There’s been a lot of hype these days with ‘Alkaline’ water and its potential benefits. Manufacturers of Alkaline Water machines claim that it helps with Cancer, reducing weight, and also helps reduce ‘Acidity’ from your gut. Tons of people, especially healers and people suffering from chronic ailments have been installing these Filters and buying bottled Alkaline Water. Some claim that they have ‘felt a difference’.

So what is the real deal with Alkaline water? Does it really create all these miracles in your body?

So firstly, lets understand, what is Alkalinity really? Well, its less Acidic, right? So it must be better!

That’s the gimmick that these machines are going with… but just to clear the air on this one… More alkaline does not necessitate ‘Better’. Everything has an ‘ideal pH’ for its optimal existence. Everything in your body, your blood, your gut, every living being, including microbes have an ‘optimal’ pH that is best suited for its optimal functionality.
The pH of the human body is between 7.35 -7.45 (Arterial Blood). The body needs to be at this optimum pH in order to keep all systems alive. So that’s your ideal pH for optimal functioning. The pH of filtered Tap water is anywhere between 7.5 -8.5. Of course, various foods have their own pH too. Some are acidic, some are alkaline. Irrespectively, your body will neutralize the pH of the fluid content in your body to regulate it at your optimal blood pH (7.35-7.4)

So, what happens when you put alkaline water in your body?

Well, where does that water go? Straight to your stomach, right? Anything you ingest, goes to your digestive tract, from where it gets digested, broken down, etc and then absorbed into your bloodstream via your gut lining. And to keep this system alive, your stomach needs to be at a very acidic range. The pH of your stomach ranges between 1.75 – 3.5. So, any water you put into your body, be it at whatever pH, it IS going to get neutralized before it enters your blood stream. Also, the pH of your stomach needs to be at an acidic range. So, if your Stomach pH is alkaline, it could possibly cause problems, like inactivating digestive enzymes, etc.

There are no credible research articles or clinical trials that show success in curing or healing ailments by switching to alkaline water, although there Have been studies that show that a more Basic pH helps Cancer cells unproliferate. Sure, that could be true. On a petri plate. If you removed your cancer cells, placed them in a dish with an alkaline environment, then sure, they could die. But getting your body’s cells a higher alkalinity, while still keeping your blood at its neutral pH could be the challenge here.