this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
1222 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

17291 readers
2687 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 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 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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.