Alkaline Water Proven to Raise Blood pH in Clinical Study

Your body maintains it’s blood pH in a narrow range pH of 7.35 – 7.45. If your blood pH drops too low, your body reacts to adjust it by excreting excess acids in the urine, or by robbing your bones of calcium to buffer those acids. Many alkaline water health advocates have claimed that drinking alkaline water can raise your blood pH, only to be attacked by skeptics who claim you can’t alter your blood pH with food or water. A new clinical study called “Hydrogen-Rich Water Affected Blood Alkalinity in Physically Active Men” proves the skeptics wrong.

Within the normal blood pH range: A 40 – 70% Increase in pH

The study examined 52 physically active men who drank alkaline water made by a water ionizer or plain water (placebo). Researchers discovered that drinking alkaline water raised the men’s arterial blood pH by 0.04 to 0.07. That may sound like only a tiny change, but it isn’t. The normal range for your blood is a pH of 7.35 –  7.45. This means the normal pH range of the blood is only one-tenth of a pH! A change of four one-hundredths to seven one-hundredths of a pH is a 40 – 70% increase of pH inside the normal range for your blood’s ph!

Alkaline Water as a Potential Treatment for Metabolic Acidosis

Researchers conducted the study to see if alkaline water could be used to treat metabolic acidosis, which is a temporary condition where your blood pH drops towards unsafe levels. Metabolic acidosis can be caused by health problems, acidic foods, by exercise and even stress. The study examined the impact of drinking alkaline water on an empty stomach, and after inducing metabolic acidosis by exercising.

On an empty stomach, alkaline water raised blood pH by an average .04. After exercise, when study subject’s blood pH was lowered by muscular acidosis, the blood pH was raised by an average of .07. The effects of drinking alkaline water were compared to the effects of drinking water with a neutral pH as a control. Drinking water with a neutral pH was not shown to have an effect on blood pH in this study.

Based on the results of the study, researchers concluded: “These results support the hypothesis that HRW administration is safe and may have an alkalizing effect in young physically active men.”

The Gold Standard in Studies: Randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial

This study is some of the strongest proof yet that alkaline water has health benefits because of the way it was conducted. A randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial is the gold standard in medical studies. This study examined 52 men, and found that alkaline water raised blood pH in all of them, within the normal range for blood pH. Based on the results of this study, alkaline water shows a lot of promise as a way to treat metabolic acidosis. More studies should be conducted to confirm this effect.

Alkaline Water Skeptics Debunked

Many alkaline water skeptics claim that alkaline water is neutralized in the stomach, but this study proves them wrong. Given the fact that alkaline water raises blood pH, then it must survive the stomach, and the intestines, with some of it’s alkalinity intact. This is because if the stomach neutralized it, then alkaline water couldn’t raise the pH of the blood.

Could alkaline water make the blood too alkaline?

No. Alkaline water won’t raise your blood pH outside of the normal range, because your body won’t let it. What the study shows that it does do is raise blood pH towards the top of the normal range if it is low. You can’t drink enough alkaline water to push your blood pH out of it’s normal range.

How to use alkaline water for healthy pH balance

Health experts recommend drinking alkaline water with a pH of 9 – 9.5 daily. Drink a glass alkaline water first thing in the morning when you wake up. Your body loses water overnight, so when you wake up, you’re dehydrated. During the day, you can drink alkaline water as you normally would except around meal times:

• • Stop drinking alkaline water an hour before meals

• Wait an hour after a meal before drinking alkaline water

The reason you don’t drink alkaline water with meals, is that you don’t want it to interfere with the digestive juices in your stomach that are breaking down your food.

Workouts: Alkaline water fights fatigue, muscular acidosis, and maintains hydration, it is the best water you can drink when working out. To fight muscular acidosis, drink the highest level alkaline water (level 4) made by your water ionizer starting an hour before, and continuing through your workout. After your workout, resume drinking 9.5 pH alkaline water.

Acid indigestion If you have heartburn, acid indigestion, or gastro intestinal reflux, drink level 4 alkaline water. Keep in mind that the relief alkaline water offers is gradual, so don’t hesitate to take an antacid if you need to.

Bedtime: Drink a glass of water an hour before bed because it can prevent a heart attack or stroke.

Alkaline water also may help fight metabolic syndrome

As mentioned earlier in this article, metabolic acidosis is a temporary condition, it typically lasts no more than a few hours. Metabolic syndrome is a chronic condition where your pH balance is chronically low over the course of months and even years. You might think of metabolic syndrome as a constant state of metabolic acidosis. If you suffer from metabolic syndrome, you will have at least 3 of these symptoms:

• • Obesity

• • High Blood Pressure

• • Kidney Stones

• • High blood sugar

• High Cholesterol Levels

Metabolic syndrome has a link to low urine pH. The lower your urine pH is, the more symptoms of metabolic syndrome you are likely to suffer from. Drinking alkaline water raises urine pH, and research suggests that it can help fight metabolic syndrome. You don’t actually have to raise the pH of the urine that much to reduce or even prevent the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. The difference between having all 5 symptoms of metabolic syndrome, and perfect health is only one half of a pH!

Want to know if alkaline water could help you? Call us at 877-959-7977 for a free, no obligation consultation.

References

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Abraham, Guy, and Jorge Flebas. “The effect of daily consumption of 2 liters of

electrolyzed water for 2 months on body composition and several physiological parameters in four obese subjects: a preliminary report.” Highbeam Research. Original Internist, 01 Sep 2011. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-269433201.html>.

Maalouf, N, M Cameron, and et al. Low Urine pH: A Novel Feature of the Metabolic

Syndrome.”Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. American Society of Nephrology, 29 May 2007. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/2/5/883.full.pdf>.

Heil, P and Seifert, J. Influence of bottled water on rehydration following a dehydrating bout of

cycling exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition  Springerlink July 2009. http://www.springerlink.com/content/kn41764j65165u3x/fulltext.pdf