What Does pH Do For Me?

Everyday we go through life constantly running into obstacles that limit our health. We do things that are not good for us such holding onto negative thoughts and attitudes, bad eating habits, stress from work, not exercising, and generally neglecting our health until it is too late. What we fail to realize many times is that it is the simple things we need to address to make the greatest changes in our lives. These may include being consciously aware of how we treat others and how others affect us, moderate exercise such as walking briskly for 30 minutes a few times a week, and keeping an eye out for the pH levels of our body fluids. Our pH levels are one of the most basic elements that drive the majority of our body actions such as breathing, sleeping, and pain control.

What is pH?

pH stands for "potential hydrogen." Generally, pH is the measurement given to determining the acidity and alkalinity of the body. pH is the most basic and fundamental driving force of all our body functions. The pH range goes from 1-14, where 1 is highly acidic and 14 is highly alkaline. A neutral pH is 7.0, so below 7 is within an acidic range and above 7 is within an alkaline range.

How is it important when it comes to health?

Our body pH is probably one of the most important elements affecting our health status and body function. pH reflects the events occurring in the body. Many conditions and diseases have this one basic element in common, out of range pH levels. In fact, pH influences every physiologic activity in your body, including metabolism, pain, and diseases. The speed of all biological and electrical reactions is under pH control. For example, when the body environment is more acidic, electrical resistance lowers, hence electricity moves faster. Conversely, the more alkaline the body is the slower electricity in the body. Also, the more acidic the blood, the quicker our body wants to get rid of the acidity, so a person's breaths are quicker and shallower. If a person's pH sways too far out of range the cells can be poisoned by their own toxins and die.

Certain digestive enzymes of our body that break down foodstuffs are dependent on being within a specific pH range to function most optimally. Therefore, the pH of our stomach and intestines determine the rate and quality of digestion and absorption of nutrients. A person may in fact be eating healthy, however even healthy foods being digested in the wrong stomach pH level may not yield the healthy benefits from such foods. We want our saliva and urine pH levels to baseline just below neutral (7.0), in a slight acidic range to optimize digestive enzymes, limit bacterial and viral growth, and yield good health benefits.

Red blood cells carry oxygen to every cell in the body for use. When the blood pH is within a slightly favoring alkaline range, more oxygen can be bound and stored with red blood cells. However, too high alkalinity and oxygen saturation in the body is not a good situation either because the red blood cells carrying the oxygen will not sufficiently release the oxygen at a cellular level.
The pH of our body is under very tight range of within a few tenths, and if the pH of our blood, urine, and saliva move too far out of range, minor to serious illnesses can occur, up to and including death.

What influences how my pH level is going to be?

Many things in today's world have influences over your pH, thereby affecting your health. Such things would include foods we eat, the quality of our sleep, stress and how we deal with it, exercise, properly eliminate acids from our system, the amount of water we drink daily, even how we think and our attitudes. People today lean towards having an overly acidic pH dominant body environment. Our bodies become a cesspool of toxic acidity as a result from dominating fast foods, processed foods, high levels of stress from work, general negative thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. Driving in heavy traffic; thus building tension in drivers will increase the acidity in your body thereby lowering your pH from optimum. Controlling pH are not the only factors that can influence these conditions, nor by correcting pH balance alone will offer a "miracle cure" for any of these conditions. However, by correcting these imbalances allows your body to open up the pathways to healing.

How do I know if I am Acidic or Alkaline?

Even mild acidosis has been connected with many conditions. For example, organs show signs of chronic cardiovascular, liver, kidney damage, adrenal insufficiency, bladder and kidney stones. Structurally, muscle soreness and fatigue can result from an overly acidic system. In addition, an acidic body terrain is linked with poor oxygen utilization, premature aging, asthma, allergies, immunodeficiency, slow recovery from colds and flu's, arthritis, osteoporosis, anemia, and chronic fatigue. Emotionally, people who are depressed have shown to have a constant acidic body terrain.

What can be done to control our body pH?

Our bodies have incredible built-in buffer system that keeps our pH within a very tight range, so that everything may function optimally. Homeostasis, the ability to keep our pH within a very narrow range, is controlled through physiological feedback mechanisms. Such feedback mechanisms come from the blood, lungs, kidneys, and diet. These feedback mechanisms tell our brains and bodies that when the pH is too low, release substances to raise it up, and when it's too high, release substances to lower it down. One thing to remember, acid forming foods Outside of natural body buffering mechanisms, you can also influence these ranges thereby optimizing your pH through eating the right foods that will shift your saliva and urine pH levels.

How do I test my pH levels?

    There are several ways to test our body pH levels for determining health status. We can test pH through the blood, urine, and saliva. Due to accessibility, urine and saliva samples are easiest to read on a daily basis. A person only needs a strip of pH litmus paper and a pH chart.
    The blood keeps a tight range hovering around 7.4, or slightly alkaline. The urine and saliva pH usually have a range lower in the acidic range of 6.4 - 6.7. The two best times to assess your pH is the first thing in the morning, and again at night. Although, readings any time of the day can still reveal significant findings. It is also best to keep a daily-recorded log of pH levels.
    From here, we can begin to get a general overview of our total body terrain function. Testing pH alone does not offer a complete picture of what is going on, just an overall picture. Other factors including how our bodies use sugar, proteins, energy production, nervous system status, and cellular membrane tension, along with pH all together give better clues to the functional healing capability of our body.

Where do I go from here?

If you are interested in learning more about how pH and proper nutrition can beneficially affect your lives or what you can do to maintain a healthy lifestyle you can contact Dr. Morgan at his office. From the office he can run a full, personalized nutritional analysis, chiropractic care, and exercise advice so that you can take control of your health today.

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Touch of Health
985 S Buffalo Grove Rd
Buffalo Grove, Illinois 60089
Phone: 847-541-HURT (847-541-4878)
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Touch of Health Facility in Buffalo Grove, Illinois