Unfortunately, many of the liquids we consume do not properly hydrate our body. In fact many can actually cause dehydration. Caffeine in soda, coffee and tea as well as alcoholic beverages can cause the body eliminate water faster than it should. Even milk and juices all require the body to use stored water in order to properly digest them.

What is the right water for me?

When choosing what water to drink, you need to remember two things: Are you drinking the right amount for your body and is it the best water for your body.
So what is the right amount to drink? A good rule of thumb to remember is “Drink half your body weight in ounces every day.” So if you weigh 150lbs, you should be drinking at least 75oz of water on a daily basis.To make sure your water is the best it can be, there are a couple of points that you should always keep in mind. The first is how “clean” is your water? Making sure your water has gone through an extensive filtration process in order remove harmful chemicals and toxins is the first step. For more on this, see our Your municipal water could be killing you!

or visit our Website. By the way, don’t just assume that because you spend a lot of money for bottled water that it is necessarily any better than what comes out of your tap. Chances are it may not be.The next point to consider is how “healthy” is the water you are drinking? To understand this we need to take a short look at some basic biology.

pH – The Hidden Balance

Our bodies are an incredibly complex set of systems which perform a mind boggling set of processes that when maintained properly, will last our entire lifetime. But to do so, they need to be in their optimal “zone” in order to do their best. For example, if we let our body’s internal temperature range move just a degree or two out of its optimum range of 98 to 99 degrees faranheit, we begin to have problems.

Other examples of well defined ranges that are crucial to good health:

• Blood Volume – 4 to 5 litres (depending on weight and gender)
• Blood Pressure - <120/<80
• Sodium Levels - 135 to 145 ml/liter
• Cholesterol Levels – 180 to 200 mg/dl

One of the least understood but most critical ranges our body needs for good health is the pH range. pH is the measure of how alkaline or acidic a solution is and it is measured on a scale that ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14(alkaline) with 7 being a neutral pH. In the case of the human body, we have several systems that require a proper pH range in order to function at their best. In the case of our circulation system, our blood should ideally be in a pH range between 7.31 and 7.45. A variance of even .3 points on the scale and our body begins to shout DANGER! Move that number just a single point in either direction, and our bodies cannot survive for long.

As we age, our pH level has a tendency to drop and become acidic due to many factors. Unfortunately, the advent of modern society with its increased toxicity and fast-food lifestyle, that rate of decline is being accelerated. From the foods we eat, the environments we live in to the increased stress we all have in our lives, all of these factors are contributing to a shift in our body’s pH range towards the acid side of the scale.

More and more studies are uncovering the negative effects that this can cause in our health. As a body becomes more acidic, it becomes easier for bacteria and viruses to flourish. In addition, our basic life-support systems begin to experience added stress as they work to combat the shift. From stress on our body to eliminate acidic toxins, to the loss of minerals like calcium which the body uses to neutralize acids, our body is working overtime to maintain its pH balance.