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Testing Your pH for Alkaline Balance
The quality of your choices will ultimately determine the quality of your pH. Tracking your daily pH is inexpensive, extremely easy to do, and takes very little time (less than 30 seconds). All you need is a box of duel pH test strips and something to write in to track your progress.
I recommend doing a daily pH test for 30 days because it gives you a trend and is a GREAT way to objectively measure the effect of your health choices. Also, monitoring your pH on a consistent basis gives you excellent motivation. There is a saying – What you inspect, you respect…and you WILL!
Click HERE to Print Dr Daryl's 7-DAY ACID TRACKER:
It's a phenomenal tool to track your daily urine and saliva pH levels, water intake, supplements, food and beverage - AND, our greatest marker of our health - an end of day ENERGY INVENTORY.
If I had to define health in one word, it's your energy. On your Acid Tracker, at the end of the day, I want you to assign a number from 1-10 (10 being the most unstoppable energy you every had, zero being a walking zombie) to your overall daily energy. As you look at all of the things you are tracking, you will find when your energy was up, you were making quality health choices....and when your energy was down, acidifying choices.
Whether it is your business, personal finances, or in this case, your health, keeping track of your ‘numbers’ is VITAL to your success. They will tell you EXACTLY where you are NOW, and will help you track your progress over time to determine whether or not what you are doing is working.
I make it sound like it is a simple, easy process, and it is, but you will be surprised how many people get it wrong all the time. I am constantly testing my patient’s pH, and I am glad I am there to show them the correct way and how to avoid a test that would make your results invalid.
For example, I was watching a patient test her pH and when she put the pH strip in her mouth and pulled it out, she had her lips closed and the strip ran against her lipstick…a big No No. Also, testing your saliva RIGHT after drinking or eating is actually getting a measure of whatever it was you JUST drank or consumed. Again, not a true reflection of what your body is really telling you.
Your body has a bunch of different pH levels to maintain. Your ideal skin pH is 4-6.5. Your intestines are strongly alkaline at 8.4. The three that we are going to be most focused on is the pH of your saliva, urine, and blood.
Of the three, your blood pH is most crucial. Your blood must be tightly regulated at a constant pH of 7.365 and never changes. If it varies by even a few tenths of a point, severe illness and even death may result. It is THAT important.
Ideal saliva and urine pH is between 7.2 and 7.4. Your saliva should be slightly alkaline to begin the pre-digestive process. It produces Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) which is an alkaline buffer that neutralizes acids as they enter your mouth. This is why you see baking soda in many toothpastes.
Growing up, my teeth used to be SO bad. I was in the dentist chair all the time. I used to think it was all the sugar I used to consume that was decaying my teeth. Indirectly it was. Sugar is one of the biggest acids, but, it was the ACID that was corroding and causing the decay.
Minerals are the most effective way to neutralize acid. If you are eating a lot of acid-forming foods, your body will use a priority system if there are not enough available minerals to neutralize all of the acids present. Your blood is at the top of that priority list. Remember, if there is even a slight deviation in your blood pH, you’re in trouble.
Your body will go to ANY measure to ensure that it gets the minerals that it needs, even if it has to steal from its own resources to do it. Again, if our diets and lifestyles are pumping us up with damaging acids on a regular basis, and we don’t have an adequate mineral supply, your body finds a way to get it. One of the first places it will go to is the saliva.
This why testing your saliva pH can give you an early indication and warning that your body is over acidic. At its optimum, your saliva pH should have an alkaline pH of 7.2 – 7.4. If it is below 7.0, you are acidic and lack the necessary mineral buffers your body needs to handle any acids in its system. It’s time to start alkalizing.
Unfortunately, your saliva does not have a large amount of mineral reserves, and it can get depleted of any minerals that it does have very quickly, especially if you are consuming a heavily acidic diet. Next, your body will take whatever minerals it can from your urine and your soft tissues (Magnesium is a significant buffer of acids that resides largely in your muscle tissue throughout your body).
Acid drains our bodies of magnesium, which interrupts our enzyme function causing muscle cramps, spasm, and muscle pain. When your Magnesium levels gets depleted (80% of Americans are Magnesium deficient) your body turns to its largest alkaline mineral bank, the bones.
It has been estimated that a modern acid diet robs our skeleton of almost half its calcium over 20 years. No wonder the pharmaceutical companies are making millions from osteoporosis drugs. Minerals like calcium and magnesium “mop up” acids and toxins in the blood and act within seconds.
I think we can see by now how important it is to track these numbers. If you want to get an accurate test, it is important to follow these 4 easy steps precisely on how to measure your pH.
4 Simple Steps to Measure Your pH
- Rise and Shine Saliva Test:
Upon waking, test your saliva with a duel pH test strip. First thing, before drinking any water, brushing your teeth, or eating any food, you will lick and wet the end of the pH test strip with your saliva.
To avoid the chance of any inaccuracy, you can spit some saliva onto a spoon, and dip the pH test strip into that. Wait 15 seconds, note the color change and write down the pH number. The optimum rise and shine saliva pH should be 6.8 to 7.2.
- Rise and Shine Urine Test:
Next, test your first urine of the morning. You are measuring the urine that has been stored in your bladder during the night. To test, briefly place the pH strip in the urine mid-stream, shake the excess fluid and wait 15 seconds to read your pH.
Note the color change and write down the pH number. The first morning rise and shine urine should also be 6.8 – 7.2. Because you are measuring all of the metabolic acids that have been stored in your body ovrnight, it will usually be slightly more acidic.
If your pH is below 6.8, you are overly acidic and low in alkaline buffers, and need to increase your alkalinity with more alkaline water, and organic greens high in the minerals calcium, magnesium and potassium. If you are 7.2 or higher, you are doing great. You have the alkaline buffers needed to neutralize acidity in your diet and lifestyle.
- Second Morning Urine Test:
Next you want to test your second morning urine of the day. Ideally, try to do this test before eating any food. This second urine test is a post-hydration urine test. This means you are taking the reading after drinking water or a green drink. Right down your pH number.
- Repeat Daily for Thirty Days (and more):
While you will be tracking every reading, you want to take the first and second urine of the day and record the average reading. This is the number you will use when you track your trend over 30 days. One test in and of itself is of no major significance.
It is more or less a snapshot at that given point of time. You will reap the most benefit from looking at the trend over time, which is why it would be a great idea to write it down and graph it. Remember, think progress, not perfection.
OPTIONAL - Test your pH regularly to see how your body reacts to alkaline diet changes:
Check your pH between meals (between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner). The ideal range should be between 7.2 – 7.4. You may notice a slightly higher pH RIGHT after meals. If this happens its good, indicating you are sufficient in mineral reserves (up to 8.4).
After alkalizing your body (green drinks, mineral salts, water with lemon, avocado, almond butter, vegetable soup, etc) test your saliva and urine pH again within 5 minutes and write down the number.
If you have sufficient alkaline reserves to buffer and neutralize acid, the pH number will go up from your initial rise and shine saliva and urine tests. If it stays the same, or even goes down, your mineral reserves are depleted, indicating your body has been depleting its own resources to deal with the acid.
What do my results tell me for each step?
Step 1 & 2. Rise and Shine Saliva and Urine Test Result:
These tests tell us how effective our digestive system was able to deal with what we drank and ate the previous night/day. When you are eating an acidic diet, these numbers will fluctuate day to day and will be low. When you start alkalizing (i.e. Alkamind Daily Greens and Daily Minerals) the numbers will start to come up and over time, will begin to sustain themselves.
Rise and Shine Saliva/Urine pH Goal: at least 6.8, ideally between 7.2 – 7.4
Step 3. Second Morning Urine Test Result:
Your second morning urine should always be better than your first morning urine. Your first morning urine contained all the metabolic acids that were stored overnight in your bladder, and will always be more acidic. Once that has been eliminated, your second morning urine should definitely improve.
Second Morning Urine pH Goal: Ideally between 7.2 – 7.4
If it is lower than 7.2, you are over acidic and lack the alkaline minerals necessary to buffer and neutralize the acid in your body. Your body is in a constant state of acidosis, and it is important to remove these daily acids (dairy, sugar, meat, processed grains, soda, pasta, bread, etc) and start to alkalize with organic greens, low-sugar fruits, 3-4 liters of alkaline water, and green drinks and mineral salts (Alkamind Daily Greens and Daily Minerals).
If you are 7.2 or higher, you are doing great. You have the alkaline buffers needed to neutralize acidity in your diet and lifestyle. Test your pH regularly to see how your body reacts to the alkaline diet changes in your life.
If you have sufficient alkaline reserves to buffer and neutralize acid, the pH number will go up from your initial rise and shine saliva and urine tests. If it stays the same, or even goes down, your mineral reserves are depleted, indicating your body has been depleting its own resources to deal with the acid.
