Sick, tired and weak due to hyperacidity?

These are the main causes of acidosis:

• Acidic or alkaline-poor diet
• Stress and lack of sleep
• Reduced acid excretion due to insufficient drinking, too little exercise, too little sweating
• Transfer of fermentation acids from the intestine into the blood
• All inflammations
• Medication, e.g. dehydrating agents (diuretics)

In colloquial language, the permanent buffering of acids by the connective tissue is referred to as chronic hyperacidity. However, this is not correct because the acids are neutralized by bases in the connective tissue. The connective tissue itself does not become acidic or even corroded, as is sometimes portrayed in layman’s terms. Nevertheless, the acid binding considerably disrupts the natural functions of the connective tissue.

The consequences of hyperacidity of the connective tissue include

• Compaction and loss of elasticity of the entire tissue
• Circulatory or nutritional disorders of the organs
• Excessive reactions of the nervous and immune system
• Promotion of cell mutations and even cancer

Connective tissue also includes the bones and joint cartilage, which often suffer first. The acids remove valuable calcium from the bones, while the cartilage is no longer sufficiently supplied with nutrients. This results in premature wear and tear (arthrosis) and inflammation (arthritis). Conversely, acute and chronic inflammations, e.g. arthritis, can increase the strain on the connective tissue due to their acidic inflammatory waste, creating a vicious circle.

Acidosis – an issue in competitive and amateur sport?

Power instead of sour

Many amateur and professional athletes are dissatisfied and frustrated because they don’t achieve their goals, simply don’t make any progress, perhaps even regress and are constantly injured. This can be caused by an over-acidification of the body combined with an undersupply of vital substances.

Ambitious athletes know very well that an over-acidified muscle will break down and that excessive training with inadequate regeneration leads to overtraining, with the consequences of a drop in performance, increasing muscle soreness and muscle pain, increasing susceptibility to injury and infection. Determining lactate levels is therefore part of the training routine in competitive sport. But what few people in sport consider is that the biochemical processes in the human body can only run optimally if the acid-base ratio and therefore the pH value are correct. After all, the function of enzymes, the effect of hormones, the conduction of nerve impulses and the movement of molecules between body cells all depend on the correct pH value. It is clear that this also influences our performance in sport.

As a sports physician with a holistic and regenerative approach and a coach to many competitive athletes, Dr. Ulrich Frohberger – your orthopaedist in Münster – can support these empirical findings with his experience. Even if science is not (yet) willing to accept these statements.

Test yourself: How angry are you?

You can use the following 14 questions to check whether you may be hyperacidic. If so, you should definitely carry out the urine test described below. However, you should also do the urine test if you just have the feeling that you are consuming too few or too many bases due to your diet (lots of meat, few vegetables and fruit) and/or constant stress.

Evaluation:

Three or more yes answers indicate hyperacidity. Be sure to check the pH value of your urine using the instructions in the following section and follow the advice given there.

How to measure the acidity of your urine

You can easily determine the acidity of your urine at home with a pH test strip. These strips are available from drugstores or pharmacies. And this is how it’s done:

• Simply hold the test strip briefly in the urine stream when urinating.
• Wait a few seconds until the indicator paper has changed color and
• Read the pH value using the color table supplied with the test strips.

Important:

Never take alkaline preparations during the test phase, as this will falsify the result! Measure the pH value of your urine every three hours on two consecutive days from the time you get up, five times in total. So if you get up at 6 am, measure at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm and 6 pm. Enter your results in a curve diagram. Ideally, you should get an M-shaped curve.

Tips for an even acid-base balance

• Drink 1.5 to 2 liters of still water and herbal tea daily.
• Eat about 5 portions of vegetables, salad and fruit a day, ideally divided into 3 portions of vegetables and/or salad and 2 portions of fruit.
• Cook fresh as often as possible. Use salt sparingly. Use high-quality herbs, spices, vegetable oils and fats.
• Limit your consumption of sweets. Read the ingredients lists to identify sugar bombs.
• Avoid soft drinks, energy drinks and other sweetened drinks.
• Avoid alcohol, smoking & co.
• Exercise regularly (10,000 steps per day) and do the sport that suits you several times a week.
• Get enough sleep and don’t let yourself get stressed. Allow yourself regular time-outs to relax (e.g. with an alkaline footbath or full bath).
• Carry out a fasting, detoxification or alkalizing cure once or twice a year.