Mild Acidosis Diet May Also Decrease GH.

            Not a lot of research has been conducted on the hormonal responses to acidosis but one study in women found that chronic mild acidosis was associated with a decrease in GH. Researchers corrected the pH balance of aged women by correcting their diet induced low grade metabolic acidosis with potassium bicarbonate (a alkaline supplement) in amounts that just neutralized their daily diet net acid load, which was also accompanied by an increase in 24-hour mean growth hormone secretion. The average total serum GH secretion, calculated as the 24-hour integrated serum GH concentration, increased from 826 pg/ml before potassium bicarbonate to 915 pg/ml after potassium bicarbonate supplementation, approximately an 11% increase over baseline²¹.  Unfortunately, no studies involving the hormone responses to men have been investigated. 

How to prevent acidity...

The protein: potassium ratio is a reliable predictor of diet net acid load in the diet². It was reported that no matter what kind of diet that researchers examined (they examined 159 hypothetical diets); they found that the protein to potassium intake independently predicted net acid production accounting for 99% of the variability among diets²⁵.  So if acidosis increases muscle protein breakdown, will increasing alkalosis increase protein synthesis. One study investigated the effects of alkalosis on protein synthesis on intensive care patients with head trauma. These patients were hyperventilated, resulting in respiratory alkalosis. Measurements of muscle protein synthesis were made while they were alkalotic and again 24 h after cessation of hyperventilation. The rate of muscle protein synthesis during alkalosis was significantly higher than that measured at normal pH, suggesting the possibility that alkalosis stimulates muscle protein synthesis¹³. Interestingly, dietary treatment with sodium bicarbonate was able to prevent stimulation of proteolysis and the up-regulation of ubiquitin-proteasome pathway gene expression in rats with chronic renal failure (severe acidosis)²⁴, suggesting that correction of acidosis in acidotic patients may have beneficial effects in reversing the enhancement of protein degradation and maintaining muscle mass. 

Another study reported that with age there is an increase in acidity and reducing their mildly acidic diet to nearly zero with potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) significantly reduces blood acidity and increases the plasma bicarbonate concentration, indicating that the unsupplemented normal diet net acid load was significantly affecting the blood acid-base balance, causing a low grade metabolic acidosis.  Correcting the diet-dependent metabolic acidosis causes a significant reduction in urinary nitrogen excretion, comprising nearly equal reductions in urinary ammonia and urea excretion and this nitrogen-sparing effect is reversed by withholding the exogenous base for twelve days¹⁶. Another diet consisting of high dietary protein intake generated substantial acidity; however potassium administration neutralized the acid load²³.  Sodium bicarbonate also has a pH buffering effect that can raise alkalosis.  For example, when researchers placed runners on a Low Carb diet (33% protein, 64% fat, 2% carbohydrates) there was a mild acidosis occurring, however when sodium bicarbonate was ingested, blood pH was restored to normal³.