Increased cancer risk from Acid Bodies

Acid Bodies increase cancer risk

ACID BODIES and CANCER

(based on an article by Stephen Colclough, with additional research by Chris Woollams)

This article covers how acid bodies can cause ill health and cancer and provides ideas on how to alkalise for health and indeed how to help prevent cancer forming or returning. In the article we also cover how alkalising your body can alkalise your cells and stimulate your immune system making both work more efficiently.

Acid bodies - alkalise for health

In Chris Woollams´ first of ´The 4 Pillars of Cancer´ articles (Pillar 1 - Poor Diet), he discussed acidity and foods as a cause of cancer. Many people had questions and so here Stephen Colclough of Alkaline 4 Health (http://www.alkaline4health.co.uk/) and Chris flesh out the answers.

Unlike healthy cells in the human body, cancer cells do not require oxygen - in fact it kills them

The science of acid cells and acid bodies

Dr. Otto Warburg was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1931 for the discovery that, unlike healthy cells in the human body, cancer cells do not "breathe" oxygen. Cancer cells are anaerobic, in other words they function with no oxygen present. In fact, cancer cells cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen. Having a good level of oxygen in your blood and cells helps prevent cancer.

For the biochemists amongst you, what happens is that a normal cell produces its energy in its power stations, or mitochondria by a 26 step process where carbohydrate is burned in the presence of oxygen, to produce energy and waste products. Over thousands of years many of the chemical reactions have come to rely on potassium compounds to make them work efficiently.

In the cellular membrane there are ´pumps´ that rely on magnesium to work. The pumps pump in potassium and pump out sodium. If too much sodium gets into the mitochondria, the energy producing steps will use sodium instead of potassium - this will still work, just not as efficiently. The waste products are sodium salts, which are more acid than potassium salts. This ´acidity´ then makes the energy process even less efficient - taking in less oxygen and producing less energy. You are on your way to a cancer cell.

40 per cent of Americans are deficient in magnesium, so the pump works poorly. Most people have sodium-rich and potassium-poor diets, so all-in-all the cells have too much sodium and become ´ACID´. And acid cells mean acid bodies.

Once the cell has powered down, certain repair genes are switched off, and a cancer cell is in the making. Cancer cells make their energy burning glucose (their favourite food) in the absence of oxygen. One waste product is lactic acid which is only broken down in the liver. However, the end product is glucose, which passes round the body to feed the cancer cell. Alien has taken over your body! You may like to read about Hydrazine Sulphate which can block this.

These acid conditions inside the cell can also be set up by certain forms of oestrogen (like oestradiol) binding to receptor sites on the cells membrane. Oestradiol can create havoc inside the cell, reducing potassium levels, increasing sodium, with the resultant effect that the cell becomes more acid, it uses less and less oxygen, and it ´powers down´. Result? Cancer.

Saturating Acid Bodies with oxygen

But there is another possible acidic body mechanism that may be at work. Take these two statements by Keiichi Morishita:

"Cancer above all other disease, has countless secondary causes, but there is only one prime cause. The prime cause is the replacement of the normal oxygen respiration of body cells by an anaerobic cell respiration."

"The great advantage of knowing the prime cause of a disease is that it can then be attacked logically and over a broad front. This is particularly important in the case of cancer, with its numerous secondary and remote causes, and because it is often stated that in man alone there are over one hundred well-known and quite different kinds of cancer, with the implication that we will have to find one or several hundred bases for prevention and treatment, and usually without any realization that this need not necessarily be the case now that we know that all cancers studied have a characteristic metabolism in common, a prime cause."

The body dumps acidic substances from the blood into our cells to keep the blood in its naturally and essentially alkaline state

Keiichi Morishita´s theory, as described in his book Hidden Truth of Cancer, works at a more macro level than the mitochondrial and cellular goings on described above. He argues that the body dumps acidic substances from the blood into our cells to keep the blood in its naturally and essentially alkaline state. This causes the cells to become toxic and acidic, decreases their oxygen levels, and harms DNA. Eventually most of the acidic cells will die. However, some will evolve, and adapt, and survive by becoming abnormal, mutated cells. Malignant cells. These multiply indefinitely and without order. They are cancer. Both Warburg and Morishita agree, from slightly different angles, that low oxygen levels turn some cells cancerous. Their research indicates, then, that to get as much oxygen as you can into the cells can be an effective way to prevent cancer, and increasing oxygen levels in already cancerous cells could destroy the mutant cells.

In The Prime Cause and Prevention of Cancer, Dr. Warburg theorised that the way to treat cancer was to saturate the cells of the body with oxygen. This was his priority in treating cancer. The second priority was to avoid further exposure to toxins.

As Chris Woollams explained in The First Pillar of Cancer, lowered cellular oxygen can be caused by a number of factors. Too much sodium is one of the biggest contributors, and our salt rich western diets are no help. Japanese research has shown that a doubling of sodium intake doubles colon cancer risk. Oestrogen is another known negative factor in reducing cellular oxygen levels.

Regular exercise will help as this can increase oxygen
and haemoglobin levels

So how do we go about increasing the oxygen levels in our cells? It is not as easy as it sounds. Deep breathing? This can increase oxygen, but not in a sufficient amount, because it can be limited by the amount of haemoglobin in the blood, and by acidity levels. Regular exercise will help as this can increase oxygen and haemoglobin levels whilst also providing ´happy´ endorphin hormones to neutralise some more toxic hormones. Yoga has been proven to reduce cortisol levels - we have covered the research in icon - and stress is a proven blood acid generator. Being slightly underweight will also help as this will reduce total oestrogen levels, as will avoiding pesticides and harmful, oestrogen mimics in household products and toiletries. Warburg stated that our cells´ inability to uptake oxygen is due to increased amounts of toxicity; or over-acidity. To increase oxygen, we need to positively alkalise.

How Alkalising Your Body Can Oxygenate Your Cells

Many of you will be aware that there is extensive research showing that cancer exists, and flourishes, in an acidic environment, and deteriorates and dies in an alkaline environment. Making the body more alkaline is important in fighting cancer. So, focus on alkalising for health!

Making the body more alkaline is important in
fighting cancer

Acidic water can hold very little oxygen. Alkaline water can hold large amounts of oxygen. This includes the water in cells. To increase the amount of oxygen in your cells, you therefore need to create a more alkaline environment.

Sang Whang, in his book Reverse Ageing, agrees. If your body is overly acidic, your cells cannot detoxify. You then develop acidic and poorly oxygenated cells, which may turn cancerous. "In general, degenerative diseases are the result of acid waste build ups within us. When we are born, we have the highest alkaline mineral concentration and also the highest body pH. (i.e. we are very alkaline). From that point on, the normal process of life is to gradually acidify. That is why these degenerative diseases do not occur when you are young. Reverse aging requires two separate steps: chemical and physical. The first step is to lower the acidity of the body so that it can dispose of acidic wastes in the blood and cellular fluids safely and easily. The second is to physically pull out old stored wastes into the blood stream so that they can be discharged from the body."

The Importance of The Immune System

You will probably have read that not just your cells, but your immune system flourishes in an alkaline environment. You may wonder how?

The short answer is Beneficial Bacteria. The gut is known to contain about 800 dsifferent strains of bacteria; 400 have been identified and about 12 keep coming up in research. To put this in context there have been over 4,000 studies and 80 clinical trials on them in the last five or six years - and your doctor probably knows nothing about them.

However, thousands of years ago we did a deal with these bacteria - they will protect us, as long as we give them a nice cosy place to live. Unfortunately, we have broken the deal.

Over the thousands of years, they have come to work best in an environment of a certain acidity. Increase that and they just won´t work as well. It is like a chemical reaction. Change the acidity or alkalinity in the test tube and it stops.

We have stopped feeding them their favourite foods - fibrous whole foods, whole grains, green vegetables.

Instead we eat too much salt or drink too much alcohol that increases the gut acidity. As does meat, as does stress.

Then to make matters worse, we feed their enemies - we eat too much sugar and dairy, the favourite food of yeasts and microbes. There is nothing a yeast likes more than a molecule of glucose. As we said, it is also the favourite food of a cancer cell.

The final ´coup de grace´ is we then kill them off - antibiotics (prescribed or in chicken breast), steroids and drugs, chlorinated tap water.

These beneficial bacteria are crucial to our very existence - something no doctor, drug company or Government Health baron seems to realise.

1 At night when we sleep they consume yeasts and microbes for us - up to 2.2 kgs. They are our first line of defence.(Can Candida cause cancer? Essential reading - click here)

2 Their very presence stimulates our immune system. It has been estimated that these beneficial bacteria direct a whopping 85 per cent of our antibody production.

3 They help release crucial vitamins from our food; particularly the anti-cancer vitamins biotin, B-12, folic acid and vitamin K (all can be found in reviews in our nutritionals section).

4 They even produce a powerful anti-cancer chemical. (see Cancer Watch 2009)

5 They help chelate with and eliminate cancer causing oestrogenic chemicals and nitrosamines, plus heavy metals like cadmium and mercury.

There is more - and you really should read our article on Beneficial Bacteria (click here)

But just from this you can see that changing the acidity in the gut hinders their action and aids the enemies. Is it any wonder that excess salt and microbes have each been linked with increased colon cancer.

The correct pH in the gut is essential for a tip-top immune system.

How To "Get Alkaline"

The aim, then, is to ensure the pH level of your body is very slightly alkaline. pH (potential of hydrogen) is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14-the lower the pH the more acidic the solution, the higher the pH the more alkaline (or base) the solution. When a solution is neither acid nor alkaline it has a pH of 7 which is neutral. Your body is at its healthiest at a pH of about 7.2 - 7.4.

Everyone with cancer has acidic (low) blood pH levels

One key to realising this goal is by eating alkaline rich foods - ESPECIALLY POTASSIUM AND MAGNESIUM-RICH FOODS. And this means whole foods, whole grains, greens, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits.

Generally, the typical British diet is highly acidic. So unless you have been eating a very healthy, mainly vegetarian diet, your body is likely to be over acidic, and a good environment for cancer to thrive in. Everyone with cancer has low pH levels. Test yourself with pH strips from the chemist and you will see. The optimal level of urine or saliva is pH 7.4. To bring your body back into balance, the majority of your diet should be raw foods, such as green vegetables, whole grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, wheatgrass, chlorella, olive oil, garlic, ginger, herbs and sprouted seeds.

You need to reduce or cut out your intake of acid foods, such as meat, dairy products, refined grains and sodium-rich foods (processed meats, processed and packaged foods, canned foods, Chinese meals etc)

You also need to cut stress out of your life as much as possible as it increases body acidity. Believe it or not, but there is research on both yoga and meditation showing that they reduce certain stress hormones like cortisol.

You can also achieve a pH balance by adding in high quality supplements, alkalising pH drops, and certain mineral supplements, for example calcium and magnesium.

Two other things can help. Firstly, people assume that eating acid things makes you acid. This is just not true. vinegar and lemons seem to be ´acidic´, but can actually alkalise your bodies.

Taking a teaspoon of raw organic, unrefined Apple cider vinegar three times a day will be of benefit. As will a cup of ginger and lemon tea first thing in the morning (just slice ginger, squeeze in a lemon or lime and add a little raw honey).

Secondly, we have talked about the importance of beneficial bacteria. The counter to them is yeast infection - and particularly candida. One way of alkalising your body and creating an anti-yeast environment is to drink a small teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate in a glass of warm water first thing in the morning. Every reader of this article should Click Here to go to our article entitled ´Can Candida Cause Cancer?´ (We will shortly have a link to Italian Doctor Simoncini, who believes cancer is a fungus and its growth can be stopped by sodium bicarbonate and an alkaline body). Both are essential reading.

The main acid forming foods are anything with salt in it, sugar, artificial sweeteners, refined and processed foods, animal products, fermented foods, and alcohol. Knowing these is essential for your health and for cancer prevention. (We will have a link to a complete foods list shortly).

A must-read book is Chris Woollams ´The Rainbow Diet - and how it can help you beat cancer´. (Click title to read review)

We have mentioned Chlorella and the new trend is towards green foods and drinks - an easy way to incorporate green, alkalising, nutrient dense food into your diet. As readers know we have long encouraged the use of chlorella - which apart from alkalising the system, provides excellent levels of enzymes, and vitamins like B-12 and beta-carotene in a natural form. Green foods have also been linked in studies on the sunbelt in the USA to the lowered levels of cancer. Put simply, green foods photosynthesise under sunlight producing oxygen. Many of you may have heard of Super Greens. This is a drink which has a deep, rich, herb-like natural flavour. If you have tried wheatgrass juice and cannot cope with its pungency, you will be pleasantly surprised, as this is a much nicer drink. You can increase its alkalising effects by mixing it with water which has a high pH level.

Water is the key to balancing your inner terrain

Sang Whang believes that water is the key to balancing your inner terrain."The best kind of water for this function is acid-free, alkaline water, the water that neutralises harmful acids and disposes of them safely while it does not leach out valuable alkaline minerals such as potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium." Sang Whang also states that, as everyone knows, water is H2O; two hydrogen atoms for each oxygen atom. Neutral water has an equal number of OH- ions (hydroxyl ions) and H+ ions (hydrogen ions), maintaining the 2 to 1 ratio of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Alkaline water is water with more OH- ions than H+ ions. This water has more oxygen atoms compared to the 2 to 1 ratio of hydrogen to oxygen atom of regular water. For this reason, alkaline water is considered water with more oxygen.

At icon we are advocates of clean water and recommend ionisers or reverse osmosis systems for purifying water. The former, newer systems overcome the concern that although RO systems make the water purer, they do actually leave the water with no minerals and slightly acid. One other idea is the use of prime pH, which contains ionic mineral elements to increase the alkalinity of drinking water and can help release the oxygen molecules within water for easier absorption by the body.

*Natural Chlorella and Clean Water systems can be bought from Natural Selection Products of Choice (click the site) on this web site (or by ringing 01280 821 211)

*Supergreens and Prime pH can be bought from http://www.alkaline4health.co.uk/.