# PH balance/Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar/GSE



## stove

So I got a nasty sinus infection last week, preventing me from riding for a week (still ongoing) of the best snow I've seen in perhaps 10 years. So, in absolute fury, I figured I'd do some research, and I've found some interesting stuff (Also, I'm allergic to penicillin, so it takes a while to recover w/o meds) . I'm wondering if anyone else out there has looked at any of this, and/or if there is stuff I'm missing.

Background:

pH level is a measurement of the acidity of a substance (in this case, your body): 0 is totally acidic, 14 is completely alkaline, 7 is neutral (water). Ideally, the human body should be (from what I have read) slightly alkaline, like 7.2-7.6 or so. Most natural/unprocessed foods are alkaline, while many processed foods are acidic. Hence, processed food is not so good (duhhh).

There's tons of info around; I'm fortunate enough to know a bunch of doctors (dad, etc), and so I actually got the medical option vetted.

Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) and Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) are both concentrated alkaline substances, which have recently been hailed as amazing hollistic medicinal cures/health foods. A bit of research has shown that ACV has actually been used for a thousand years or more as a preventative/curative for mild illnesses and malnutrition; I've always taken it for colds and the like. Within two days of mild dosing (1 tablespoon in a cup of water, 4x daily), I was nearly clear. Everything was feeling great. I would HIGHLY reccomend this.



Now, for the downside: Tonight I accidentally dropped WAYYYYYYY too much ACV into my cup, didn't realize it, and drank it down. My eyes won't stop watering, and that shit fucking BURNS in my tears. I chugged 3 sodas (pH 2, highly acidic) in an attempt to counteract the alkaline shock I induced in my body. Kinda feels like getting pepper sprayed, every 5 minutes. Sucks.


So, be careful! It works really well when I'm not accidentally toxing myself.


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## wokofshame

*PH balance/Benefits of Apple Cider Vinager/GSE*

dude, did you know vinegar is actually an acid?
i asked my aunt, who's also a nurse about this, and she explained that the human body has a pH of between 7.25 and 7.35. she didn't seem to think canned goods had higher Ph, but tomatos/citrus etc is acid, and grains are slightly alky. apparently the body regulates it pH as far as, your body can produce acids itself, if you drink lots of ACV the body may be made to think you are getting lots of acid so your stomach slows acid production in response. 
anyway she said in general your body is pretty self-regulating as far as pH and ig your pH drops much below normal, your muscle function will fail ,as molecular reactions at the cellular level will stop (hope i'm translating what she said right)
same with high pH, i agree ACV is some good stuff though as long as you don't get any heartburn, may be that it helps kill shit causing yr cold?


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## stove

*PH balance/Benefits of Apple Cider Vinager/GSE*

oh it most certainly killed the cold. NUked me for a few hours due to some stupidity (as mentioned above).


I wasn't thinking of canned goods when I said processed, I was thinking more of chicken McNuggets, etc.


As to the vinegar thing, PURE vinegar is Acetic Acid (a very weak acid). I'm too lazy to test the specific pH of the stuff I've got, but I recall wayyyy back doing a bit of studying and discovering that some vinegars were actually alkaline. This was (shadily) confirmed by a friend, which is really meaningless because she probably just picked it up off the web. Anywho, just figured I'd share a common folk remedy.


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## raccoon42

*PH balance/Benefits of Apple Cider Vinager/GSE*

the above on the body PH is correct and it is self regulating
the confusion on the vinegar being alkaline is common.
the vinegar itself is acidic, but it is an alkalizing acid if that makes any sense.
probably not so I'll explain, the body is in an endless cycle of maintaining homeostasis
or balance in this case we're talking about PH balance.
as mentioned above the body likes to be just slightly alkaline of about 7.25
I should also mention that we're talking about the blood stream and most of the body 
tissues; your skin, bladder pancreas etc. all have there own PH levels.
if your PH for some reason went to around 4 you'd be dead but before that you would be the perfect environment for various bacteria and virus that prefer more acidic environment that's why the blood stream is in an endless process of keeping itself alkaline.
How does it do this?
as you know when you take an alkaline and mix it with an acid they will neutralize eachother, likewise when when your blood is confronted with acidic substances
, we'll say you ate a bowl of white sugar or drank 2 litres of coke, it will neutralize 
these higher acid levels with alkaline substances from the body to form harmless neutral salts witch are then filtered through the kidneys, so the body will literally leach it's own nutrients to protect itself.
this is fine, however when your drinking your 2 cans of coke a day or eating your mcnuggets or other acidic substances every day-most of the western culture-
this begins to take a tole on the body over time because it leaching all it's own nutrients in order to protect itself and maintain balance.
ok we're almost back to the vinegar.
digestion.
what the hell does digestion have to do with this?
do to our Standard Amarican Diet-or SAD as other practitioners and health nerds call it-
many of our digestive systems are not up to par.
for example you eat something say a stake or more likely if your a traveler 
you table score a berger or something, you eat it and it goes down and begins digesting merrily in your stomach, now you wash it down with coffee, coke or a big glass of cold water and oops all you stomach acids are diluted and the coke neutralized half your enzymes and the food is prematurely moved into your duodenum, now it's half digested 
and mixed with hydrochloric acid-stomach acid- and other interesting things
it begins to ferment very quickly and produces a few poisons for your body to handle-more acids to neutralizes- or in short you get indigestion and gas.
Apple cider vinegar aids your stomach acids in doing there job, kills some bacteria and has few various other property's but is also full of nutrients, nutrients that help replenish your body's exhausted tissues and thus aiding in making it alkaline,
and so that's why apple cider vinegar is an alkalizing acid.

as a herbalist I suggest being weary of anything stating that something is a new miracle
cure used by tribal nomads for thousands of years no doubt. there are lot's of amazing
plants, formulas and products that will do wonders for the body but most of the info 
and products out there are just marketing or pseudo-herbals not true herbal medicine by any means, like anything take it with salt.

hope that answers your question
green


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