Browsing through Pinterest, it is easy to find pins suggesting miraculous natural treatments for cancer. For example, drinking alkaline water kills cancer cells (1,2). Clicking on the pin does not take you to evidence backing this claim, instead it directly opens a website selling water alkaline ionizers (3). Another pin claims pharmaceutical companies keep homemade remedies secret to keep their profits high (4). The truth is, most cancer researches are backed by government funds (e.g. NIH) and not pharmaceutical companies.
There are multiple studies on herbal extracts and those products are on their way to reach the market. I personally published an article on a shrub extract and showed that it slowed bladder cancer cell growth in the lab. It is crucial to look for the words “in the lab” when reading about a medical discovery. There is no guarantee that a product showing good results in the lab will have similar results on the human body. This has been proven by thousands of medical discoveries that were miraculous in the lab but failed in the human body.
Boosting a product sale by making up false medical claims is unethical, and also illegal. Avoid blogs like (6), were a primary lab discovery is used to boost site traffic or sell their product.
- https://pin.it/426qy7zc6ijixm
- https://pin.it/tamvqorpgyzf4p
- http://kangenalkalineionizers.com/
- http://hussis.com/104-year-old-japanese-retired-chief-of-a-pharmacy-said-the-world-needs-to-know-that-alkaline-water-kills-cancer-here-is-how-to-prepare-it/
- Zheng Y, Ishiguro H, Ide H, Inoue S, Kashiwagi E, Kawahara T, Jalalizadeh M, Reis LO, Miyamoto H. Compound A Inhibits Bladder Cancer Growth Predominantly via Glucocorticoid Receptor Transrepression. Mol Endocrinol. 2015 Oct;29(10):1486-97. doi: 10.1210/me.2015-1128. Epub 2015 Aug 31.
- https://hapinews.xyz/104-year-old-japanese-oncologist-accidental-discovery-the-juice-that-kills-cancer-in-48-hours/
Unfortunately, blood pressure or diabetes control is way more complicated than “use this recipe and stop taking your medication”. Websites like this (1,2) oversimplify problems that should never be oversimplified. Doctors constantly have patients who had their chronic disease under control using medications, but then decided to change to unproven “herbal” or “natural” remedies. These patients usually come back later with years of uncontrolled blood pressure or high blood sugar that have permanently damaged their organs.