Citric acid

Citric acid is a pure Japanese word; citric means "lemon" both in Japanese and Chinese. Here, I will introduce to you various ways to take it. I hope that as many people as possible will take as much vinegar as possible. It does not matter if it is cooking vinegar, rice vinegar, or citric acid, just take it often so that you will not be tired nor fall ill.Citric acid consists of small white grains which are soluble easily in water and have no smell. If you try tasting it, you will be surprised by its sourness. If you dilute it with water properly, its sourness changes into a fresh and a most tasty drink.The power of various acids are compared to each other based on the common yardstick of hydrochloric acid, which is the main component of gastric juices, specified as 1. Acetic acid has the power 1/60 of hydrochloric acid, while citric acid is 1/3 of acetic acid, or 1/180 of hydrochloric acid. So it is classified scientifically as one of the weaker acids, having no power to cause a burn. About 540 cc. of vinegar is equivalent to 5 gm., or a full spoon, of citric acid.Notes:"Salt" mentioned above means a substance produced by neutralizing an acid substance with an alkaline one. If you find it difficult to take citric acid itself for its sourness, you may take instead citric acid salts, produced mainly by neutralizing citric acid with sodium bicarbonate or calcium.Cooking vinegar, which is thin acetic acid, has the same effects as citric acid. I omit its explanation here because it is not included in the Codex."Effects: This item has the effects of local astringency and stimulation. It is discharged through exhalation after it was changed to carbon dioxide without exerting any pharmaceutical effects, except in case of high dosage. Accordingly, the dosage of salts leads body fluids and urine to alkalescence. Citric acid salts have the effect of coagulating the blood."Application: This item is used for the materials of various drugs in the form of powder or water solution to give them freshness and good taste. The sourness of 4 gm. of this item is equivalent to that of one big lemon. Lemonade of citric acid is applied for indigestion, thirstiness, lost appetite, and gastric anacidity. It is applied to clean perspiring feet (concentration: 1-5%), and tongue cancer (concentration: 0.8%), and as a plaster for diphtheria (concentration: 1-3%). It is used as material for sodium citrate. Many other medicines are made from it."Testimonial"I am forty years old and am presently a housewife. Since last May I have been taking one teaspoon of tsukarezu after meals three times daily. From July to December of the same year I have been taking citric acid which my sister who lives in Tokyo has been sending me."Before beginning the daily regimen of your tsukarezu I had been suffering from high blood pressure, stiff shoulders, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. But after two months of tsukarezu, I experienced gradual relief from all the problems, with the exception of the ringing in my ears. Listlessness and fatigue also went away. Even housework has became a pleasure now that it is easier for me to do. It is unfortunate, however, that the ringing in my ears has not gotten better. It has now been three and a half years since the ringing began. I will continue taking tsukarezu and believe that it will cure the ringing, too."If any medicine or food which has the same effect as citric acid were to be found other than citric acid and thin acetic acid, it will be approved officially as a medicine. It is quite natural, if we consider the importance of acid-base equilibrium mentioned below. If the temperature around us rises or falls only a little, our bodies are upset, sweat, or sneeze, giving us a warning to wear more clothes. This is because we need to keep our body temperature constant so that various enzymes can help chemical reactions to work well in our body. Acid-base equilibrium is also no less important than keeping our body temperature constant. It offers the ground for the so-called acid-alkaline food theory.Acid means a substance that gives off protons (one of electric particles) in a water solution, while base (we call it alkaline, if dissolved in water), receives protons. It is said that the activity of our body is a complicated aggregation of the work of enzymes, which amount to more than three thousand types. The enzymes work by giving off or receiving electric particles (quantum biology deals with these phenomena which are difficult to clarify; however, it is in an early stage yet). Some of them require an acid environment for their activities, and other require an alkaline one, adding to the complication.pH is the unit of acidity and alkalinity. Its neutral value is 7.0. Our blood must keep its alkalescence at pH 7.4 on the average throughout the body, or we cannot live. In fact, if the pH of the blood is slightly acid at pH 7.0, or over-alkaline at 7.7, for over two to three hours, we will die (Guyton: Physiology, p. 420). Though deep breathing is good for health, you should not continue it too long, because it may cause over-alkalinity.After we take an exercise a little intensely, we pant for breath. Sufficient oxygen was not supplied during such intense exercise. It led to insufficient oxidization and the production of a lot of lactic acid, which is the fatigue substance, making blood and body fluids acid. Thus we pant for breath to bring in more oxygen and to discharge carbonic acid in the body, to ease the over-acidity as soon as possible. We need to take in oxygen to cause the citric acid cycle to work well, reduce the acidification of the body, and to get energy (ATP) from the lactic acid, which still contains much energy.However, just this breathing is not sufficient to eliminate the acid substances produced in the body. Liver and kidneys also make further efforts to burn and discharge such substances separately, leading urine to high acidity. With all such efforts, some of the lactic acid may remain in the body. If it remains in the shoulder muscles, we will have stiff shoulders. If it remains throughout the body, according to my hypothesis, we will have essential hypertension.Lactic acid, combined with muscles, stiffens them. After a person dies, it is produced in a great amount in their body and it temporarily stiffens the body like a rock. This is called death rigor (rigor mortis). Though many cells are alive, even in such a condition without oxygen, they exist by the anaerobic cycle of glycolosis, which produces a lot of lactic acid."I told the doctor (a Spaniard) who treated me before that I was taking citric acid, and he praised it for its benefits to the body. The doctor suggested an injection to cure the ringing in my ears. However, since each injection costs four thousand yen and up to thirty would be required, the high cost of this treatment as well as my hatred for injections made me refuse the treatment. Although the ringing in both ears is unfortunate and uncomfortable, I am putting my hopes on a complete cure by citric acid, which has no ill effects."-- Yoshiko Tojo