Could pumping roughly 2,000 oranges' worth of vitamin C into a patient’s bloodstream boost the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs and mitigate the grueling side effects of chemotherapy?In research published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists found that high doses of vitamin C – administered intravenously – increased the cancer-killing effects of chemotherapy drugs in mice, and blunted toxic side effects in humans. But even though the research seems to offer the promise of effectiveness for a new method of cancer treatment, vitamin C, or ascorbate, is unlikely to inspire the vigorous, and expensive, research necessary to become an approved tumor remedy, experts say.Due to a decades-long history of discredited health claims, as well as the inability of pharmaceutical companies to patent an essential nutrient, vitamin C is among the unlikeliest compounds to attract funding for cancer research.“There’s been a bias since the late 1970s that vitamin C cancer treatment is worthless and a waste of time,” said Dr. Jeanne Drisko, a study co-author and the director of integrative medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
“We’re overcoming that old bias.”The furor surrounding vitamin C began with the chemist Linus Pauling, a two-time winner of the Nobel Prize, who proposed that heavy doses of ascorbate could prevent and treat most cancers. Although Pauling’s broad claims could not be supported in clinical trials, large doses of vitamin C are still used as an alternative form of cancer treatment for thousands of patients, outside of mainstream medicine.RELATED: Foods that affect your risk of cancer Drisko and colleagues argue that vitamin C is worth re-examination, and say the federal government should fund further research. One of the problems with earlier studies, they say, is that ascorbate was taken orally, not intravenously. “When you swallow a pill or eat an orange, vitamin C is absorbed at a certain rate by the gut and excreted very quickly by the kidneys,” Drisko said. “But when you give it intravenously, you override that. Plasma levels can get very high.”Researchers examined the effects of vitamin C on a variety of cancer cells in the lab, and in ovarian cancer cells in mice.
When high concentrations of ascorbate entered the space between cells, they said, it formed hydrogen peroxide.Senior author Qi Chen, an assistant professor of pharmacology, toxicology and therapeutics at the University of Kansas, said the hydrogen peroxide went to work on cancerous cells in several ways: It damaged their DNA, it stressed their metabolism and inhibited their growth.This weakening improved the effectiveness of traditional cancer drugs like carboplatin and paclitaxel, the authors said.Surprisingly, the hydrogen peroxide did not harm the non-cancerous cells, researchers found. While they said it remains unclear exactly why this is the case, they suspect it has to do with the inefficient way cancer cells convert glucose to energy, when compared with regular cells.“Ascorbate causes an energy crisis for the cancer cells,” Chen said.A third part of the research involved a small trial study with 27 cancer patients, a portion of which were given vitamin C with chemotherapy – provided they did not have kidney problems.
The purpose of the trial was to see if the vitamin C sickened patients, not whether it was more effective than standard treatment. Many more patients would be required to make that determination.Not only did the patients who were given vitamin C do well, they tolerated chemotherapy better than those who did not receive it, the authors said. They had more energy, and experienced less nausea.“That was surprising,” Drisko said. “We did not expect to find that.”In addition to vitamin C’s controversial past, it is also an antioxidant. Some doctors fear that antioxidants will blunt or negate the effects of anti-cancer drugs, because those drugs seek to damage tumor cells through oxidation. The study authors and other experts point out, however, that by administering vitamin C intravenously, the concentrations are so high that the compound acts as an oxidant.In an accompanying Focus article, two New Zealand cancer experts who were not involved in the study wrote that new drug combinations were badly needed in the fight against cancer, and that the vitamin C tumor drug “cocktail” showed promise.
The findings “strongly suggest that the time has come to test ascorbate combination therapy,” wrote cancer cell researchers Melanie McConnell, of Victoria University of Wellington, and Patries Herst, of University of Otago Wellington.Dr. Robert Morgan, co-director of the gynecological cancers program at City of Hope, in Duarte, who was not involved in the study, agreed that the authors’ findings warranted further study. The trouble was, he said, there were now hundreds of other anti-cancer agents that also warranted further study.“The issue with any type of cancer research is who’s going to pay for it,” Morgan said. “Pharma does it because they expect ultimately to find a drug that’s effective, helps patients and will make a profit for their shareholders. This is the kind of a drug that if somebody invested in it, they would not expect to make back their investment. While Drisko said she hoped government would step in to fund larger trials, she suspected agencies like the National Cancer Institute would avoid offering grants due to ascorbate’s history.
At the NCI’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine, director Dr. Jeffrey White said the study had done much to explain the precise mechanisms by which ascorbate affects cancer cells, and that further investigation was warranted.He also acknowledged that some grant reviewers might possibly view the subject with bias, but that he hoped they would focus on the science.“There are certain things that carry with them a certain stigma, at least in the minds of some people who are involved with medicine and cancer research,” White said. “If a reviewer were to make comments that weren’t about the science, but that were more about the controversy, you hope the process would work that through ... research like this ought to carry the day.”The earliest experience of using high-dose IV vitamin C was by a Scottish surgeon, Ewan Cameron, and his colleague, Allan Campbell, in the 1970s. This work led to collaboration between Cameron and the Nobel Prize–winning chemist Linus Pauling, further promoting the potential of vitamin C therapy in cancer management.
The results clearly indicate that this simple and safe therapy is of definite value in the treatment of patients with advanced cancer. You can read these studies by clicking on the links in the research enumerated below. Vitamin C is one of the safest and most effective nutrients. We all know that Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant with abundant benefits including immune enhancement, protection from viruses and bacteria, cardiovascular protection, eye diseases and even skin wrinkles. What many people may not know, however, is that in high-dose IV Vitamin C, Vitamin C can kill cancer cells. Put simply, Vitamin C works with metals in the body to create hydrogen peroxide. Whereas normal cells have the ability to reduce the effects of hydrogen peroxide, cancer cells do not. The high concentration of the resulting hydrogen peroxide damages the DNA of the cancer cells, cuts off their energy supply and kills them. Vitamin C, even in very high doses, is toxic only to the cancer cells without harming the healthy cells.
Opponents to the use of Vitamin C as a chemotherapeutic agent believe that it actually can protect cancer cells. However, this is only potentially true if small doses are used. Small doses may help the cancer cells because small amounts of vitamin C may help the cancer cells arm themselves against the free-radical induced damage caused by chemotherapy and radiation. Only markedly higher doses of vitamin C will selectively build up as peroxide in the cancer cells to the point of acting in a manner similar to chemotherapy. These tumor-toxic dosages can only be obtained by intravenous administration. In addition to it’s benefit as a non-toxic chemotherapeutic agent, intravenous vitamin C also boosts immunity. It can stimulate collagen formation to help the body wall off the tumor. It inhibits hyaluronidase, an enzyme that tumors use to metastasize and invade other organs throughout the body. It induces apoptosis to help program cancer cells into dying early. One of the biggest hurdles is the critics pointing to the lack of controlled double-blind studies demonstrating Vitamin C’s efficacy in treating cancer.
Double-blind studies are typically conducted by pharmaceutical companies. The studies are huge undertakings and prohibitively expensive. Vitamin C is a naturally occurring nutrient that cannot be patented and, therefore, drug companies are not willing to sponsor the research. Moreover, the billion-dollar cancer drug industry does not want to prove that a naturally occurring Vitamin is more effective than their drugs. They would be putting themselves out of business. And don’t forget, cancer is a very big business. This is not to say that legitimate research has not been performed that demonstrates the curative effects of Vitamin C on many diseases including cancer. If you perform a search in PubMed, a government research database, you will find over 50,000 remarkable studies on Vitamin C. We have provided links to some of these studies below so that you can read this research yourself and feel confident that substantial evidence exists supporting the use of Vitamin C in cancer treatment.
Western medicine should be ashamed of itself for ignoring this truth and depriving their patients from these benefits. Unfortunately the answer is no. The only way to get the blood levels of Vitamin C high enough to kill cancer cells is to administer it intravenously. Our intestinal tract limits the amount of Vitamin C we can absorb and is not tolerated by our digestive system at these levels. Even if you ingested only 10 g of vitamin C, you would only absorb approximately 5% (.5g) and would certainly develop a pretty severe case of diarrhea. Vitamin C administered intravenously has the benefit of bypassing this control system and you absorb 100% of the intake. Moreover, it does not cause stomach upset or diarrhea. Vitamin C has been used successfully for over 70 years without a single confirmed report of any dose, even a mega-dose, causing any significant harm on an individual. Yet, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, approximately 100,000 patients died in hospitals in 1994 from legally prescribed and carefully supervised medications and that number has remained constant every year since.
Utopia Wellness recognizes the benefits of Vitamin C and has administered thousands of high dose therapies without incident. We believe there is substantial evidence that points to the benefits of High Dose Vitamin C Therapy for patients with cancer. Therefore, we offer this therapy as part of our Intensive Medical Program for cancer. High dose IV vitamin C is contraindicated in patients with an iron overload disease. It is also contraindicated in patients with renal insufficiency or renal failure, or those undergoing dialysis. Hyperthermia – FAR Infrared — Touch For Health — IV Peroxide Therapy The Intensive Medical Program at Utopia Wellness focuses not only on the disease, but also on the patient’s mind, body, and spirit. If you are looking for a non-toxic alternative that treats you holistically, Utopia Wellness is the facility you are looking for. Call us today at 727-799-9060. Our Patient Care Coordinator is waiting to tell you more about our innovative approach and schedule your free initial consultation.