What is Urine pH?

The term "pH" stands for "potential of hydrogen" and measures the acidity or alkalinity of your urine on a scale from 0 to 14. A neutral pH is 7, with values below indicating acidity and values above indicating alkalinity. Your urine pH reflects a complex balance influenced by your diet, hydration, activity levels, behaviors, and overall health.

Why is Monitoring Urine pH Useful?

Monitoring your urine pH provides valuable insights into your body’s overall wellness, offering clues about your lifestyle and dietary habits, and aiding in recovery from intense physical activity:

1. Optimizing Nutritional Balance: Keeping track of urine pH helps ensure that your diet maintains an appropriate balance between acidic and alkaline foods. This is especially important for athletes and health-conscious individuals aiming to fine-tune their diets for optimal performance and well-being.
2. Preventing Dehydration and Maintaining Electrolyte Balance: Active individuals, particularly athletes, need to stay well-hydrated and maintain proper electrolyte balance. Monitoring urine pH can offer insights into your hydration status and the body's acid-base balance, helping to prevent dehydration or electrolyte imbalances that could negatively impact performance.
3. Enhancing Recovery and Reducing Muscle Soreness: Regularly checking urine pH allows athletes to gauge how their bodies are responding to intense workouts. Maintaining an optimal pH may help reduce muscle soreness and improve recovery times, as it indicates whether the body is effectively managing exercise by-products like lactic acid.
4. Promoting Overall Well-being and Mental Clarity: Monitoring urine pH can also ensure that your body is in a balanced state, contributing to physical and mental well-being. A balanced pH is often associated with better energy levels, improved mood, and enhanced mental clarity, all essential for maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.

Optimal pH Ranges to Monitor

The U-Scan identifies the following pH zones:

• Low Zone (pH < 6): Urine is too acidic, which may suggest inappropriate behaviors or lifestyle. You should consider changing some habits.
• Target Zone (pH 6-7): Generally considered balanced and indicative of a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruits.
• High Zone (pH > 7): Urine is too alkaline, could result from a diet high in vegetables or indicate a potential bacterial infection if accompanied by other symptoms.

Possible Reasons for a pH Outside the Target Range

• Low pH: This can result from behaviors such as skipping meals or fasting, drinking less than 2 liters of water daily, consuming a lot of protein or acidic foods (such as nuts, dairy, cereals, and processed foods), having a urinary infection, or taking certain medications (like diuretics or high doses of aspirin).
• High pH: This can be due to eating a lot of alkaline foods (such as green vegetables, citrus fruits, and berries), following a vegetarian diet, taking bicarbonate, recent vomiting, or having a urinary infection.

The effects of these behaviors are generally reflected in urine pH within 24 hours, and adjusting your habits can help you reach the target pH zone.

Sources and further reading:

• Mayo Clinic (Urine Tests, which includes urine pH): https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/urine-test/about/pac-20384907
• National Institutes of Health - National Library of Medicine (discusses body pH, which includes urine pH): https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001181.htm
• WebMD (covers acid-base balance in the body, which is closely related to pH): https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-acid-base-balance