pH Myth

“I’m asking you this because I know you’ll tell me the truth. Can you really change your body’s pH number?”

I am not at all convinced that a healthy person can do anything to change his or her pH and I’m not aware of any real science suggesting otherwise. I certainly wouldn’t spend good money of pH strips to test my saliva or expensive coral supplements to “balance” my pH levels.

“Noted MD. and natural health expert Dr. Andrew Weil debunked the pH myth far better than I can. You can read his opinion on this here.”

First, if you’ll think back to your high school biology classes, you’ll remember that your body already has a very sophisticated system in place to keep your body’s pH in check.

Second, those pH strips that a lot of multi-level-marketers are selling are only going to measure the pH of your saliva. Common sense should tell you that they’re going to be heavily influenced by whatever you’ve put into your mouth recently. That includes food, toothpaste, breath mints—you name it. They simply can’t measure the pH of your blood or digestive system.

Third, Dr. Andrew Weil, who debunked this myth in a 2002 Q & A segment on his own site points out one simple fact a lot of those pH-balancing proponents forget: Much of this country’s water is already alkaline. If you could really manipulate your body’s pH that easily, scientists would find marked differences between people who drank alkaline water and those who drank water that was more acidic.

So, think about it for a minute. Can you see any need to constantly check your mouth’s pH? Or spend hundreds of dollars a year on coral supplements or fancy water systems that “sweeten” your water?

Where to Find the Weil Quote:

Weil, A. (2002). Does Alkaline Water Promote Health? (DrWeil.com Q & A Library). Retrieved from the web on January 29, 2008 from http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA98873.

Laurie Jessup

“I was wondering what you knew about the Laurie Jessup that Gary Null was talking about a couple of weeks ago.”

For those who aren’t familiar with this story, here’s a little background: In a story being widely circulated in natural health forums, a woman named Laurie Jessup (the exact spelling of her name varies from version to version) was arrested and jailed for, according to the article, “finding a way to cure him of malignant melanoma”. The mother in this story refused to treat her son with mainstream medicine and, instead, sought out “natural” cancer remedies. For her trouble she was arrested and “put in maximum security, solitary confinement” in her county’s jail. It makes a compelling story but is it real?

“The so-called ‘Laurie Jessup’ story just has too many holes in it to be taken seriously.”

The fact is, we can find no proof that this ever actually happened. Yes, it was mentioned on a September 2007 episode of Gary Null’s podcast but many of the details of the story as it appears now seem to be grossly exaggerated. Common sense would suggest that if a mother really was jailed for “curing” her son of melanoma, news agencies like Fox, MSNBC and CNN would be all over it. But a quick search of their web sites turns up no mention of the story at all.

Then there’s the story itself. The latest incarnation of the Laurie Jessup story is full of inflammatory language like claims that Child Protection Services “is a misnamed government agency whose employees get paid bonuses every time they take children away from their parents”. I don’t know any legitimate journalist who writes and speaks like that, do you?

If there is any truth in the Jessup story, we certainly can’t find it. But you tell me. Do you believe the Chad and Laurie Jessup story? Or is this just another attempt by crackpots to undermine confidence in America’s medical system?

References:

Author Unidentified. (2007). Mother Jailed, Put On Trial for Curing Her Son of Melanoma. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from angryscientist.wordpress.com.