Myths about the alkaline diet can cause patients to delay treatment, making the disease progress faster and become more difficult to control.
Scientific evidence suggests otherwise, and believing this could cost patients their chance of survival.
The Warburg Effect Fallacy
"Cancer cannot live in an alkaline environment, so drink lemon juice and alkaline salt every day!", this scientific-sounding statement is being widely circulated on social media and some natural healing communities.
However, what modern science has proven is completely different: your body cannot be "alkalized" that way, and cancer cannot be eliminated so easily.
The Warburg effect is a biological concept that describes the phenomenon in which cancer cells switch to consuming glucose by glycolysis even when oxygen is available.
This produces a lot of lactate, causing the environment around the tumor to become acidic (pH drops to about 6.5-6.9, while healthy tissue is 7.4).
From here, some people interpret that "an acidic environment causes cancer", and then deduce that simply "alkalizing the body" can prevent or cure the disease.
But it is a fundamental mistake to confuse cause and effect. An acidic environment is a consequence of abnormal cancer cell metabolism, not a cause of cancer.
The body does not allow you to "alkalize the blood"
One of the reasons why the "alkaline diet cures cancer" hypothesis collapsed is because the human body has an extremely stable blood pH system. No matter what you eat or drink, your blood always stays in the pH range of 7.35-7.45 thanks to the following regulatory systems:
Bicarbonate buffer system : immediately neutralizes any small pH changes. Lungs : control CO₂ levels - the determining factor of blood acidity/base. Kidneys : long-term treatment by excreting excess H⁺ ions or reabsorbing bicarbonate.
Any attempt to "alkalize the blood" with food is immediately counteracted by these mechanisms. What you change is the pH of your urine - not your blood.
If you take in too much alkali, your body will excrete it. If you exceed this capacity, you can develop metabolic alkalosis - a dangerous condition that can lead to seizures, heart arrhythmias, or coma.
Pursuing unproven therapies in cancer treatment can cause patients to miss out on proven treatments and lose their chance of survival.
Lemon juice, alkaline salt useless?
Despite its acidic nature, lemon juice is often promoted as “post-metabolic alkalizing.” However, the amount of bicarbonate produced after absorption is so small that it does not affect the body's overall pH.
Several laboratory studies have shown that flavonoids in lemons can kill cancer cells.
However, this is only true at extremely high concentrations, many times higher than what you would get from drinking lemon juice. There is no evidence that drinking lemon juice helps treat cancer in humans.
Several preclinical studies injecting bicarbonate directly into mice have shown efficacy in reducing the acidity of the tumor environment. But that does not mean that oral administration of alkaline salts is safe or effective.
In humans, high doses of bicarbonate can cause electrolyte disturbances, hypernatremia, alkalosis, and renal failure. To date, there have been no randomized clinical trials demonstrating that alkaline salts are effective in treating cancer.
When patients believe in "natural" therapies and refuse conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or immunotherapy, their chances of survival are significantly reduced.
Myths about the alkaline diet can cause patients to delay treatment, making the disease progress faster and become more difficult to control.
A systematic review by the Fenton group (University of Calgary, 2016) confirmed: there is no evidence that an alkaline diet helps prevent or treat cancer. There is also no link between dietary acid load and cancer.
There is no shortcut to curing cancer. The human body cannot be "alkalized" just by drinking lemon water or alkaline salt.
Worse, pursuing these unproven therapies can cause patients to miss out on proven treatments and lose their chance of survival.
So should you drink lemon water?
Drinking lemon water can still be beneficial, but not for “alkalizing” reasons. The vitamin C in lemons is a good antioxidant, which helps support immunity. Lemons also add flavor to your water, which can help you get into the habit of drinking enough water every day.
However, you should not drink too much pure lemon juice because it can damage tooth enamel and stomach. And most importantly: never consider lemon juice as a "medicine" to cure diseases, especially cancer.
Dr. Nguyen Cao Luan (born in 1990) is a PhD in Immunotherapy, graduated from the Lowy Cancer Research Center, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.
He is the co-founder of Purple Ribbon - a non-profit organization pioneering in cancer prevention in Vietnam.
He is also the co-author of 5 publications released by the organization to date, including: the book Cancer: Rumors & Truths (May 2019), the 4-volume picture book series Healthy Lifestyle - Cancer Prevention (June 2018), the Happy Hormone handbook (2017) and the 2017 and 2019 desk calendars providing cancer prevention knowledge.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/che-do-an-kiem-co-chua-duoc-ung-thu-20250618092943898.htm
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