The ends of your feet get the poorest "service" from your blood supply. They are the furthest away. The blood here has the most accumulated acid and the least oxygen supply....The accumulation of uric and hippuric acid invites bacteria to feed on them. As bacteria multiply the tissue fights back with inflammation. Now the stage has been set for pain.

Most persons with painful deposits anywhere in their feet have a morning urine pH of 4.5! At 4.5 it is safe to guess that a lot (of uric acid ) has precipitated (in the feet) again in the night. During the day, your body's pH swings back and forth. The urine gets quite alkaline right after a meal; this is called the alkaline tide. Three meals a day would bring you three alkaline tides. During these periods, lasting about an hour, you have an opportunity to dissolve some of your foot deposits. But if you allow your pH to drop too low in the night you put the deposits back again. The net effect decides whether your deposits grow or shrink. To alkalinize yourself at bedtime, choose one of these options:

1. Two oyster shell tablets, equaling 750 mg. of calcium plus a magnesium oxide tablet, 300 mg (see Sources). The magnesium helps the calcium dissolve and stay in solution. Taking more calcium at one time is not advised because it cannot be dissolved and absorbed anyway and might constipate you. For the elderly only one calcium tablet is advised. Take calcium tablets with vitamin C or lemon water to help dissolve (1/4 tsp. vitamin C powder; adding honey is fine).
2. One cup of sterilized milk or buttermilk, drunk hot or cold, plus 1 magnesium oxide tablet, 300 mg. (adding cinnamon is fine). If these two remedies work for you, your morning urinary pH will come up to 6.0 but if for some reason they don't, you need to take more drastic measures. Take the supplements and milk earlier in the day and reserve bedtime for:
3. 1/2 tsp. baking soda in water. This is sodium bicarbonate. But don't use baking soda from a store because most brands I have tested are polluted with benzene! Using a combination of sodium and potassium bicarbonate in a ratio of 2:1 is actually a much more healthful potion. You can make your own or ask a pharmacist to make it for you. Mix two parts baking soda and one part potassium bicarbonate in a jar. Keep tightly closed. Label it sodium Potassium bicarbonate alkalizer (this potion is also very useful in allergic reactions of all kinds). Take 1 level tsp. in water at bedtime. If your pH reaches 6 in the morning continue each night at this dose. If it does not, take 1 1/2 tsp. Keep watching your pH, since it will gradually normalize and you will require less and less. If you are using plain baking soda, instead of the mixture, watch your pH each morning, also, so you can cut back when the pH goes higher than 6.

Persons with a limit on their daily sodium intake must carefully count the grams of baking soda consumed in this way. Each tsp. weighs about 2 grams, of which half (1 gram or 1000 milligrams) is sodium. The sodium/potassium mixture would only give you half as much sodium (1/2 gram per tsp.) By comparison, the usual daily intake of sodium is about 5 gm., although salt eaters consume twice that amount. You have done five things to pull the rug out from under the bacteria living in and around the deposits in your toes. Now when you kill bacteria with your zapper, you can expect the pain to go away and stay away.

Locations at the base of toes may be painful due to a neuroma. Deposits and bacteria here are even more painful because this is the location of nerve centers. If the build-up is large, you may prefer some surgical help or a cortisone shot rather than wait several years for solid relief.

Source: Dr. Hulda Clark's book Cure for All Diseases page 55