Cellular pH is a measure of how acidic, or alkaline, cells are. “pH” is measured on a scale of 0 to 14. A pH of 7 is considered neutral, while numbers below 7.0 are acidic, and numbers above 7.0 are alkaline (or basic).
- Healthy cells – are slightly alkaline with a pH of 7.35 to 7.4
- Cancerous cells – are acidic with a typical pH in the range of 5.5 to 6.5
The research of Dr. Otto Warburg and Dr. H. E. Sartori has demonstrated that most cancer cells prefer an acidic (lower) pH level and thrive in these conditions. Also shown is that cancer growth can be reduced and certain cancer cells may be killed with increased pH levels. That is the purpose of High pH Therapy and why high pH therapy is an integral part of our Intensive Medical Program.
How Does Cancer Affect Cellular PH?
Over seventy-five years ago Dr. Otto Warburg published a Nobel Prize winning paper describing the environment of the cancer cell. A normal cell undergoes an adverse change when it can no longer take up oxygen to convert glucose into energy by oxidation. In the absence of oxygen the cell reverts to a primitive nutritional program to sustain itself, converting glucose, by fermentation. The lactic acid produced by fermentation lowers the cell pH (acid/alkaline balance) and destroys the ability of DNA and RNA to control cell division … the cancer cells begin to multiply unchecked. In the absence of oxygen, glucose undergoes fermentation to create lactic acid. This causes the cell pH to drop from between 7.3 to 7.2 down to 7 and later to 6.5; in more advanced stages of cancer and in metastases the pH drops to 6.0 and even 5.7.
With the low pH, cancer cells thrive. However, because the cancer cells are burning glucose (and creating lactic acid), enormous amounts of energy are pulled from non-cancerous cells. In the “cachexia cycle,” the liver converts the lactic acid back to glucose, which also consumes enormous amounts of energy. Thus, the cancer cells convert glucose to lactic acid, the lactic acid travels to the liver; the liver converts the lactic acid back to glucose, which then travels back to the cancer cell. This cycle consumes an enormous amount of energy.
More recent research has uncovered another fuel source for cancer cells. In 2008, a team of researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) found that lactic acid is another important energy source for tumor cells. So whether converting lactic acid to glucose or utilizing lactic acid directly as fuel, if you can neutralize the lactic acid, you essentially cut off the fuel supply to cancer.
In addition to providing the fuel for cancer cells, lactic acid is also responsible for one of the most distressing symptoms of cancer; the intense pain that even morphine may not alleviate. This is the same lactic acid secreted by your muscles during a strenuous workout and why you experience pain the day after. For a cancer patient, this pain can be 10 fold. With High pH Therapies, the lactic acid is neutralized.
Utopia Cancer Center believes high pH therapy can be beneficial to cancer patients and that is why we include them in our Intensive Medical Program. Utopia Cancer Center addresses cellular pH through diet and IV therapies:
