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

[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.