Measuring Body pH

For our purposes we will be measuring urine and saliva. In a perfect world, with all other health parameters in place, the “averaged” 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 about 90 minutes after breakfast or lunch.

NOTE: We’ll talk more of what “averaged” means a bit later and awareness of this is important so the 6.4 pH we are talking about here has to be put into proper context related to the formula discussed later.  

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 and with the saliva pH factored in, the averaged will settle around the 6.4 level. This takes time to accomplish.

The question may arise as to why the averaged urine and saliva should be in the 6.4 area, and the answer lies most specifically in this regard to Dr. Carey Reams. In our own clinical work with the research of Reams, Vincent, Revici and others, we would concur with the 6.4 averaged 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 and your urine pH. 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 their good ranges, the efficiency of the press begins to fall. Hence, metabolic efficiency begins to go askew, imbalance sets in, and over time problems can develop.

Now above we are talking about the 6.4 level for urine and saliva that is “averaged”. We show this formula in the section dealing with “Moving pH” which is as follows:

(Urine pH  ____  + (Saliva pH X 2 ___ ) ) / Divided by 3  =  ____.

For the measurement of urine and saliva by themselves, in general, you want pH of urine to be below 6.5 and saliva to be above 6.5. From our experience in the clinic with healthy individuals, ideally we would say around 5.8-6.2 would be good for urine (shows the body can get rid of metabolic acids), and 6.8-7.0 would be good for saliva. This gives a split of about 1 pH. Those would be nice numbers mid-morning/afternoon.

Inverted numbers, or too high or too low for either means something is up. In regards to urine, it is designed to be able to go all the way down to 4.5 which means if you are way down there, well the body is appearing to be able to handle metabolic loads (and it usually is much better than a high pH)  but the question becomes what else is going on.

(The work of Dr. Emanuel Revici which we cover in other areas states that ideal urine pH will oscillate around a value of 6.2. Oscillating above that is indicative of an anabolic/anaerobic disposition, and oscillating below that is indicative of a catabolic/dysaerobic disposition.)

Important note: High urine pH is not good from any perspective and all the information floating around saying it is so is from the “alkalize alkalize alkalize” people – possibly because what they are selling – and key word is selling – will push urine pH to those extremes and they can say – “see how good our products work!” And of course if a person stays at those high levels too long they start having issues and the fallback becomes “you are detoxing, stick with the program”. It is all a bunch of hooey. For physiologic health, you do not want to see urine above 6.5.  It should always be able to get down into the 5 range – this is a reflection of adaptive capacity and it shows metabolic acids can and are being removed from the system.

Read the above paragraph again. You want your urine able to move acid, and to essentially be acid when appropriate. If you are keeping urine above 6.5 and day to day are into neutral pH (7) or above numbers, this is not good.

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 Cycles

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.

Tke 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. Seeing a low saliva pH and a higher urine pH is not where you want to be. You need to correct that.

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