scottsdale, Arizona. Dr. Muhich is an expert on natural, yet medically proven, solutions for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. I was fascinated by the range of symptoms his fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue patients have. While following a general protocol, each patient must observe how her/his body responds to different stimuli and how s/he can best work with the condition. Each patient’s body is essentially teaching the patient what its rules are. The more closely the patient follows her/his body’s rules, the greater the recovery and the greater the chances of complete recovery. Many of Dr. Muhich’s patients have attained complete recovery.  I have met some of them, and they are not kidding about their debilitating experience and their recoveries.

This conversation made me think about the differences in body requirements among the many hundreds of patients and clients I have worked with. Each person’s body has preferences about stimuli, diet, sleep, level and type of activities, weather, and people and places it could be exposed to. These are only a few of the factors for which your body may have rules. It pays to ask yourself, “what rules is my body trying to teach me?”

Perhaps easiest to consider among your body’s rules are its preferences about foods.  Does your body love protein and feel weak on a high carbohydrate diet?  Is your mind most clear when you eat dark green leafy salads, while you lack concentration after eating sugary foods? Is your abdomen flatter when you eat yogurt with live cultures every few days? Do your hands swell after you drink alcohol? Then follow these clues to feel great.

What about sleep? Does your body get the best sleep in a cool room or a warm room, with heavy covers or light, on a firm or soft mattress, with your feet under or outside the covers? Do you get deeper sleep with total silence, with background noise like the hum of traffic, or with white noise like “surf” from a sound generator?  Does sleep work best for you between 10 pm and 6 am, or are you a natural night owl, lively until 4 or 5 am, then sleeping until noon? Do you feel refreshed after naps, or does napping make you tired? How can you better arrange your lifestyle to fit with your sleep metabolism? Several of my clients wake up for 3 hours in the middle of the night, do some paperwork, then go back to sleep for two hours; this has always been their pattern, and they make the most of it.

Some people I know are living life with one lung.  Their bodies’ rules include minimizing aerobic exercise. But many people need at least 90 minutes of high activity every day, or they feel stressed. Studies show postmenopausal women need an hour of active exercise a day for efficient metabolism and to basically “feel good”. Many people thrive on quiet exercise such as yoga, while others love the extroversion, music and group stimulation of classes like Zumba. With what activities and levels have you found your body feels great?

Some people are easily overstimulated and do best in quiet environments. Others feel best in busy environments, perhaps with phones ringing, music playing, and lots of conversation. When you go to a party, do you lose energy (introvert) or gain energy (extrovert) over a two-hour period? Your nervous system is trying to teach you how much quiet it needs.

Many aspects of natural environment may affect your body. A hot or cold climate, dry or moist air, presence of negative or positive ions, relative brightness of the skies, and frequently shifting weather fronts all affect the brain and nervous system. What elements does your body prefer?

Often, people are aware they are affected by places and people, in ways that are hard to define. We may enter a building and have a strong feeling of wanting to stay or go.  Around a new person, we may have a strong feeling we can’t explain, either of being very drawn to the person or of wanting to get away. We need to honor these sensations.

So what rules is your body trying to teach you? In this New Year, as you set your resolutions, why not resolve to honor more of your body’s rules, to cut stress, feel great, be sick less often, and enjoy your relationships more? After all, it’s your life. Only you can live it.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.  She is also an ordained minister.

● 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 .

 

UpBeat Living: Foods for Better Moods

Tags

Eating, foods and moods, Health, holiday stress tips, Kebba, Stress Management

©2012 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Eating to beat the blues is a popular strategy.  Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite made us laugh sympathetically about binge eating, with the namesake character in her award-winning cartoon strip, Cathy.  For over 30 years, the character, Cathy, could eat an entire cake in one sitting, when her boyfriend was behaving in a puzzling way.  After eating a cake, Cathy would be portrayed sprawled out on a couch, clearly feeling sick and frazzled.  Did eating like that bring her joy and resolution?  No.  Eating an entire cake as a response to stress was not a successful strategy.

 

However, there are successful ways to use foods to have the best moods.  Bear in mind that the body has about 70 trillion cells.  And your body has only what you put in your mouth—food and drink—from which to make new cells.  So does it make sense that your cells would function well on a diet of, for example, cake and diet soda?  A well-rounded diet of lean protein, dark green leafy vegetables, other non-starch vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains, will give you a baseline of great nutrition.  Switch to this simple list for a few days, to begin feeling strong and clear-minded.   Vegetarians can use organic beans, including garbanzos, instead of lean meats, in salads and stir-fry dishes.  Of course, coordinate with your doctor before going on a very different dietary regime.

 

If you eat out a lot, order the whole grains, egg dishes, other lean proteins, and dark green salads every day.  Kale salad is a current fad food that is widely available in restaurants and offers great nutrition.  Grilled chicken- or tuna- Caesar salad is another very nutritious, popular dish that is available at most restaurants.  These dishes will leave you feeling clear-minded and balanced.  And you will be, um, regular, which will also clear your emotions and mind.  Bean dishes contain a phenomenal amount of fiber, so if you like those, they can assist in cleansing your intestines and even help you lose weight.  In Chinese medicine, sadness or depression may be related to the energy of the large intestine.  See if your mood improves when you are eating a high-fiber, low-sugar diet.

 

Speaking of sugar, the more nutrition you can get for your calories, the better you will feel.  So why eat foods rich in refined sugars?  When you crave something sweet, reach for grapes, berries, a banana, or a peach.  There are many vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidant compounds in fresh fruits.  Fruit without added sugar is now widely available in your grocer’s frozen food section.  And in the canned-food section, it is easy to find fruit in its own juice.  Health food stores even have fruit-sweetened waffles and other baked goods, plus powdered fruit sweeteners.  Switch to fruit and fruit-sweetened foods, and you will be eating at a lower glycemic index.  That index is a measure of how fast a food is metabolized, compared to glucose.  Many people feel better, have a flatter abdomen, and lose weight easily on a low glycemic index diet.

 

For low-calorie snacks, veggie sticks—carrots, celery, jicama, green beans, cucumbers—are very filling and massage your intestines from the inside out.  So, in addition to being satisfying, these leave you more relaxed.  For quick energy snacks, consider going nuts.  Yes, nuts!  Brazil nuts, almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are great for both giving you energy and supporting your health.  Brazil nuts are very high in protein and also contain selenium, a mineral linked to mood improvement.  Almonds are high in potassium, which is key for metabolic balance, mood and blood pressure regulation.  Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are all rich in magnesium, a vital mineral in converting blood sugar to muscle energy, via the Krebs Cycle process.  Low magnesium is also a cause for constipation; so nuts can help by contributing both magnesium and fiber.  When the intestines are well, you will be in a better mood.

 

With the Thanksgiving-Hanukkah-Christmas-New Year’s holiday feasting season fast upon us, consider the traditional holiday depression so many experience.  Are the holiday blues really just emotions and associations?  Or can you eat and drink differently and miss the blues altogether?  Why not experiment?  After all, it’s your life.

———————————————

● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.

● 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 .