Acidity or alkalinity is measured in terms of a value known as pH (potential for hydrogen). On the pH scale, which ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14 (alkaline), a solution is neutral if its pH is 7.

Because pH is calculated on a logarithmic scale, a difference of 1 in the pH means a tenfold change in the acidity or alkalinity. In other words, a pH of 4 is 10 times more acid than pH 5, 100 times more acid than pH 6, and 1,000 times more acid than pH 7.

Living things are extremely sensitive to pH levels. In human beings, most interior matter has a pH of about 6.8. Blood plasma and fluids that surround the body’s cells have an alkaline pH of 7.2 to 7.45. Numerous special mechanisms aid in stabilizing these fluids so that cells will not be subject to appreciable fluctuations in pH. Should the cells become too acidic, they die.

Cellular Fluids are a Key to Health

The secret to health and longevity lies in the well-being of the cellular fluids. Consider this quote is taken from the well-known medical textbook “Function of the Human Body” by A.C. Guyton:

“For the cells of the body to continue living, there is one major requirement: the composition of the body fluids that bathe the outside of the cells must be controlled very exactly from moment to moment and day to day, with no single important constituent every varying more than a few percent. Indeed, cells can live even after being removed from the body if they are placed in a fluid bath that contains the same constituents and has the same physical conditions as those of the body fluids.”

So the condition of the body’s intra- and extra-cellular fluids are critical to good health if not life itself. If the internal environment deteriorates, cells become sick and die. Many chronic diseases are related to this deterioration of the cellular environment.

1) Guyton, Arthur C. and Hall, John E., Textbook of Medical Physiology, Ninth Edition, W.B. Sanders Co., Philadelphia, 1996