What is pH?

Fact: Most Americans have an excess of acid in their bodies.

The pH Scale ranges from 0 on the acidic side to 14 on the alkaline and pH7 is neutral. At pH 7, water contains equal concentrations of H+ and OH- ions. When a substance has less than a 7pH, they are considered acidic because they contain a higher concentration of H+ ions. Higher concentration of OH- than H+. The pH scale is a logarithmic scale, so when there is a change in the pH of one, there is actually a tenfold shift in the concentration of hydrogen ions.

For example, a popular Cola, at pH 2.5 is almost 50,000 times more acidic than neutral water, and needs 32 glasses of neutral (pH7) water to counteract one glass of Cola.

pH 6 means you are ten times more acid than pH 7. pH 5 means you are a hundred times more acid than pH 7.

Living things, including humans, are extremely sensitive to pH and function best (with certain exceptions, such as different portions of the digestive tract) when solutions are nearly neutral.

Most interior living matter (excluding the cell nucleus) has a pH of about 6.8. Blood plasma and other fluids that surround the cells in the body have a pH of 7.2 to 7.45.

Fighting Our Internal War

Our organs and cells within our bodies are totally subservient to our blood. The body is willing to inflict major damage on organs if they appear to stand in the way of correct blood pH.

Your body will willingly shut down digestion, alter temperature, rob your bones of calcium, and deprive your pancreas, just to maintain adequate fluid buffers of alkalinity to balance the 'acid wave' we inflict upon ourselves through diet, pollution and stress. A blood pH of 6.9 can induce coma and death. That is why all bodily systems are secondary in importance to the system of pH balancing.

However, your body possesses numerous special mechanisms to aid in stabilizing these fluids so that cells will not be subject to appreciable fluctuations in pH.

Substances, which serve as mechanisms to stabilize pH, are called BUFFERS.

Buffers have the capacity to bond ions and remove them from solution whenever their concentration begins to rise. Conversely, buffers can release ions whenever their concentration begins to fall, thus helping to minimize the fluctuations in pH. This is an important function because many biochemical reactions normally occurring in living organisms either release or use up ions.

Think about what a relief it is for your body if the primary system of pH balancing can take a break because you consume alkaline water.