The FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/560297341529556
See also Glutamine Fueling Cancer Myth.
James Sloane re Otto Warburg Cancer Myths etc.
This question came up in an unrelated thread and it Is extremely important, so I did not want it getting buried in an unrelated thread. Therefore, I am moving the question to its own thread and posting my answer here.
James Sloane Kind of off topic, but what are your thoughts on glutamine fueling cancer? Also, I heard another doctor say that cancer is caused by damage to the respiratory capacity of the cell to generate energy using oxygen. So instead of using oxygen, it uses fermentation and sugar fuels that fermentation. I read you said cancer cells need oxygen to live, so is he saying the opposite? Or is he just referring to hypoxic cells? How do hypoxic cells grow if they don't have oxygen? Are cancer stem cells hypoxic? Thanks!
Cancer has more misleading and misinformation surrounding it than any other disease.
The majority of cancer misinformation stems around the hypotheses (educated guesses) of Otto Warburg, who won a Nobel Prize for this cancer research, more specifically his discovery and description of an enzyme he called “iron oxidase”. I have long said Warburg is the most misquoted and misrepresented person in history. Whenever someone wants to make up some nonsense about cancer, they just attach Warburg’s name to the claim. Wrote this previously addressing this:
Otto Warburg NEVER claimed cancer could not survive in an alkaline environment. Nor did he ever claim cancer was from a lack of oxygen, that high oxygen killed cancer cells, or that acidity causes all diseases as others have claimed.
Warburg DID NOT receive the Nobel Prize by supposedly proving cancer cannot survive in an alkaline environment. Warburg won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of an enzyme he called "iron oxidase".
Warburg NEVER won a second Nobel Prize as is often falsely claimed.
Warburg did have hypotheses that cancer cells were anaerobic and derived all their energy from anaerobic glycolysis. These hypotheses were later disproven.
Today we know that not only are cancer cells highly alkaline, they need this higher than normal alkalinity to survive and to drive cancer cell glycolysis.
We also know that cancer cells are not only highly dependent on oxygen, but that higher oxygen levels actually increase the growth rate of malignant cells. Cancer cells are so reliant on oxygen that they actually have a higher affinity for oxygen than healthy cells. And cancer cells derive at least 50% of their energy from oxidative phosphorylation, which requires oxygen."
In the absence of oxygen, all cells including cancer cells die. With cancer though, the death of cancer cells from a lack of oxygen is a normal, and actually beneficial (to the tumor) part of malignant tumor growth. When cancer cells first form, there is no vasculature (blood vessels) to deliver oxygen to these cells. Therefore, these cancer cells are dependent completely on diffusion to receive their oxygen Diffusion though has its limitations, and once the tumor reaches a size of 2-3mm, oxygen can no longer reach the inner cells of the tumor, and the oxygen deprived cancer cells die. This in turn stimulates a process by which vascular growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is released, which in turn starts developing the formation of small blood vessels not only from the tumor towards major blood vessels, but also from major blood vessels towards tumors. Once these join up, the tumor now has a stead source of blood, and thus oxygen and nutrients to grow without oxygen limitations. This allows the tumor to grow faster.
Along the same lines, another way to look at this is to understand why some malignant tumors, such as most breast cancers are super slow to grow taking up to 10 years to reach detectable size (an exception is inflammatory breast cancer), a where liver cancer is rapid and often fatal within 6 months of diagnosis. So, what is the difference? Breast tissue which is mostly made up of fat, has a low blood supply and thus a much lower oxygen level impeding the cancer growth. Again, an exception is inflammatory breast cancer as one of the roles of inflammation is to increase oxygen levels to an area. The liver on the other hand is very heavily vascularized, and thus highly oxygenated supplying a higher level of oxygen that the cancer cells need to survive and thrive.
Malignant tumors will develop hypoxic (low oxygen) regions during development due to the very erratic vasculature that form within them. This also plays a major role in why radiation therapy, and so may chemotherapy drugs have such low success rate with malignant tumors, and how radiation and chemo resistant tumors form. Covered all this in previous posts. Hypoxic though, which is low oxygen, is not the same as anoxic, which is an absence of oxygen that kills all cells including cancer cells.
By the same token, cancer stem cells are not hypoxic.
Both healthy cells and cancer cells produce energy through the same exact mechanisms, starting with glycolysis (a fermentation pathway), followed by oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos). The only difference is the ratio of each used. Healthy cells have a higher reliance on OxPhos, although on the other hand, cancer cells have a higher affinity for available oxygen than healthy cells.
This is all just the very basics. There is so much more involved, such as the role of angiogenesis inhibitors helping the primary tumor to survive, which is why I was writing the book on all this. There is jut so much outright false information circulating out on the internet about cancer.
Again, people need to stop getting their health information from propaganda sites and need to start learning how the body actually works.
As far as glutamine, yes, this amino acid is one of various fuels used by cancer cells. I have posted on this a number of times on some YouTube video comments for videos promoting the myths that cancer cells only rely on sugar for energy production and that ketones or the ketogenic diet prevent or treat cancer. The fact is that cancer cells can use glucose, fructose, ketones, lactate, fatty acids and some amino acids as fuel sources. And, since so many of these are produced by the body, you CANNOT starve cancer cells. So, all this nonsense about fasting to cure cancer is just more dangerous misinformation. The majority of cancer patients who die do not die from their cancer. They die from malnutrition from both the severe nausea of their therapies and/or cancer cachexia. Fasting can just make things a lot worse.
James Sloane
My review of this video: Sodium bicarbonate and Cancer
So much misinformation.
Neither salivary {nor urine?} pH indicate blood pH. The only way you can determine blood pH is with a blood test. Salivary pH is affected by the amount of bacteria in the mouth so things such as brushing your teeth will make the saliva more alkaline. So will drinking water, thinking of certain foods, etc. Dry mouth increases acidity as alkaline saliva normally washes away acid forming bacteria in the mouth.
Cancer is not much different. Cancer cells have a higher than normal alkaline internal pH. They need this alkalinity to survive and thrive. This is why they export the acidic protons in to the external matrix making the area around the tumor acidic. Studies have also shown that when healthy cells are made excessively alkaline the healthy cells morph in to cancer cells.
Chemotherapy is not always acidic. There are alkaline chemo agents as well. Their pH makes no difference though as they do not work based on altering the internal pH of the cancer cells from an alkaline pH to an acidic pH. Although this is part of the current research in to killing cancer cells. It was found that when the cancer cell's proton pumps were blocked the cancer cells become acidic killing them.
Sircus also has many other claims wrong. For example he claims that when we are acidic carbon dioxide levels decrease. The reality is just the opposite. Carbon dioxide forms carbonic acid, so the more carbon dioxide we retain the more acid we have. And the acidity INCREASES oxygen levels as where alkalinity DECREASES oxygen levels. Acidity is required to release oxygen from hemoglobin (Bohr effect). Carbonic acid also dilates blood vessels increasing circulation. For example, when a person hyperventilates they blow off so much carbon dioxide that they become highly alkaline. The person passes out as the blood vessels to the brain constrict pushing blood away from the brain. When the person passes out their respiration slows or halts temporarily to build carbonic acid levels back up to restore circulation.
In severe cases of alkalosis the person dies from a lack of oxygen as the alkalosis inhibits oxygen release, constricts blood vessels decreasing circulation and due to the induced spasm contractions of the lungs, which prevents the person from breathing.
Also keep in mind that the blood is always maintained in an alkaline state. This is true even in cases of acidosis since the definition of acidosis is a pH lower than the low normal of 7.35. Therefore even an alkaline pH of 7.1-7.34 is acidosis.
We do not reach an acidic pH though as the person will become very ill if even slightly outside of the normal blood pH of 7.35-7.45. Slightly further off high or low and the result would be coma or death. Therefore death would result long before the blood could reach a truly acidic pH.
Acidosis is EXTREMELY rare and usually results from some poisonings, severe respiratory issues and even the use of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). Sodium bicarbonate injection or ingestion can lead to carbonic acid induced acidosis as the neutralization of acids with bicarbonate leads to carbonic acid formation. If ingested the baking soda is neutralized by the stomach acid forming large amounts of sodium chloride that can lead to hyperchloremic acidosis.
Giving sodium bicarbonate orally to cancer patients is especially dangerous. Not only does the neutralization of stomach acid enhance nutritional deficiencies and allow survival of ingested pathogens including cancer pathogens but this also leads to decreased methylation. Decreased methylation causes and promotes cancer as well since this suppresses the immune system, leads to hormone imbalances, elevates inflammatory pro-cancer homocysteine, etc.