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Vinegar for a
Longer and Happier Life
By Shomatsu Osada
As soon as you take vinegar (or citric acid, as a
powder), it starts to eliminate fatigue. You can notice this
in only two hours.
You can confirm this. If you look at your
urine two hours after you take vinegar, and you will find it to be
more clear. Or, if you are unwilling to look at it closely,
examine it with a piece of pH test paper (litmus paper).
Before you take vinegar, the pH test paper will show that your urine
is acidic, due to fatigue-creating substances in your body.
Two hours after you take vinegar, the test paper will show more
alkaline. These results mean that the previous fatigue
substances were decreased or removed by taking the vinegar.
The liver dissolves the poisonous matters which were
made in our body, so we must always keep it working well.
Meat, fish, eggs, coconut oil, greens, and other nourishing foods as
well as vinegar act like medicines for the liver.
Krebs' Theory
The theory of Dr. Krebs, a British scientist,
explains how vinegar can eliminate fatigue. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for proving this theory in 1953. Through it, he
explains clearly how food is changed into energy, or burned, in the
body of almost all animals including human beings and bacteria.
He also explains what fatigue is and how it can be eliminated.
I owe this knowledge about the relation between
vinegar and fatigue to the late Doctor of Pharmacology and Professor
Emeritus, Shichiro Akitani of Tokyo University. He was
fascinated by this subject and found clues to solve these problems
during the World War II. Though a busy man, he took every
opportunity to recommend people take as much vinegar as possible.
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Even if lactic acid, one of the substances causing
fatigue, is created in your body, it will soon disappear if the
Citric Acid Cycle is working well. Oxaloacetic acid plays a
crucial role for the Cycle to work well. But citric and
other acids are changed to it eventually. Therefore, it is
important that you take an adequate amount of these acids so that
the Cycle works well.
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Pyroracemic acid (pyruvic acid) is a toxic
substance which paralyzes nerves. Lactic acid makes the
blood acidic and stiffens muscles.
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Dr. Lipman, an American scientist, contributed
greatly to clarifying how ATP was created. Drs. Krebs and
Lipman were awarded Nobel prizes for their contribution in 1953.
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As for the details of the creation of ATP,
researchers are making efforts to clarify them at present.
Digestion means decomposing starch into glucose;
protein is converted into the twenty or more kinds of amino acids
which make up protein; and fat is changed into glycerine and
fatty acids in our bodies.
The food we consume is eventually burned, or changed
into a substance called ATP (adenocine triphosphate) which can give
out heat easily. Almost all of the starch, protein, and fat we
take in are consumed in our bodies to generate heat, although they
are also used to repair our body when needed. The Krebs’
theory explains the process called the "Citric Acid Cycle," where
ATP is usually produced.
Almost all of the food you eat is changed first into
citric acid, then into aconitic, isocitric, alpha-ketoglutaric, and
four other kinds of acids in your mitochondria. In the course
of this change, these acids reduce in quantity. The lost
portion of the quantity is used to produce heat (ATP), carbon
dioxide (discharged through exhalation), and water (discharged
through urine and sweat). Such change and production is caused
by specific enzymes in the mitochondria.
If this process involving eight acids works
smoothly, the causes of fatigue, namely, pyroracemic (pyruvic) and
lactic acids, will not be produced. Then the muscles will be
soft, blood will be alkalescent as is normal, and urine will be
clear.
On the other hand, if you overwork mentally or
physically, or your meals are unreasonable, or if they lack in
vinegar in particular, this process does not work efficiently.
Instead, it produces pyroracemic acid and lactic acid (which is
composed by combining hydrogen with pyroracemic acid). These
substances are accumulated in the muscles and cause pain and
fatigue.
If lactic acid is accumulated in your muscles at
0.24 - 0.40% of body fluids, you will feel fatigue; you will
be slow to respond to stimulus, and more liable to cause mistakes or
accidents. Accumulations of lactic and pyroracemic acids cause
this fatigue. The more of these that are present, the greater
your fatigue. Fatigue deprives you of vitality. If you
work in such a condition, you cannot work efficiently and will be
more error-prone. You also might experience cramping, because
pyroracemic acid can paralyze the nerves. Sometimes you may
experience a cramp or stiff shoulders. All the stiffness of
the body, including death rigor, is caused by lactic acid.
"Nothing is more important than vinegar for normalizing blood."
-- Shomatsu Osada
It is very important for health to keep blood and
other body fluids alkaline. Two of the greatest causes which
make them acidic are pyroracemic and lactic acids. The
condition of body where the blood and other body fluids are acid is
called acidosis. If your body is in acidosis, enzymes in the
body cannot work well, preventing muscles from moving quickly and
making you uncomfortable, touchy, and irritable. You will also
be liable to be easily defeated by bacteria, molds, or viruses.
Thus, you will be experience problem after problem.
You can overcome the troubles caused by such acids
by means of your mental power and training. For example, when
everything is going well with you, you will not get tired.
When you fight with an enemy in a life-or-death battle, you will win
the victory if you fight with a greater fighting spirit. Thus,
if your mental power is strong, you can fight even when tired.
If you are suffering from a disease, your will to
fight against the disease is the most important factor for recovery.
In this case, however, proper medical care is assumed.
Training is important as well. A trained
person can work without causing an error, even if several times more
pyroracemic and lactic acids are present in his body than that of
the untrained. But our trained expert still has a limit on his
vitality, and will be much more tired after the work in proportion
to his effort.
Vinegar Can Eliminate Fatigue
You will not be tired if pyroracemic and lactic
acids are not accumulated in your body. You can eliminate
fatigue by burning and consuming the pyroracemic and lactic acids
already present. For this purpose, you have to make the citric
acid cycle work well, which is the process where each one of eight
acids is changed to another in turn, as mentioned earlier.
The oxaloacetic acid plays the most important role
for a smooth work of this cycle. It would be the most
desirable if we could supply the cycle this acid for its good work.
But this acid cannot be used as medicine for that purpose because it
is oxidized easily. Some substitutes for it can be chosen to
act as the medicine of fatigue. These are the seven acids
which work in the citric acid cycle with the oxaloacetic acid,
asparagine, and glutamic acid from which those seven acids are
composed, and acetic acid, which is the original form of fatty
acids.
Acetic acid can eliminate fatigue, because it is
changed to citric acid by combining with oxaloacetic acid with the
help of CoEnzyme A and ATP (adensosine triphosphate).
Why is it that the oxaloacetic acid plays the most
important role in the citric acid cycle? It is because this
acid has the capability of decarbonation or drawing out carbon
dioxide from other substances. This is essential for the
citric acid cycle as well as over fourteen other chemical reactions
in our body.
Dr. Virtanen, a Finnish scientist, studied
oxaloacetic acid extensively and was awarded a Nobel prize in 1945
for his "Study on Oxaloacetic Acid." His work and the
importance of this acid were not known to the world, however,
possibly because of the social unrest after the end of World War II.
Even our National Diet Library, the greatest library in Japan, has
no treatises written by him.
Stress theory and the adrenal cortical hormone
Many know about the stress theory established by Dr.
Hans Selye, a Canadian scientist.
It is commonly understood that stress is a
distortion which occurs in our daily life. Its true meaning is
wider than that, and includes all the things which threaten our life
and make us uncomfortable: factors such a hotness, coldness,
injuries, invasion of disease-causing germs, and pollution,
including noise, exhausted gases, etc. If we are defeated by
stress, it is said, we have gastric hyperacidity, peptic and
duodenal ulcers, high blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, and
other diseases.
As this definition of stress shows clearly, we are
surrounded by stresses every day and night. So it is quite
natural that we are sometimes defeated by them and fall ill.
The work of the adrenal glands became widely known by popular press
for the stress theory. Located above our kidneys, the central part
and the first layer of its cortex secrete adrenaline and mineral
hormone respectively, the second cortex secrets saccharine hormone
which is usually called cortisone, and its third layer secretes male
and female hormones. These three secretions, called the
adrenal cortical hormone collectively, are essential to protect the
life of any animal from stress.
However, if a stress is too great or lasts too long,
or if too little hormones are secreted hormones, we may be defeated
by a stress and fall ill. In such a case, we have to block the
stress by diverting ourselves or taking a rest, or to stimulate the
adrenals to secrete the hormone by taking vinegar and other
nutritious foods. If not, the illness will worsen until death,
if the adrenal glands stop working.
You see now the importance of the adrenal cortical
hormone and its necessity for supporting our life. This
hormone is made from vinegar, acetic acid. The Nobel Prize in
1964 was awarded for this discovery.
More on Fatigue
Can we work without fatigue for our life, if only we
take vinegar sufficiently? No. We cannot entirely
prevent fatigue, because we can not fully supply oxygen through our
lungs to our blood. That system brings the oxygen to muscles,
which lose ATP rapidly and require more oxygen to produce ATP
continuously. This miraculous system is not perfectly
efficient. The citric acid cycle works in hundreds of
mitochondria in each cell, and the process of change of the acids
progresses at a speed of 2 - 3 cycles a second. If we take any
of the acids which reduce fatigue, the citric acid cycle works
better. This can dissolve the lactic and pyroracemic acids in
only about two hours.
However, the more tired we are, the more acid we
need to take to eliminate such fatigue. Lactic acid, one of
the main causes of fatigue, is combined with muscles and produces
protein lactate, which stiffens them. This protein lactate
cannot be eliminated easily in a short time. However, if we
take three cups of vinegar water (10 gr. powder) every day, we can
get rid of obstinate stiff shoulders completely and recover our
agile and flexible body in three or four days. The power of
this vinegar is remarkable.
The stiff muscles in our back and shoulders make us
depressed and unpleasant. This disease is said to be peculiar
to the Japanese. We have not found any medicine for it so far
except some plasters which have little effect. With vinegar,
you need not suffer from it anymore.
You needn’t hate cholesterol
Hardening of arteries is a horrible disease, and is
very difficult to cure. Many people fear its cause, namely,
cholesterol, maybe by the influence of advertisements. Concern
is reasonable, but you should not fear it.
Your body has lots of cholesterol and it plays an
important role. It is one of the most important components of
blood. When you are in danger, cholesterol takes your adrenal
hormones to the right places. When you lack vitality, it is
also changed into sexual hormones and sent where needed.
So how does cholesterol harden our arteries?
The late Professor Takio Shimamoto of Tokyo Medical and Dental
University published the results of his research on this problem and
drew great attention. According to him, if much adrenaline is
secreted as in excessive anger, anxiety, or coldness, or if we need
too much cholesterol to move the frequent adrenal hormones through
the artery wall, it will cause the wall to harden.
The popularization of vinegar is important for people and
countries
Why is it that vinegar has such a great effect?
I think it is because vinegar was basic to the origin of life.
It continues to give great vitality to life.
Glucose, which is the most important sugar contained
in celluloses and fibers, originated from the simplest form of
organic acid, which is produced by a plant with chlorophyll.
When helped by sun, water, and carbon dioxide, it goes through a
process similar to the citric acid cycle working in reverse.
However, animals burn all the food they take in by changing it to
eight acids. Moreover, one of the important routes through
which animals’ bodies are formed involves alpha-ketoglutaric acid,
one of the eight acids making up the citric acid cycle.
Some misunderstandings about vinegar
It is true that vinegar makes your body acidic?
Even the late Dr. Tan Katase, who is well-known for
his achievements in the field of calcium medicine and his
establishment of "acid-base equilibrium in blood" theory, writes in
one of his books: "Taking vinegar may cause acidosis and
abnormal discharge of calcium. Therefore vinegar is
unfavorable food." (Medicine of Calcium, p. 87).
His opinion, however, is a great misunderstanding,
at least for the effect of acetic acid which eliminates fatigue.
Acetic acid is not an acid food, it is an alkaline food.
Moreover, it has a very strong effect in alkalizing blood. In
two hours it will dissolve only lactic and pyroracemic acids, which
are the main causes of acidic blood. Usually, we Japanese
don’t take a lot of vinegar or food containing much cholesterol,
such as eggs and meat. Therefore, many of us have blood
cholesterol levels that are below standard. It is such people
who are attacked by horrible diseases like cerebral hemorrhages and
heart disease most frequently. Eggs and meat contain a lot of
proteins and fat of good quality. If we lack such food, our
body tissues will become poor -- lacking in resiliency, fragile, and
liable to bleed.
The lack of cholesterol in blood, combined with the
lack of intake of vinegar, makes us liable to be defeated by various
stresses. The lack in the intake of vinegar is liable to cause
the acidification of blood. In such conditions, we will easily
get angry at trifles, which means that a lot of adrenaline will be
secreted frequently.
Vinegar is a source of good taste, because the more
our bodies need some food, the more we like the taste.
It is said usually that water has no taste.
But cool water tastes good, while the water cooled after it was
boiled does not. The former tastes good because it is
acidified by taking in more carbonic acid from air than hot water,
and the coolness itself contributes to its good taste in addition.
Whereas the latter does not, because it is alkalized and contains no
carbonic acid, with bacteria beginning to propagate.
Japanese sake tastes good because it contains
citric, succinic, and fumaric acids, which are three of the eight
acids which eliminate fatigue. The more of these acids sake
contains, the better it tastes, the more full-bodied it is, and the
better its quality is. Carbonic acid (H2CO3) is a compound of
carbon dioxide with water, and it differs from sodium bicarbonate
(NaHCO3) or baking soda, although these are sometimes confused with
each other.
Sour taste is the taste of acid and the hydrogen
atom at the same time. Acetic acid is decomposed in our body
into hydrogen atom (H+) and acetyl (CH3CO-), which is alkaline.
Both are indispensable for activating enzymes that play important
roles, as mentioned earlier. The words "acid food" and
"alkaline food" are used only in Japan. They have no
scientific basis. The acidity or alkalinity of food means that
of ashes obtained after it was burned in a test tube. On the
other hand, the acidity or alkalinity of blood results from the sum
total of many elements such as heredity, disease, climate, etc.
It has little relation to the acid or alkaline food.
Of course, Dr. Katase’s theory is a very excellent
one. The necessity to keep blood alkaline, which was
emphasized in the theory, is growing more important, as the secret
of life is clarified. The main cause that will acidify blood
is not acid ashes obtained after a substance was burned completely
in a test tube, but acid products obtained after it was burned in
our body. This is a great difference.
Is it true that vinegar harms persons who suffer from gastric
hyperacidity or duodenal ulcer?
Some investigations into heartburn have demonstrated
that heartburn can occur to a person who has lost all of his stomach
through surgery, or who has gastric juices which contain little or
no acid. Moreover, some people can have heartburn even if they
drank alkaline water, or just a lot of water.
Thus, heartburn is caused not only by excessive
secretion of gastric juice, but also such diseases as esophagitis or
gastritis, or when a person who is in highly nervous or frustrated
state drinks a lot of water hastily.
If you have peptic or duodenal ulcers, you should
start taking citric acid by drinking a little at first, increasing
its volume little by little. You can distinguish these two
diseases by the pain they cause: the peptic ulcer causes pain
half or one hour after you ate food, while the duodenal ulcer hurts
before you eat food in most cases.
Why take more acid when your gastric juice contains
too much hydrochloric acid already? You needn’t worry;
because citric acid is the most effective means to normalize the
autonomic nerve, which is out of order due to stress caused by
mental and physical overwork, and is a major cause of the peptic
ulcer. You have to also take measures against the stress by
resting your body and brain, or by recreation, as well as to take
plenty of animal food and greens which are necessary to repair the
wound.
Is it true that vinegar causes abnormal discharge of calcium,
and harms your teeth and bones?
No, it is not true. It may be natural that
such a theory would have been accepted in the time before
biochemistry was developed. I hope such a theory has not
caused any ill effects for some people who believe it even today.
Calcium is certainly one of the main components of bones and teeth.
It has to be acidified entirely in the stomach before its
absorption, and can only be absorbed through the duodenum and the
upper small intestine before it loses its acidity.
What will happen then, if the gastric juices were
not secreted sufficiently or were lacking in acidity? The
intestine juice, which is alkaline due to the sodium bicarbonate
contained in the pancreatic juice, alkalizes the calcium quickly.
Calcium particles, which are assembled together when alkalized, then
form larger particles which cannot pass through the tiny holes of
the intestine wall. Accordingly, they are only discharged with
feces. As we get older, the secretion of gastric juices
decrease.
If you lack gastric juice, you will also lack
calcium, and you will be liable to have diarrhea because of
insufficient sterilization of food by the chlorine contained in
gastric juices. Moreover, Vitamins B1 and C will be destroyed
by the alkalinity in the intestine. Thus, you cannot maintain
your health.
However, the citric and acetic acids which eliminate
fatigue can help you. If you take these acids properly, you
can make up the insufficient gastric juice. These acids, or
vinegar, never discharge calcium abnormally; on the contrary,
they prevent such abnormality. They help the gastric juice to
sterilize all the food we take and protect the absorption of
vitamins B1 and C perfectly.
In addition, the lack of gastric juice prevents the
absorption of iron, which is shown by the red color of blood and
sometimes causes anemia.
Is it enough if only we take citric acid or vinegar
sufficiently?
Among all the medicines and food, only citric acid
and vinegar can eliminate fatigue, normalize blood, and reinforce
the spontaneous healing power to prevent and cure a disease.
But these do not make up our body, so it is quite important to ask,
"what, and how much food" should you take at your daily meals,
because "to eat is to live," as is said commonly.
Please give priority to taking fish, meat, or eggs.
Sometimes I participate in group tours, and I see many people eat
only sake and little hors d’ oeuvres at dinner. They drink
sake, which contains only of 15% of alcohol with a small cup.
Such a small quantity of sake may cause them no harm. But many
of them eat several cups of rice and little ham or other protein
sources at the next breakfast. I really feel regrettable to
see such a habit and poor knowledge of dietics. As long as
such a habit continues, Japan will continue to be a country of small
people.
How to take vinegar
Vinegar is not admitted as an officially approved
medicine with many legislative controls; it is just a food
substance. It is not expensive, makes your food tasty if used
properly, and has no dangers or worries about its use. Though
it has such an excellent power, it cannot display such power if you
take only a little of it because you don’t like its sourness.
If you expect it to work, never fail to take at least 10 grams
powder in 1-2 liters of water every day. If you don’t like the
sourness, you needn’t take vinegar itself; you can drink it
with sugar, honey, or baking soda to reduce its sourness.
There are considerably many people who don’t like
vinegar even today, maybe due to the calcium theory or fears of
becoming acid. People who don’t like vinegar may be concerned
about injury if they take as at least as much as 10 grams of powder
in 1-2 liters of water every day. They need not worry.
Vinegar has only good effects.
There are some people who believe that citric acid
has a form of a block like sugar candy. Citric acid has such a
form in citric anhydride, which is stale and contains no crystal
water. Though it has the same power as the fresh one, it is a
little more insoluble and sour than vinegar. (Citric anhydride
is denser than the usual citric acid by 7%).
To take citric acid, please put its proper amount on
the middle of the tongue and swallow it with a lot of water, or keep
it with water your mouth for a few seconds until it is mingled with
and dissolved in the water, then swallow it. If you practice,
you can swallow 5 gm. in one gulp with no difficulty. If you
want to take a lot of citric acid to cure a disease, you can take it
in this way. But if you have a weak constitution, you may feel
sick if you take it in this way. In this case, start by taking
a little amount of it or its water solution.
Medical benefits of vinegar
I said earlier you can notice the effect of vinegar
only two hours after you take it. If you have any heart
disease, however, you may be relieved by taking citric acid almost
immediately. The blood of a person who has a heart disease
lacks oxygen, and it contains the accumulation of lactic and
pyroracemic acids which cause fatigue, changing its color to black
and making it viscous. If this person takes citric acid, it
begins to burn such substances immediately and increase the blood’s
capacity to absorb oxygen. This is why citric acid is good for
heart disease.
In Tales of Common Soldiers, which was
written to give instructions to common soldiers several hundred
years ago, the statement is found: "As long as you live,
treasure one ume pickle daily, and don't forget its value."
The more we know about citric acid, the more deeply we recognize
this value. I have been captivated by citric acid since I
first found out about it twenty years ago, and began to drink and
promote it. It is quite natural, because citric acid is the
origin of life. Citric acid eliminates fatigue, normalizes
body fluids, and reinforces the power of spontaneous healing.
The excellent effects of tachibanas, ume pickles,
Chinese citrons, and lemons have been known since long ago.
Their essence is, we can say, citric acid. We can find the
articles about it in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Codex, one of the
achievements of advanced medical science. However, although
citric acid has such a great power to prevent and cure diseases,
some people, who should promote citric acid, seem to hide its
wonderful power. Maybe it is because citric acid is too
inexpensive for them.
The Japanese Pharmaceutical Codex was established by
the government according to the Pharmaceutical Law. It
specifies the standards concerning the quality, power, and purity of
medicines used for medical treatment. It is accompanied by a
commentary book, which explains the metabolism, effects,
application, and side effects of the medicines included in the
Codex.
Under the article of citric acid in the Commentaries
to the Japanese Pharmaceutical Codex (C), the 10th version (the
latest version), p. 647, we can find the following statement:
"The effects of vinegar on a hangover and feeling sick from drinking
have been known for centuries. If you are liable to be drunk
very easily, please take vinegar or citric acid before, during, and
after your drink. You will not feel sick even if you drank
sake to some extent, and will sober up soon without being drunk.
Feeling sick from drinking is caused by accumulated acetaldehyde,
which is the residual substance after alcohol was broken down in the
liver."
Vinegar is a medicine for causal treatment, which
intends to cure diseases by strengthening the body itself. It
differs entirely from medicines for symptomatic treatment, such as
the painkillers and narcotics that are used by many physical
practitioners. These medicines do not cure a disease, as they
cannot eliminate its cause. So you cannot expect to cure a
disease two hours after you took vinegar.
Citric acid
Citric acid is a pure Japanese word; citric
means "lemon" both in Japanese and Chinese. Here, I will
introduce to you various ways to take it. I hope that as many
people as possible will take as much vinegar as possible. It
does not matter if it is cooking vinegar, rice vinegar, or citric
acid, just take it often so that you will not be tired nor fall ill.
Citric acid consists of small white grains which are
soluble easily in water and have no smell. If you try tasting
it, you will be surprised by its sourness. If you dilute it
with water properly, its sourness changes into a fresh and a most
tasty drink.
The power of various acids are compared to each
other based on the common yardstick of hydrochloric acid, which is
the main component of gastric juices, specified as 1. Acetic
acid has the power 1/60 of hydrochloric acid, while citric acid is
1/3 of acetic acid, or 1/180 of hydrochloric acid. So it is
classified scientifically as one of the weaker acids, having no
power to cause a burn. About 540 cc. of vinegar is equivalent
to 5 gm., or a full spoon, of citric acid.
Notes:
"Salt" mentioned above means a substance produced by
neutralizing an acid substance with an alkaline one. If you
find it difficult to take citric acid itself for its sourness, you
may take instead citric acid salts, produced mainly by neutralizing
citric acid with sodium bicarbonate or calcium.
Cooking vinegar, which is thin acetic acid, has the
same effects as citric acid. I omit its explanation here
because it is not included in the Codex.
"Effects: This item has the effects of local
astringency and stimulation. It is discharged through
exhalation after it was changed to carbon dioxide without exerting
any pharmaceutical effects, except in case of high dosage.
Accordingly, the dosage of salts leads body fluids and urine to
alkalescence. Citric acid salts have the effect of coagulating
the blood.
"Application: This item is used for the
materials of various drugs in the form of powder or water solution
to give them freshness and good taste. The sourness of 4 gm.
of this item is equivalent to that of one big lemon. Lemonade
of citric acid is applied for indigestion, thirstiness, lost
appetite, and gastric anacidity. It is applied to clean
perspiring feet (concentration: 1-5%), and tongue cancer
(concentration: 0.8%), and as a plaster for diphtheria
(concentration: 1-3%). It is used as material for sodium
citrate. Many other medicines are made from it."
Testimonial
"I am forty years old and am presently a
housewife. Since last May I have been taking one teaspoon of
tsukarezu after meals three times daily. From July to
December of the same year I have been taking citric acid which my
sister who lives in Tokyo has been sending me.
"Before beginning the daily regimen of your
tsukarezu I had been suffering from high blood pressure, stiff
shoulders, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. But after two
months of tsukarezu, I experienced gradual relief from all the
problems, with the exception of the ringing in my ears.
Listlessness and fatigue also went away. Even housework has
became a pleasure now that it is easier for me to do. It is
unfortunate, however, that the ringing in my ears has not gotten
better. It has now been three and a half years since the
ringing began. I will continue taking tsukarezu and believe
that it will cure the ringing, too."
If any medicine or food which has the same effect as
citric acid were to be found other than citric acid and thin acetic
acid, it will be approved officially as a medicine. It is
quite natural, if we consider the importance of acid-base
equilibrium mentioned below. If the temperature around us
rises or falls only a little, our bodies are upset, sweat, or
sneeze, giving us a warning to wear more clothes. This is
because we need to keep our body temperature constant so that
various enzymes can help chemical reactions to work well in our
body. Acid-base equilibrium is also no less important than
keeping our body temperature constant. It offers the ground
for the so-called acid-alkaline food theory.
Acid means a substance that gives off protons
(one of electric particles) in a water solution, while base
(we call it alkaline, if dissolved in water), receives
protons. It is said that the activity of our body is a
complicated aggregation of the work of enzymes, which amount to more
than three thousand types. The enzymes work by giving off or
receiving electric particles (quantum biology deals with these
phenomena which are difficult to clarify; however, it is in an
early stage yet). Some of them require an acid environment for
their activities, and other require an alkaline one, adding to the
complication.
pH is the unit of acidity and alkalinity. Its
neutral value is 7.0. Our blood must keep its alkalescence at
pH 7.4 on the average throughout the body, or we cannot live.
In fact, if the pH of the blood is slightly acid at pH 7.0, or
over-alkaline at 7.7, for over two to three hours, we will die
(Guyton: Physiology, p. 420). Though deep breathing is
good for health, you should not continue it too long, because it may
cause over-alkalinity.
After we take an exercise a little intensely, we
pant for breath. Sufficient oxygen was not supplied during
such intense exercise. It led to insufficient oxidization and
the production of a lot of lactic acid, which is the fatigue
substance, making blood and body fluids acid. Thus we pant for
breath to bring in more oxygen and to discharge carbonic acid in the
body, to ease the over-acidity as soon as possible. We need to
take in oxygen to cause the citric acid cycle to work well, reduce
the acidification of the body, and to get energy (ATP) from the
lactic acid, which still contains much energy.
However, just this breathing is not sufficient to
eliminate the acid substances produced in the body. Liver and
kidneys also make further efforts to burn and discharge such
substances separately, leading urine to high acidity. With all
such efforts, some of the lactic acid may remain in the body.
If it remains in the shoulder muscles, we will have stiff shoulders.
If it remains throughout the body, according to my hypothesis, we
will have essential hypertension.
Lactic acid, combined with muscles, stiffens them.
After a person dies, it is produced in a great amount in their body
and it temporarily stiffens the body like a rock. This is
called death rigor (rigor mortis). Though many cells
are alive, even in such a condition without oxygen, they exist by
the anaerobic cycle of glycolosis, which produces a lot of lactic
acid.
"I told the doctor (a Spaniard) who treated me
before that I was taking citric acid, and he praised it for its
benefits to the body. The doctor suggested an injection to
cure the ringing in my ears. However, since each injection
costs four thousand yen and up to thirty would be required, the
high cost of this treatment as well as my hatred for injections
made me refuse the treatment. Although the ringing in both
ears is unfortunate and uncomfortable, I am putting my hopes on a
complete cure by citric acid, which has no ill effects."
-- Yoshiko Tojo
Conclusion
When the body keeps a pH of 7.4, it has the best
power of spontaneous healing. It protects itself, preventing
us from falling ill, and heals our illness, if we have any.
Our body cannot eliminate entirely the fatigue caused by various
stresses, making body fluids acid, making us feel sick and liable to
fall ill, and preventing a disease from recovery. The only
thing that can resolve such problems is citric acid. You will
understand now why I call it "medicine given by gods."
If you take it, it never fails to begin to eliminate
fatigue (and works quickly). It is burned and disappears
completely after two hours, with no side effects. In addition,
it has a sweet flavor. It is the sweetest acid which refreshes
our spirit and body, it is the essence of the full-bodied sake, and
its water solution added by sugar is lemonade. It used to be
expensive because it was produced by extracting it from lemon of
Chinese citrons. It is not expensive today, because it is
produced by fermentation of inexpensive starch. It is
regrettable, however, that there are some people who know the
excellent power of citric acid but hesitate to propagate it, because
"it is too inexpensive."
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