How to Balance Your Body’s pH Level

To prevent disease, you must keep your body in balance. pH level is one of the best ways to measure that balance. pH stands for power of hydrogen, which is a measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the body. It is an indication of how acid or how alkaline the body is.

You can test your acid-alkaline pH balance regularly by drenching a piece of litmus paper in your saliva or urine first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything.

Morning readings will be slightly higher than usual daytime pH levels because the body has just spent the night detoxing. Mornings readings, however, are a good indication of general pH range.

What is the body’s ideal acid-alkaline ratio?

Ideally, the body should be balanced between acid and alkaline at a blood pH level of 7.365, which is slightly alkaline. The acid- alkaline scale goes from 0 to 14, with zero being pure acid (think of battery acid) and 2 being the acidity level of lemons. On the other side, 11 is the alkalinity level of ammonia. All fluids and cells in the body have an acid alkaline balance, but none are as important as blood pH, which must be kept from 7.3 to 7.4 to survive. The goal is to maintain this neutral pH range for optimum health and disease prevention.

While neutral pH is linked to health and vitality, acidic urine and saliva pH make you more vulnerable to diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and heartburn. Acidity is also the ideal environment for viral, bacterial and fungal infections to thrive. Less serious complaints are associated with acidity (also called acidosis) such as migraines, constipation and allergies.

Scientific Discoveries

Nobel prize winner Dr. Otto H Warburg found that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency. Oxygen deficiency leads to an acidic state in the body. Conversely, high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state, create an environment where cancer cells can’t survive.

Dr. Warburg found that cancer cells are anaerobic, which mean they don’t breathe oxygen and thrive in a low-oxygen, acid state. On the contrary, normal cells need oxygen to survive. He also found that cell oxygen deprivation causes cancer. If normal cells get 35 percent below normal oxygen supply for up to 48 hours, it could turn them cancerous.

Another major determinant of acid-alkaline balance is diet. Eating a diet of toxic, acid-forming foods like processed, refined grains and sugars or genetically modified organisms leads to acidic pH. The body compensates to balance blood pH by pulling salts and mineral such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium from other areas of the body, like the bones, to neutralize the acid. This can result in mineral deficiencies.

pH Level Balance Home Remedy

Here’s an easy home remedy for balancing acidity. In conjunction with an alkalinizing diet, it will bring your body back into pH balance.

Ingredients: 1/3 tsp. baking soda and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or organic apple cider vinegar.

Method: Mix everything together. The acid/base combination will immediately begin to fizz. Keep adding baking soda until the fizz stops and then fill the glass with 8 oz. water. Drink all at once. This home remedy will neutralize the pH and create an alkaline-forming environment in your body. It will help with stomach acid and reduce acidosis.

Diets that Promote pH Balance

An alkalinizing diet is one that is full of fresh fruits and veggies, organic or pastured meat/eggs, gluten-free grains and raw nuts and seeds. Dairy, refined sugar, processed foods, vegetable oils (except for coconut, avocado and olive) commercially raised meat, sodas, coffee, black tea, alcohol and chocolate all create acidity in the body.

Stress and negative emotions also contribute acidity to the body. Stress reduction and pleasurable activities are just as important in balancing pH as food. Exercise also adds more oxygen to the body, making it a pH balancing activity.

Detoxification is vital to maintaining pH balance. It also gets rid of stored toxins that affect the body’s ability to function, balance and naturally detoxify. Most detox diets focus on eating alkalinizing foods, exercise and stress reduction.