Comment and Opinion

Alka Power

But is it science? (27/3/2021)
One of the constant myths pushed by the anti-real-medicine crowd is that blood becomes acidic and needs to be treated by chemicals (non-chemical, of course) to reduce the acidity. (Strangely, one of the methods often touted by quacks is to reduce blood acidity by drinking lemon juice, although reducing acidity by adding an acid is another of those mysteries of alternative (to) medicine.) One of the facts known to those who know what they are talking about is that the lungs and kidneys work to maintain blood pH within a very restricted range.

To make a change from using an acid to reduce acidity, along comes some magic alkaline water.

Click to see the whole label

Now, a pH of 9-10 is pretty dramatic. Not quite up there with sodium hydroxide drain cleaner.

But can you measure it?

Look! A true statement! Litmus strips can only say if something is either side of neutral, not how far away it is from the centre. A friend of mine with access to the sort of practices and procedures used in actual laboratories to measure pH bought a bottle of this water and tested it. And it fell right there in the neutral green zone, just like it did when it came out of the tap.

This is not the first attempt to scam the public with magic water, and I would bet money that it won't be the last. At least this one doesn't have someone who claims to be a chemist saying that "low pH" might counteract acidity.