The PH Balance

"Drinking four to six glasses of alkaline water a day will help to neutralize over-acidity and over time will help to restore your buffering ability.  Like vitamins C, E, and Beta Carotene, alkaline water acts as an antioxidant because of its excess supply of free electrons.  This can help the body against the development of heart disease, strokes, immune dysfuntions, and other common ailments."  Dr. Susan Lark, "The Chemistry of Success." 

What is PH?

The pH measures the condition of our critical bodily fluids (blood, saliva and urine). These fluids make up our internal environment that is critical to our health. Simply stated, an acid system is conducive to sickness, while an alkaline system is required for normal healthy cellular function. A saliva pH below neutral (7.0) is a warning sign that your body is acidifying and moving away from health toward degenerative disease and rapid aging.

The pH stands for "potential hydrogen" and is a measurement that provides an indication of the level of hydrogen in a substance.  When we calculate the pH of a liquid we are measuring the number of Hydroxyl (OH-) ions, which are negative, and therefore alkaline-forming.  It is measured on a pH scale that ranges from 0 to 14.  With pH 7 being neutral, anything less than that is acidic, while anything greater than that is alkaline.  Proper body pH is an important factor in good health.  If any substance changes from a pH 7 to pH 8, it has become ten times more alkaline.  Conversely, if it has changed from neutral pH 7 to pH 6, it is 10 times more acid.

For example, pick any popular soft drink, a pH 2.5.  It is almost 50,000 times more acidic than neutral water, and your body needs approximately 32 glasses of neutral (pH7) water to neutralize the acid of one glass of soda. (Active ingredient: Phosperic Acid)

With this example you can see that a change from the normal level 7.365 to pH 7 would mean that your blood would suddenly be around 4 times as acid as it should be.  You would die from poisoning by your own blood.  This is why every system is used in supporting the correct blood pH.  Also understand, that our blood can be affected at any time of the day by a myriad of events; food, drink, stress, pollution, exercise, or beneficially, by meditation, drinking alkaline water, deep breathing, or just by being happy.

Fortunately, the human body has several complex systems for maintaining its critical acid/alkaline balance. 

1. Excretion of acids through the: lungs, kidneys, colon, and skin.
2. Buffering of acids with: calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium.
3. Storage of acids in: adipose tissue, joints, muscles, and arteries.
4. Emergency back up system to control acids – liver and bowel produce ammonia.

Maintaining a perfect pH can be difficult.  Just through normal healthy metabolism our bodies create acid wastes such as cholesterol, uric acid and acetic acid.  Even with the best diet these acid wastes are unavoidable.

Acid waste is first dealt with through elimination.  The lungs eliminate acids in the form of CO2, which is carbonic acid when dissolved in liquid.  Kidneys eliminate acids in the form of uric acid.  Additional acids are eliminated through the colon and skin.

When the acids are too much for the basic elimination process to handle, a buffering system kicks in.  This system forces the body to borrow minerals including: calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from vital organs and bones to buffer or neutralize the acid and safely remove it from the body.  This process can weaken the organs and bones over time.

When the body’s natural buffering system becomes depleted and the acids are not being neutralized, the body begins to store the acids to protect the system.  These acidic wastes will accumulate in adipose tissue, muscle tissue, joint capsules, and along capillary blood vessels.  Hence the epidemic of obesity, arthritis, fibromyalgia, and the list goes on.

Although it is possible for the body to become overly alkaline, it is rare and usually caused by metabolic disorders.  The most common conditions are a tendency toward acidosis, caused by improper diet, environmental toxins, and stress.

Addition Articles.... 

Water Properties

• What Comes Out of Your Tap Water?
• Daily Water Requirements.
• Cola Effects on Your Body.
• What Does pH Balance Have to Do With Water?
• Adic Effects on the Body.
• Causes of Acid.
• Improving Your pH Balance.
• Correct Your Acid Alkaline Balance by Your Drinking Water.
• Food Choices and pH Balance.
• Other Influences on pH Balance.
• Exercise and pH Balance.
• Alkaline Ionized Water.