One of the Secrets to Life
The term “pH” is used within chemical formulas to indicate the presence of hydrogen. The “H” means hydrogen in this formula, just as the “H” in “H2O” indicates the presence of hydrogen in water — two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.
A solution that is heavily acid can have one hundred trillion — 100,000,000,000,000 — times as many hydrogen ions as an alkaline solution. To be able to deal with these huge numbers, scientists use a logarithmic scale known as the pH scale. Each number on the scale indicates a change of 10 times the concentration of hydrogen ions in the solution. Hydrogen in its molecular form and in the form of H- ions is healthy but all those H+ ions are a bitch
In general, an increase in hydroxyl ion concentration increases oxygen consumption. Higher pH means higher concentration of oxygen, while lower pH means lower concentrations of oxygen.
Increasing pH from 4.0 pH to 5.0 pH increases oxygen molecules in a liquid by ten-fold. Each whole number increase by tenfold again, so 4.0 pH to a 6.0 pH increases oxygen by 100 times and raising pH from 4.0 pH to 7.0 pH increases oxygen levels by 1,000 times.
pH is the measurement of the oxygen to hydrogen ratio in a liquid, ranging from 14 (a lot of oxygen – or Alkaline) to 1 (a lot of hydrogen – or Acidic). Bill Farr writes, “If you think of your cells as mini-vans, carrying 10 passengers, as long as seven of them are oxygen, and only three are hydrogen, all will be healthy and happy. That is until the day you decide you want a coke, some fried or processed foods instead of vegetables and continue eating this way. Soon, all of the hydrogen ion passengers push the oxygen molecules out of the van and your pH level starts to drop. Now, your body becomes desperate to pick up oxygen but there is only hydrogen offered, sliding the pH scale down to acidic. Then these hydrogen passengers begin to invite their friends to the party. Those friends are cancer, insomnia, bacteria infections, food allergies and the list goes on.”
An acidic pH can occur from an acid-forming diet that does not provide all the necessary minerals, emotional stress, toxic overload, immune over-reactions or any process that deprives the cells of oxygen and other nutrients. Normal body cells form lactic acid in general when their oxygen is cut off or their respiration is reduced. Many scientists have found that during forced bodily work the lactic acid of the blood increased. In this case the diffusion of oxygen into the muscle cells is not sufficient to cover the oxygen requirement of the muscle.
Blood’s pH comes into play because CO2 concentration helps determine pH. Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid; this reaction is catalyzed or accelerated by an enzyme found in our blood called carbonic anhydrase. Carbonic anhydrase loses a hydrogen ion to become bicarbonate, and this in turn loses a hydrogen ion to become the carbonate ion.
This chain of reactions is two-way, so carbonate can pick up a hydrogen ion to become bicarbonate and vice versa. pH is a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration in a solution, so this chain of reactions plays a critical role in maintaining or buffering our blood pH. The more positive hydrogen ions in this case the less oxygen.
Something called the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, shows that pH is governed by the ratio of base (HCO3–) concentration to acid (H2CO3) concentration. As hydrogen ions are added to the bicarbonate buffer:
H+ plus HCO3 H2CO3
Thus, the bicarbonate (base) is consumed (concentration decreases) and carbonic acid is produced (concentration increases). If hydrogen ions continue to be added, all bicarbonate would eventually be consumed (converted to carbonic acid) and there would be no buffering effect – pH would then fall sharply if more acid were added.
However, if carbonic acid could be continuously removed from the system and bicarbonate constantly regenerated, then the buffering capacity and therefore pH could be maintained despite continued addition of hydrogen ions.