Nicole,
What do you think of the whole ph thing? I think that there may be something to it.
-Yoda
they stab it with their steely knives
but they still can’t kill the beast. . .
It’s so biblical. . .
I think the robust health of body alkalinity is due to general alkalinity of the blood or whole body, not just the saliva.
The saliva is normally alkaline. Acidic stuff attacks bones and teeth, and so saliva protects teeth by alkalinity with minerals. It also has amylase enzyme to begin digesting starch. People who have put excess acid in their mouths have dissolved their teeth. People who habitually eat lemons, or old time carpenters who held galvanized (zinc plated) nails in their mouth for years have had this problem.
Yoda,
The whole ph thing… I would say the litmus paper testing is a simple and effective preventative measure. Since, high levels have been linked to certain cancers, and chronic acid reflux. Especially for those who drink diet drinks, anything artificial, meat, and obviously anything acidic. Also if you suffer from ulcers or experience acid reflux symptoms it might be a good idea to keep some strips handy to be aware of your alkaline level. Other then that I think it’s just interesting. But maybe someone who knows more would say otherwise?
In Jim’s case…it seems like it’s worth trying I suppose.
Jim, I asked my friend who is a nutritionist what he thinks of your sweet smell issue. He asked if you are drinking enough water. He said your body might not be getting rid of toxins properly. Also that it is a good sign you’re perspiring, but to consider getting blood work done to check your liver enzymes if you are concerned about it.
Hey at least it’s not the other way around… gross smelling sweat hehe
Hope this helps 
When I was in training for the military, one of my friends who was previously in dive school didn’t have smelly sweat. He wasn’t into yoga at all…more into getting drunk and having wild sex with dirty girls. I think it may have had to do with going deep into the waters. Something with the way the body handles oxygen. It’s cool, Jim, in your case where it comes from mostly meditation. It’s a sign that you’re doing something right, in my opinion.
…more into getting drunk and having wild sex with dirty girls.
If this Yoga thing doesn’t work out, that’s next on my list in my search for the meaning of life.
Why not have both 
May I also suggest that drinking may impede your ability to fully feel the sensual pleasure. So may be it’s better to reverse the order of having sex and drinking 
.
Back to the original topic. Scott, the guy you mention is probably healthy DESPITE that living style (especially getting drunk), not because of it. Just like there are many guys who have very large and strong muscles without having to go to gym, it doesn’t mean that going to gym is not helpful for getting strong muscles.
Alvin,
I know the lifestyle isn’t what made him healthy…in fact he lost his health towards the end of our career together. He started having really stinky gas, pimples and sunken in eyes. But when I first met him, he was probably one of the healthiest people I’ve seen. I think it was due to going through dive school, and something with the way his body reacted to oxygen because of that.
I think if he had kept up his lifestyle, as well as continued going through dive school, he would’ve stayed healthy. I think he was experiencing the physical effects of having a pure body through pranayama.
Anyway, if you can have both, Alvin, more power to you. That’s like having your cake and eating it too, along with a pie of your choice.
btw, I don’t really understand why people would enjoy drinking. It’s certainly something one cannot stop easily. And it certainly feels “freer” when you’re drunk, so it helps with depression. But on the next day, in my experience at least, I seem to have to pay all the debts and feel worse.
There doesn’t seem to be a way of getting drunk frequently and stay healthy (which is quite important for spiritual progress, I think)
But for “having sex with wild girls”, if anyone is so inclined, it’s possible to do so in a yogic way by mastering tantric sex, right? It may not be “wild sex”, though.
BTW, I was just joking about my ‘Plan B’. 
I personally can’t stand alcohol, however, regarding drinking, it is very pleasurable to many people. After trying it for a while, the ‘buzz’ they get from it quickly colors the experience, so even if something is even unquestionably physically unpleasant to begin with (such as smoking) it changes into a net short-term pleasure.
But on the next day, in my experience at least, I seem to have to pay all the debts and feel worse.
True; but you're able to put longer-term pleasure before immediate though. If you were an addict, you would have difficulty doing that.
If sweat has a sweet smell to it… it is generally a sign of diabetes. But I think Jim said his sweat is odorless (unless his sweat has started smelling like Downy or Tide or ? 
)… from what I have read, odorless sweat is a sign of Vata constitution… and sweet smelling sweat is sign of dominant Kapha constitution…
Not sure what that means tho…
My sweat smells like Fenugreek and Cumin.
I enjoy smelling like the food that I cook.
Shweta,
Do you always believe what you read? If Jim doesn’t have signs of diabetes, but has this sweet smelling sweat, then what you’ve heard has been false. In my experience, people with diabetes smell bad.
Hi Scott,
No, I don’t believe everything I read… that is why I don’t read much
This was one of the symptoms to look for in Ayurveda… at at least it was in India. I just looked it up and the American Diabetes Association says one of the symptoms is sweet-smelling breath… well maybe not the same thing… At the diabetic forum some of the symptoms were “sweet smelling urine and sweet smelling breath” … so maybe I am wrong.
Sorry if I have given wrong info here…
Thanks Scott.
Hi with diabetes the breath smells of almonds or acetone like nail varnish remover its very distinctive.
Richard
Shweta,
I know what you mean about the reading! No need to apologize for adding your input. You may have been right. I certainly don’t know.
But you’re right about diabetic people having different smelling stuff. They’re dumping their sugar because insulin isn’t using the sugar.
Richard,
You’re absolutely right about that. A lot of people wouldn’t say the smells are “sweet”.
No diabetes…just had blood test. And my constitution is pitta/vata, though more pitta these days.
Interestingly, as this latest spike of kundalini has died down, my sweat is smelling more like my old sweat. Still pretty sweet, but a faint note of funk has returned.
Kundalini causing general purification and sweet smells from the body is something lots of sources talk about. But I’ve been having on/off kundalini for a year and a half, and this is the first time I’ve noticed this effect.
Weird. Who knows.
Missed a number of practice slots this week, have been very busy and distracted, kundalini has been dormant.
Hot weather today, underarms smelled funky.
There she goes… your answer
I’m convinced of the correlation, but still don’t understand the how or why. I guess the usual Indian explanation of “purity” doesn’t fit, since I couldn’t have gotten SO impure in just a couple days (purification refers to lifetimes of accummulated karma, and one doesn’t backtrack that far that quick…proven, btw, by my meditation last night which opened me back up pretty handily).
Maybe I will after all go buy some PH strips.
I think it may be some sort of hormone or combination of chemicals that the body releases which smells sweet. It will probably happen again for you if you continue in the practices you were doing.