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Methods of measurement
Nutrition habits

First of all, it should be mentioned that rethinking critically the personal nutritional habits, enormously helps to find out about acidosis. Simply compare your personal dietary intakes with our acid-base-calculator. You will notice that many foods assumed to be healthy and beneficial for acid-base balance, in fact provide excess acid. Acid-producing foodstuffs should not be completely avoided, but should be cleverly combined with base supplying fruits, vegetables and salads in adequate proportions. In doing so, the proper choice of foodstuffs helps to prevent overacidification right from the start.

 

Urinary pH measurement with indicator strips

For the sake of simplicity, the urine pH is often used to measure the acid-base status. However, due to the physiologically normal range of fluctuation between pH 5 and 8, single measurements are not suitable for drawing a conclusion about the current acid-base balance. Furthermore most of the urinary acid is excreted as ammonium compounds which is undetectable by the pH colour indicator.

 

Determination of urinary pH measurement is only appropriate with regular and subsequent daily measurements, in relatively short intervals, with standardised nutrition, and without pre-existent renal disorders (see application). Under these preconditions, the daily course of urinary pH may be suitable for assessment of acid-base balance.

 

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24 hours urinary net acid excretion

Determination of the daily net acid excretion allows predicting acid-base balance precisely.
Urine collected within a 24 hour interval is analysed for all excreted components needed to assess acid-base balance and daily net acid excretion is therefore calculated.
A high net acid excretion correlates with an increase of the acid load in our bodies. The rather complicated urine collection, as well as the currently reduced number of institutes offering such kind of analysis, are disadvantages of this method.

Technique of Friedrich Sander

In naturopathy, a technique developed by Friedrich Sander in the Thirties of the 1930's is still applied today determining urinary pH and urinary buffering capacity five times a day. To do so, at first urine samples are alkalinised and subsequently acidified with the ratio of each quantity required for neutralisation being calculated. The daily course of the calculated “acidity ratio” indicates the status of acid-base balance (see application). This method as well needs a specialist’s interpretation..

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Technique of Jörgensen and Stirum

The technique of Jörgensen and Stirum determines blood buffering capacity. It takes into account the proportion of cellular blood components. Red blood cell buffering capacity is analysed, predicting the probability of intracellular acidosis. Low blood buffering capacity correlates with depleted buffer stores in our bodies. In healthy subjects, empirically determined blood buffering capacity is at pH 7.4 and constant partial pressure of carbon dioxide is about 75 mmol/l. As there’s need for blood work, many sources of error may lead to invalid results. This method is only suitable for experienced therapists and specialised laboratories, too.