Acids, Alkaline & You: The Importance of Tracking Your PH Levels

Acids, alkaline, and pH levels probably remind you of chemistry class back in school. You may or may not remember their relevance after you passed those tests because you weren’t planning on becoming a chemist anyway.  However, these may actually have something to do with the reason you’ve been feeling sluggish and tired a lot lately. You may have also been gaining weight even though you’ve been watching your food intake and exercising, or you’ve noticed that you’ve contracted colds pretty frequently of late. Believe it or not, these and many other health problems like osteoporosis or kidney stones may be caused by imbalanced pH levels.

If you’ve been experiencing the above mentioned conditions, chances are your body is excessively acidic. Our blood should typically have a balanced pH (“potential of Hydrogen”) level of about 7.365 to 7.4 and anything lower or higher than that means you have an imbalance in your body. Extremely high acid levels can wreak havoc on hormones; decrease your body’s ability to take in nutrients from your food and supplements; cause health problems, and give you mood swings.

An acidic body can be perfect for aiding the growth of bacteria, viruses and fungus (think about a fish tank; if it’s not balanced what happens to the water?). Unlike most other health conditions which can be treated with medicine or therapy, pH imbalance-related problems will only be fixed when you’re able to restore your body’s pH balance.

While it may sound distressing, the truth is that many people are prone to being highly acidic and sometimes a lifestyle and diet adjustment can help immensely. With that being said, you can nip the problem in the bud by regularly monitoring your body’s acidity or alkalinity with pH testing strips. You can help improve your alkalinity by following a diet which includes things like apple cider vinegar, lemons, and vegetable juices.

pH testing strips function similar to litmus paper in that they can tell you if your alkaline levels are okay or if you’re more acidic. They also give a more accurate reading which is more effective than litmus paper alone. These strips can be used to test your urine or saliva first thing in the morning, before eating, or two hours after eating.

pHresh Products™’ pHresh strips® pH test is a narrow-range testing kit which comes with the pH testing strips as well as an acid and alkaline food chart. After you test and receive your results, the chart will help you decide what you should eat (alkaline forming foods: green vegetables and dark-colored fruits) and avoid (acid forming foods: processed sugars, white flour). An alkaline diet can help you to maintain a good pH balance. The test kit also includes a pH log to make tracking your results easier and help you stick to your alkaline diet.

For more information about how pHresh strips® can give you insight on your health and to purchase them, visit this page.

Photo Credit: James Louis