Your body creates urine to get rid of waste, toxins, and extra fluid in your blood. Urine pH is based on the acidity or alkalinity of your pee, and it can alert to possible health conditions.

Testing your urine pH is simple, especially with Vessel Health’s Wellness Card.  

If you’ve ever had to pee in a cup at the doctor’s office, you’ve had your urine tested. It’s a convenient testing method because doctors can use one sample to see several different health markers, including nutrient and vitamin levels, and even a hormone that helps determine if you’re pregnant.

If you are one of many people that dreads doing pee tests in a doctor's office, Vessel Health offers a way to test your urine pH without having to leave your home.

Here’s what to know about urine pH, and how testing it yourself at home can help you make positive changes.

What is the Normal pH of Urine?

pH is a measure of how acidic or basic a liquid is—like pee!—based on the pH level scale. Changes in pH of a liquid can affect how it interacts with other chemicals, nutrients, and functions in your body.

The pH level scale ranges from 0-14, with 0 being the most acidic and 14 being the most basic. Urine is naturally acidic, ranging between 4.5 and 8 on the scale. Most people’s urine is about a 6 on the scale.

The foods that you eat can affect your pH levels, so your urine pH can change daily. Urine that is under a 5 is considered acidic, and urine over 8 is considered alkaline (or “basic”).

If you're eating a balanced diet of acidic and alkaline foods, your urine pH levels are usually within normal range. Those who eat more fruits and vegetables might have alkaline urine, while those who eat more meat may have more acidic urine.

What Do Abnormal pH Levels Look Like?

Abnormal pH levels are any levels not within the average 4.5 to 8 range on the pH scale.

When you have more basic pH levels, you are more likely to experience conditions such as kidney failure or UTI.

When your urine pH levels become more acidic, kidney stones can show up. Kidney stones are extremely painful lumps (AKA acid or mineral deposits) that form in your kidney and exit out of your urethra (the hole where your urine exits your body).

Anyone that has had kidney stones knows they are no joke, and they can be avoided in the future by keeping a close eye on your pH levels.

Even if you’re confident that you’ve been eating a balanced diet of both acidic and alkaline foods, it’s still wise to regularly test your urine’s pH. If your pH levels are off, you can make changes in your diet to decrease the odds of developing kidney stones, UTIs, or kidney failure.

Why Would Someone Test Their Urine’s pH Levels?

Your doctor cannot diagnose a condition based on pH level tests alone, nor should you attempt to self-diagnose based on a urine pH test. Many factors can affect urine pH, urine tests are a tool that can help determine whether further tests are needed.

These test results can help you create a preventative healthcare plan while looking for the cause of your abnormal pH.

Jumping to conclusions about your health is never good, and a healthcare provider can better explain the meaning behind test results and guide you to a solution, which is why we incorporate wellness coaching into our own health programs.

How To Test Your pH Levels

The best way to figure out your urine pH levels is through a urine test. Many of us get our urine tested when we visit our doctors, but you may want to test your urine pH outside of the office so you’re not dropping that copay every time you want to get a little check-up.

With Vessel Health, you can take your test right at home and receive instant feedback on your results — just put your sample on the test strip, scan the strip using the Vessel app, and your results are ready for you in real-time.

Using similar technology to pregnancy testing, we can help you learn more about your urine pH levels. With these results, suggest lifestyle changes to help bring those abnormal levels back to normal.

With a Vessel Health membership, you can learn more than just your urine pH levels. We can help you test a variety of health markers, including Vitamin C, Cortisol, Hydration, Biotin, and more. Of course, followed by actionable suggestions so you can see improvement in your health across the board.

All you need is a smartphone and the Vessel Health Wellness Card, and congrats — you have your very own personal health testing center right in your bathroom. 

Vessel Health Wellness Card

The Vessel Health Wellness Card is a way to track the different nutrient and vitamin levels in your body. It gives you suggestions and data instantly on your phone, in real-time.

When signing up, you gain access to our online database that helps you track your nutrient, mineral levels plus stress and food habits. The Wellness Card is easy to use and gives immediate data that can help you better understand your body. And what you can do to give it what it needs to thrive.

How It Works

Using Vessel’s Wellness Card is easy. We send you our test strip—all you have to do is use it! Using the Wellness Card is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

1. Pee on the test strip. Wait three minutes, then scan the strip using the Vessel app.
2. Receive instant results with suggestions on which foods, supplements, and lifestyle changes will be the most impactful for your health.
3. Implement our suggestions and watch your levels improve!

Using Our App

The Vessel app gives you instant information that can help you understand why these changes can help you see results. If you want to track your urine pH levels and see what kind of dietary changes you might need to make, Vessel Health can help.

Vessel Health offers food plans that you can have delivered to you within hours. We also recommend supplements to bolster your daily nutrient intake. Our app even helps you build a daily plan that you can follow to best support your body’s needs.

We have the health and wellness tools, you have the pee — it’s as easy it gets.

Vessel’s Mission

We believe that information is everything. People want to understand what’s happening with their own health, but it’s not always easy to decipher medical jargon about “ketoacidosis” or “nephrolithiasis.” Sometimes, it can be difficult to understand your doctor’s explanation of your symptoms, your condition, or your treatment plan because the language is too technical.

The concept of Vessel came from nutritionists, doctors, and research scientists working together to actually make it possible to be active in your own health by putting it into language that you don’t need an MD or DO to figure out.

With Vessel, you can run your own tests, track the results, and make the necessary changes needed to improve it.

In Conclusion

Your urine’s pH changes every day, and your diet has a massive effect on your urine pH test results. Understanding your body can help you make the adjustments needed to balance your pH and consistently keep your urine pH at a normal level.

Vessel Health’s Wellness Card is an easy and quick way to learn more about your health from your own home.

Get started today, and see how easy (and affordable) it can be to live a healthier life.