The human body is made up of 75 per cent water. Without water, metabolic processes of the body will cease. The health status of the body is largely determined by the pH of the water in the blood at any point in time. Simply put, pH denotes the potential of the hydrogen ion in chemical interactions that take place in the body.
It is measured on a scale of one to 14, with seven as the middle or neutral point. Water that is absolutely free of chemicals is at pH 7. If the pH of water drops below 7, it is said to be acidic and if it is higher than 7, it is alkaline. Hence, the more alkaline the body is the slower the electricity in the body. On the other hand, the more acidic the blood, the quicker the body wants to get rid of the acidity.
Consumption of too little water is a common source of weakness and fatigue. Drinking water will perk you up just as a wilted flower perks up in water. To understand how water can help give you a midday boost, you need to understand how your body’s pH level works.
The body depends on the blood to transport nutrients, oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the cells of the tissues that make up the organs. Hence, the pH of the blood is extremely important. The ideal pH level for your blood is right around 7.35 and the body makes great effort to maintain this level. The reason is that if the pH of the blood should change in either direction (acidic or alkaline) the electrical chemistry of the body would be affected; in fact there might not be electrical power and the person could just die suddenly.
To avoid upsetting this delicate biochemical balance, it is very important to know the things that disrupt the body’s effort to maintain the right pH level.
The major cause of such disruption is the production of acid in the body. To understand this, here’s a graphic example to give you an idea of what can happen in the blood when your pH drops to less than ideal. The body uses red blood cells to transport oxygen to all the cells in your body. As red blood cells move into the tiny, little, capillaries, the space they have to move through gets pretty small. In fact, the diameter of the capillaries gets so small that the red blood cells sometimes have to pass through these capillaries one red blood cell at a time!
Because of this, and because it’s important for the red blood cells to be able to flow easily and quickly through the body, they have a mechanism that allows them to remain separate from each other. This mechanism comes in the form of the outside of healthy red blood cells having a negative charge. This causes them to stay apart from each other, sort of like when you try to push the negative ends of two magnets together. They resist each other and stay apart.
Unfortunately, acid interferes with this very important mechanism in a dangerous way. Acid actually strips away the negative charge from red blood cells.
The result is that your red blood cells then tend to clump together and not flow as easily. This makes it much more difficult for them to flow easily through the bloodstream.
But it also makes it harder for them to move freely through those small capillaries. This means less oxygen gets to cells. Acid also weakens the red blood cells and they begin to die. As they die, the red blood cells release more acid.
Apart from the acid that is secreted into the stomach to facilitate digestion, acid in the body is bad. In regard to producing energy in the body, if over time the system becomes more and more acidic, the biochemical balance is disrupted and the red blood cells would not be able to deliver oxygen and nutrients as efficiently to all the cells in the tissues and organs of the body. Consequently their energy level drops precipitously.

Cause of acidity in the body
The primary cause of an acidic condition in the body is what we eat and drink, but not necessarily how “acidic” what is eaten may seem. Rather it is about what is left over when you digest it. For instance, some sea foods leave acidic residue after digestion. In the same way, alcohol, coffee and a lot of flesh protein in the diet raise the acid level of the body. Interestingly, stress also tends to create an acid condition in the body. The question then is: what can be done to improve the body’s pH level?
Fortunately, it is pretty easy to immediately change your pH for the better and make it more alkaline. The first step is to understand which of the foods you are eating and the drinks you are drinking are acid and which are alkaline. Then it’s simply a matter of eliminating some of the more acid foods you are eating and adding in more alkaline foods. Fortunately, there are a number of other simple causes of fatigue.
In addition to drinking more water, if we eliminate these, fatigue will usually disappear. A rarely understood cause of fatigue is overeating.
It would seem that a snack, or between meal eating would be the very thing to help cure fatigue, but the reverse is actually the case. Do not overeat, use between meal snacks or heavy suppers. While a heavy supper may enable some to sleep like a person drugged, it does not cause refreshment. Next morning the person awakens in a partial stupor. Chronic dehydration is often caused by diuretics such as coffee, tea, colas, and chocolate. Eating concentrated, rich, or heavy foods promotes chronic dehydration.
Protein food supplements can also cause chronic dehydration. Too little exercise is another common cause of fatigue. Again it would appear that exercise would cause fatigue in itself. Not so! As the out-of-condition person begins to exercise, chronic fatigue may disappear like magic.

Measuring the pH of the body
Technology has made it easy to measure the pH of the body at home. Several ready-to-use test kits are now available in good pharmacies in the Nigeria. Simply walk in and ask for a pack of pH test strips. You can test your pH levels often throughout the day, but try to do so at the same time each morning, as your body will be more acidic the earlier you measure. The goal is to get your morning urine pH between 6.5 and 7.5.
You can use the saliva to test.

Step 1:
Swallow your spit. Wait until saliva accumulates in your mouth again, and spit a second time. This ensures that the saliva you test is freshly produced rather than saliva whose acidity has changed with exposure to elements.

Step 2:
Spit onto the colored end of a litmus paper, and wait for the color to change. The color will correspond to a pH score.

Step 3:
Determine what your score is using the color key that came with your litmus paper. If the color turns blue, this indicates a score of 7.4, which is exactly where your pH level should be. If it is a color other than blue, use the key to find your score.

Tips
Wait at least two hours after your last meal to perform this test. This ensures that no leftover food particles or fluids are present to influence your pH scores. Scores can be influenced by various factors.
According to Alkalize for Health, young children frequently register pH scores of 7.5 and above, while elderly individuals often score around 6.5 due to calcium deficiencies. Cancer patients have been known to score 4.5 or lower, particularly when their cancer is terminal.

► With additional materials from freedrinkingwater.com