The Science of Pee

[errantember]

Actually, I haven't measured any pee this time around yet, but I'm brewing some tea right now.

As part of my recently expanding awareness of what I'm putting into my body, I came to the realization that most of the city water in Austin has a PH of about 10! For those unfamiliar with the scale, it goes from 0 being the most acid to 14 being the most basic. So the water in Austin is *really* basic, largely because of the limestone that makes up the aquifer.

In a PH-regulated system like the human body, it seems a no-brainer that constantly bombarding oneself with super-basic water probably isn't a good idea. I don't have much medical research to back that up currently, I'd be interested to know if anyone does. I've heard from one source that the PH of urine is one indicator used by some alternative healing modalities to indicate the health of the immune system.

So I began to wonder how well my Brita filter does on PH. Consumer Reports evaluates home water filters, but PH isn't one of the things they measure. I decided to go buy a basic pool testing kit to find out if the Brita was helping with the pH or not. Turns out, it does, a lot!

As you can see here by comparing the color of the water to the scale on the RIGHT side:

The water from the Brita filter on the left is nearly neutral at 7.0, whereas the unfiltered tap water on the right is well over the maximum read on this tester of 8.2. The other pictures in the set show the chlorine content, which the Brita filter also clearly reduces drastically.

Since at least 85% or more of the water I drink comes through this filter (whose charcoal cartridge hasn't been changed in recent memory, we'll note!) it looks like water PH is eliminated as a potential cause of immune system stress for me.

Comments

[bouncyone.livejournal.com]

Your such a scientist! ^^

Interesting stuff!

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Maybe I should get a lab coat.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

How are you and Lou doing?

[errantember.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised your missing Austin, but I am surprised you're not having more fun in SF. The only bad thing I've found about it so far is that it's fucking expensive.

What classes are you taking now?

[errantember.livejournal.com]

At least from a distance, it all sounds fascinating. Which school are you attending?

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

Kind of. 8 is barely different from 7, 9's not much different from 8. pH is an logarithmic scale. Gastric acid, while nasty and unpleasant, is 0.7 pH.
That being said, most acidic diets tend to prevent more disease.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

It's definitely hard to wrap ones head around exactly what pH means, since the inverse logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions isn't something most people deal with from day to day. On this chart, though, we'll note that the water in Austin (average PH of around 10) is *more* basic than baking soda! The other day I wanted to clean battery acid off something, and I knew I wanted something basic to do it with, so I made some baking soda paste to do it with. If I'd known then what I know now, I would have used tap water, since it would have neutralized more acid per volume!

I'd be interested to know more about the connection between diet pH and disease.

[austingoddess.livejournal.com]

Isn't it weird that it's such a small jump numberwise from gastric acid to battery acid?

Skin is acidic to protect itself from environmental hazards. The vagina is the same - yeast can't stand an acidic environment.
Now beyond that my research gets a little fuzzy, but I do know there's some hot debate going on about whether our overly-acidic American diets are causing diseases like arthritis and whether we should eat more alkaline foods. I can say it's rough on tooth enamel.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

The image is here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PH_scale.png).

[spottedvasa.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, there's virtually nothing you can consume to meaningfully alter your body's pH, which is why the whole acid/alkaline diet idea is quackery. I wouldn't worry about it.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

I bet if you consumed concentrated nitric acid, it would alter your body pH. At least after it started to rot. :)

The body is definitely capable of regulating it's own pH, and people have been drinking water from limestone aquifers for their entire existence, so it can't be *too* bad. However, it would also seem unlikely that a constant barrage of pH 10 water, which makes up 90% of people's bodies, would have no effect at all. Any kind of buffering requires chemicals to make it go, and they'd have to come from somewhere.

All this info on pH is interesting. Where did you get yours?

I doubt anyone fully understands it. The human body is way more complicated that most people give it credit for.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to find out more about yours soon.