Body pH is extremely important to health. More and more studies are emerging to show how chronic low grade acidity contributes to illness and chronic disease. The body is naturally neutral to slightly alkaline so it is what we put in our mouths and on our skin that makes the biggest difference in our acid/alkaline balance. Our bodies are designed to eat vegetative material with bits of animal protein, whatever we could catch or scavenge in our caveman days. Our digestive system and metabolism hasn’t changed much since then and is not designed to eat copious amounts of sugars, white flour or refined and processed foods. Large amounts of animal protein also put a strain on the body’s buffering system creating a more acidic body terrain.
These days there is a lot of attention being placed on the correlation between a chronically acid body condition called acidosis and serious and chronic disease. If the body’s ability to regulate its acid/alkaline balance over time is stressed by being overworked, acidity can overwhelm the buffering system and the body pH will lower, becoming more prone to things like accumulated free radical damage which causes illness and disease.
In years past, around the age of 35, the body’s ability to repair damage was about even with its ability to create it in the first place. After 35, the body used to start to react to free radical damage by creating silent inflammation. That is inflammation that creates no overt symptoms until it accumulates enough damage for you to actually feel it. These are the symptoms of middle age. In recent years, poor dietary and lifestyle habits are showing up as type 2 diabetes in overweight children, so the age for experiencing inflammation from acidosis is continuing to drop considerably.
A neutral pH is 7.0, with the blood being around 7.365. Various tissues in the body have varying pH levels and water content which are optimum for health. When symptoms appear, sometimes it is quite urgent to correct them. If the symptoms are caused by an acidic body condition, it takes too long to correct them with diet alone. There needs to be something that can act as an antioxidant to reduce or eliminate damage as soon as possible. This is why the ability of a substance like antioxidant alkaline water to reduce free radical damage is equally as significant as alkalinity in reducing symptoms. The two partnered together can turn the body into repair mode within a week, while strict diet can take 9 months or even longer. Some people don’t have that long to turn things around.
When you drink antioxidant alkaline water, it doesn’t give the body the benefits it needs if the pH is too high, too low or it doesn’t have a significant negative free radical nullifying effect. A lot of cities have very alkaline water coming out of their taps, so much so that it scales up the kettles and irons very quickly. People are advised not to drink the water and rightly so. Too much mineral content or the wrong combination of minerals is not good for the body. You need the right mix of free radical neutralization properties and alkalinity to make a noticeable difference in symptomatic disease or preventing it in the first place.
By purchasing pH strips for saliva and urine at your local health food store, you can see where your acid/alkaline levels are. A pH of 6.0 is ten times more acidic than the neutral 7.0. A pH of 5.0 is 100 times more acidic that 7.0. The scale is logrythmic, so a small change in pH can have huge consequences for the body. Keep track of your pH first thing in the morning before you put anything in your mouth or as soon as you need to have a pee. If your saliva pH is in the 5s range you need to make some drastic changes before you see or feel symptoms. If you wait, you will find it hard to reverse them or it will take longer. Don’t wait until the silent inflammation becomes too obvious. pH in the low 6s is also playing russian roulette. The pH scale is logrhythmic so a pH of 6.0 is ten times more acidic than the neurtral pH 7.0 and 5.0 pH is 100 times more acidic than pH 7.0.
Once you realize how important it is to regulate your body pH you may want to consider adding some dietary changes to your daily routine. By eating less acidic foods and more alkaline foods, you give your body a greater chance to repair and rejuvenate. Do your body good and look after it the best way you can. After all, where else are you going to live?
