Health Tips

Your body chemistry arises from the interaction between fluids at the cell level. Fluids inside and outside each cell membrane contain the same basic essential elements. However, the concentrations and ratios of these elements are very different. As the fluids interact across the cell membrane, they create an electrical charge. This is literally the charge that runs your “body battery,” helping each cell perform its function. The balance of essential elements and molecules in your body’s fluids is the key to healthy cell function and overall health.

Key elements and molecules in both fluids:

* Electrolytes: sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, phosphate, and sulfate
Each of these electrolytes, when dissolved in the body fluids carries a charge

* Minerals: calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, copper, chromium, manganese and trace minerals
Calcium and magnesium are very important minerals in cell function. Calcium is a “gatekeeper” that regulates what goes in and out of the cell. Calcium must be free, i.e., unbound to be active. Then it carries a charge and is active. Magnesium is essential for the generation of energy. Other minerals primarily activate enzymes which catalyze all chemical reacting in the body.

* Organic Molecules: proteins, carbohydrates and lipids
These large molecules all contain carbon and varying proportions of hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. The so-called “organic” molecules, (“organic” because they contain carbon) singularly and in complex formations, make up all the structures of the body, from cell membranes and genes to organs and bones. They provide storage and energy movement. Some are burned for energy. Others are hormones and messengers, receptors and catalysts.

What Determines the Body Chemistry?

The pattern of your body chemistry is determined by many factors, including genetics, lifestyle, and the environment. Diet, including your diet history, is one of the immediate determinants of your body’s chemical balance. Other contributors are numerous and range from your mother’s chemistry when you were a fetus, all the way to the soil and agricultural practices where your food is grown. Climate, air and water quality, emotional and mental stress, physical trauma, genetics, exercise, rest, the moon and stars all play a role.

Is Your Chemistry Out of Balance?

Imbalances and deficiencies in your body’s essential fluids result in a low charge that compromises cell function and reduces your body’s energy. You may have noticed that when your body battery is running “low,” you feel tired, irritable, and are more susceptible to small complaints. Eventually a body chemistry that is out of balance will make a person m ore and more susceptible to serious disease.

Each of the following point to imbalances in the body chemistry:

* addictions (to food, sweets, nicotine, salt, caffeine, drugs, alcohol, stress)
* fatigue, stress (irritability, anxiety, lethargy, sleep disturbances, appetite disturbances, headaches, depression), exhaustion
* fat gain, muscle loss, exercise intolerance, poor athletic performance
* food allergies and environmental illness
* increases or decreases in blood pressure, cold extremities, cold tolerance
* premenstrual and menstrual related symptoms
* chronic pain/inflammation, muscle tension, muscle inflexibility
* allergies, asthma
* digestive disturbances
* high and low blood sugar, chronic Candida, mood and/or energy swings
* skin rashes, eczema, dry skin
* loss of memory or concentration
* increased susceptibility to injury and delayed recovery
* high (greater than 240) and low (less than 180) cholesterol
* increased susceptibility to colds, flu, infections

Symptoms and disease are the result of imbalance in body chemistry, not the cause.