Title: Understanding Acid And Alkaline PH Word Count: 658 Summary: The notion of acid and alkaline is one of the most misunderstood concepts in nutrition. It is commonly referred to as terrain medicine, a reference to treating the whole individual. It has been established that PH in the blood, saliva, urine, and other areas is a critical factor for building health. How can you determine an acid or alkaline condition? Blood work, saliva tests, hair analysis, muscle resistance and urine are just some of the tests being recommended by c... Keywords: alkaline, acidic conditions, health recommendations Article Body: The notion of acid and alkaline is one of the most misunderstood concepts in nutrition. It is commonly referred to as terrain medicine, a reference to treating the whole individual. It has been established that PH in the blood, saliva, urine, and other areas is a critical factor for building health. How can you determine an acid or alkaline condition? Blood work, saliva tests, hair analysis, muscle resistance and urine are just some of the tests being recommended by current nutrition experts. Most of these tests can show relative amounts of acid or alkaline, which is very interesting to compare. But what people do not know is that there are so many varieties of acid and alkaline appearing in the system that to get any conclusive results about acid and alkaline status. It is still best to read the intracellular fluid—a test rarely performed. Most current diagnostic tests show the acid wastes are present in the body fluids such as blood, lymph, urine, mucus and saliva. The problem with such tests is that they do not show how much acid waste is within the cellular fluids since these fluids are running through tissues and removing acid wastes. It might be possible to measure the relative acid or alkalinity of body fluids. But it is rare and more complicated to evaluate the acid or alkaline quality of body tissues such as skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. The majority of standard tests focus mainly on saliva, urine, or blood. What does all these mean? The tissue quality of skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels is the determining factor of your health. When acid wastes are not eliminated, they are reabsorbed through the colon, gets filtered through the liver, and end up being re-released into the general circulation. Simply means that you are re-circulating waste, when it is supposed to be cleansed and rejuvenated already. Even measuring a person's blood for acid and alkaline variations is not an easy task. When acid is introduced into the blood, alkaline minerals from other parts of the body are immediately mobilized to maintain a crucial pH balance of 7.35 to 7.45. The blood cannot tolerate elevated acidity. It must alkalize. To do this, it goes on an alkaline borrowing spree immediately, with no intention of paying back the bone, tissue, and digestive juice mineral donors. This means that to do a blood test for an accurate acid and alkaline reading, testing would require your doctor to take blood samples at numerous intervals throughout the day and only after eating one particular food to obtain a good reading. Very exhausting, costly, and still not that reliable. A number of nutrition writers suggest testing acid and alkaline levels with litmus paper (saliva) or urinalysis sticks (urine). Determining acid and alkaline though pH testing is assumptive, simplistic, and misleading. Saliva or urine is not reflective of your overall acidity. Such arbitrary and unpredictable testing does not read the cellular fluid or tissue quality of skin, organs, glands, muscles, ligaments, arteries, and vessels. It can only give in a partial evaluation. The proof of your body's acid and alkaline condition can best be determined by your own experience, not by peer-reviewed studies, medical establishment support, or static dietary guidelines. Without getting too technical, the most practical advice would be to experiment for several weeks with a food plan that stays close to the middle of the acid and alkaline scale. Check out some diet that is high on both. You will notice dramatic and positive changes that can only be attributed to your experiment. This will be your best doctor. There are supplements and products that will help you become less acidic and more alkalinic. Some say that certain health problems can only occur if the body is too acidic. Also look at some charts of common foods and see if what you eat and drink may be closer to a 2 ph than a 7.