The PH Experiment

I have been having these aches and pains that some times interfere with my beauty sleep. I like sleeping I have to admit and even though these aches and pains are not interfering with my joy of life much, I decided that I would like to do something about it before they get to that point. So I picked up a few books on the subject to arm myself with some knowledge on what to do. The book that really caught my attention was Sherry Roberts‘ Pain Free in 6 Weeks. Dr. Sherry Roberts is an MD with a conscience. With her extensive knowledge in environmental medicine and her own experience as a patient, she walks her talk in telling me what worked for her and why. Her book is a treasure of information on what you can do to arm yourself against pain.
First of all is the realization that aches and pain is NOT and I repeat NOT a natural part of aging or living well. Aches and pain in your body is the signal your body gives you that something is not going well please take a look into this Missy/Mister! To dull the pain by gulping down 2 Tylenol tablets or whatever you take for pain is equivalent of ignoring the first alarm from your alarm clock in the morning. You know it’s just going to go off again even louder next time. She first advised to stay off night-shades in your diet. Night-shades include – potatoe, tomato, egg plant, all colors of peppers except black pepper. I know I have a tomato senstivity from having done a food sensitivity test a few years back but I still eat tomato. Having read her book and reaquainted with the consequences of eating things that you are not suppose to eat if you want to rid yourself of aches and pain, I decided to go on a night-shade free diet. It’s been 2 weeks since I got on this track and it’s been interesting especially when I go to an Italian restaurant. By now though, I am not a stranger to making changes in my diet. I told my daughter about the diet and she rolled her eyes. Ahhh, my young padwan does not know that a moment on your lips is no reward for a life time of inflammation on your hips or knees or whatever joint in your body that’s giving you some feedback.
The next thing I learned to do is to monitor my PH value.  I know from my training as a biofeedback practitioner that our body function best within a rather narrow range of PH value.  When we are outside that range our body has to work much harder to keep us going.  It’s amazing how much abuse our body can take before it falls ill.  I bought a packet of 100 litmus paper for about $10 which is available in most holistic pharmacy.  Each morning I would pee on a strip of paper and match the color of the paper to the color chart on the packet to determine my body’s ph value.  It may not seem the most pleasant thing to do first thing in the morning, however this one little routine helps me be accountable for my body.  I now know what my previous day’s food and liquid intake has done for my body.  It’s not instantaneous feedback but it’s recent enough that I still remember what I ate so that I can make some changes in my eating and drinking habbits the rest of the day if I don’t like what I saw.  It  allows me to take responsibility of my own well being.  I know that if my body is usually accidic, my body is a great breeding ground for virus and bacteria.  And if my body is mostly alkaline, virus and bacteris will not like me much.  Even if I happen to come accross some hasty flu bug my alkaline body will not encourage them to multiply easily in me.  Checking my urine’s ph every morning gives me an idea and feedback on whether I’m doing the right things for my body or not.