pH 101: Acid-Alkaline Balance & Your Health

Hiya Gorgeous,

You may have heard about pH or the acid-alkaline balance in your wellness travels. I was oblivious to this concept when I began my health and wellness journey. But my overall well-being changed when I started to connect the dots between pH balance, inflammation, and what I was eating and drinking.

What the Heck is pH?

Remember high school science class? Well, if you don’t, here’s a little refresher course: The body maintains a delicate acid-alkaline balance. Everything from healthy cells to cancer cells to soil quality and ocean life is affected by pH.

The term pH stands for “potential hydrogen” which is the measure of hydrogen ions in a particular solution (don’t worry if you’re not science-savvy, I’ll make this easy to understand!). In our case, that “solution” refers to our body’s fluids and tissues.

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 and is meant to measure how acidic or alkaline a substance is. Seven is neutral. Below 7 becomes increasingly acidic, above 7 increasingly alkaline.

What Do Balanced pH Levels Look Like?

As with most health-related barometers, a healthy pH balance is everything. Proper pH balance varies throughout your body for many reasons. For example, your bowels, skin and vagina should be slightly acidic–this helps keep unfriendly bacteria away. Saliva is more alkaline, while your urine is normally more acidic, especially in the morning.

In addition, your body regularly deals with naturally occurring acids that are the by-products of respiration, metabolism, cellular breakdown and exercise. So clearly the goal is not to think of acid as “bad” and alkaline as “good.” Again, the body’s pH levels are a delicate balance.

By far the most important measurement is your blood. For optimal cellular health, your blood pH level must be slightly alkaline with a pH between 7.365 and 7.45. Our bodies are programmed to maintain this range no matter what, since even the slightest dip or rise in pH can have seriously dangerous consequences.

Can the Human Body Restore pH Balance on its Own?

Now here’s the possible problem: The Standard American Diet (SAD) is rife with acidic substances and foods—meat, dairy, highly processed food products and refined sugar. Environmental toxins can be acidic, too, and sadly, those are pretty dang hard to avoid.

Some research claims our bodies can self-correct in the presence of such acidic materials with no negative health impact—but other peer-reviewed studies suggest our bods have to work harder to neutralize the acidic load, resulting in a gradual decline in health.

The jury’s still out and further research is needed, but we do know that high acid diets are associated with gout, kidney stones, and other health conditions, so it seems likely there’s something to the whole pH and food connection. To that I say, why not tip the scales in the alkaline direction?

How to Measure pH Balance

You may be tempted to start testing your pH like a mad woman to make sure you’re on track, but it’s really not necessary. I tested my tinkle a lot when I first learned about pH, but these days I’m comfortable skipping the strips, knowing that I’m doing what I can to contribute to my pH balance with the three diet and lifestyle practices below.

But if you’re still curious, you can test your urine at home with litmus paper strips (available online for about $10). Keep in mind that the pH of urine always varies, depending on what you eat and when, and that you should test your second urine of the day for the best snapshot of what’s going on inside.

Testing your urine can show you how well your body is excreting acids and assimilating minerals. For optimum sparkle, the normal pH level in your urine should fall in the 6.8 to 7.5 pH range.

What Causes a pH Imbalance?

Think about the acidic standard American diet (SAD). Most folks are shovelin’ in the acid multiple times per day with tons of sugar, processed foods, factory-farmed animal products, etc. One of the biggest pitfalls of the SAD is the toll it takes on the body, especially the digestive system, liver, and kidneys. What else can wreak havoc on pH levels?

Stress

Constant stress leads to the secretion of stress hormones, which can lead to chronic inflammation and an acidic environment.

Shallow Breathing

When you’re stressed, do you breathe quickly? Rapid and shallow breathing—taking in oxygen too quickly—can lead to acidity.

Toxins

Exposure to environmental toxins (heavy metals, pollutants, hormones, chemicals in food and plastics, beauty products, unclean tap water, etc.) can wreak havoc on your pH balance.

Infections

Infections also lead to an acidic environment which impacts your immune system, increasing the likelihood of continued illness. Secondly, over-the-counter medications can alter your microbiome and allow bad bacteria to thrive, which can negatively impact pH levels.

Medical conditions

If you have a medical condition (like diabetes) it may lead to a higher pH level. If you have a diagnosed medical condition, check with your doctor to help determine your next steps.

Symptoms of a pH Imbalance

These are just a few of the symptoms you might exhibit as acid levels (or alkaline levels) increase.

• Inflammation
• Allergies
• Arthritis
• Skin problems
• Constipation
• Bowel issues
• Stress
• ketoacidosis
• Vaginal infections

Vaginal pH Balance

Good bacteria work to keep your vaginal pH balanced. For example, Lactobacilli bacteria live in the vagina and secrete lactic acid (which is what makes your vagina acidic). When vaginal pH levels are out of whack, it can lead to numerous infections:

• Bacterial vaginosis (BV)
• Yeast infections
• Atrophic vaginitis
• Urinary tract infections

Unbalanced vaginal pH levels can allow harmful bacteria to kill good bacteria, leading to these common infections. Vaginal health is important to your overall health, and restoring ph balance should positively impact your lady parts, too!

Think you have a vaginal imbalance?

• Vaginal discharge that is a cottage cheese consistency could be a yeast infection
• A foul-smelling vaginal discharge that isn’t clear or off-white might indicate bacterial vaginosis
• If you’re experiencing burning or see blood in your pee, you might have a UTI.

Women’s health is important to me (obviously!) and a healthy vagina is important to overall wellness. See your doc if you’re experiencing any uncomfortable symptoms and they may prescribe something to help balance your ph levels.

ALKALINE VS. ACIDIC FOODS

How do we know if a food is alkaline or acidic, and by how much? The most common method is to incinerate a sample of the food and analyze the mineral content of the ash. Not something you can do with a chemistry set from Toys “R” Us.

At any rate, if the ash is high in alkaline minerals, the food will probably have an alkalizing effect. That’s the theory, anyway. Because lab results and experts often disagree, the many books and websites that give alkaline and acidic food charts also disagree. Usually, the disagreement is minor. In some cases, though, it’s much bigger.

Whether a food is mildly alkalizing or mildly acidifying doesn’t matter very much. There are definitely shades of gray. What’s far more important is to understand what’s highly acidic and thus also inflammatory to make better choices. I’ve added some resources to help you do just that.

We can potentially tilt the pH scale in the alkaline direction with a diet filled with mineral-rich plant foods. By eating a more alkaline diet (leafy greens, wheatgrass, veggies, sprouts, avocados, green juices and smoothies) as opposed to an acidic diet (high in animal products, processed carbs, refined sugar, energy drinks, etc), we flood our bodies with alkalinity, vitamins and other nutrients. Healthy food creates healthy cells. Conversely, junk goes in and junk comes out.

What Causes an Alkaline Imbalance?

Look at your plate, peek in your glass. What direction are you moving in? On the pH scale, Soda = 2. Coffee = 4. Cucumber = 7. Get the picture? Burgers, fries, diet sodas, muffins, and candy bars will lead to excess acid. Green drinks, salads, and sprouts are alkaline foods. Your goal is to make more energy deposits than withdrawals. Do you have to be perfect? NO.

And it’s not even possible to eat a 100 percent alkaline diet and maintain good health anyway. Foods like beans, grains and nuts are overall quite healthy and essential to a plant-powered diet—yet they also have a slightly higher acidic pH level.

It’s the highly acidic foods we need to be careful about (but no one’s saying don’t have cake on your birthday. Please do.). Again, your goal is to fill your well more than you deplete it. Our bodies forgive the detours and exploration, as long as they don’t take place 24-7.

Top 3 Ways To Restore and Support Your Body’s pH Balance

What can you do to balance your body’s pH level? Here are a few natural remedies to try:

Start Your Day with a Tall Glass of Lemon Water and Stay Hydrated

While lemons are acidic in their natural form, lemon water is alkaline-forming in the body. Drench your cells in alkalinity each morning with two cups of warm water with ¼ fresh-squeezed lemon. Yes, there are fancy (and expensive) water ionizers or bottled alkaline water out there, but you can also alkalize your water by simply adding lemon.

You might want to double-check the pH level of water that you drink. Distilled water can skew acidic, which means it absorbs carbon dioxide, making your body even more acidic. You’ll want to lean more toward alkaline water.

Eat More Raw Foods and Drink Green Juices and Smoothies

Organic green juice, green juice, green juice and green smoothies! The staples of a healthy diet are key: leafy greens, wheatgrass, veggies, sprouts, certain fresh fruits, nuts and seeds, certain grains and seaweeds flood our bodies with vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll and phytonutrients—and create an alkaline environment.

Unhealthy cells (like cancer cells) or viruses, bacteria and other nasty microorganisms hate oxygen. They prefer an acidic diet high in animal products, processed and refined foods, and synthetic chemicals.

Exercise, Manage Stress, Sleep Better and Avoid Nasty Chemicals

It’s not just diet that affects your pH. Lack of exercise and an overage of anger, drugs, cigarettes and stress can create inflammation and high acidity levels in the body. Stress isn’t a laughing matter or a badge of courage. The work-hard, play-hard, deal-with-it-later approach is a big pH no-no.

Emotional stress releases acid-forming hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline that flood your system and muck up your soil. Whether it’s through more yoga, cat naps, meditation, deep breathing exercises, strolls in the woods, or stress management counseling, reducing the negativity in your day-to-day is a powerful way to improve your cellular health.

Consider Taking a Probiotic Supplement

A healthy diet full of high-fiber foods should keep your system’s levels of probiotics balanced. You can consider adding in more fermented foods (kombucha, miso, pickles, etc.) or taking a probiotic supplement.

More Resources About Balancing pH Levels

Ready for some further reading? Here are some great resources you can check out:

• The Ultimate pH Solution by Michelle Schoffro-Cook
• The Acid-Alkaline Diet for Optimum Health by Christopher Vasey
• Crazy Sexy Diet by moi

Just to name a few! You can also find many charts online.

Peace & peppy pH,