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Today we're shifting our focus from wealth to health. First of all, I am not an expert. If you have a health condition, you should go see your doctor. What I'm going to discuss in this post is something I was first exposed to at a Tony Robbins seminar.

First let me set the stage. It was day for of the Tony Robbins "Unleash the Power Within" seminar in Pasadena, CA. I had been to the seminar before, so I knew what to expect. Or so I thought...

The way the previous seminar had been run, Tony was out of the building--gone--bye-bye. The topic was on Living Health, a subject that Tony Robbins is very passionate about. The story we had been told is that the last time he spoke about it live, he went for 18 hours! Now those of you who have been to one of his seminars knows that this is entirely possible. In fact, the previous days certainly seemed close to that.

Anyway, the seminar started exactly the same way as before. Shortly after it started, I was about to leave. Then they appeared to have video problems. One of Tony's associates came back on stage and apologized. It looked like they had a legitimate disaster on their hands. Then he asked if there was anyone in the audience who was familiar enough with the material to complete the seminar. Suddenly a familiar voice came over the speakers--it was Tony, live and in person.

The whole thing was a set up. And they had kept it secret during the entire previous 3 days. In fact, the audience that day was a fraction of the audience the days before.

Tony explained that it had been many years since he had taught the seminar live and that there were some new exciting distinctions he was going to share with us that day. There were some things in the previous seminar he now thought were not quite right based on his new knowledge.

Of course, like everyone else in the audience, as soon as he walked on the stage I was riveted. No way I was going to leave now.

What Tony shared for the rest of the day definitely caused a major shift in my thinking about health. Without getting into too many details, he talked about his studies with Robert O. Young and one of the primary (if not they primary) cause of bad health: acidosis. This is the condition of the body being too acid. I have never heard this discussed before.

Tony has a set of recordings of his seminar available called Living Health. I purchased those (actually repurchased those) sometime after the seminar. I may be wrong, but I think the CDs of the second set I purchased were recorded at the seminar I attended. You can learn more about this if you get the Living Health program or purchase Robert O. Young's book, "The pH Miracle."

Just to be clear, I don't get any kind of money for endorsing Tony's seminar. I just mention it because it has formed the basis of many of the Power Affirmations I created for the recordings on health.

How do you know if your body is too acid? The safest assumption is just to assume that it is. If you get some yellow litmus paper (just search the internet), you can take a small strip and put it under your tongue. If it's a light shade of yellow, guess what, you're acidic. If it turns blue, most likely you are alkaline.

First of all you need to understand the pH (potential for hydrogen) scale. It is a logarithmic scale from 1-14 that measures the acidity or alkalinity of a chemical (hint: your body is a chemical factory). A pH of 7 is neutral (the normal pH of pure water).

The fact that it is a logarithmic scale is important. For example, a pH of 6 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 7. But a pH of 5 is a 100 times more acidic.

The human blood has a natural pH of about 7.4. The human body cannot survive if the pH of their human blood drops to 7 or rises to 7.8! So the body has natural buffers it uses to keep the blood within these narrow limits. Hint: your bones (including your teeth) are mostly calcium--an alkaline substance. So if your body gets too acidic, it leaches the calcium from your bones creating tooth decay and bone loss. Increased storage of fat and water retention is also a way your body protects itself. To get to your ideal weight--alkalize.

Now the real trick is how do you change your body from acid to slightly alkaline and keep it there. It is a fact of chemistry that it takes a lot of alkalinity to neutralize even a little bit of acid. For example, to change a gallon of water with a pH of 5 to 7 would take 20 gallons of water with a pH of 7.5!

Here's some simple math: your body is 80% water. Water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon. To find out about how many gallons of water are in your body at any one time, multiply your body weight by 80% and divide by 8.34. Let's say you weigh about 170 lbs. 170 x 80%=136 lbs. 136/8.34 is about 16 gallons of water.

Obviously, the human body is much more complicated than this. But what this indicates is just how diligent we need to be to alkalize our body.

I believe that the trick is to drink alkaline drinks and eliminate acidic drinks. From what I've studied, the closer your drinks are to a pH of about 9 the better.

One of the most shocking things I learned at Tony's seminar is that fresh orange juice and carrot juice are actually acidic, and so can cause the body to become too acid if taken to excess. Same with eating too much fruit. That was a significant shift from his earlier program. Note: I still like fruit and think it can be beneficial, but only in moderation.

The foods that really shine are the live, leafy greens--what a surprise! He showed some photos that showed the amount of energy in the food (I forget the name of the process) and it was amazing the amount of energy radiating from fresh wheat grass--like a lightening storm!

I think that eating the leafy greens and drinking their fresh juices is one way to increase your alkalinity, but I've come across some other products that work well for me (no, I'm not promoting some MLM--most of these can be purchased over the internet or at your local health food store). In order to test the alkalinity of some products, I'm relying on the litmus paper I mentioned earlier.

So here are some of my findings based on my simple testing:

• Soda--very acidic! Put the litmus paper in it and it turns bright yellow. I have read that soda has a pH of 3! Do the math and that is about 10,000 times more acidic than plain water! Not figuratively, but literally (10 to the 4th power)!

• The enzyme products by Infinity2 (http://www.infinity2.com). These all tested alkaline. The paper turned bright blue! Note: this is an MLM and their products, while excellent are expensive. I'm not signing anyone up, so let's not even go there. What I am telling you is that their products appear to be outstanding and based on before and after blood tests (which you can see on their site), they help the body stay alkaline.

• Coral Calcium. It depends on the formula. I tested a formula purchased at the health food store and it didn't appear to change the litmus strip. I tried Coral Calcium Supreme marketed by Bob Barefoot and Ken Trudeau and the strip turned blue.

• Regular bottled water. No change in the color of the strip.

• Evian Water. The strip turned to medium shade of blue--slightly alkaline.

• Essentia Water. The strip turned to a very light shade of blue--Evian was darker; however, they guarantee a pH of around 9.5! This may be the fastest way to alkalize your body! And the easiest way to stay in balance. They state on their website that it is the nature of this type of water that you can only accurately test the pH with scientific equipment rather than litmus paper. The water is reasonably priced and probably available in most health food stores. I highly recommend that you include their water in your diet. You can read more about them at their website at http://www.essentiawater.com.

• Atkins Advantage shake mix. Generally, I'm not fond of diet drinks, but I thought I'd test it to see what it looked like. To my surprise, it tested alkaline! I don't know about the other health qualities, but it seems to pass the alkaline test.

• Slimfast Optima drinks. Similar to the Atkins powder above, but a little less.

• EAS Myoplex bars. This was another surprise. I tried one of their cookies and cream bars and took a litmus test right after--dark blue. So again, it passes an initial test for being alkaline.

So what conclusions have I reached:

• To be healthy, I have to concentrate on foods that are live and alkaline.

Adequate water is critical to good health. But, all waters are not the same. While any bottled water is better than no water, whenever available, Essentia and Evian are the best I've tested (see the important note below about Penta Water added after I originally wrote this article! ).

• Live enzymes are critical to maintaining sound health. Most of the foods we eat, even live foods like salads, don't have as many enzymes as we really need. A supplement is likely necessary.

• Some brands of Coral Calcium can be very effective in staying alkaline.

• In a pinch, there are some mass market convenience foods that can satisfy your hunger, that are reasonably priced, and alkaline. Again, not my first choice, but certainly better than reaching for that soda or candy bar!

• Live in outstanding health!

Important Note: I wrote this article before testing Penta Water. I'm adding this extra bonus material because I think it will help you. I'm glad that the internet allows me to edit articles I've already written as I learn new things.

New Bottled Water Recommendation

Earlier this month in my article about alkalizing and energizing your body for better health, I wrote about Essentia Water. I want to let everyone know about another product that I have recently tried that I think is superb: Penta Water. I will warn you in advance that this bottled water is very expensive related to other waters. In California, it sells for $1.65 for a half-liter. But I will also tell you that after drinking it consistently for about a week, it is probably far and away the best water I have ever had.

While it tested neutral for alkalinity, based on the research I found at the Penta website (www.pentawater.com), the special qualities of the water actually create a very high alkalizing effect on the body. Without going into all of the details, not only do they purify the water to a high degree, they also use physics to change the structure of the water so that it creates smaller water clusters at the molecular level. There are other things they do (without adding anything to the water) that appear to have a very beneficial effect. I suggest that you visit their website and read the research for yourself. While it is a bit on the glitzy side, based on my personal experience, I don't think they are overselling their product.

The real proof to me was after I tested my own alkalinity after a few days on the product. Without making any other changes to my diet, the litmus strip came out a very dark blue. It seems clear to me that this is primarily due to drinking a large amount of Penta (about 3 liters or more per day).

The bottom line: if you can afford to drink it regularly (start using those affirmations so you can!), I recommend Penta over any other bottled water currently on the market.