Email this article to a friend

Printable Version

Articles Related to This Article: • The common cold is no match for natural healing therapies: minerals, herbs and foods stave off colds and flus • Vitamin C: There May Be a Modern Chronic Deficiency • Vitamin C Shown to Preserve Bone Density in Older Men NaturalNews Store Specials: • Revolutionary new Hurom Slow Juicer at the lowest price on the 'net + FREE shipping! • Certified Organic Nutiva Hemp Seeds at a huge discount (+ FREE bottle of hemp oil) • Omega-3 rich Chia Seeds at under $5 / lb. See more at the NN store...

(NaturalNews) A recent study published in Cancer Research (2008; 68:8031-8038) warned that high doses of vitamin C could harm cancer patients by making chemotherapy drugs ineffective. But now a detailed report in the current issue of the journal Alternative and Complementary Therapies explains that the anti-vitamin C study was not only flawed but didn't actually use a form of vitamin C used in humans.

In the current Alternative and Complementary Therapies Medical Journal Watch column, nutrition expert Jack Challem has dissected, step by step, the inaccuracies in the Cancer Research study which concluded vitamin C given to mice or cultured cells treated with common anti-cancer chemotherapy agents hampered those drugs' anti-tumor effects. In a statement to the media, Challem pointed to two main problems with the study. First, the researchers did not use vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. Instead, they used an oxidized form of vitamin C known as dehydroascorbic acid -- a compound that is not used as a dietary supplement in people.

What's more, in the experiments with laboratory rodents, the mice were given toxic doses of dehydroascorbic acid. "This study and the subsequent headlines [it generated] were a grievous disservice to physicians and patients with cancer," Challem said in the press statement, adding that "considerable positive research...has shown striking benefits from high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in cancer cells and animals -- and in actual human beings. The ideal therapeutic approach would be to tailor individual treatment, including IV vitamin C, from a menu of options."

High-dose intravenous vitamin C is frequently used as an alternative and complementary therapy for cancer patients going through chemotherapy. According to Challem, the vitamin is believed to help treat cancer by spurring on the death of tumor cells. Another possible advantage of giving cancer patients vitamin C is that the supplement is known to enhance collagen formation, so it may aid in post-surgical healing and it may also increase the resistance of tissues to metastases.

According to the Linus Pauling Institute web site, pioneer vitamin C researcher Dr. Pauling and his medical collaborator, Dr. Ewan Cameron, former Chief of Surgery at Vale of Leven Hospital in Scotland, published several studies on the beneficial response of cancer patients to large doses of supplemental vitamin C as an adjunct treatment to conventional cancer therapies. They found repeatedly that benefits ranged from an increased sense of well-being and an increased survival time for terminal patients to rare complete regressions of malignancies.

For more information:
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pd...
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/s-s00/vi...

Share

About the author

Related CounterThink Cartoons:

Related Articles: • The common cold is no match for natural healing therapies: minerals, herbs and foods stave off colds and flus • Vitamin C: There May Be a Modern Chronic Deficiency • Vitamin C Shown to Preserve Bone Density in Older Men	Take Action: Support NaturalNews.com Email this article to a friend Share this article on: NewsVine | digg | del.icio.us Permalink to this article: http://www.NaturalNews.com/025802_vitamin_C_cancer_patients.html Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite NaturalNews.com with clickable link. Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): <a href = "http://www.NaturalNews.com/025802_vitamin_C_cancer_patients.html">Anti-Vitamin C Study Seriously Flawed and Misleading</a>