"Cancer is a fungus, called candida albicans, and it can be treated using sodium bicarbonate". So says Tulio Simoncini
Simoncini is a former Italian oncologist in Rome who developed a theory that all cancer is caused exclusively by a fungus called candida albicans. His alternative cancer treatment is simple: To alkalise the body and tumour by the use of a cheap, common compound, sodium bicarbonate, tackling the candida, shrinking the tumour and stopping metastases. Thus it is also a natural cancer cure.
At this point we would like to remind readers of our often repeated stance that we do not believe that any single thing is the cause of all cancer. In 2012 MD Anderson analysed the histology and biochemistry of all their recent DCIS breast cancer patients (over 1400 women) and concluded that every person was different.
We cover Simoncini purely because people write in and ask about him. Also, much of what is on the internet is inaccurate. We are not fans of Simoncini or his theory and approach.
Candida, beneficial bacteria, acid bodies and cancer
The background to Simoncini’s work involves the following theoretical elements:
Firstly, acid bodies are known to be linked to ill health and cancer. (Click here for article on Acid Bodies and Cancer)
Secondly, sodium bicarbonate can alkalise your body. It has been used in many preparations as an antacid; an indigestion aid. You can buy a small pot of it in high street chemists for a little over one pound.
Thirdly, the beneficial bacteria in your intestine are now known to direct up to 85 per cent of your immune response, to release anti-cancer vitamins (like biotin, B-12, folic acid, vitamin K) from your foods and even to produce a compound (sodium butyrate) which causes cancer cells to self-destruct. Beneficial bacteria work imperfectly if the acidity of the gut increases. (Click here to read about beneficial bacteria.) We have a book on the importance of a healthy microbiome called ’Heal your gut heal your body’.
However, fourthly, at night when you sleep, beneficial bacteria digest vast quanities of microbes, fungus and yeasts that you consumed during the day with your food. In fact their favourite food is the yeast or fungus, Candida albicans. So, they are your first line of defence. We have another article on how you might use diet to rid your body of excesses of candida - Click here to read, Can Candida cause cancer?
So how might candida cause cancer?
Candida albicans is known to be able to escape the intestine and travel around the body in the blood stream. Oregano oil and cinnamon can kill the yeast in the blood stream. About 25 per cent of type-2 Diabetics were shown to improve when given cinnamon. This is because the fungus sits on the outer membranes of cells, preventing crucial receptor sites from working properly - in the case of diabetes, those receptor sites are for insulin. However, candida also produces a sugar-like waste product. people with higher blood sugar levels develop more cancer; and survive less.
But there is a second potential problem. Yeasts like candida are anaerobes - this means they generate their energy in the absence of oxygen. Once in the blood stream they can colonise certain local areas of the body and greatly reduce the oxygen levels in that area. The result is that the local cells do not die, but switch their own energy production from an oxygen-based system to one that doesn’t use oxygen. This is the system employed by cancer cells, which also do not use oxygen to generate their energy from food molecules. In fact, Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize in 1931 for telling the world this property of cancer cells and that oxygen was their enemy!
Is it, then, any surprise then that women who had taken antibiotics more than 25 times during their lifetime had twice the risk of breast cancer, according to research covered in CANCERactives research service Cancer Watch? Their friendly bacteria were reduced allowing candida more chance to survive in the gut and move to the blood stream. Their immune systems were weak, indicated by the illnesses that required the antibiotics. And so on.
Dr Simoncini was a respected Italian Oncologist until he developed his theory ... His theory is that all cancer is caused by the fungus, candida albicans. His cure is to alkalse the body to produce conditions in which the candida could not thrive. His main weapon is the inexpensive, sodium bicarbonate. He was struck off, in Italy.
Yeast infections and candida
At CANCERactive we have drawn cancer patients attentions to candida albicans and yeast as one possible driver of cancers before. We have given ideas on testing for yeast infections (for example, Vega testing, and colonic irrigation), we have provided an anti-yeast diet.
We have also covered research on yeast infections which are known to play a negative role in orthodox treatments for cancers such as leukaemia and multiple myeloma where all the defence white cells are killed off and the patient has extensive treatment with antibiotics to prevent infection.
There can be little doubt that yeast and candida infection can be a cause for ill health, and is known to be a complication in some cancers.
We also note comment in the American medical magazine Contemporary Oncology, 1993, which contained the following quote: ’Cancer patients having chemotherapy did not succumb to the cancer but to an infestation of candida albicans.
To repeat: At CANCERactive, we are always extremely wary of people who talk about one single cause for cancer; and one single cure. We believe it unlikely that there will ever be a single cure for all cancer. Not Herceptin, Glivac, not B-17 or sodium bicarbonate.
There is little doubt that acid bodies make you unhealthy and can cause cancer. Sodium bicarbonate may help (along with a plant based diet) to alkalyse the body.Certainly the researchers found that this seemed to stop new metastases.
We are well aware of the detrimental effects of candida.
But to say ALL cancer is candida, and that ALL cancer can be treated using a single compound like sodium bicarbonate stretches the bounds of credibility for us.
Research on sodium bicarbonate treatment from US Cancer Centers
Research published online (March 10th 2009) in Pubmed (19276390 - Cancer Res 2009; 69 (6); 2260-8) from Arizona Cancer Center (University of Arizona); the Department of Pharmacology, Wayne State University, Detroit and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center Florida seems pretty convincing. It is entitled ’Bicarbonate increases Tumor pH and inhibits spontaneous metastases.’
The researchers start by commenting on the acid drivers of tumours, saying that the internal pH of solid tumours is acidic due largely to glucose metabolism. The external surrounds are also acidic, and this seems to encourage metastases. The researchers comment that the pH inside a tumour can be 6, whereas a healthy body should be 7.2 to 7.5. Oral ingestion of sodium bicarbonate reduced the formation of new metastases in breast cancer models in mice. The equivalent human consumption would be 12 gms of sodium bicarbonate a day. It reduced metastases to the lungs and intestines. No lymph node infection occurred.
When using injections directly into the tumours, the tumours regressed.
The research stated that the treatment also worked with prostate cancer, but not with melanoma. The researchers now have a grant to conduct clinical trials.
No mention of candida albicans
Simoncini quoted the above research. However ... the research at no point mentioned candida albicans or yeasts - it talked about the alkalysing effects of sodium bicarbonate stopping or interfering with the acid processes of cancer.
The theory and use of Sodium Bicarbonate
Dr Tulio Simoncini notes that Sodium Bicarbonate has been used for years. It is, of course, basic baking soda, and has been used as a simple solution for indigestion. It produces an alkalising effect in the body, and seems to be perfectly safe a dilutions of 5 per cent.
Simoncini argues that there are vast numbers of fungi, but few mycetes are pathogenic to humans. He notes that mycosis is typically divided into external (for example in the hair and nails) and deep (where the fungi can attack the lungs, bones etc)
Out of all the possible forms, he believes the one responsible for cancer is Candida. Systemic candiosis starting in the gut, progressively moves through the blood system and then penetrates certain tissues.
Simoncini argues that Sodium Bicarbonate is extremely diffusible throughout the body. And that it changes the pH and then the structure of a fungus so fast that the fungus has no time to adapt (as it can do to drugs). The treatment is thus intense but only using a 5 per cent solution taken continuously for 8 day cycles.
He also clarifies that the dose used is indeed used for a number of other diseases as orthodox treatment (for example, in pharmacological toxicosis, and hepatopathy).
Readers can easily search Google for his website. We include this article on CANCERactive purely to provide information on a subject in which many patients are interested.
Readers may find it useful to read the article: Acid Bodies Increase Cancer Risk (CLICK HERE to go straight to it).