Urine PH And Acid-Base Balance And Monitoring It With Urine PH Test Strips

[Jennifer]

Other observations: An acidic blood seems to lower my heart rate (I've been wondering why my heart rate has been unusually low, and it makes sense now). It also causes my knee pain to come back. It could also be increasing my diastolic. I think I'm able to make the connection now to what @Jennifer says about Carey Reams stating that a kidney issue raises the diastolic (while an adrenals issue raises the systolic). I interpret that now to mean that when the blood/ecf is acidic, it increases the diastolic (when the body is low in sugar, it increases the systolic).

Huh, this is the first alert I receive. Sorry I missed your other questions to me, yerrag.

It wasn't Carey Reams, but Dr. Morse who states the diastolic relates to the kidneys and the systolic, to the adrenals. I think you're thinking of urine pH? I did mention that Carey Reams, Dr. Morse and Ray agree on what a healthy UpH range is.

It's my understanding that a person would die rather quickly if their blood became acidic so the body keeps a tight regulation on it. When looking at UpH, I believe we're looking at systemic pH like that of our lymphatic system (since it makes up 80% of interstitial fluid).

 

[yerrag]

Huh, this is the first alert I receive. Sorry I missed your other questions to me, yerrag.

That's alright, Jennifer. What you said about adrenals and kidneys as they relate to blood pressure really stuck with me. I was trying to make sense of it.

It wasn't Carey Reams, but Dr. Morse who states the diastolic relates to the kidneys and the systolic, to the adrenals. I think you're thinking of urine pH? I did mention that Carey Reams, Dr. Morse and Ray agree on what a healthy UpH range is.

I got them two confused, sorry. So it was Dr. Morse who said adrenals relate to systolic, and kidneys relate to diastolic.

I'm trying to confirm that idea. Since the adrenals come into play when blood sugar is low, it would be reasonable to relate adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, to an increase in blood pressure. And since kidneys relate to acid-base balance, it would be reasonable to think that as the more acidic the body fluids (blood, ecf) are, the kidneys (and liver) exert more effort in compensating for the increased acidity, and thus puts more demand (and stress) on the body, and blood pressure would be seen to increase. It would be nice to confirm by observing how my body reacts as it relates to adrenal stress being reflected in the systolic, and as it relates to kidney stress being reflected in the diastolic, as Dr. Morse would say.

It's my understanding that a person would die rather quickly if their blood became acidic so the body keeps a tight regulation on it. When looking at UpH, I believe we're looking at systemic pH like that of our lymphatic system (since it makes up 80% of interstitial fluid).

And the advantage with using urine as a marker is that it's non-invasive as well as convenient to test, as well as being a cost-effective way of gauging acid-base balance of our body.

 

[Miguel]

@yerrag I'd suggest logging your urine pH with the time for a few days without taking any supplements to identify your daily rhythm/pattern.

Taking things like vitamin C, various mineral supplements, baking soda, etc. can manipulate your UpH a lot (the food you eat will also have an influence on pH but usually to a much lesser extent than supplements so you'll still be able to identify your daily UpH pattern).

Once you identify your pattern, you can try to start making changes in your diet & supplements to help minimize the swings in your UpH.

 

[Jennifer]

got them two confused, sorry. So it was Dr. Morse who said adrenals relate to systolic, and kidneys relate to diastolic.

I'm trying to confirm that idea. Since the adrenals come into play when blood sugar is low, it would be reasonable to relate adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, to an increase in blood pressure. And since kidneys relate to acid-base balance, it would be reasonable to think that as the more acidic the body fluids (blood, ecf) are, the kidneys (and liver) exert more effort in compensating for the increased acidity, and thus puts more demand (and stress) on the body, and blood pressure would be seen to increase. It would be nice to confirm by observing how my body reacts as it relates to adrenal stress being reflected in the systolic, and as it relates to kidney stress being reflected in the diastolic, as Dr. Morse would say.

Oh, no worries! :)

I'm not sure if this will help, but here's one of the sections in his book where Dr. Morse talks about the adrenals and blood pressure:

https://www.truthseekerz.com/Robert_Morse_-_The_Detox_Miracle_Sourcebook_EBOK.pdf#page84

 

[yerrag]

@yerrag I'd suggest logging your urine pH with the time for a few days without taking any supplements to identify your daily rhythm/pattern.

Taking things like vitamin C, various mineral supplements, baking soda, etc. can manipulate your UpH a lot (the food you eat will also have an influence on pH but usually to a much lesser extent than supplements so you'll still be able to identify your daily UpH pattern).

Once you identify your pattern, you can try to start making changes in your diet & supplements to help minimize the swings in your UpH.

Those are good ideas. I'll do that next week. I had a tooth pulled yesterday and I'll have to give some time for healing before starting. Thanks!

I'm not sure if this will help, but here's one of the sections in his book where Dr. Morse talks about the adrenals and blood pressure:

https://www.truthseekerz.com/Robert_Morse_-_The_Detox_Miracle_Sourcebook_EBOK.pdf#page84

That's a load of information. Thanks Jennifer!

 

[Jennifer]

You're welcome, @yerrag! :)

 

[yerrag]

@yerrag I'd suggest logging your urine pH with the time for a few days without taking any supplements to identify your daily rhythm/pattern.

Taking things like vitamin C, various mineral supplements, baking soda, etc. can manipulate your UpH a lot (the food you eat will also have an influence on pH but usually to a much lesser extent than supplements so you'll still be able to identify your daily UpH pattern).

Once you identify your pattern, you can try to start making changes in your diet & supplements to help minimize the swings in your UpH.

I haven't finished logging (lacking vitamin C and MagBicarb+Vitamin C), but here is a chart of how my urine pH varied throughout the day. It shows:

A) Not taking any supplements
B) Taking 4g of baking soda throughout the day
C) Taking magnesium bicarbonate throughout the day equivalent to the bicarbonate portion of A)
D) Taking C) but drank 1 glass of regular cane sugar Coke
E) Taking C) but drank 2 glasses of satsuma orange juice in the afternoon

It's very interesting to note that:

• without supplementation, my urine pH goes very low in the afternoon and stays low until I sleep, but when I wake up it starts high at 7.2 and goes down throughout the day
• magnesium bicarbonate is more effective than baking soda in increasing my urine pH; also noted that with the former, my heart rate is higher and my blood pressure lower
• The effect of 1 glass of Coke at lunchtime is enough to negate the salutary effects of magbicarb supplementation; didn't know Coke could have such an acidic effect
• Drinking 2 glasses of satsuma orange juice (with 4 tsp of sugar in them) also has a strong acidic effect, negating the pH increasing effect of magbicarb supplementation

Note that the lowest pH reading at 5.5 is due to the urine pH test strip being limited in its lower range. The urine pH could be lower than 5.5.

My sample size is very limited so my conclusions may not hold true. I only used a day of testing for each of the conditions.

My context also counts. I have a relatively high (within range though) serum uric acid, a condition I believe to be my body's response to counter high ROS from lead toxicity in my kidneys. This predisposes me to having an acidic ecf, as reflected in my low urine pH.

I was afraid that taking this much bicarbonate would lead to a metabolic alkalotic condition but it seems those fears are unfounded. Just a glass of Coke would easily neutralize the effect of the bicarbonate I'm dosing with. It seems to also show that at the dosage I have of bicarbonate, I don't have sufficient buffer that 1 glass of Coke could easily negate it.

I'm glad that having a urine pH test strip allows me to get a snapshot of my acid-base balance condition. It helps me determine the right dosage of bicarbonate, among other things I have yet to find out as far as their effects on my body's acid-base balance. This allows me to fine-tune my protocol not just for my acid-base balance, but as I tie this in to my heart rate and blood pressure in relation to my efforts to chelate lead out of my kidneys, it would be able to optimize my approach to improve in this area of my health.

 

[Miguel]

@yerrag Cool chart! It looks like most of your daily first urine pH (UpH) values are above 7. Just to confirm, the values on the very left are for the very first urine upon waking correct? (i.e. you're not discarding the first urine and starting your log each day with your 2nd urine) The reason I'm asking is b/c most people usually have a UpH that is less than 6.4 upon rising. For example, my first UpH every morning would be less than 6.0 yet it would rise sharply after that, peaking to 7.6-8 around late morning/early afternoon and the crash back down to less than 6.0 after.

I looked at the study @Dan Wich provided (thanks Dan) and you can see that the subjects tended to follow the same trend as me in which their UpH peaked around noon. In RBTI, you're told to have a large breakfast (more carb focused than fat), then lunch is supposed to be your largest meal, and then dinner is supposed to be light. I think that meal pattern might be recommended in that way to complement the natural rhythms of the body.

A few days ago, I came across this section about ultradian rhythms from an endocrinology textbook that shows 24-hour plasma glucose levels in normal young adults based on a few different types of feeding.

This seems to also support the RBTI meal pattern b/c it shows that people can keep their blood sugar lower and return quicker to baseline in the first half of the day. A while back, I bought a cheap blood glucose monitor from Walmart (I can get 100 test strips for it at around $18 which is a lot cheaper than most). On occasion, I would track my blood sugar with this monitor to see the correlations between that and my daily UpH pattern. (Using the sides of your finger to prick instead of the pads results in dramatic diff in discomfort!) I haven't been very scientific about it but I do see a trend where my blood sugar doesn't rise as high after carbs/meals in the morning/early afternoon (which is when my UpH is highest) but at night, my blood sugar rises higher and takes longer to go back down.

UpH seems to have an inverse relationship with blood sugar but you have to remember that your blood sugar reading is of that exact moment, while your UpH reading is the result of the past. I am aware of my pattern so I know when my pH is likely trending upward or downward w/o supplemental intervention. This talk about UpH, its relationship to blood sugar, and my thoughts about the practical takeaways from RBTI probably deserves its own post.

After reading your posts and coming across those plasma glucose charts, I'm getting in the mood to do a few experiments with eating/drinking certain things and then testing their effects on my UpH and blood sugar but I want to be somewhat scientific about it and run the test multiple times before I comment about the results on the forum.

Tagging @Jennifer, @tara , and @Janelle525 since they might find this post interesting as well.

 

[Jennifer]

Hi @Miguel! :)

Thanks for tagging me. I look forward to seeing the results of your experiment. My UpH has been stable since I began filtering and I no longer get sugar crashes like I did pre fruitarianism, but the latter is based on symptoms and a refractometer and not actual glucose readings. While following RBTI, my UpH was consistently high (8+, if I remember correctly) and my sugars would crash around 11am and 2pm. I do still follow a similar eating pattern where my largest meal is lunch and my lightest is dinner, and I consume most of my fat midday. Anyhow, happy experimenting! :)

 

[yerrag]

@yerrag Cool chart! It looks like most of your daily first urine pH (UpH) values are above 7. Just to confirm, the values on the very left are for the very first urine upon waking correct? (i.e. you're not discarding the first urine and starting your log each day with your 2nd urine) The reason I'm asking is b/c most people usually have a UpH that is less than 6.4 upon rising. For example, my first UpH every morning would be less than 6.0 yet it would rise sharply after that, peaking to 7.6-8 around late morning/early afternoon and the crash back down to less than 6.0 after.

Yes, the values on the very left are the very first urine.

I'm continuing my pH readings on urine and haven't had time to create more charts. The most important thing is that as a result of being more conscious of the effect of food and supplements on my urine pH, I've taken note of the ff. observations-

- In the past few days and nights, I've noticed that I'm not urinating so much anymore. My frequency of urination is much lessened to the point where I could get by without urinating during the day, and at night I would only wake up once or twice to pee. For the past year, it had become common for me to urinate frequently during the day, and each time they would be around a cup of urine, and at night I had been waking up about 3-4 times in order to pee. This has a lot to do with the effect of supplements and food on my acid-base balance. When the acid-base balance is off, as seen in acidic urine (reaching 5.5 or below), as a result of supplements (magnesium chloride, ascorbic acid), and food (such as sour-tasting oranges), as well as from my current condition (where without supplementation or food that are acidic in nature and in their effects on my body), where my urine would still register as 5.5 or below, the effect on me is increased urination,
-I've found that different forms of citrus vary in their acidic effect. This would explain why we drink pure orange juice and why we would only take very diluted lemon juice (lemonade). It has do with sourness and sweetness. The more sour a citrus juice is, the more acidic it is, and the less sweet as well. The sourness is affected by the variety of the citrus fruit, as well as by the state of ripeness when the citrus fruit is picked. I would drink 2 glasses of orange juice (ripe sweet oranges such as Valencia orange) and my urine pH would not turn acidic, but when I drank the same amount of satsuma orange (at least the ones I could buy locally), I would see my urine pH plummet. For sure, the satsuma orange I was buying is indeed sour, and I try to make up for the sourness by adding sugar. I would have to treat the satsuma juice like a lemon or lime juice next time, by diluting it well enough so that its acidic effect on my body would be lessened. I guess our taste bud would be the gauge in determining the amount of dilution needed.

I just don't know why my ecf/blood is acidic. I'm hitting 5.5pH or below by late afternoon even when I avoid acidic supplementation and foods. I'm not hypothyroid, my serum lactate is low, and by the stability of my blood sugar, I don't believe I'm burning plenty of fat and producing plenty of keto-acids as a result. But my uric acid levels are on the high side of range, and this could be making my ecf acidic. And then I have lead toxicity in my kidneys, as well as a pocket of anaerobic bacteria in my gums under a dead tooth (to be pulled out next week- my last one I hope) and these could have great impact my ecf acidity as well.

For the moment, I would have to rely on bicarbonate supplementation as well as eat or drink more fruits and vegetables to shore up my electrolyte levels (mag, pot, cal, sodium) to help bring up my pH levels.

I'm really thankful to learn about the value of testing urine pH. It really is a sea change in how I approach healing myself. I could inadvertently cause myself to get more sick as I take in foods and supplements aimed at improving my health, and this can be very discouraging. It has taken me out of a cycle of disintegration and frustration, something which can happen to many among us. It's not easy to see through this fog though, and I'm glad I've broken through it.

 

[yerrag]

I can't help it, I just had to share it.

Recently, I just discovered, with an advanced dental scanning tool involving digital x-ray and thermography, that I have two teeth that have pockets of bacteria. I don't know how long these pockets have been harboring these colonies of anaerobic bacteria, but I suspect it dates back to at least 13 years ago, when I had periodontal work done.

A day after the last of these two teeth with was pulled out, I tested my urine pH along with my blood pressure. I've been doing this daily test for close to a month already, so I'd know if there is improvement or not.

While a day does not make a trend yet, I'm happy to see that my urine pH held up. It went from 6.4 (8:30 am) to 5.8 (11 am) to 6 (7 pm). This was without the aid of any bicarbonate supplementation, nor being handicapped by drinking acidic juices. In past days where I was on similar conditions, my urine pH went to 5.5 and possibly below it.

This has me thinking that the hidden pocket of bacterial infestation beneath these teeth were causing my body fluids to become acidic. Given that blood holds alkaline buffer reserves, I'm suspecting that the bacteria and toxins were consuming these alkaline buffer reserves, thereby lowering my body's alkaline buffer reserves. Furthermore, my serum albumin has been low, recently at 42.5 (range 36-50), and it is possibly being depleted from it being used as an antioxidant to counter the infection's effects on my body. In a month, I can take a serum albumin test to check this. If serum albumin is significantly improved, I could confirm this effect.

And another thing to note. Blood pressure is much lower today, and my heart rate is significantly higher at 72. I had been at mid60s in recent memory. Again, there is no trend yet. This is only initial and @Miguel can say this is unscientific but I'm not saying it isn't.

I'll check back later when I have a more established trend.

 

[yerrag]

Last Oct. 17, I felt a pain and found a lower premolar was loose. I didn't make the connection until today.

I began experiencing a dry cough that wouldn't go away. I started to sneeze occasionally, which I thought was odd.

All the while, my China-made urine pH test strip was telling me that my urine pH is optimal at 6.8. I began to suspect COVID-19. But 3 weeks passed, and I didn't get worse, so I could rule out COVID. But my dry cough persisted, and I was also urinating a lot, and I was not having good sleep as a result of having to week up.

Then I decided to use the Hydrion urine pH test strip, I bought from Amazon, which I was conserving, and realized all this time my urine pH had actually plummeted to 5.5 (or lower).

So, again, this confirms an infection can lower my urine pH, and by extension (as urine pH can be used as a surrogate for blood pH), my blood pH. My acid-base balance at 5.5 is terrible, and it lowered my immunity. Increased urination, with a lot of foam, is also a sign of infection. My blood pressure also went up. This makes sense, I guess, as in an acidic ecf, there is also less CO2, and with less CO2, there is less vasodilation in the blood vessels.

Lesson: Don't use lousy urine pH test strips made in China from a website that doesn't provide a good review system. The Hydrion urine pH test is one I've used before, and while the Amazon review wasn't excellent, it was decent enough and I had experience using it. The China urine pH test strip was also something I had used before, but the quality isn't consistent. It worked well before, but the new one I bought is POS.

 

[Deleted member 5487]

PH is extremely Important. The more I go down it the more important it appears.

After a vegas trip last week I began drinking 2/$5 Kale,Spinach,Cumber,Lemon,Apple,Mint,Parsley cold press from 7/11 to help detox/cure my hangover.

The Results on Energy, Mood, Skin Glow/Flushing, Edema...etc. Seem Phenomal. I believe natural Alkalinity sources are much better than Mag/K Citrates I was using.

Went out and ordered a Very Nice Centrifgue juicer. Will See how It goes.

 

[OccamzRazer]

PH is extremely Important. The more I go down it the more important it appears.

After a vegas trip last week I began drinking 2/$5 Kale,Spinach,Cumber,Lemon,Apple,Mint,Parsley cold press from 7/11 to help detox/cure my hangover.

The Results on Energy, Mood, Skin Glow/Flushing, Edema...etc. Seem Phenomal. I believe natural Alkalinity sources are much better than Mag/K Citrates I was using.

Went out and ordered a Very Nice Centrifgue juicer. Will See how It goes.

Interesting! Are you concerned about antinutrients in these juices? Could you get the same benefits from alkaline fruits only...or do you think the veggie juices are also important?

 

[Nebula]

PH is extremely Important. The more I go down it the more important it appears.

After a vegas trip last week I began drinking 2/$5 Kale,Spinach,Cumber,Lemon,Apple,Mint,Parsley cold press from 7/11 to help detox/cure my hangover.

The Results on Energy, Mood, Skin Glow/Flushing, Edema...etc. Seem Phenomal. I believe natural Alkalinity sources are much better than Mag/K Citrates I was using.

Went out and ordered a Very Nice Centrifgue juicer. Will See how It goes.

Agree the synthesized citrates don’t seem to get metabolized as well as natural citrates. Reacting freshly squeezed lemon juice with bicarbonates has a much better effect for me. Or just the bicarbonates themselves. Sodium bicarbonate baths can work extremely well when supplementing progesterone for some reason I’ve noticed. Like it is being retained and entering the cells much more effectively.

 

[Deleted member 5487]

Agree the synthesized citrates don’t seem to get metabolized as well as natural citrates. Reacting freshly squeezed lemon juice with bicarbonates has a much better effect for me. Or just the bicarbonates themselves. Sodium bicarbonate baths can work extremely well when supplementing progesterone for some reason I’ve noticed. Like it is being retained and entering the cells much more effectively.

Yeah Same Here. My

Omega NC800HDS Juicer Extractor​

Is Pretty sweet. I've been making Kale, Spinach, Lemon, Celary Juice from it and it's awesome honestly. An Alkaline Bomb with ZERO insoluable fiber in it. Makes digestion/veggies consumption a cake walk.

Also Juiced a whole watermelon yesturday. Ended up with like 4-5 Quarts of cold pressed Melon Juice which tastes incredible.