What is this pH, alkaline, acid thing everyone talks about?

Back in basic chemistry classes I learned pH was all about whether something was acid, neutral, or alkaline based on whether it was positively or negatively charged (how many hydrogen molecules were attached). Then all the sudden in chiropractic school people were talking about how our body's pH affects our health without ever connecting the dots for me. I wondered what does pH have to do with our health? I am pretty sure based on the answers I got, that very few people ever connected the dots.

Basically I was told that the healthier a person is, the more neutral their pH is. I thought "OK that makes sense, but what causes a person's pH to shift and how do you know what your pH is?" That's when I was told I could use pH test strips to test my saliva and urine to see how close to neutral my pH was. When I did this, my pH ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. When I asked why I was told my results were not possible, that I had to be doing something wrong. So I tried again and again with the same results. Nobody could explain this, nobody could connect the dots for me. I concluded the entire pH theory was useless.

Then a few weeks ago, I had one of those 'ah ha' moments. Positive and negative charges are what cause things change in pH (become acid or alkaline). The positive and negative charges we consume through water, food and our environment are minerals and toxic chemicals. Therefore when we are exposed to toxins in many ways like by eating foods with extra hydrogen attached (hydrogenated), our body will become more acid or alkaline. Minerals (ions, hydrogen, water) become out of balance in specific patterns with specific disease processes. This is how in my last blog I explained that a person can be dehydrated even when they drink enough water.

If you are mineral deficient (dehydrated), your pH will become acidic. A low pH (acidic) is unhealthy and is referred to as acidosis. If you continue to become more and more acidic due to a poor diet or mineral imbalances your body will start to pull minerals from your bones (eventually causing osteoporosis) to balance your pH, which can lead to alkalosis. Eventually acidosis or alkalosis causes digestive issues leading to malabsorbtion of nutrients which can result in any number of health issues which then results in greater mineral imbalances leading to a vicous cycle that becomes more difficult to break the longer it is present. If you test your pH and it is swinging back and forth like mine was, your body is most likely trying to find a balance in this manner.

Surely a nuteral pH is the healthiest, but since there are so many things that can shift a person's pH that I find checking a saliva pH with lithmus paper interesting but hardly diagnostic. If you are a practioner reading this who does believe this type of testing to be diagnostic, I would love to hear from you.