215Conclusion
S
cientists have led us to believe that good health and longevity are
largely a matter of luck, that we are hostages to the genes handed
down to us by our ancestors. The discovery that some people have
genetic markers for particular diseases would appear to confi rm this
belief. But surprisingly, statistical research shows that many people
with a gene predisposing them to, for example, breast cancer or insulin-
dependent diabetes are not much more likely to come down with the
disease than people who don’t carry the genetic marker. The fact is that
most disease-carrying genes need a trigger to become active. That trig-
ger is acidic waste, largely the leftover remains of undigested foods.
If we describe health as the balance between two opposites—the way
every healing system except modern medicine defi nes it—we would
assume that a state of health exists in anyone whose acid and alkaline
balances are normal. Yet it is possible to have normal pH of the blood,
lymph, urine, and digestive juices and still be seriously ill.
That there is often no connection between an imbalance in the pH
of the blood and the level of acid waste in the digestive tract or the state
of health in a particular individual is not surprising, for toxic wastes and
body chemicals are not dispersed evenly throughout the body. For
example, tests can show a low level of heavy metal contaminants in the
blood even when there is an excessive amount of heavy metal in the
solid tissues of the body. There is even less of a connection between the
pH of the blood and the ratio of acidic foods (foods with more acidic
than alkaline particles) to alkaline foods (food with more alkaline than
acid particles) in the diet. That too high a level of acidic minerals in