Sodium/Electrolytes

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By: Dr. Bernard Jensen, Ph.D.

(A message for the Arthritic)

We know the importance of mineral salts to the healthy functioning of

the human body. The electrical effects which they impart as they pass

through the body enable us to move, work, think, and accomplish. Some

of these minerals impart the quality of hardness, such as calcium.

Others impart the qualities of softness, flexibility, and activity

and the one mineral most capable of doing this is sodium. Sodium

helps us to have elasticity, limberness, and youthfulness in our

tissues, It is necessary to normal chemical balance not only to the

walls of the stomach, but also the walls of the intestine. It is

necessary to regulation of the fluid content and to normal flora in

the intestinal tract, an is necessary to good bowel evacuation.

Sodium greatly affects the fluid balance throughout the body.

It is regrettable, therefore, that everyday modern living habits

impose such a drain upon our reserve. We are surrounded by the

influences of mechanization: We have electrical lighting that

encourages overwork, radios that cause tension, television that calls

for close concentration and extra eye strain, etc. Besides all these

causes of strain, most persons are the victims of devitalized foods

which are acid producing and therefore require alkaline elements to

neutralize them.

The waste acids produced in the body are irritating to the tissues

and so seriously interfere with proper functioning that the digestive

juices may no longer have proper consistency, and the acid-alkaline

balance may be disturbed. The alkaline element most heavily drawn

upon to neutralize these acids is sodium. Reserve supplies of sodium

are stored in various organs of the body but chiefly in the walls of

the stomach. This makes the tissues of the stomach highly alkaline,

as they should be to withstand the presence of the hydrochloric acid

normally in the stomach. If it were not for the presence of sodium

the stomach walls would be destroyed by the hydrochloric acid

produced in these tissues. When there is tissue destruction in parts

of the walls, we call the resulting sores ulcers. They can occur when

sodium has been drained from the tissues of the stomach for other

purposes in the body. Whenever acids are produced any place in the

body through mental strain, physical strain, eye strain, etc., sodium

is withdrawn from the stomach to neutralize them. This leaves an acid

stomach wall. With this disturbance of balance, the stomach wall

cannot properly secrete hydrochloric acid, so digestion becomes

impaired.

If we overdraw on the sodium reserve in the stomach, the organ with

the next highest concentration of sodium will begin to suffer lack

because the blood, in attempting to maintain chemical balance, will

borrow it. Those tissues whose sodium-storing capacity is next

highest to that of the stomach are the joint structures of the body.

When sodium is withdrawn from the joints, a serious imbalance is

created: calcium is left behind.

Now calcium, with its quality of harshness, can make tissues

immobile: the joints may become rigid unless there is sufficient

sodium present to keep the calcium in solution. Such disorders as

neuritis, neuralgia, rheumatism, and arthritis follow. Many doctors

merely say that waste acids are responsible for such conditions, but

actually these acids would not be present if there was an adequate

sodium reserve to neutralize them.

In attempts to neutralize excess acids and gas formations, many

persons make the mistake of taking baking soda. The sodium in this

compound is inorganic, cannot be used by the body, acts as an

irritant, and can neutralize only with the acid with which it is

immediately in contact. Some persons expect table salt or sodium

chloride to aid in the production of hydrochloric acid in the

stomach, but this also is an irritant and cannot be used for

correction and repair of body tissue. Instead of using alkalizers and

drugs, we should turn to natural food alkalizers such as are present

in vegetable juices, ripe fruits, etc.

When we are confronted with lack of sodium in the body, we should

replenish the supply by using natural foods that are high in sodium

content. Raw goat milk is one of the foods highest in sodium and it

is easily assimilated. It seems to be very beneficial in cases of

stomach ulcer and in rheumatic and arthritic conditions. Another

sodium food which we have used a great deal in both office and

sanitarium practice is Whey. This also is a natural food for

acidophilus bacteria in the intestine. Another excellent source of

sodium is veal joint broth, which is made by cooking out the gelatin

from a veal joint with no meat on it. Plants that are matured in the

sunshine are high in sodium. The acids in green fruits are sour, but

when allowed to mature the sodium content gives them their sweet

taste. Citrus fruits, when tree ripened, are high in sodium, but so

many of them are picked green and expected to ripen in storage that

eating them may cause disturbance -- especially in a stomach

deficient in sodium. Unripe fruit never sets well in the human

stomach. Cabbage juice and strawberry juice are good sources of

sodium, as is celery stalk. Okra is one of our highest sodium-

containing foods, is very soothing to the stomach wall, and therefore

excellent for cases of ulcer.

We should aim to prevent the formation of excess waste acids in the

body so that we need not bankrupt the organs in which sodium is

stored, such as the stomach and joints. We should constantly

replenish the supply be eating natural food that are high in sodium.

We will thus have better digestion, assimilation, and elimination,

and prevent disorders such as arthritis, rheumatism, neuritis and

neuralgia. The very things we would use in the prevention of these

symptoms can also be used for their correction. That which will

prevent a disease in many cases will cure it.

The forgoing is from the book, " The Science and Practice of

Iridology " , Dr. Bernard Jensen, D.C., ND.

Let your food be your medicine and your medicine

be your food. ~ Hippocrates 460-359 BC

Atlantic1

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