192 Achieving pH Balance to Treat Specific Ailments
cent of the men over sixty in North America were found to have some
prostate enlargement, insecticides and chemical food additives had been
in use for about twenty-fi ve years, enough time for these chemicals to
have caused an epidemic of prostate problems in older men.
Medical researchers suspect that an increase in the enzyme 5 alpha
reductase—the enzyme that triggers the excess growth of prostate tis-
sue—is caused by pesticides and industrial solvents. The problem with
these manufactured chemicals is that they can’t be broken down in the
digestive tract, deactivated by the liver, and excreted by the kidneys or
lungs, so they’re either stored in the liver or go back into the circulator y
system. Along with acidic waste from undigested food, they are depos-
ited by the circulating blood inside the tiniest capillaries, some of which
carry oxygen and nutrients to the prostate. Furthermore, some of this
toxic waste seeps out of these capillaries into the extracellular fl uid sur-
rounding the prostate and infl ames it. The rest of it clogs the capillaries,
which prevents the prostate from getting suffi cient nutrients and oxy-
gen. This partial cutoff of nutrients and ox ygen is especially harmful to
the prostate gland because of its poor blood supply. (This could explain
why three amino acid supplements—alanine, glycine, and glutamic
acid—are effective in reducing prostate enlargement, as Doctors H. M.
Feinblatt and J. C. Gant found in their crossover study of patients with
enlarged prostates.^4 ) The connection between manufactured chemicals
and the deterioration of the prostate gland in the majority of men over
sixty in the past forty years points out the importance of avoiding food
with chemical additives and of drinking distilled water.
The fact that it is elevated levels of estrogen and DHT that trigger the
production of excess tissue in the prostate gland is what makes saw pal-
metto, pygeum, and pollen seeds effective in treating BPH. These herbs
contain healthy hormones such as testosterone that reduce the levels of
these two rogue hormones. They do so either by preventing the conver-
sion of testosterone to DHT or by preventing DHT and estrogen from
binding to the receptors (openings) of the prostate cells. Zinc, if taken
with vitamin B 6 , also prevents the enzyme 5 alpha reductase from con-
verting testosterone to DHT. The resulting shrinkage of the prostate
helps normalize urine fl ow and heal possible kidney damage caused by
the pressure of the prostate gland on the kidneys.
However, the most effective treatment for prostate enlargement is
taking the three amino acids mentioned earlier: alanine, glycine, and