Body pH and Your Health

The correct body pH can greatly affect blood pressure in a positive way. What is pH? It is the measurement of acidity or basicity of bodily fluids which in conjunction with other medical data, can determine your health or indicate the cause of an illness.

It`s measured on a scale of 14 with 7 as neutral. To illustrate, a normal blood pH is between 7.35 and 7.45, slightly base or alkaline. If it drops to 7.2 or increases to 7.6 your in trouble.

Your body has a marvelous buffeting system, the lungs and kidneys, to return any imbalance to normal. If saliva pH is below 6.2, it could be that your body has too much acid. If it`s over 7.4 it may be too base (alkaline).

Urine pH varies between 4.5 to 8 depending on your acid/base state, but it functions best 6.8 slightly acidic, helping to control bacteria. Your skin`s pores secrete sweat and oil with a pH around 5.5 which is slightly acidic. The buffeting system is there to regulate all these balances and imbalances, helping to keep your body healthy.

Body pH and the Cardiovascular System

Does pH have a bearing on the health of our arteries? The answer to that question is yes. How important is Blood pH?

Very important!  if the ideal state of 7.45 is increased or decreased by just a fraction of a point the results could be sickness or even death.
If cell membranes of the arteries and veins, as well as the heart, become eroded because it is constantly acidic, this can lead to weak and damaged smooth muscle cells, with lesions and tears occurring throughout the system. Damaged artery walls lead to atherosclerosis, thickening of artery walls, and clots that can lead to stroke.

On the other hand, if it has a correct alkaline environment, the oxygen supply which is carried to every organ of your body will be magnified.

The ideal pH is also related to the correct ion balance. Acid blood causes too many ions to become positively charged, and affects the contracting and relaxing of smooth muscle, which can cause persistent hypertension.

Healthier Blood Means Less Disease

Healthy blood cells supply the body with plenty oxygen, nutrients, and energy, but if the cells are impaired in some way the results are a sluggish system, poor health, and a whole range of diseases.

What bearing then does alkalized and ionized water have on them? It raises the pH and reduces the acid, maintaining the negative charge on the outside of cell wall. It`s this negative charge that keeps them separate from each other, rather than sticking together, enabling them to carry enough oxygen and nutrients to other body tissues.

If they loose their outer negative charge, they stick together in chains called Rouleaux formations. The cells are then impaired from carrying their full capacity.

Take note: Acidic blood and/or blood lacking oxygen can cause severe health problems such as hypertension, inflammation of the arteries, atherosclerosis, heart disease and other cardiovascular problems.

Acid or Alkaline Food Changes Body pH

Your choice of food is the main cause of changes in the pH of your body. This is very natural. The residue left behind after the metabolic processes of fat, carbohydrate, and protein digestion is acid “ash”.
The more you eat of these foods the more acidic your body becomes. Most fruits and vegetables will give your body the minerals it requires to act as a buffer, returning it to an alkaline or base state.

A July 2009 News report said that at Washington, D.C.’s Bancroft Elementary School during the celebration of the White House garden harvest, Michelle Obama, the First Lady, discussed with students who had helped plant that garden, that there was a need to get more fresh and nutritious foods into the Department of Agriculture’s nutrition programs for children. She further made this comment – “For the first time in the history of our nation, a nation that is one of the wealthiest on the planet, medical experts have warned that our younger generation may be on track to have a shorter life span than their parents as a direct result of the obesity epidemic.”

That statement is music to the ears of nutritionists, and no doubt, will boost fresh fruit and veg sales, but these foods lack enough minerals to create a strong enough buffer, so supplementing is essential.
Green health drinks are becoming increasingly popular because they give us the needed daily allowance of fruit and veg.
Supplementing with a good ionic mineral solution makes sense too, bringing you optimum health benefits.

How to and Why Test Body pH
Testing is not new. Many health conscious people take this basic step to maintain their health, but how can this be carried out effectively?
It can be a fiddly task! Some testing kits use a litmus strip which can become soggy when trying to test urine pH for example. They can also prove confusing when the colors “bleed”, and the reading becomes obscure. So getting a good test kit is essential for accurate readings no matter which body fluid you test.

Use an easy-to-read chart with clear color coding, double being the best for accuracy. Your source of water can make a enormous difference to your body pH too, because one source can have a large quantity of hydrogen ions and a small quantity of hydroxide ions, making the water acidic, and another source can have the opposite.
You see the difference of 1 point on the pH scale, can make a ten fold difference in the acidity of water, and so too, your body. That`s why testing makes sense.

Make pH testing easier with a sturdy plastic strip to stop sagging and choose a brand that eliminates bleeding of colors that are so common with litmus paper.
In conclusion: Your body pH affects the health of your entire system, so learning how you can support it in eliminating those acids and toxins that contribute to the body`s acidity is well worth the effort.