90 Achieving pH Balance to Treat Specific Ailments
The B vitamins are also important in the prevention of cardiovascu-
lar disease. Their benefi cial effects, although discovered more than
thirty years ago, have only recently been brought to light. Dr. Kilmer
McCully of Harvard University discovered that defi ciencies in vitamins
B 6 , B 12 , and folic acid gave rise to abnormally high levels of an amino
acid called homocysteine. This turned out to be a major factor in heart
disease. The leftover homocysteine turns into acidic waste because
there are not enough B vitamins to dispose of it. Many studies confi rm
the importance of the B vitamins in promoting a healthy heart. For
example, one study found that people who took B-vitamin supplements
had half the heart disease rate of those who didn’t.^8 These studies indi-
cate that healthy people should take B vitamins as a heart attack and
stroke preventative.
Other nutrients essential to heart health include magnesium (an
anticoagulant), vitamin C, copper, and hawthorn berry liquid extract.
Hawthorn berries’ wide-ranging healing powers are due in great part
to the fact that its benefi cial effects begin as soon as it is swallowed and
enters the digestive tract. The berries’ abundant food-digesting
enzymes step up the speed at which food in the stomach is broken
down, so there is little undigested food left to acidif y. Hawthorn berries
also contain an alkaline factor that binds with acidic particles and neu-
tralizes them. When a minimum of acidic waste is formed in the diges-
tive tract, the arteries, veins, and kidneys have a chance to heal, and the
fatty plaque “bandages,” no longer needed, are dissolved and carried
away by the blood.
The health of the heart and the arteries also depends on a balance
between fats from fi sh and green, leafy vegetables and those from meat
and butter. A recent study of people in Japan and the Mediterranean
countries showed that those whose diet is rich in omega-3 fatty acids
from eating green, leafy vegetables and fi sh have a lower incidence of
heart disease than those who are big meat eaters.^9 But what must be
considered here is that the people in these countries are by virtue of
their grain-eating metabolisms far more likely to be healthier when
they conform to their indigenous grain and fi sh diet—just as those liv-
ing in northern Europe are more likely to have healthy hearts if they
conform to their meat-eating diet.