In the 1930's, an
interesting natural cancer treatment was proposed as a simple, effective answer
to cancer – almost any cancer. This
treatment approach is not well known because it is considered alternative or
experimental - or even dangerous[i] - by the medical and scientific community
and hence has been referenced primarily in obscure publications outside the
mainstream press.
This treatment approach
is called alkaline therapy or pH therapy, and is based in part on observations
of cultures without significant incidence of cancer[ii] and in part on
scientific observations of and experimentation with cellular metabolism.[iii]
The principles of pH
therapy are very simple. The metabolism
of cancer cells has a very narrow pH tolerance for cellular proliferation
(mitosis), which is between 6.5 and 7.5.
As such, if you can interfere with cancer cell metabolism by either
lowering or raising the internal cancer cell pH, you can theoretically stop
cancer progression.[iv]
While lowering cancer
cell pH (increasing acidity) is effective against cancer cell mitosis in the
lab, increasing acid levels in the live body of a cancer patient puts stress on
normal cells and causes a lot of pain.
So the proposed alkaline therapy for people is a "high pH
therapy" and has been developed to normalize the intracellular pH of the
cancer patient's body through elimination of latent acidosis, while increasing
the pH of cancer cells to a range above 7.5.
According to published research, it is at that pH they revert to a
normal cellular apoptosis cycle (programed cell death).[v]
Ideally, this approach
begins with an alkaline diet. There is
general agreement amongst natural healers and medical professionals alike, that
changing a cancer patient's diet is extremely helpful when someone is
confronted with a cancer diagnosis. In a
previous article, I outlined the six steps that every cancer patient should
take to provide the best chance to heal from and prevent future recurrences of
cancer using alkaline diet principles.[vi]
The alkaline diet,
which is primarily plant-based and avoids sugar, dairy, wheat and other
high-gluten grains as well as an excess consumption of fruits, while
emphasizing fresh vegetables and vegetable juices along with cruciferous
vegetables and greens, changes the body's intracellular pH to come close to the
ideal blood pH of 7.3/7.41 - a key
metabolic accomplishment on the path to longevity whether you have cancer or
not! An alkaline diet based on
vegetables and fruits creates a less-than-optimal environment for cancer
proliferation, while at the same time strengthens the immune function and
supports healthy cells in the body through improved nutrition.
The second step is to
use some nutritional mechanism to move the internal cancer cell pH from the
optimal mitosis range of pH 6.5 to 7.5, to above 8, which shortens the life of
the cancer cell. As described by its proponents,
alkaline therapy neutralizes the acid waste of the cancer which causes so much
pain, interferes with the anaerobic fermentation of glucose that starts the
self-feeding acidic cancer wasting cycle called cachexia and in time, can
induce remission. If this theory of
alkaline therapy holds true, it should be possible to address cancer without
chemotherapy, radiation or surgery and use alkaline therapy as a primary cancer
treatment.
This bold statement
comes from a somewhat abstruse body of research. In the 1880's, Louis Pasteur published his
work on cellular aerobic respiration and glycolysis. In 1931, Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for
his work on the metabolism of tumors and the respiration of cells, which was
later summarized in his 1956 paper, On the Origin of Cancer Cells. His work on cancer expanded upon Pasteur's
findings and described respiratory insufficiency and a cellular metabolism of
glucose fermentation as the primary trigger for cancer progression[vii].
Warburg's conclusions
on cancer were much discussed in scientific circles, as they are academically
elegant, but were not accepted by most members of the scientific community
engaged in cancer research. Most cancer
researchers in the late 1950's believed that the anaerobic metabolism of cancer
cells and their accompanying output of lactic acid was a side effect or an
adjunct effect of cancer, not a cause.
Cancer research since the 1960's has focused primarily on genetic
aberrations as causative for cancer, and has ignored the body of research on
cancer pH and its implications for therapeutic approaches.[viii]
Warburg's work was a
catalyst for yet another research effort on the nature of cancer cells,
beginning in the 1930's. A. Keith
Brewer, PhD (physicist) performed experiments on the relationship between
energized, oxygenated cell membrane and elemental uptake, vs. cellular
membranes in an unenergized state such as cancer cells exhibit. He wrote a number of papers discussing the
cellular mechanisms of cancer cells and the changes in metabolism induced or
indicated by the lack of or presence of oxygen in combination with other
elements, particularly potassium and calcium.
He noted that cancer cells share one characteristic no matter what type
of cancer: they have lost their pH
control mechanism.
Brewer's summary
conclusion regarding cancer was that by changing the pH of cancer cells to
alkaline (above 7.5), they will cease to function as they need an acidic,
anaerobic environment to thrive. In
other words, he proposed that cancer cells will die if they can be pushed into
an alkaline, oxygenated state.[ix]
