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 fluid—a 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.

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.

Note that a food’s acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic, however the end-products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so lemons are alkaline-forming in the body.

Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming.

The correct ratio of acid and alkaline forming foods is difficult to know since the balance is altered by chewing, food preparation, individual lifestyle, genetics, exercise, and mental outlook. However, those prone to infections, viruses, excess mucus problems and other toxic acidic conditions need to increase their alkaline diet.

The Saliva PH test is a simple test you can do to measure your susceptibility to cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, and many other degenerative diseases.

There is a simple way of measuring saliva pH. First, you must wait at least 2 hours after eating. Fill your mouth with saliva and then swallow it. Repeat this step to help ensure that your saliva is clean. Then the third time, put some of your saliva onto the pH paper.

The pH paper should turn blue. This indicates that your saliva is slightly alkaline at a healthy pH of 7.4. If it is not blue, compare the color with the chart that comes with the pH paper. If your saliva is acid (below pH of 7.0) wait two hours and repeat the test.

Some health food stores and pharmacies stock pH paper. What you are looking for is narrow range pH paper measuring pH 4.5 to 7.5 or pH 4.5 to 8.5. These pH strips to measure acid/alkaline balance pH belong in every family medicine kit, right beside the thermometer to measure body temperature.

pH paper for the test are relatively easy to acquire. Some health food stores and pharmacies stock pH paper. What you are looking for is narrow range pH paper measuring pH 4.5 to 7.5 or pH 4.5 to 8.5. These pH strips to measure acid/alkaline balance belong in every family medicine kit, right beside the thermometer to measure body temperature.