The pH scale ranges from 1 to 14 with 7 being neutral. Below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline. The blood, lymph and cerebral spinal fluid in a dog’s body is genetically designed to be slightly alkaline at 7.0 to 7.4 (6.1-6.4 for cats). In other words, the dog’s pH balance is achieving pH of 7.0 to 7.4. When pH falls below that, tissues in the body are prone to disease.
This is because tissues need oxygen to remain healthy but acidic environment prevents oxygen from reaching the body’s tissue. For example, at a pH slightly above 7.4, cancer cells become dormant and at pH 8.5 cancer cells will die while healthy cells will live. This has given rise to a variety of treatments based on increasing the alkalinity of the tissues such as vegetarian diet, the drinking of fresh vegetable juices, and dietary supplementation with alkaline minerals such as Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium.
