Most people who suffer from unbalanced pH are acidic. This condition forces the body to borrow minerals — including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium — from vital organs and bones to buffer neutralize the acid and safely remove it from the body. Because of this strain, the body can suffer severe and prolonged damage due to high acidity — a condition that may go undetected for years.

A recent study conducted at the University of California-San Francisco on 9,704 postmenopausal women showed that those who have higher acidity levels also called chronic acidosis from a diet rich in animal foods are at greater risk for lower bone density levels than those who have “normal” pH levels. The researchers who carried out this study hypothesized that many of the hip fractures prevalent among older women correlated to higher acidity from a diet rich in animal foods and low in vegetables. The body apparently borrows calcium from the bones in order to balance pH, and this calcium borrowing may result in a decrease in bone density.

Urinary pH levels can indicate how well your body is assimilating minerals, especially calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. These are called the “acid buffers” because they are used by the body to control acid levels. When acid levels begin to increase, the body becomes less capable of excreting acid. It must either store the acid in body tissues, or buffer it-that is, borrow minerals from organs, bones, etc., in order to neutralize the increase in acidity. Urinary pH should fluctuate between 6.0-6.4 in the morning and 6.4-7.0 in the evening.

You will also want to test the pH of your saliva. The results of saliva testing can indicate the activity of digestive enzymes in your body, especially the activity of the liver and the stomach.

This reveals the flow of enzymes running through your body and shows their effect on all the body systems and your tissues. Some people will have acidic pH readings from both urine and saliva-this is referred to as “double acid.” Salivary pH should stay between 6.4 and 6.8.

The chief culprits in mineral depletion within our body are the acid-forming foods we eat and what we drink almost all of the fluids we drink on a daily basis are acidic. Coffe, te, milk, soft drinks, fruit juices and evn water.

For example. a carbonated beverage has a pH of 2, orange juice is ph of 3, and average tap water is 4.5. So drink bottled water you may be saying–well it is typically a pH of only 6 and the other major cause of acidity is stress. In addition, antibiotics which can destroy the friendly bacteria create a problem because the bacteria that grow back are often acid forming and can potentially create a problem that could drain the body of health enhancing electrolyte minerals. Some other causes of electrolyte loss might be strenuous exercise, sickness, infection, or even fasting.

There is no such thing as a Universal Diet. People are individual and personal. So what works for one person may or may not work for the next. A balanced diet is very unique for each person. To find our proper balance, it is helpful to know not only your own personal needs, but the correct preparation of whole foods, how not to overeat, how to choose high-quality foods, avoiding too many unnatural food combinations, and the art of learning the broad range of nutritious foods including chlorophyll-rich plants, the best source of certain fatty acids, and the dangers of food chemicals especially synthetic chemicalse like aspartame, MSG, and food colorings.

It is important that we maintain a perfect pH balance. The pH of the body systems have very exact ranges Richard Anderson, Cleanse and Purify Thyself. He even points out that the food we eat must be at an optimum pH level before the body can absorb it. ome examples of pH ranges saliva 6.0-7.0; stomach 1.0-3.5; pancreas 8.0-8.3; intestines 7.5-8.0 and blood 7.35-7.45.

The acid and alkaline balance can be changed by simple practices such as by soaking mildly acid-forming foods such as whole grains and legumes before cooking them, starting the sprouting process, which is alkalizing. You could also Chew thoroughly the complex carbohydrates as grains, vegetables, and legumes in order to mix them with salvia, a very alkaline fluid that begins the digestive process. Another tip is, do not drink while eating, as this stops the digestive process from beginning within the mouth

The notion of acid and alkaline is one of the most misunderstood concepts in nutrition. It is commonly referred to as terrain medicine, a reference to treating the whole individual. It has been established that PH in the blood, saliva, urine, and other areas is a critical factor for building health.

How can you determine an acid or alkaline condition?

Blood work, saliva tests, hair analysis, muscle resistance and urine are just some of the tests being recommended by current nutrition experts. Most of these tests can show relative amounts of acid or alkaline, which is very interesting to compare.

But what people do not know is that there are so many varieties of acid and alkaline appearing in the system that to get any conclusive results about acid and alkaline status. It is still best to read the intracellular fluida test rarely performed.

Most current diagnostic tests show the acid wastes are present in the body fluids such as blood, lymph, urine, mucus and saliva. The problem with such tests is that they do not show how much acid waste is within the cellular fluids since these fluids are running through tissues and removing acid wastes.

It might be possible to measure the relative acid or alkalinity of body fluids. But it is rare and more complicated to evaluate the acid or alkaline quality of body tissues such as skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. The majority of standard tests focus mainly on saliva, urine, or blood.

What does all these mean?

The tissue quality of skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels is the determining factor of your health. When acid wastes are not eliminated, they are reabsorbed through the colon, gets filtered through the liver, and end up being re-released into the general circulation. Simply means that you are re-circulating waste, when it is supposed to be cleansed and rejuvenated already.

Even measuring a person’s blood for acid and alkaline variations is not an easy task. When acid is introduced into the blood, alkaline minerals from other parts of the body are immediately mobilized to maintain a crucial pH balance of 7.35 to 7.45. The blood cannot tolerate elevated acidity. It must alkalize.

To do this, it goes on an alkaline borrowing spree immediately, with no intention of paying back the bone, tissue, and digestive juice mineral donors. This means that to do a blood test for an accurate acid and alkaline reading, testing would require your doctor to take blood samples at numerous intervals throughout the day and only after eating one particular food to obtain a good reading.

Very exhausting, costly, and still not that reliable.

A number of nutrition writers suggest testing acid and alkaline levels with litmus paper saliva or urinalysis sticks urine. Determining acid and alkaline though pH testing is assumptive, simplistic, and misleading.

Saliva or urine is not reflective of your overall acidity. Such arbitrary and unpredictable testing does not read the cellular fluid or tissue quality of skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. It can only give in a partial evaluation.

The proof of your body’s acid and alkaline condition can best be determined by your own experience, not by peer-reviewed studies, medical establishment support, or static dietary guidelines.

Without getting too technical, the most practical advice would be to experiment for several weeks with a food plan that stays close to the middle of the acid and alkaline scale. Check out some diet that is high on both. You will notice dramatic and positive changes that can only be attributed to your experiment. This will be your best doctor.

There are supplements and products that will help you become less acidic and more alkalinic. Some say that certain health problems can only occur if the body is too acidic. Also look at some charts of common foods and see if what you eat and drink
may be closer to a 2 ph than a 7.