The Road Less Travelled and How We Lost a Chapter in the History of Biology

Dr. Robert O. Young
The Human body is alkaline by design and acidic by function!

Often I (Lee Gefen) am asked what is the research and science behind the alkaline approach and how come most people are not familiar with it? The answers to these questions are both fascinating and  deeply troubling. Here is why:

The Road less Travelled and how we lost a chapter in the history of Biology
By Lee Gefen - http://embracingthejourney-lee.blogspot.com.au

The alkaline theory is nothing new; in fact it has been around since the late 18^th hundreds.

At that time 2 of the biggest rivals in science history, Louis Pasteur and Antoine Bechamp were working side by side, each holding a very different view of how sickness and disease are born. 

If you are like me and most other people, chances are you've never heard of Bechamp , despite his many scientific achievements and contributions to modern science.

On the contrary, we are all familiar with Pasteur, famous for developing the Germ Theory, which claims that fixed species of microbes from an external source invade the body and are the first cause of infectious disease.

The Germ Theory is also called Monomorphism, which means one (mono) body or form. According to this theory, once a germ is a particular germ it always stays that way, it doesn’t change into anything else.

Disease is caused by external, non changeable microbes that invade the body.

The concept of specific, unchanging types of bacteria causing specific diseases in the body became accepted as the foundation of conventional allopathic medicine, microbiology and pharmacology in the late 19th century in Europe. It was adopted by the American medical industry, and it is practised today in mainstream medicine.

Pasteur’s contemporary Antoine Bechamp and his followers had a very different theory, but unfortunately even though Bechamp was a highly acclaimed scientist with many achievements , he did not have (nor was he interested in) the political power and contacts that Pasteur had.

Bechamp claimed that germs come from the inside of the body; from the "tiny dots" you can see in the blood with any microscope. These tiny dots, called microzymas (‘small beings’ or ‘ferments’) are living micro- organisms that exist within all living things and reflect either health or disease.

The most important factor in determining health or disease is the internal terrain (environment) in the body, not external germs invading the body.

If the internal terrain of the body is healthy and balanced, disease can not arise!

But if the internal environment is compromised, these microzymas become disturbed and change their form; they evolve into microscopic forms (germs) that produce the symptoms of disease.

When the balance in the body is destroyed, when the internal environment becomes toxic, acidic and low in oxygen these microscopic forms lose their life giving qualities and start changing forms into viruses, bacteria and fungal forms, causing more and more damage to surrounding tissue cells.

This is why this theory is called Pleomorphism (many- forms), the ability of bacteria and fungus to change forms during a life cycle, depending on the environment.

Claude Bernard, a French physiologist (1813-1878) believed that ‘the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything'.
This means that bacteria and fungus, whether coming from outside of the body or from within the body (pleomorphic) could cause sickness and disease only if they were permitted to grow in an unhealthy terrain.

Unfortunately, modern conventional medicine, based on the doctrine of Louis Pasteur became big business, controlled by pharmaceutical companies and the theory of Bechamp has been conveniently forgotten. You see, in treating the symptoms of disease there is A LOT of money. If you have a symptom- you can take a drug to treat it and if that drug is causing more symptoms- well, try another one to treat these 'side effects'. What a vicious and never ending cycle, promoted by the complex medical industry.

Louis Pasteur has said on his death bed that he had been wrong about his "Germ Theory" of disease. He said then that, it is not the germ that is the problem; it is the internal environment that allowed the germ to develop in the first place that is the problem.

But of course, by then it was too late....

For over a century, conventional medicine has been confusing symptoms with disease and the focus has been on treating the symptoms, not the root or the cause of the disease.  We are all aware of the dramatic increase in cancer, heart disease, diabetes and the list goes on. It is becoming apparent that there need to be a shift from an approach that is treating symptoms to an approach that is preventing them in the first place.

So how does this all fit and support the alkaline theory?

In order for the internal environment of the body to be healthy, the blood has to be maintained at a very delicate pH balance range. If the pH balance is disturbed, those micro-organisms which live in the body have to change their forms in order to survive. They can change to bacteria, yeast, fungus and mould, which give rise to the onset of sickness and disease.

Conventional medicine agrees that the body has to maintain a pH balance, yet it does not fully recognise or understand the different processes that happen within the body in order to keep the blood slightly alkaline.

The body will do WHATEVER it can to maintain its alkaline design. If the body doesn’t have enough alkaline reservesbecause we are ingesting acidic foods and drinks, we don’t breath properly, we don’t exercise, we are exposed to environmental pollutants or we’re emotionally stressed, it will start compensating in many unwanted ways.

For example, it may leach minerals from the blood and bones to buffer the acids (osteoporosis), it may store fat to bind the acids and protect vital organs (overweight/obesity) or it may form a tumour to encapsulate the acids (cancer). These are just a few examples of symptoms (not disease!)- all stem from an unbalanced internal terrain.

The good news is the body is so clever it is perfectly capable of also reversing symptoms when we start changing the internal terrain.

Rather than treating the symptom, be it a common cold, joint pain, yeast infection, allergies and even cancer and diabetes- we need to treat our internal environment. 

Sadly, this simple common sense approach, backed up by Bechamp and his followers at the time (including Günther Enderlein, Claude Bernard, Virginia Livingston-Wheeler and Gaston Naessens), as well as more recent scientists like Dr. Robert Young (30 years of research) is still being ignored or given bad press in some circles.

This is despite the fact that so many people who embrace it, are not only feeling better and getting rid of symptoms, many are also getting rid of and reversing chronic diseases.

Before I was diagnosed with a tumour and introduced to the alkaline diet & lifestyle, I had no idea that there was a lost chapter in the history of biology or that the complex medical industry is very happy for us to never hear about Bechamp and his discoveries.

Learning the truth about the cause of ALL sickness and disease (over acidification of the internal environment in the body) has changed my life forever and it is my hope that with more education and awareness, this truth will be widely available to more and more people so that we can all take charge of our own health and move from a victim mentality to that of a king!

Further reading:

Bechamp, Pierre Jacques Antoine, The Blood and Its Third Anatomical Element, London: John Ouseley Limited, 1912

Hume, E. Douglas, Bechamp or Pasteur? Ashingdon, Rochford Essex, England: The C.W Daniel Co. Ltd, 1923

Lynes, Barry. The Cancer Cure That Worked! Fifty years of Suppression. Queensville, Ontario, Canada: Marcus Books 1987

Young O. Robert, Sick and Tired?  Pleasant Grove, Utah, United States: Woodland publishing

Young O. Robert, Young Redford Young,The pH Miracle Revised and Updated, Hachett Publishing, 2010