According to some research, sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 or baking soda) could help reduce the growth and spread of cancer. What is true about all of this? Could baking soda be useful in cancer treatment?
blood pH, alkaline diet and cancer
Not everyone knows that the pH of the blood CANNOT undergo too sharp fluctuations and that, to stay healthy, the acid-base regulation should keep it at values between 7.35 and 7.45.
Recently, some investigations have hypothesized that the "chronic lowering of the systemic pH can negatively affect the state of health, predisposing to problems such as osteoporosis, reduced physical efficiency and premature aging. It is clear, however, that in most cases it is NOT the body" human being defective in regulating blood pH; rather, it is the lifestyle of modern man that compromises its functionality. In particular, the lowering (acidification) of the blood pH is promoted by some factors, including: acidic diet (too much protein, insufficiency of magnesium, potassium and calcium, excess alcohol, excess nerves, poor or insufficient hydration - see PRAL), smoking, excess sodium, etc. The negative effects of such a condition could be: excessive excretion of urinary calcium and impairment of various bodily functions up to the "INCREASE OF THE RISK OF CANCER. blood pH is not (or at least not the only) responsible factor; in fact, an "acid" diet is also low in fresh fruit and vegetables and rich in animal proteins and fats, as well as exceeding with calories, salt, alcohol and sugars ; it is known how similar eating habits, beyond the impact on blood pH, can favor* the onset of many diseases, including some forms of cancer.
It is no coincidence that sodium bicarbonate is a common ingredient in several alternative cancer therapies (highly discussed and controversial because lacking scientifically validated efficacy), where, however, it is often included in more complex formulations, including cocktails of different substances; for example, high-dose vitamin C, selenium, quercetin and other antioxidants, citric acid, THC (cannabinoid), curcumin, amygdalin, melatonin ....
* PLEASE NOTE: neoplasms have a "complex etiology, typically multifactorial, that is, they can be caused or favored by a multitude of different factors (eg. Ultraviolet rays, ionizing radiation, intake of tobacco, alcohol, food carcinogens and progcarcinogens, certain viruses or bacteria, etc.), which can interact with each other and which in any case, to cause cancer, they must defeat the body's defense mechanisms.
It is therefore irrational to trace the causes of cancer to a single factor, especially if this is not accepted as a carcinogen by the international scientific community (as in the case of the tendency to chronic acidity of the blood pH).
Potential cancer benefits
If bad eating habits can lower the pH of the blood to the lower limits of normal, good habits should be able to raise it or otherwise keep it at optimal values, helping to prevent the onset of cancer. In aid of alkaline foods, some researchers have studied the therapeutic potential of an extremely widespread and cheap molecule: the sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) in the treatment of cancer.
Below we report the details of the most important study in support of the usefulness of sodium bicarbonate in the treatment of cancer, a study that has been resumed and extremely dangerously and unconsciously magnified from several online sites.
The experimental "Bicarbonate increases tumor pH and inhibits spontaneous metastases " carried out by "Arizona Cancer Center (University of Arizona) 1 showed that the IDEAL extracellular pH for cancer growth (likely present in circumstances of dysplasia, neoplasia and metastasis) is ACID because:
- It increases the glucose metabolism of the neoplastic tissue
- It decreases blood perfusion for the benefit of tumor growth
- It stimulates the invasiveness and the potential for cancer metastasis.
These evidences are in agreement with that of other researches / scholars; several experiments have in fact shown that the extracellular pH of tumors is typically lower than that of healthy tissues, and that an acid pH promotes invasive tumor growth in primary and metastatic tumors. In particular, the external pH of solid tumors is acidic as a consequence of an increase in glucose metabolism and poor blood perfusion resulting in hypoxia. Other studies2,3 and others have shown that oral administration of sodium bicarbonate is able to selectively increase the extracellular pH of tumors, improving in some cases the efficacy of some anticancer drugs.
In the same study, the oral administration of sodium bicarbonate in MICE with breast cancer was studied, undertaken with the aim of increasing the systemic pH and consequently reducing the peripheral acidity of the neoplasm; the results were positive and after the use of the baking soda occurred a moderation of the formation of spontaneous metastases originating from breast cancer in guinea pigs. The therapy also reduced lymph node involvement but did NOT decrease the relative number of tumor cells circulating within the lymphatic stream itself. In addition, intravenous sodium bicarbonate administration in other cancer models has been shown to be useful in reducing cancer. hepatic and prostate metastases BUT did not have any beneficial effect on tagumentary compromises of the MELANOMA type.
As can be seen from this brief summary, the increase in pH and the reduction of acidity by means of sodium bicarbonate have undoubtedly produced a positive effect on the growth and proliferation of breast, lymph node and liver cancer. and prostate.
However, there are also critical issues in this study7; for instance:
- the treatment had no effect on the primary tumor in any tumor type; it has not proved useful, therefore, to heal the tumor, but only to slow down its spread and reduce its aggressiveness
- oral sodium bicarbonate therapy produced only a slight increase in pH and was found to be ineffective in inhibiting the growth of larger primary tumors, and in reducing the development of metastases in rapidly growing highly aggressive cell lines.
- The same authors of the study highlighted how the amount of sodium bicarbonate that would be necessary for humans to obtain the same effects observed on guinea pigs would be dangerous for the patient's health (risk of excessive increase in blood pH), suggesting that it would be preferable. the use of proton pump inhibitors
Future objectives of the research
Dr. Pagel and his team are able to monitor changes in tumor pH by means of a very special magnetic resonance machine; thanks to this instrumentation, the research group will further investigate the effects of sodium bicarbonate on cancer in HUMAN patients affected by the disease in question. Pagel himself in an "interview underlines that sodium bicarbonate does not eliminate the tumor, but slows it down and allows the anticancer drugs to act more effectively. Pagel continues,"the administration of bicarbonate is however potentially dangerous both because in the long run it can cause irreversible damage to healthy organs, and because the quantity of bicarbonate tolerated by the human body is probably less than in the mouse; either because not all cancers produce high levels of acids; therefore the treatment could be worse than the disease ". That's why the researchers argue that the use of proton pump inhibitors would be more effective and safer than baking soda.
Additional Criticalities and Health Dangers
One of the pioneers of alternative anticancer therapies based on the use of sodium bicarbonate, Dr. Tullio Simoncini, was disqualified from the order of doctors for having administered the product to patients suffering from neoplastic pathologies for therapeutic purposes, advertising its curative effect. discrediting some conventional anticancer therapies, and making personal profit from them, to which were added heavy convictions for fraud and manslaughter (see further information on wikipedia).
This practice, in fact, is considered not only without scientific basis but even harmful in certain circumstances, to the point of even being fatal if used in high doses.
Furthermore, there is no lack of studies that have shown that sodium bicarbonate is completely ineffective7, or worse it can increase the growth of some types of tumors, especially of the urinary tract or stomach4,5,6 or enhance the carcinogenic effect of other substances. ..
Ultimately, pending further investigations, even hoping to cure cancer by simply taking sodium bicarbonate appears extremely optimistic.
At most, such an intervention could help conventional anticancer drugs in their action.
Essential bibliography:
- Bicarbonate increases tumor pH and inhibits spontaneous metastases - Robey IF, Baggett BK, Kirkpatrick ND, Roe DJ, Dosescu J, Sloane BF, Hashim AI, Morse DL, Raghunand N, Gatenby RA, Gillies RJ. - Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA - Cancer Res. 2009 Mar 15; 69: 2260-8. doi: 10.1158 / 0008-5472.CAN-07-5575. Epub 2009 Mar 10.
- The potential role of systemic buffers in reducing intratumoral extracellular pH and acid-mediated invasion. Silva AS, Yunes JA, Gillies RJ, Gatenby RA. Cancer Res. 2009 Mar 15; 69: 2677-84. doi: 10.1158 / 0008-5472.CAN-08-2394. Epub 2009 Mar 10.
- Enhancement of chemotherapy by manipulation of tumor pH. Br J Cancer. Raghunand N, He X, van Sluis R, Mahoney B, Baggett B, Taylor CW, Paine-Murrieta G, Roe D, Bhujwalla ZM, Gillies RJ. 1999 Jun; 80: 1005-11.
- Lina B. A., van Garderen-Hoetmer A. (December 1999). Effect of urinary pH on the progression of urinary bladder tumors. Food and Chemical Toxicology 37: 1159–1166. DOI: 10.1016 / S0278-691500111-8. PMID 10654592.
- Lina B. A., Woutersen R. A. (September 1989). Effects of urinary potassium and sodium ion concentrations and pH on N-butyl-N- (4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine-induced urinary bladder carcinogenesis in rats. Carcinogenesis 10: 1733-1736. DOI: 10.1093 / carcin / 10.9.1733. PMID 2548752.
- Ehrnström R. A., Bjursten L.M., Ljungberg O., Veress B., Haglund M. E., Lindström C. G., Andersson T. (February 2007). Dietary supplementation with carbonate increases expression of ornithine decarboxylase and proliferation in gastric mucosa in a rat model of gastric cancer. International Journal of Cancer 112: 722-733. DOI: 10.1002 / ijc.23151. PMID 17960625
- Martin NK, Robey IF, Gaffney EA, Gillies RJ, Gatenby RA, Maini PK (March 2012). Predicting the safety and efficacy of buffer therapy to raise tumor pHe: an integrative modeling study.. British Journal of Cancer 106: 1280-1287.
- Bicarbonate and dichloroacetate: evaluating pH altering therapies in a mouse model for metastatic breast cancer. Robey IF, Martin NK. BMC Cancer. 2011 Jun 10; 11: 235. doi: 10.1186 / 1471-2407-11-235.
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