Why is lemon recommended as a cure for cancer when we are told that cancer cells
thrive in an acidic environment? We have been told molasses fights cancer in an alkaline
environment. Is it true or false?

The following is an answer from Kirk A. Janowiak
Eclectic, educated, and loves to teach (multi-degrees)

There is so much to unpack here. There are multiple bits of misinformation and multiple
levels of misunderstanding.

Let�s start with the �acidic environment� of cancer cells.

There is a fact that has been observed that many, if not most cancer tumor environments�mostly inside the tumor and to a much lesser degree immediately surrounding the tumor site�are �acidic;� that is, with a pH lower than normal body pH
of 7.4.

It is also a fact that many, if not most kinds of cancer and cancer tumor cells have a
higher than normal metabolic rate. They use resources, make wastes, grow, and divide
more rapidly than typical body cells.

The way that many people have (wrongly) interpreted these observations is that the
cancer cells or tumors prefer these acidic environments, may be somehow attracted to
them, or might even be caused by them�

BUT this is putting a really big cart before an unwilling horse. The acidic environment is
not causing the cancer, the acidic environment is a result of the elevated cancer
cell/tumor metabolism.

The cancer is causing the environment to become more acidic by pumping out great
gobs of hydrogen ions (H+ or protons) by virtue of the accelerated rate of metabolic
reactions.

ALL of your cells do this as part of a dynamic system that creates a flow of protons, then
harvests them to be attached to special chemicals for transport or to be pumped
elsewhere.

The system is dynamic, but in normal tissues remains �balanced� and the pH of the
system has no overall change. Dump more protons than the system can grab back up in
that time and the net result is a localized rise in protons (H+) and a lowering of pH�
becoming more acidic.

Even if you could (and you really cannot by eating or drinking) add something to the
area around the tumor that made it more alkaline, that would not stop the tumor cells
from grabbing organic compounds like glucose (and several other carbohydrates),
pyruvates, or a number of other common compounds used in a variety of metabolic
pathways, and breaking them apart to make ATP�and in the process, running their
proton pumps at high speed.

The cancer is the issue here, not the environment.

The other side of this misinformation coin is that you can eat "alkaline" foods that will
somehow fix this acidic condition the cancer lives in, thus disabling or even "curing" the
cancer.

Firstly, you can see that it is the cancer that causes the acidic environment and no
matter what you do - other than directly killing the cancer cells and shrinking that
metabolically active tumor - you will not turn off the cancer by trying to alter the
"acidity" of the environment.

That is thinking through the problem upside-down & backwards. Change the cancer and
the environment goes back to normal. Change the environment and the cancer just
keeps pumping out "acid" (H+, protons).

Secondly, you simply cannot change your body�s pH by what you eat. You can change
the pH of urine a little, because it is a special system that is not metabolic in nature but
is eliminating, excreting, urinating out materials removed from the body that are wastes.

You can even temporarily and locally alter the pH of saliva a little, but it is a very
temporary and localized event that has more of an impact on tooth health and bad
breath than it has to do with any other internal processes.

So, measuring the pH of your urine or your saliva tells you pretty much nothing about
your overall body pH. Your vascular fluids, blood & lymph, bathe every part of your
internal cells and stay in a very narrow band of pH centered at pH=7.4. Go past
pH=7.35 on the low end (more acidic) and there is big trouble systemically�your entire
body will react negatively. Go the other way past pH=7.45 (more alkaline or �basic�) and
you experience a different range of serious issues that different than those from being
too low. Your body has a magnificently elegant set of simple and complex mechanisms
for keeping your body�s pH balanced�

�And it does not matter what you eat or drink!

[Remember, we are talking in reference to pH, here. Of course it matters what you eat
and drink as an overall health consideration, but not regards your body�s (or a cancer
tumor's) pH profile.]

Now, there are some extreme cases in which you CAN cause acidosis or alkalosis in
humans, but it is generally associated with specific underlying medical causes or
extreme extremes in behavior.

You could eat a basket of lemons today and the internal pH of your body will remain
balanced at 7.4.

And Thirdly, the idea that there are �acidic� and "alkaline" foods is based on a misuse of
an old food product analysis technique that essentially burns the food and then analyzes
the ash left behind. If it has uncombusted minerals left behind that donate H+ in
solution, they are "acidic." If they are more apt to either grab up H+ or donate OH- in
solution, then these are considered "alkaline."

The thing is, your body does not burn up these foods and leave ash behind. Our body
uses integrated compounds, breaking them apart and recombining the parts in special
pathways under a great deal of control (by enzymes and intermediary reactions). It gets
minerals not usually in �raw� mineral form (or "ash" form), but attached to other, usually
organic, compounds and then inserted into metabolic pathways by intermediaries (coenzymes & cofactors), some we often know as vitamins.

Simply put, we do not use the ash from foods as isolated ash minerals and once in our
mouth, it is not a matter of whether the derived ash was assayed as acid or alkaline. In
any case, it will not impact your body�s pH, much less the pH of the environment
surrounding a batch of cancer cells or cancerous tumor.

The bottom line is that you do not alter your body's pH by eating specific foods. Neither
does eating any particular food alter the environment in which a tumor is living.

You cannot cure cancer by eating either lemons or molasses. Both are good food, but
neither is a cancer medicine.

More info... https://www.quora.com/Why-is-lemon-recommended-as-a-cure-for-cancer-when-we- are-told-that-cancer-cells-thrive-in-an-acidic-environment-We-have-been-told-molasses-
fights-cancer-in-an-alkaline-environment-Is-it-true-or-false

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