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Introduction pH
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Integrated
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Treatments
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Steve Denk / Biomedx
Author of How You Rot & Rust as well
as all pH, live blood
In the series entitled "How You Rot & Rust" which is in other areas of
this manual, we introduce the concept of pH and its relationship to
one's health. In this series we will show you how measuring the pH
of
body fluids like urine and saliva can help you assess the body's
balance.
To recap, pH is the acronym for potential hydrogen. It is a measure of
the degree of saturation of the hydrogen ion in a substance or solution.
From a mildly technical perspective, let's look at the molecule of
water, H2O. H=Hydrogen and O=Oxygen.
If water and water is combined we get H2O + H2O => H3O + OH-
H3O (the hydronium ion+) is the acid element and OH- (the hydroxyl ion-)
is the base or alkaline element. (You may also note that the +ion is a
cation and the -ion is an anion as discussed in the section on Zeta
Potential.) In pure water these are balanced and upon measuring with a
pH meter the reading would be 7.
7 is neutral on a pH scale which goes from 0 to 14. This scale
corresponds to the hydrogen ion concentration from 100 to 10-14 moles
per liter. This is a huge range which sensitive instruments can measure.
When the H3O and OH- are out of balance a pH meter will detect this and
the reading will move above or below 7. Like a teeter-totter, if one
goes up the other goes down and vice versa.
In the human body a pH
balancing act is continuously going on to
maintain homeostasis. When defining measurement values of certain pH
levels of human fluids, there are no absolutes that can be written in
stone because the value that "should be here" has to be balanced against
other values "that should be there". In essence, in the human body
things never happen in a vacuum and you need to be ever mindful of these
things as you make your measurements.
pH – buffer system
There are three primary pH buffering systems of the body but for now we
simply want to say a few words about the word "buffer". What exactly
does that mean? A buffer keeps something where it should be. It buffers
adverse swings. It shields, cushions and protects.
If you have ever seen a pH
test strip for a swimming pool, you will note
a section of the strip that states "pH" which will give a direct pH
reading, and a section of the strip that states "total alkalinity". Now
you might have a swimming pool reading of 7.2 pH, but if "total
alkalinity" is low, the pH of 7.2 can be easily moved too acid or too
alkaline. It can be pushed around because the total concentration of (-)
ions (the "total alkalinity") is low. Hence, pH can get pushed around
and will not stay put.
This same thing happens with humans. pH
values can get pushed around
fairly easily if total alkalinity is low. The key is to balance pH
and
increase total alkalinity levels. Now just so you don't go overboard
with the thought that all must be alkaline to the extreme, note that
everything has balance and a perfect range. There are compartments in
the body that you could say need "total acidity" in order to function.
So for our purposes, we will say that the key is "total buffering" which
is a good ionic concentration to maintain a solid pH that stays within
an ideal range for the thing being measured.
In general we can raise the body's buffer capacity through consumption
of mineral rich food, however, this is not always easy to do with our
current agricultural situation of chemical farming on depleted soils. So
in a clinical environment, we can assist pH balance in the body by using
supplemental minerals. We pay attention to the anionic/cationic ratios,
and while minerals like sodium,
potassium and
magnesium are important,
we use various forms of calcium to push pH in specific directions (up,
down or neutral) depending on the
calcium type and this increases "total
buffering" activity to maintain a solid pH that stays within optimum
range and does not move easily. Now with that said, it is easy to use
the wrong calcium in the wrong pH range and screw things up. But we'll
cover this later.
pH – Range
For our purposes we will be measuring urine and saliva. In a perfect
world with other health parameters in place, the pH of both urine and
saliva will be right around the 6.4 level - and this would be at just
about any time of day when tested - though the best times to track and
test for a baseline reading would be two hours after a meal.
Understand that pH
can move all over the place. This is so because most
individuals "total alkalinity" is not very strong. So two hours after a
meal for instance, you may find the urine going acid as it is a
reflection of the meals acid components pushing the pH. But as "total
alkalinity" increases in an individual, this swaying urine pH
starts to
lock in at the 6.4 level. This takes time to accomplish.
The question may arise as to why urine and saliva should be steady in
the 6.4 area, and the answer lies with the work of many researchers,
most specifically in this regard to Dr. Carey Reams. In our own clinical
work with the research of Reams, Vincent, Rivici and others, we strongly
concur with the 6.4 level for urine and saliva.
The reason 6.4 seems to be ideal is for specific ionization principles
to be carried out in the body. Anytime we talk about the human body and
biological terrain, we can relate it to stories of farming and soil
terrain for there is common ground in both areas. After all, we do come
from the dust of the earth and it is the dust of the earth from which we
will return (our bodies at least). pH is but one parameter that
quantifies the nature of the terrain.
When a plant grows, it draws up from the cationic earth and reaches
towards the anionic sky. As one force of the plant spirals up, another
energetic force spirals down. The plant uptakes the water and minerals
from the soil and ionizes, changes and incorporates those substances
into the fibers and matrix of the plant. In order for the plant to reach
its optimum and most healthy state (and nutritious when talking about
edible plants) the soil terrain must be within an ideal range of
parameters.
When we eat the plant, the process is reversed and the plant substance
is broken down through the pressure and resistance of digestion and the
soil of the liver transforms, stores and dispenses components of the
life processes which are further acted on by the soil of the cells and
glands throughout the body. It is the circle of life; highly charged,
electric, and magnetic, some might say electromagnetic or electrostatic.
I am reminded of a story of this circle of life spoken of by Buckminster
Fuller who was truly a great thinker (you may recall the geodesic dome
and Bucky balls). He was once asked the question, what is fire? In a
nutshell, he said that if you were to watch a log burning in the
fireplace, the fire you are seeing is the sun's radiation unwinding. The
sun's flame winds through the sky and through photosynthesis is absorbed
by the tree. The tree grows and for every year of its life a growth ring
forms showing a years worth of absorbing the sun's flame. When the tree
gets chopped down to a log and burned in the fireplace, you are witness
to the sun's flame coming back out. It's the circle of life.
The food you consume stores the flame of the sun. The more perfect your
body's biological terrain, the more capacity you will have to extract
every ounce of the flame to give you vibrant health and dynamic energy.
The food you consume is met with the resistance of digestion, and it is
this resistance which causes a friction and a release of energy in the
form of amino acids and mineral ions, colloids, heat and electricity.
Visualize a hydraulic press. That press sits between your saliva pH
of
6.4 and your urine pH of 6.4. At that pH level the press has maximum
force and effect to extract all the energy food has to give. But if the
saliva pH that is above the press or the urine pH that is below the
press shifts outside of the 6.4/6.4 range, the efficiency of the press
begins to fall. Hence, metabolic efficiency begins to go askew,
imbalance sets in, and over time problems can develop.
The testing that follows are a series of tests to illustrate where your
pH lies and will give you insights to the degree of balance (or not)
within your body.
We will follow this up with a few guidelines and simple mineral and
calcium rules that can help an individual re-balance the pH.
Daily Cycle Test
This is an on-going test over several days to even a couple of weeks to
determine how your pH swings during the day under different
circumstances and food consumption habits.
Take a sheet of paper and make 5 columns headed "time", "consumption",
"saliva pH", "urine pH", "feel".
You will record your urine and saliva pH
every time you go to the
bathroom. When you wake up in the morning record the time and your pH
values and how you feel. When you eat breakfast, record the time. Next
time you go to the bathroom record the time, your pH values and how you
feel. Next time you eat, record the time and what you ate. Next time you
go to the bathroom record the time, pH values and how you feel. Do this
throughout the whole day and over many days.
Here you will start to track what you eat, how that makes your pH
sway,
and how you feel during the process. It can be an invaluable tool to
begin to make associations like; every time I eat x food, my pH a few
hours later goes to y value, and I feel like…. You may start to notice
patterns that are either for your benefit or perhaps not. Do it for a
long enough period and you will start to see cause and effect. You are
on the road to taking real charge of your health.
Wake-up-Test
First thing in the morning, your eyes open up, you roll over and test
your saliva pH. In a best situation, your pH reads 6.4. Individuals with
either chronic degenerative diseases or those setting themselves up for
such will see their wake up saliva from 5.5 or lower with concurrent
urine pH as low as 4.5. These values represent a long term acid stress
on the body. Generally this means that an individuals alkaline reserves
are very low to depleted. In general you do not want to see a wake up
saliva pH below 6.1.
Salivating Test
You sit down to eat, you get the aroma of your favorite mealtime dish,
you are ready to chow down and something begins to happen in your mouth.
You begin to salivate. This is a reflection of the enzyme amylase
kicking in for the starch digestion process. This enzyme needs a range
of pH ideally around 7.2 pH. So if you have adequate alkaline reserves
in your body, testing your saliva pH as you salivate before a meal
should give you a pH reading of around 7.2. If your pH is not getting up
to at least 7.0, you can assume there is stress in your alkaline
reserves and the further below 7 it goes, the more depleted are those
reserves. You could also suspect digestion all around is not doing so
well. This typically indicates a longer term problem and more serious
effort needs to be applied to help restore overall health.
Acid Meal Test
Here you are going to eat an acid forming food evening meal. Meat,
pasta, beans, bread, nuts, fish, no vegetables. Next morning, check your
first urine pH. The meal the previous evening was too acid, but the body
needs to be getting rid of this acid, so the urine should reflect this.
Best situation would be wake up urine from 4.5 up to 5.8 or so. This
would be a reflection of your body having enough alkaline reserves that
it was buffering the acid and the adrenals and kidneys had appropriate
energy to get rid of it. It is a healthy response.
Wake up urine after the acid evening meal between 5.8 and 6.8 is a
reflection that the body is barely compensating, and the higher the pH
the worse the situation.
Wake up urine after the acid evening meal of 6.8 or higher is not good.
It is a possible indication that the body is dumping bicarbonate ions
and may be in the ammonia cycle of the liver to help deal with the acid.
This situation probably means depleted alkaline reserves and possible
exhausted adrenal glands as well as probable digestive problems.
If the above situation or an alkaline morning urine is accompanied by an
acid saliva less then 5.8, the situation is getting worse, and the
further apart the numbers, the worse it is. Definite remedial action for
alkaline reserve build up is critical.
As a point of reference, have you ever been to a nursing home and
smelled an ammonia odor? Did you think that was because the nursing home
was doing a good job of house cleaning? Well that is not the case. What
is happening is you are smelling the urine of very sick people in their
last days. Their bodies are in a give up state, they are likely dumping
any alkaline buffers they have and the body is in last ditch mode trying
to maintain sufficient blood pH for life to hang on by converting the
acid in their systems to ammonia. The single biggest thing those
individuals need is more water for hydration and a lot of alkalizing
minerals. I would venture to guess that if this were to occur in nursing
homes around the country a lot of their patients would be getting better
and going home.
Alkaline Meal Test
Here you are going to eat an alkalizing evening meal. Basically all
vegetables. Green leafy veggies, broccoli, lima beans, carrots, etc.
Next morning check your first urine pH.
If the pH range is 4.5 to 5.5 you can consider it a too acid response.
It means your body has a lot of excess acidity stored and you need to
keep up those alkaline evening meals until the numbers come up.
If you have a pH
range from 5.5 to 6.8 it could be considered that you
have a better level of alkaline reserves, but key to that assumption
would be how you feel. If you feel healthy this range is ok. If you have
symptoms of problems, you may need to dig more into the situation.
If the pH range is 6.8 to 8.5 again it could mean all is very well IF
you are perfectly healthy. However, if you were experiencing serious
symptoms of ill health, this alkaline response could be an indication
that your cells are too toxic to use the alkaline reserves and instead
are being dumped.
It should be mentioned here that there can be times when someone
consumes many vegetables and alkaline minerals and their pH readings
average far above 6.4. They believe this to be healthy but it actually
is reflecting an underlying imbalance. Instead of using the minerals
they are being dumped. Further testing will many times show an
anabolic/catabolic imbalance - some clinicians also refer to this as an
anaerobic/dysaerobic imbalance. This is related to the mix of fatty
acids and sterols on cell membrane walls. If these fatty acids and
sterols go askew it will affect cell membrane permeability so what goes
in does not necessarily get assimilated the way it should.
Moving pH
To get a quick "average" pH, you can measure yourself two hours after
breakfast and two hours after lunch. Do this over a period of days and
get your average numbers. Then use this formula:
(Avg Urine pH ____ + Avg Saliva pH X 2 ___) / Divided by 3 = ___
Average pH Between 6 and 7
If your average pH is between 6 and 7 just use the neutral
calcium of gluconate and orotate to build up your total alkalinity along with other
minerals and trace minerals.
Average pH Above 7
If your pH
is above 7, add calcium lactate and
vitamin C (ascorbic
acid). Clinicians have found about 1000mg twice a day of C is good, and
the higher above pH 7 you go, the more
vitamin C you can take. Stop the
calcium lactate when you come into range between 6 and 7 and pull back
on the vitamin C.
Do not take vitamin D.
Average pH
Below 6
If your pH is below 6, add calcium citrate or
calcium carbonate
(something like coral calcium is the carbonate form). With pH 5.6 to 6
clinicians have found that adding 1000 IU of
vitamin D once or twice a
day is beneficial and pH from 5.2 to 5.6 up to 5000 IU of
vitamin D is
good, while pH below 5.0 up to 50000 IU of
vitamin D once or twice a day
would be ok as little
vitamin D is being absorbed in the acid terrain.
You can use the
vitamin D to help push the pH up. Stop the
calcium
citrate and carbonate when you come into pH range 6 to 7. Pull back on
vitamin D and go to cod liver oil for
vitamin D requirements.
Do not take vitamin C.
Testing Gear
Here is standard pH test paper. It ranges from pH
of 5.5 to 8.0 in .2
steps. This .2 step is important to try and get accuracy. About a 2 inch
strip of paper is torn off and it is dipped into your urine or saliva
and read immediately. The color of the paper that matches the test
colors is the pH.
Here is a digital pH meter. One drop of urine or saliva is placed on the
tip and the pH is given in the digital readout up to .1 accuracy
pH meters come in many flavors but for long term use and low maintenance
the best meters use pH probes with ISFET technology. This is basically
an electronic solid state chip that can use as little as one drop of
fluid for testing. Biomedx uses the mini Lab shown here which has two
point calibration for accuracy. We chose this over other units that only
have single point calibration. This means you calibrate the probe at 4.5
and 7.0 pH levels and then your saliva and urine test will be very
accurate.
Some meters use glass bulbs but those wear out fast and they should
always be stored wet to maintain good function. You can sometimes find
these at low cost but they often require large sample size and their
accuracy fluctuates depending on how well they have been maintained.
This pocket pH meter includes a pH training guide which is an
educational program on pH that includes the tests reviewed on this site
along with a couple of others, appropriate pH tracking charts and an
extended calcium chart for choosing the appropriate
calcium
supplementation to move pH as required.
pH is an important parameter to gauge one's health and the small
investment in a portable and high quality pH probe like the mini Lab
shown here can pay dividends now and well into the future for your
health. This is one of the tools all health minded individuals should
own.
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Disclaimer
This information is
provided for general medical education purposes only and
is not meant to substitute for the independent medical
judgment of a physician relative to diagnostic and
treatment options of a specific patient's medical
condition.
In no event will The DrEddyClinic.com be liable for any
decision made or action taken in reliance upon the
information provided through this web site.
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Chiang Mai 50230, Thailand
Phone.
+66-53-436284
Fax. +66-53-436284
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