How Does Alkalinity Maintain A Healthy Body?

The effect of acids is one and the same as the effect of free radicals. Acids are free radicals with (only) hydrogen being the substance doing the damage. Hydrogen, with only one electron in its outer shell, is a free radical in its natural state. An acid is a fluid that has a high concentration of hydrogen ions. To further explain acids, the pH scale needs to be addressed. The pH scale measures the potential of hydrogen, which is the positively charged hydrogen ions (H+), and secondarily, the negatively charged hydroxyl ions (OH-). Notice, that if you were to combine the two, you would get a water molecule, (H+ + OH- = HOH = H2O).

First of all, the pH (potential of Hydrogen) scale is a number line from zero to fourteen. Seven, in the middle of the scale, is regarded to be neutral, neither acid nor basic. Anything above seven on the number line is regarded to be basic, while anything below seven is regarded to be acidic. A pH test involves the use of litmus paper or some other means of measurement to determine the amount of hydrogen ions present in a solution. Please note: litmus paper is designed to test urine and saliva and should not be used to test alkaline 9.5+ pH water. To test for accurate pH level, use a well-calibrated pH meter or a pH chemical liquid solution with color chart.

Each pH unit represents a tenfold difference of the H+ and OH- concentration. It is this mathematical feature that makes the pH scale so compact. For example, a solution of pH 5 is not twice as acidic as a solution of pH 7, but a hundred times more acidic. So when the pH of a solution changes slightly, it actually changes the concentrations of H+ and OH-substantially.

The pH of your blood has to remain constant at about 7.4. If it were to drop to 7.3, you would probably die within a short time. That is only one tenth of a unit on the scale, but it represents a doubling of the amount of hydrogen ions in your blood, which would make you twice as acidic as you should be. So even small changes can be disastrous.

When people do saliva pH tests, and their reading, for example, comes out at 6.5; some people say, “That's not too bad.” No, that is bad. Their saliva is nine times more acidic than it should be. Another way to say it is that their saliva is 900% more acidic than normal. When put that way, people will put it into proper prospective. The pH levels of the saliva can be a fairly accurate indicator of the health of the body. People with known diseases almost always check acidic – between 4.5-7.0. Healthy people usually register a basic level of 7.0-7.5. The exception to this is with people who smoke. Their bodies are so acidic that minerals are being pulled out of the bones and concentrated in the mouth area where the free radical substances are concentrated, and this gives a false reading to the test. It is astonishing to discover that one puff off of a tobacco or marijuana product, or any other kind of smoke, causes more than 375,000 free radicals to form in the body. That’s every puff! These free radicals make the body very acidic, and that leads to degenerative disease.

It is always important to keep the fluids in our bodies slightly basic in order for all the functions to take place. If we even become slightly acidic, we would die, so the body compensates by pulling minerals from the bones to keep us basic. Here is a quote from Dr Arthur Guyton, MD, one of the most recognized authors on human physiology, from his book, "Textbook of Medical Physiology," which is used to train medical students:

"The first step in maintaining health is to alkalize the body. The cells of a healthy body are alkaline, while the cells of a diseased body are acidic, below a pH of 7.0. The more acidic the cells, the more sick we become. If the body cannot produce basic cells, they become acidic, and therefore, disease sets in. Our bodies produce acid as a byproduct of normal metabolism. But our bodies do not manufacture a basic pH, so we must supply the base from an outside source to keep us from becoming acidic and dying."

What Dr. Guyton is saying is that the key to maintaining health is supplying our body with minerals from an outside source. This is easier said than done! Not all mineral forms are bioavailable, and our food is generally being raised on land that is minerally deficient; and therefore, our food is minerally deficient. Study after study has shown how much our food has decreased in quality. For example, did you know that in 1948 a cup of spinach contained 158mg of Iron? By 1965, a cup of spinach contained only 27 mg of iron. Today, a cup barely contains 2 mg. You would have to eat 79 cups of spinach to get the same nutritional content from food compared to just seventy years ago. This is a problem that is not going to get better.