High doses of vitamin C can reduce inflammation in cancer patients

Vitamin C is so much more than just a potent immune booster to help ward off wintertime colds and flus. It is also one of the best weapons we have against disease-causing inflammation. Infection, autoimmune issues and the effects of the chemical environment we live in can all result in chronic inflammation. When long-term inflammation sets in, permanent tissue damage can occur, creating harmful immune responses and resulting in many serious illnesses, including cancer.

Researchers have long understood that vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant which fights off the free radical damage that can interfere with immune function and lead to inflammation. They have also understood that cancer patients generally exhibit high levels of inflammation and that this inflammation can affect their prognosis and recovery as well as lowering the efficacy of conventional cancer treatments – which let’s face it, aren’t that effective to start with.

Now, a study conducted by researchers from the Riordan clinic, and published in the Journal of Translation Medicine, has joined the dots between high doses of vitamin C, a reduction in inflammation and better long-term outcomes for cancer patients.

Vitamin C has “preventative and therapeutic value”

As reported by Natural Health 365, inflammation levels in the body have a direct bearing on the risk of developing cancer as well as the chances of recovery and survival. Studies have found that patients with the lowest inflammation levels are more likely to survive at least two years after a cancer diagnosis. The Riordan research team therefore set out to determine if using high-dose intravenous vitamin C (IVC) treatments could lower inflammation and improve recovery outcomes for these patients. (Related: Groundbreaking study looks at the regenerative potential of vitamin C for hormone health and cancer prevention.)

For their study, the research team retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who had received IVC treatments and analyzed their plasma ascorbate concentration levels before and after treatment. C-reactive protein levels – which rise when inflammation is present in the body – were also measured.

The study abstract conclusion notes:

Evidence suggests that IVC may be able to modulate inflammation, which in turn might improve outcomes for cancer patients. IVC may serve as a safe, adjunctive therapy in clinical cancer care.

Vitamin C is cancer’s worst enemy

This was not the first study to show the amazing effects of vitamin C in the treatment of cancer.

A study by researchers from the University of Salford in the U.K., published in the journal Oncotarget, found that vitamin C inhibits the growth of cancer cells in the laboratory, demonstrating a 10 times higher potency than the experimental drug 2-DG in the process.

Natural News previously reported:

[V]itamin C starves cancer stem cells by blocking a process called glycolysis. The process is responsible for glucose metabolism, and inhibiting it prevents the mitochondria from gaining essential energy for survival. Using vitamin C as an add-on treatment to chemotherapy may show potential in stemming tumor recurrence and further progression of cancer.

“We have been looking at how to target cancer stem cells with a range of natural substances including silibinin (milk thistle) and CAPE, a honey-bee derivative, but by far the most exciting are the results with vitamin C,” noted study author Dr. Michael Lisanti. “Vitamin C is cheap, natural, nontoxic and readily available so to have it as a potential weapon in the fight against cancer would be a significant step.”

Serious cancer protection requires high doses of vitamin C, however, with most studies finding that at least 5,000 mg must be taken each day to maximize its cancer-fighting potential. Discover more natural medicine with potent cancer-fighting potential at CancerSolutions.news.

Sources for this article include:

NaturalHealth365.com

Translational-Medicine.BioMedCentral.com

NaturalNews.com

NCBI.NLM.NIH.gov