Vitamin C for Cancer

[Guest guest]

Dear Reader,

 

Back in September, I told you about some exciting new research pointing

towards vitamin C's ability to slow and shrink cancerous tumors by as much as

50

percent (9/4/08 eTip, subject line " Light at the end of the labyrinth " ). But

unless you read that eTip, the news may very well have slipped past you: As

impressive as the study was, it didn't make much of a ripple in the mainstream

media. The latest research on vitamin C and cancer, though, is another

matter entirely. All the mainstream media outlets trumpeted the news loud and

clear that " Vitamin C supplements lessen the efficacy of anti-cancer drugs. "

 

The headlines alone are enough to send any cancer patient running in the

opposite direction from this nutrient.

 

And I certainly can't argue with what the researchers from Memorial

Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center uncovered: Vitamin C did reduce the effectiveness

of

the chemotherapy drugs they tested. And while these results haven't been tested

in humans yet, the research team contends that the effects would be the same

in people taking large oral doses of the vitamin while they're undergoing

chemotherapy.

 

But keep in mind that these findings don't negate the ones we talked about

last month.

 

Let's consider the two scenarios for a minute: If you opt to go the

traditional route, not only would you have to endure the devastating side

effects of

chemo, but, in order to make it " work " better, you'd have to stop taking a

nutrient that your body needs (and that it can't make on its own). On the flip

side of the vitamin C/cancer coin, injections of the nutrient not only

eliminate the risk of deficiency, but may very likely have the same

cancer-killing

effects as chemo, without ravaging your body in the process.

 

Unfortunately, Consumer Reports hasn't done a side-by-side comparison of the

two therapies, and I doubt it—or any other news outlet—will anytime soon.

But the fact is, while oral vitamin C may weaken the effects of chemo,

injections of the vitamin may make chemo unnecessary to begin with.

 

Yours in good health,

 

Amanda Ross

Editor

Nutrition & Healing

Sources:

" Vitamin C supplements may reduce benefit from wide range of anti-cancer

drugs, " ScienceDaily (www.sciencedaily.com), 10/2/08

 

 

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