Throughout this training year I’ve been using beta alanine and including foods such as green vegetables, canola/olive oil, and apple cider vinegar to promote blood alkalinity. The results have been good as I opened up with a .2 second pr in the indoor 200 and, within 2 weeks of adding apple cider vinegar, took .3 more seconds off. Alkaline blood could have little to nothing to do with these results but the overall health benefits make it an easy decision to stick with it.
Anyway, any thoughts on if it would be best to keep blood pH high on a constant basis or to perform lactic sessions with a lower pH and raise it closer to competitions?
In all honesty, I really don’t think you can vary your pH much at all. You body has very tight control at 7.35-7.45, very slightly to the basic side of neutral. We often think we influence it, but if it moved much, you could get very sick. You might want to approach Lyle McDonald with this question though.
What about muscle pH? Have you measured any on different occassions? Lyle?
While true, there is a good bit of data that the moden diet (high in protein, low in fruits and vegetables) can cause a subclinical acidosis that impacts on a lot of stuff (such as bone health) negatively.
Because even if pH per se doesn’t move much, you often lose some buffering capacity as the body is trying to cover changes in acid/base balance.
There can also be other negatives that might be relevant to athletes.
Lyle
Free full text
Swiss Med Wkly. 2001 Mar 10;131(9-10):127-32.
Metabolic and endocrine effects of metabolic acidosis in humans.
Wiederkehr M, Krapf R.
Medizinische Universitätsklinik Bruderholz, Bruderholz/Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract
Metabolic acidosis is an important acid-base disturbance in humans. It is characterised by a primary decrease in body bicarbonate stores and is known to induce multiple endocrine and metabolic alterations. Metabolic acidosis induces nitrogen wasting and, in humans, depresses protein metabolism. The acidosis-induced alterations in various endocrine systems include decreases in IGF-1 levels due to peripheral growth hormone insensitivity, a mild form of primary hypothyroidism and hyperglucocorticoidism. Metabolic acidosis induces a negative calcium balance (resorption from bone) with hypercalciuria and a propensity to develop kidney stones. Metabolic acidosis also results in hypophosphataemia due to renal phosphate wasting. Negative calcium balance and phosphate depletion combine to induce a metabolic bone disease that exhibits features of both osteoporosis and osteomalacia. In humans at least, 1,25-(OH)2 vitamin D levels increase, probably through phosphate depletion-induced stimulation of 1-alpha hydroxylase. The production rate of 1,25-(OH)2 vitamin D is thus stimulated, and parathyroid hormone decreases secondarily. There is experimental evidence to support the notion that even mild degrees of acidosis, such as that occurring by ingestion of a high animal protein diet, induces some of these metabolic and endocrine effects. The possible role of diet-induced acid loads in nephrolithiasis, age-related loss of lean body mass and osteoporosis is discussed.
I believe it has benefits.
More so to the people who are more Acidic than those who are more neutral.
I have not looked into a normally neutral person who does La+ work a few times per week. It could be something to look into? Esp with recovery rates from individual to individual and session to session.
I believe it has benefits.
More so to the people who are more Acidic than those who are more neutral.
I have not looked into a normally neutral person who does La+ work a few times per week. It could be something to look into? Esp with recovery rates from individual to individual and session to session.