Baking soda is still not a cure for cancer - with or without cannabis oil
IN SHORT: A video circulating online claims that drinking baking soda water after meals and consuming honey and cannabis oil can cure late-stage pancreatic cancer. But there is no evidence that these treatments work. If you want to add non-conventional treatments to your care, talk to your doctor first to ensure they're safe.
We're no strangers to health claims about baking soda. Internet users have claimed it can be used to cure everything from Covid-19, to fertility issues and cancers by making the body more alkaline. None of this is true.
The latest version Africa Check has seen claims that a man's stage four pancreatic cancer was cured in just a couple of months through a regimen of drinking baking soda in water and consuming cannabis oil.
If the claim were true, it would be a significant discovery. Advanced cancer of the pancreas, a large organ involved in digestion, has a survival rate of just 1%.
"Instead of doing chemo, he opted to do the natural route," says a narrator over a grainy clip of a man being interviewed. The interview appears to come from a Russian news segment about the man's miraculous recovery.
The video has been circulating widely on Facebook since early March 2025 and was also found on Instagram. It was initially posted on an account called Conscious Health in January, where it has received over 62,000 likes. We took a closer look.
Be wary of the supplements industry
When verifying a claim, it's important to find out who's spreading it. In past posts, Conscious Health has falsely claimed that sun exposure without sunblock is "vital" for good health, promoted consuming nicotine after dentistry, and warned parents against visiting paediatricians. But we know that both sun exposure and cigarette smoking can cause cancer, and not getting appropriate healthcare can cause harm.
Furthermore, the account is linked to a store that sells herbal supplements and detox courses. Many vendors like this one warn of the dangers of large pharmaceutical companies that use doctors to swindle the public. But these businesses are themselves part of an extremely profitable industry advertising unregulated, often expensive, products promising miracle cures with little evidence.
That the account which first posted the video has previously made false claims and is attempting to make money are red flags, and should warn all to proceed with caution.
The 'alkalising' myth
This particular claim is that baking soda, also called sodium bicarbonate, can lower the body's pH, or how acidic or alkaline it is. Since cancerous tumours are found in more acidic environments, the belief is that making that environment more alkaline can prevent cancer from forming, stop its growth, or reverse it.
This belief has led to the popularity of diets that involve consuming high-alkaline foods or substances, such as baking soda. Proponents often monitor supposed results by testing how alkaline their urine is.
But while alkaline food or substances can temporarily change the pH of urine or the content of the stomach, as with medications for acid reflux, the same effect is not seen elsewhere in the body over time. Most importantly, what you consume has a very limited effect on the pH of your blood.
And this is a good thing. Your body tightly regulates blood pH, because your cells need very specific levels to function properly. Big changes can be fatal.
Even if it were possible to prevent or reverse cancer growth by changing the pH levels around tumour cells, consuming alkaline foods or substances would unlikely achieve this.
And it is still unclear whether changing pH some other way could even prevent or reverse cancer growth. Scientists are looking into increasing alkalinity to fight cancer, though. It could form the basis for future treatments or one day be used to make conventional treatments more effective.
But there isn't enough good data on this yet. Research is mostly limited to small case studies or to preclinical research - studies conducted in cells or animals, not humans - and it isn't clear how this translates into humans on a larger scale.
It's important to note that only a fraction of drugs that show promise in preclinical studies continue to be safe and effective when tested in larger groups of people and become approved treatments.
Consuming baking soda in moderation is generally considered safe, but in high doses or over long periods, it could have side effects.
Using other DIY methods to try and change tumour pH is not safe. There are cases of people dying after injecting alkalising supplements into their bodies, and falling prey to pricey scams from unqualified people pretending to be doctors.
What about cannabis oil?
The videos emphasise baking soda as the key player in the man's cancer treatment but also note the "anti-cancer" effects of cannabis oil.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana and dagga, has long been believed anecdotally to have cancer-fighting effects. It is likely effective for some symptoms of cancer and side effects of established treatments, though it can also cause side effects of its own.
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Like with sodium bicarbonate, preclinical research has shown some potential benefits of cannabis for the treatment of cancer. But there aren't enough studies to know whether this holds true in humans.
Is science the enemy of traditional medicine?
"Traditional" or "natural" medicines or home remedies, which haven't been scientifically proven and approved, are often pitted against conventional or evidence-based treatments. But many of today's most commonly prescribed medicines, including aspirin, contraceptives and treatments for malaria and cancer, came from nature and traditional knowledge.
And health organisations continually research the treatment potential of traditional medicines or ingredients found in nature.
But some complementary medicines can have dangerous interactions with conventional treatments, and avoiding or stopping evidence-based treatments to use these can reduce your chances of getting healthy.
If you want to use complementary products, first speak to a qualified medical professional you trust. Consult with reliable sources, who are not selling you something, to find out what the possible benefits and side effects might be.
