Vitamin C & Cancer

Recent Worldwide Newspaper headlines claimed that a study showing high doses of Vitamin C given intravenously could destroy cancer cells was a "breakthrough discovery". This infuriated many doctors who have been using IV Vitamin C since the 1970's as part of natural health remedy treatments for cancer. Dr Robert Cathcart has been using IV Vitamin C for many diverse conditions including cancer for over 30 years.

Other sensational media headlines in 1998 claimed that Vitamin C causes cancer. Journalists reported on a study that showed 500mg Vitamin C daily (a dose taken as a natural health remedy by many people) caused damage to DNA which sometimes leads to cancer.

But all of the headlines could just as well have stated that Vitamin C supplements prevented DNA damage. That's because the same study also found that Vitamin C did that as well. Even the lead author of the study said that the results were being over-interpreted. One eminent scientist dismissed it bluntly as "bad science."

Bruce N. Ames, Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, has often pointed out that about half of all chemicals, natural and synthetic, cause DNA damage. He says that naturally occurring compounds in alfalfa sprouts (canavanine), broccoli (isothiocyanate), potato (solanine), celery (psoralen), and onion (quercetin), and most fruits and vegetables cause DNA damage. (Jack Challem, The Nutrition Reporter ©1998.)

So is Vitamin C good or bad?

There is a wealth of scientific evidence that supports the view that relatively high levels of Vitamin C are good for health and relatively low levels are bad for health. Practitioners of Natural Medicine have known since the 1960's that Vitamin C is an anti-cancer agent.

The late Dr Linus Pauling, known as the "Father of Vitamin C" said that large intakes of up to 10 grams of Vitamin C each day aids anti-cancer activity within the body. He regularly took high oral doses of the vitamin himself and pioneered research into it's power to treat heart disease.

Dr Mark Levine one of the authors of the study claimed that intravenous Vitamin C is the only form that is effective in fighting cancer due to the body tightly controlling the levels in the blood. But two doctors of the Alliance of Natural Health's Scientific Expert committee stated that this is not true. Doses of Vitamin C taken by mouth are effective in attaining consistently high blood levels.

The researchers found that intravenous Vitamin C produced hydrogen peroxide, which was able to reduce cancerous tumors of ovaries, pancreas and brain in mice by 43 percent to 51 percent. Normal cells are not harmed.

How much should you take?

Dr Pauling recommended taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance if you want the best of health. This means that you take Vitamin C in 2 or 3 doses over the day and gradually increase the dose until you get a significant looseness of the bowels.

Vitamin C functions as an antioxidant and is needed for many enzyme reactions in the body. It is needed for the formation of collagen to hold the cells together and for healthy teeth, gums and blood vessels. It improves iron absorption and resistance to infection.

It is found in fresh vegetables and fruits, such as broccoli, green and red peppers, collard greens, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, lemon, cabbage, pineapples, strawberries, citrus fruits. Eating 5 - 9 portions of fruit and vegetables a day have been shown in many studies to prevent cancer.

Natural Health Remedies for Cancer that Work

There are a wide range of natural health remedies that have been used for cancer. If you are looking for information about natural health remedies for cancer Karon Beattie describes 350 existing natural and alternative cancer treatments in her ebook Natural Cancer TreatmentsThat Work. People have used these gentle and non-toxic treatments instead of or alongside conventional treatment, or after conventional treatment has failed to aid their recovery.
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