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Bloody shame
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Started conversation Apr 27, 2005
The morning was pretty nondescript; I watched "The Practice", and was expecting a visit from Grambo. He didn't arrive, but there was someone from the water board at the door instead asking to take water samples, so I let him do his thing...
I took a taxi to the haemotology lab at Foresterhill to get a blood sample taken. While I was there, I asked for a little background information on blood pH, as this is relevant to a website I'm building for a friend. It was as I had feared...
The website is for a product recommended by a Doctor Guerrero, which claims, amongst other things, to balance the pH levels of your blood. I got a bit worried about the claims when I discovered that, far from being a medical doctor, he had a *literary* doctorate in the study of Chinese medicine. Study, mind, not practice. I asked my doctor what the range of normal blood pH was. He said that in the population at large, arterial blood pH can vary from 7.35 to 7.45, (*very* slightly alkaline) but that in any given individual it was fixed to about three decimal places and nothing you did in the way of food, supplements or exercise could change that at all.
Venous blood pH could fall during periods of extreme exercise, due to lactic acid from the muscles being carried away in the blood, but would return to the same as the arterial level just by stopping for a while and taking a few deep breaths.
Dr Gurrero, on the other hand, says flat out that *all* illness is related to extreme acidity in the blood, and taking his preparation will remedy this, alleviating many common illnesses and curing some. I'm told he's said this on US breakfast TV and Infomercials...
Personally, given the choice between someone who markets themselves like "Doctor Nick" in The Simpsons, and the word of the Haemotology department of Foresterhill hospital, I think I'll err on the side of the hospital. 
Apart from all that, I watched a reasonable Richard Gere movie and a documentary on the semenal (literally!) "Debbie Does Dallas". 8)
Bloody shame
martine_s Posted Apr 28, 2005
I used to enjoy The Practice but that was short-lived as the head in a brief case episode was too much for this weak stomach. Also there is only so much ham acting one can take.
First time I've heard of acid in the blood.
Bloody shame
Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) Posted Apr 28, 2005
Well, apparently, in the throes of extreme exercise, the arterial pH (blood returning from the muscles) can drop as low as... oh... 6.9!
It's acid, but only just. Carrot juice is more acidic. 
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Bloody shame
- 1: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Apr 27, 2005)
- 2: martine_s (Apr 28, 2005)
- 3: Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) (Apr 28, 2005)
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