The pH Scale

pH is a measure of acidity and alkalinity.  The pH scale goes from 0 to 14. At pH 7, the half way point, there is a balance between acidity and alkalinity.  Such a solution is neutral.

The principles of pH begin with a definition of the term pH.  The p comes from the word power. The H, of course is the symbol for the element of hydrogen.  Together, the term pH means the hydrion ion exponent.  The greater potential a substance has for freeing hydrogen ions, the smaller its pH value is.  So, the greater the degree of acidity, the lower the pH reading.

The pH scale is logarithmic, meaning that the values separating each unit are not of equal value along the scale but increase in proportion to their distance from the midway point of an even balance between acidity and alkalinity.

The values are multiplied by 10 at each unit.  Thus a pH value of 6 is 10 times more acidic than a pH value of 7, but a pH of 5 is 100 times more acidic than a pH of 7.  Conversely, a pH of 8 is 10 times more alkaline than a pH of 7, and a pH of 9 is 100 times more alkaline than a pH of 7.

Note:  When testing the pH of your saliva or urine, while a reading of 5.5 may not seem too acidic (after all, it's only 1.25 units lower than 7), indeed it is very acidic. In fact, it is 50 times more acidic than what is considered healthy.   A healthful pH range for an individual is 6.4 and 7.0.

Another important note is that in order to reverse this, and neutralize that acidity, it requires a large amount of alkaline elements.  The math would look something like this:

In order to change the pH of a gallon of solution with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0, it would require well over 20 gallons of a solution with a pH of 7.5.