From acid to alkaline: How the body deals with acids

The human body is one of the most complex things in creation. It has everything up and going in its own way – right from simple processes like breathing to complex things like elimination of body wastes. The body has a self-defensive arsenal to fight the acids. Though the alkalizing effects of our foods can play a part, excess acids ought to be eliminated only by the body through the organs. The body deals with acids through three organs – lungs, kidneys and skin. Each organ has a limitation on how much acid it can eliminate daily. Trouble starts only when the body’s acidic conditions cross these elimination limitations.

Elimination through lungs: The respiratory system is the fastest and supreme eliminator of body acids.  However, only weak acids can be eliminated through lungs. So strong acids or acids that are not volatile remain in the body. The whole process works like this: the weak acids are oxidized and then released as breath moisture/carbon dioxide with every single breath. This is why increasing a person’s breathing rate through exercises like running or jogging can eliminate a lot of weak acids from the body.

Excretion through kidneys: Kidneys, being excretion organs, function as eliminators of strong acids. They begin the process by filtering acids into uric acids and then excrete them in diluted form as urine. However, kidneys have a limitation on how much acids they can process every day. Problem crops up when our foods supply excess acids that cross this limitation and are unmanageable by the kidneys.

Elimination through skin: Skin plays a vital role in eliminating acids. Skin is very effective as it does  this elimination in the form of sweat through the 2 million sweat glands available in the human body. Like urine, skin flushes strong acids from the body in the form of sweat. This is also another reason why exercising and sweat secretion is good for health.

However, on an average, the quantity of secretion through sweat is just one quart per day while that from kidneys is one and a half quarts a day. Kidneys can handle more toxins than sweat. But they do fail when we take excessively acidifying foods that upset our acid alkaline balance.