High Dose IV Vitamin C Drops Chemo Side Effects by 50%
I have an unfortunate truism describing the current state of affairs regarding medical research and the influence of pharmaceutical companies: “There will never be another safe, effective and most importantly CHEAP treatment discovered by conventional medicine”. Vitamin C’s benefit with cancer treatment is a perfect example.
Linus Pauling and Vitamin C for Cancer
Two time Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling spent decades amassing evidence and promoting the use of Vitamin C for Cancer but even with his credentials was unable to solicit appropriate resources to prove his point with large scale clinical trials.
Vitamin C has never fit into the conventional strategy or economics of cancer treatment. Simple, inexpensive, safe, widely beneficial and readily available, vitamin C has never received its fair trial. The abstract posted below gives me hope that similar trials will lead to an eventual full scale study of Vitamin C for cancer.
Oncology and Anti-oxidents
Oncology and the fight against cancer have been fixated on the “war” against cancer and hence their weapons of choice have been almost exclusively poisons. Until recent history the basic mechanisms of cancer and certainly of healthy physiology and the body’s innate healing capacity have been neglected and poorly understood. Nutritional and herbal approaches to supporting patients’ bodies to fight and heal has been openly mocked and challenged. Complementary and alternative treatments are criticized as too weak to be worthwhile, or so powerful that they compromise the potency of chemotherapy and radiation. Many oncologists tell their patients to avoid supplementing with anti-oxidants like vitamin C using this reasoning. From my perspective they may as well tell their patients to avoid eating fruits and vegetables while they are at it since they are full of anti-oxidants.
Conventional oncology loves to tout pharmaceutically driven and funded research as quintessential evidence, yet many of their treatments have not met their own criteria and anti-oxidants have repeatedly been shown to improve outcomes and maintain quality of life in cancer patients in study after study. The truth is limited to where you are looking for it and the hand that directs the microscope has to be guided by a fistful of cash.
No Negative Side Effects with High Dose IV Vitamin C
The truth cannot be suppressed eternally and curiosity about vitamin C and cancer has percolated to a rapid boil. The scientific literature continues to mount supporting the use of oral and intravenous vitamin C for cancer patients. *The article posted below is one more example. This study, carried out in Germany (of course…) looked at 125 post-operative breast cancer patients and compared tolerance to conventional treatment in patients receiving IV Vitamin C and those not receiving it. Vitamin C administration resulted in a significant reduction of complaints induced by the disease and chemo-/radiotherapy (1/2 the intensity), in particular of nausea, loss of appetite, fatigue, depression, sleep disorders, dizziness and hemorrhagic diathesis. There were also “no side effects” to vitamin C treatment! This should pique the interest of any honest oncologist given the fact that a patient who tolerates treatment, is more likely to complete treatment and therefore survive.
The vast majority of high dose Vitamin C research on cancer patients has been done on late stage terminal patients who have no conventional treatment options left. The only negative studies I have seen have been in patients of this type who only received oral vitamin C which limits dosage to a maximum of 10 grams versus the 50-100 grams often given intravenously. Two such studies are often cited to refute claims of vitamin C’s effectiveness. The first – (Edward T. Creagan et al. N Engl J Med 1979; 301:687-690) treated patients who had a median survival of only 7 weeks, meaning they were selected based on imminent death. The second (N Engl J Med 1985; 312:137-141) treated terminal patients with colorectal cancer. Let’s see… treating a cancer in the gastrointestinal tract with an agent that requires intestinal absorption of large amounts of the compound being tested. I’m no clinical researcher but the experimental design here seems a bit suspect to me. If these studies are worth citing, I’d like to cite them as examples of conventional oncology’s absolute failure to provide any treatment option in the first place for these patients – including hope. Turn-about is, after-all, fair play.
As the numbers and studies of Vitamin C’s effect on cancer build, so will public awareness until organizations such as the National Institute of Health might actually be pressured to fund the full scale study Vitamin C deserves. In using Vitamin C intravenously supportively with cancer patients in my office I have observed that every last one of them reports a significant improvement in quality of life. I have never seen a severe reaction to Intravenous Vitamin C even in doses as high as 100 grams in severely debilitated terminal cancer patients. Given judiciously by a physician adequately trained in its use Vitamin C is an integral part of integrated cancer support. There are currently studies underway at Jewish General Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital at Herlev.
Please review the links below and decide for yourself what the preponderance of the evidence reveals.
Be well,
DocGriffith
Intravenous vitamin C in the supportive care of cancer patients: a review and rational approach
High-dose Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) Therapy in the Treatment of Patients with Advanced Cancer
Intravenous Vitamin C and Cancer: A Systematic Review
Systematic Review of Intravenous Ascorbate in Cancer Clinical Trials