this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ok. Then they're wrong. The human body's overall pH can vary within to a small degree with little to no effect on your health, let alone kill you. Changing the pH in small amounts, particularly in different areas like the stomach, will not typically harm the body at all. The entire purpose of some medications like antacids is to do that specifically with the stomach, for example.

[–] zout@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

First, like someone stated above, your stomach pH won't be very much affected by the alkalinity. Basically, your stomach pH is very low, pH 2 is normal. Since pH is a log scale, you would need to make it ten times less acidic to get a pH of 3. Som slightly alkaline water solution won't get it there, especially since the stomach fluid is a buffer which helps maintain a constant pH. Dilution will help more, depending on the volume of stomach fluid. However, your stomach will produce more acid to make up for it.

Second, now you still have to get the pH of the whole body higher, which means raising the pH of the blood. The pH of blood is about 7,4 and it is also a buffer. You have 5 liters of blood, which get constantly pumped around the body. If there were something jacking the pH of your blood (via IV), your kidneys would remove the alkalinity again, right up to the point of kidney failure. This is where you die.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

None of what you said contradicts what I said.

[–] zout@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm not even sure what you are trying to say, you seem to be moving the goal posts a lot between comments. My top comment should be read as alkaline water doesn't do anything special for your body since it's just water when it enters the stomach. The only thing it can help for is for LPR sufferers as @realitista@lemmus.org states in another reply to my top comment.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I wasn't trying to suggest that it (alkaline water) necessarily does anything of significance. I certainly wasnt saying it has any health benefits. I was saying that, at most, adding a small bit of base to the body might make it compensate a bit. That's it.