How your pH balance affects your Health

A healthy body maintains a naturally alkaline pH balance, all on it’s own. But many people, particularly middle aged

people face health challenges that can result from a breakdown in the body’s ability to regulate its pH balance. So what is a healthy pH balance? Different parts of the body have different pH levels. Some parts, such as your stomach and skin, have a naturally acidic pH balance. Other parts of your body, such as your saliva, have a naturally alkaline balance. Your blood pH is very closely regulated by your body, it stays in the  range of 7.35 to 7.45, except in conditions of metabolic acidosis.

Your blood pH doesn’t vary much. If it gets too low, your body will correct it, but at the cost of weakening your bones. Acidity in the blood will trigger the release of calcium from your bones. You can’t actually change your blood pH. What you do when you drink alkaline water is provide your body with a different source of alkalinity so it can maintain a healthy pH balance without robbing your bones of calcium.

Acidosis: What happens when your pH balance is acidic?

When your blood pH drops too low, your body enters a state of metabolic acidosis: A temporary condition that your body corrects by itself. The main way it does that is by discharging excess acidity in the urine, when it does your urine pH drops. If your body constantly struggles to discharge acidity, it will be constantly in a state of metabolic acidosis. That’s when things get much worse: You develop a long term body acidity condition called metabolic syndrome, the symptoms of which are:

• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• High blood sugar
• Kidney stones
• High blood cholesterol

When you have metabolic syndrome, what’s happening is that your organs are slowly dying from acidity. As they shut down, your health gets worse. The longer metabolic syndrome is left untreated, the worse it gets. If you think you have metabolic syndrome, talk to your doctor right away.

Bodily Fluid pH Ranges

Saliva: The healthy range for saliva pH is in the 6.8 to 7.2 range. but keep in mind that your saliva pH will vary widely throughout the day. It’s influenced by everything you eat and drink. Because of this, saliva isn’t the best measure of pH balance, but it can tell you some things.

Urine: .The normal pH range for urine is from 5.5 up to 7.5. This range is based on your 24 hour average urine pH, because urine pH varies throughout the day. For good health, you want your 24 hour average urine pH to be at least 6.1, because lower urine pH is a risk factor for metabolic syndrome.

Blood: Your blood pH is maintained in a constant pH range of 7.35 – 7.45, your body maintains it in that range. If it goes below that range, your body is in a temporary state of metabolic acidosis. If it goes above that range, your body goes into a temporary state of metabolic alkalosis. Either condition is life threatening if it persists.

How would testing your body pH help you?

Your saliva and urine pH are affected by your body’s regulation of your blood pH, so they can be an indication of either health or illness. PH testing of your saliva and/or urine will help you obtain a good insight into the overall pH balance of your body. If the saliva or urine pH test comes up low, then you know you need to get serious about doing more to alkalize your body quickly.

The pH of saliva offers a window through which you can see the overall pH balance in your body.

Saliva pH is slightly more acidic than the blood pH [usually], but it is closely aligned with the pH of blood and interstitial fluids [fluids around the cells].

Optimal pH for saliva is above 7 pH. A reading consistently lower than 6.8 is indicative that your body may be struggling to maintain its pH balance. After eating, the saliva pH should rise to 7.8 or higher. If it doesn’t it may indicate that the body has insufficient reserves to maintain its pH balance. If your saliva stays between 6.8 and 7.2 pH all day, your body is functioning within a healthy range.

Its best to test your saliva pH at three intervals during the day:

• First thing when you wake up
• Before lunch
• Before dinner

You should test your saliva each day for about a week. Maintain a journal of the test results so you can calculate the average test result for each of the three times you test throughout the day. If your average saliva pH stays between 6.8 and 7.2, then your body’s own pH balance regulating mechanism is working fine. All you need to do is eat healthy and drink plenty of water to maintain it.

How to Test your Saliva pH

Make sure to test your saliva at a time when you haven’t eaten or drunk anything for at least an hour. Test yourself somewhere away from food: Anticipation of food smells causes enzymes to be released into your saliva which change its pH. First thing when you wake up in the morning is usually a good time. Also before meals is better than after them.

To perform this test, you will need a roll of testing pH paper (preferably pHydrion test paper), a plastic spoon and some fresh saliva. The test uses a pH-sensitive, color-coded test strip to reveal your body pH balance status. For the saliva test: – Be sure not to eat, drink, or brush your teeth for 30 minutes prior to the test – Swallow a couple of times to clear the mouth and stimulate new saliva – Then discharge some saliva into a PLASTIC spoon (it is recommended NOT to touch the pH paper to your tongue due to the chemicals in the paper.

Tear off a 1/4 inch strip of pH paper, place into saliva and compare the color of your immersed pH paper with the color chart provided on the pH testing roll. The lower your pH value below 7.0, the greater your degree of acid stress. Continue testing and recording your pH for at least a week. This will show your body’s pH trend.

Testing Your Urine pH

The pH of the urine indicates how the body is working to maintain the proper pH of the blood. The urine reveals the alkaline building (anabolic) and acid tearing down (catabolic) cycles. The pH of urine indicates the efforts of the body via the kidneys, adrenals, lungs and gonads to regulate body pH balance through the buffer salts and hormones. Urine can provide a fairly accurate picture of body chemistry, because the kidneys filter out the buffer salts of pH regulation and provide values based on what the body is eliminating. Urine pH can vary from around 4.5 to 9.0 at its extremes, but the ideal range is 6.5 to 7.0+ Urine pH tends to be lower in the morning and higher in the evening.

For complete instructions: How to test your urine pH

The pH of the urine can vary widely. The pH of urine is also affected by the biochemicals that the body is eliminating. These include biochemicals such as excess minerals, vitamins, and products of metabolism and also include drugs and toxins being eliminated by the body. The pH of the urine is not as affected by digestive enzymes as salivary pH.

What can you do if you find your saliva or urine pH is too acidic?

Switch to an alkaline diet. Over the long term, an alkaline diet will reduce the acid load on your body.

Get yourself a water ionizer. Ionized alkaline water helps boost your pH balance quickly. It raises saliva pH almost instantly, and urine pH rises in about a half hour after you drank the alkaline water. Alkaline water can raise body pH so quickly that some new drinkers actually experience mild detox symptoms for about a week after starting alkaline water. Lastly, practice Mindfulness – keeping your mind in the present. Stress is a major cause of body acidity because it causes the release of cortisol, a hormone that acidifies the body..

How to: Raise your body pH naturally

Alkaline water acts fast to reduce acidity

Alkaline water will act to raise your pH balance quickly, faster than food or Mindfulness. The reason it acts so fast is because it is absorbed quickly by your body. Foods take time to digest, but alkaline water, consumed on an empty stomach goes straight through the stomach and into the intestines for absorption. Alkaline water is rich in alkaline minerals, whether you get them from food or alkaline water, those alkaline minerals are what actually raises your pH. Drinking alkaline water may be the single easiest thing you can do to raise your pH balance and improve your health.

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