Sodium bicarbonate therapy (Simoncini)

Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield · Tullio Simoncini · 2000 · Italy

Historical or harm account: this guide describes what happened and how to recognise it. It is not a practice to implement.

What it is

This is a historical harm account. Sodium-bicarbonate "therapy" for cancer has no legitimate implementation for a psychotherapist and is not a treatment for cancer or any other disease. The psychotherapist's role is limited to recognising it, supporting clients and families who are considering,…

Format

• Recruitment. People with cancer, often advanced or with poor prognosis (brain, bowel, lung, breast and liver cancers appear in the reports), or their relatives, found Simoncini through his websites, his book, supporter groups on Facebook, online interviews, and onward referral by clinics and other…
• "Assessment" and consent. The cancer was re-explained as a fungal colony. Conventional treatment was discredited (the undercover patient was told chemotherapy would be useless), which shaped consent around rejecting or abandoning oncology. Patients were not told that the practitioner had been…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• The following is a typical course as reported by regulators, courts and journalists. Amounts, concentrations and schedules are deliberately left out.
• Who and where. Tullio Simoncini, an Italian doctor, promoted the method from at least the early 2000s. His medical licence was withdrawn in 2003, and in 2006 an Italian court convicted him of wrongful death and swindling. He continued treating patients after this, including in other countries: in the Netherlands at a private clinic in Bilthoven (2007), in Rome, and at a clinic in Tirana, Albania (2012).
• How it was sold. Through websites in several languages, a book with a title along the lines of Cancer is a Fungus, Facebook pages run by supporters, and online interviews with alternative-health promoters. He presented himself as a specialist in metabolic disease, a surgeon and a philosopher, and as an unrecognised genius suppressed by official medicine. His own site acknowledged that no research or clinical testing…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status in one line. No clinical trial or published clinical evidence shows that sodium bicarbonate treats cancer in people; laboratory and animal research on tumour acidity is not evidence for patient use.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Exhaustion from searching; reliance on a single online community. Working: the client questions sources independently.
• Missed hospital appointments, secrecy, a child appearing unwell. Working: the child is back under medical care and the parents remain engaged.
• Re-traumatisation through proceedings; clients' fear of reprisal from online groups. Working: the report is made at a pace the client can bear.
• Crowdfunding that locks a family into a course of action; debt; coercion by a third party. Working: the person makes financial decisions with time and advice.
• Refusal of consent (respect it unless an exception to confidentiality applies; revisit later). Working: the medical team knows and the client remains in their care.

Problems the guide addresses

• Asking about alternative treatments without judgement
• Exploring meaning, hopes and the explanatory model
• Autonomy-respecting decision support
• Coordinating with the oncology, primary-care and palliative teams
• Responding to signs of medical harm
• Grief, regret and guilt after choosing it
• Family conflict
• Financial harm and exploitation
• Safeguarding children and adults at risk
• Reporting

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.