What is the easiest way for someone to check and maintain their body’s pH?
Dr. Young: The easiest way for someone to check and maintain the body fluid pH is to test the urine and saliva. The best time to test the urine is in the morning, because the morning urine is an expression of what you ate and what you drank and how you lived your life the previous, 24 hours. The morning urine is not a product of the blood; it is a product of the tissues. When you measure your urine, you are measuring the pH of your tissues. If your pH is below the ideal of 7.2, and it measures in the 5’s or 6’s, you are in tissue acidosis. When someone over-exercises they can go into lactic tissue acidosis. Lactic acid from over-exercise is felt in the connective tissues and muscles. When the muscles are sore, that’s the tissues picking up the acid to maintain the alkaline blood pH. The blood has to rid itself of metabolic acids or you would die. So it throws the acid out into the muscle tissues and you feel it as irritation or inflammation. If the lactic acid stays in the tissues, it