With today’s fast paced world, we might find ourselves caught up with busy schedules at work whether at home or in the office. Every so often, we may overlook our body’s need to exercise, eat the right meals or to even take a break. More often than not, we only notice things like these when our body finally demands us to go see a doctor. Some are fortunate enough to have detected their diseases at just the right moment to have it treated, but some may have discovered it a little too late. However, it doesn’t have to be that way if we can only avoid such diseases or lessen the probability of finding it out too late. And we can. You Can! Here’s how…..
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR BODY’S PH
pH or potential hydrogen is the scale used to specify the acidity or basicity of a solution. Your body’s pH balance, also referred to as its acid-base balance, is the level of acids and bases in your blood at which your body functions at its best. Our bodies are incredibly built to naturally maintain the healthy balance of its acidity and alkalinity where on a scale of 0 to 14, 7.40 is the normal pH level, 0 as most acidic and 14 as most basic.
Knowing your pH level is possible and can even be done at home and is easy to self-check, all you need is a pH test strip and voila! You can determine whether or not a pH level is acidic, basic or in the normal scale.
So what are pH test strips and how is it done?
pH test strips are pieces of paper that changes its color depending on the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid. It is a cheap and relatively accurate way of measuring a liquid’s pH level like urine, water or even saliva. For starters, first you have to dip the pH test strip for about two seconds in the fluid which you want to control, then wait for at least ten seconds to dry. As the test strip comes in contact with an acidic or alkaline substance, the strip will start to discolor. The more acidic the fabric, the more red the strip becomes, and the more alkaline the fabric, the more blue the strip becomes.
Now, you may have a little difficulty in differentiating so many colors and trying to figure out whether your strip is bluish-green or greenish-blue. So, just take a look at the color legend which is included with the package of strips.
THE RIGHT DIET
When some people hear the word diet, they immediately associate this with weight loss and weight gain. Though it is important to manage your weight, diet also means the specific food intake of nutrition for health and weight management. Hence, if a particular diet may be chosen to promote weight loss or weight gain, a particular diet may also promote pH balance of the body – the alkaline diet.
The alkaline diet is based on the idea that replacing acid-forming foods, which is harmful to the body, with alkaline foods can improve your health. The concept is that by eating certain foods or drinking certain kinds of beverages, you can regulate the body’s pH levels. Proponents of this diet even claim that this can help lower blood pH and fight serious diseases like cancer. Though such claims are yet to be proven, the alkaline diet encourages people to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed meats and high-fat dairy products. For this reason, the alkaline diet may still improve health and offer several health benefits like improving muscle health and lowering cholesterol. At the same time, it may also help naturally promote and maintain a healthy body weight and help prevent weight-related health issues such as diabetes and lowering of heart disease risk factors.
IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FOOD
Your diet, exercise habits and daily routines -your lifestyle-have a huge impact on your overall wellness. Taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health should be a way to go.
Lifestyle Check:
- Healthy diet, intake of healthy foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, healthy fats daily.
- Healthy physical activity, to maintain health and reduce your risk of health problems, a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most, preferably all days. This also promotes a healthier state of mind.
- Healthy body weight, defined as a normal body mass index (BMI), not having extra body weight from muscle, bone, fat, and/or water.
- Smoking, well, there is no healthy amount of smoking. “Healthy” here meant never having smoked.
BETTER YOU
We all want to be the best version of ourselves, but many people may wonder if it's actually possible. The answer is a resounding YES! There are always ways to improve yourself. Self-check: what are the important ways to be better?
Take care of your health
Health is wealth. Health care is the most basic way of achieving a better you. Eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and avoid smoking and alcohol. When you feel something out of the ordinary, never hesitate to seek medical help. Go for regular medical check-ups even without signs and symptoms of any sort.
Take care of your self
Connect with yourself. Taking good care of yourself is paramount to the success of a better you. Take a break from your work, manage your stress and check in with yourself periodically. Your mental and emotional health is just as important as your physical health.
After having read this, you might have given more thought about your health and wellness care. You can start by planning out some steps towards changing and developing your health and wellness goals from knowing your pH levels, to having the right diet, to checking what your lifestyle is, and to self-checking ways to improve your health care while making sure you get the best version out of yourself.
TAKE AWAY
A healthy diet can improve and maintain optimal health, and healthy habits and a healthy lifestyle can make a big difference. Though the notion that alkaline diet boosts health because of its alkalizing effects-improving pH levels of the body-haven’t been proven by any reliable human studies, in general, the alkaline diet is healthy. It reinforces good, old-fashioned healthy eating such as eating more vegetables, fruits and drinking lots of water and cutting back on sugar, alcohol, meat and processed foods which will help improve your overall health, help you lose weight and prevent weight related diseases like diabetes and lower heart risk factors.
If you’re considering starting any diet, it’s important to talk your doctor first. You should know that the changes you make to your diet will not impact the pH levels of your blood, but they could have a positive effect on your overall health. The ultimate goal is to strive to be the healthiest version of ourselves. Can you be the HEALTHIER AND BETTER YOU?
REFERENCES
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/ie-how-ph-strips-work
https://www.healthline.com/health/ph-imbalance
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324271#research
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/healthy-lifestyle-5-keys-to-a-longer-life-2018070514186
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/physical-activity-its-important