Overview of Some Nutritional Approaches to Cancer

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Overview of Some Nutritional Approaches to Cancer

 

 

ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT THE TREATMENT OF CANCER

 

People with cancer are fairly often cured for no known reason. This

is called spontaneous remission, and it happens every day. Somehow,

the body has destroyed the cancer by itself. Anything we can do to

encourage this is most worthwhile. One way we may be able to assist

the body is with vitamins and other nutrients.

 

There are several nutritional aspects to look at in cancer treatment.

One of the most important is Vitamin C.

 

VITAMIN C AND COLLAGEN

 

Vitamin C is essential to the formation of collagen, the protein

" glue " that holds our cells together. Think of cells in a cell tissue

like bricks in a wall. The strength of a brick wall is not truly in

the bricks, for a stack of bricks can easily be pushed apart. So

might a group of cells. Collagen is the " mortar " that binds your

cells together, just as mortar binds bricks together. If collagen is

abundant and strong, your cells hold together well. If cells stick

together, tumors have a tough time spreading through them. Strong

collagen can thereby arrest the spread of cancer.

 

Cancer cells secrete a substance called hyaluronidase, which helps

them eat away at collagen and break out into the rest of the body.

This is described in great detail in the book Hyaluronidase and

Cancer, by Ewan Cameron, M.D., Pergamon Press, 1966. Dr. Cameron, in

a now famous collaboration with Linus Pauling, Ph.D., has offered

evidence that high Vitamin C levels maximize collagen production. If

cancer cells are going to try to spread by destroying a person's

collagen, it just makes sense to make lots more collagen to keep them

from doing it.

 

To do this, a person fighting cancer probably needs enormous amounts

of any substance that helps make collagen. One such substance is

Vitamin C. Curiously enough, persons with cancer commonly have

exceptionally LOW levels of Vitamin C in their bodies. This might

help explain why their collagen has not been able to prevent cancer

from spreading.

 

There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying regular high

doses of vitamin C with any cancer patient.

 

VITAMIN C AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

 

Another reason to use Vitamin C in cancer treatments is that Vitamin C

helps strengthen the immune system. Maximum immune function is vital

if we want the body to kill cancer. Yet medical treatments such as

radiation and chemotherapy actually weaken the immune system a great

deal. There are, then, really two reasons to bolster immunity with

Vitamin C. First, large quantities of the vitamin often enable a

person to more easily tolerate large doses of radiation and

chemotherapy, with far fewer side effects. Second, stronger immune

function can only help the patient to fight the

disease better in general.

 

VITAMIN C AND PAIN RELIEF

 

In England, it is not uncommon for terminally ill patients to receive

narcotics as strong as heroin to ease their pain. One side benefit of

Vitamin C studies at Vale of Leven Hospital in Scotland was profound

pain relief. Patients given ten grams (ten thousand milligrams) of

intravenous Vitamin C each day had greatly reduced pain even after the

narcotic was discontinued (Cancer and Vitamin C, by Ewan Cameron, M.D.

and Linus Pauling, Ph.D., Warner Books, 1981).

 

ADMINISTRATION OF VITAMIN C

 

Vitamin C is most effective given intravenously. Appropriately

detailed information for doctors is available in Dr. Cameron's

" Protocol for the Intravenous Use of Vitamin C in the Treatment of

Cancer " posted on this website under " Cameron Protocol. " Additional

directions for administering vitamin C by I.V., written by Robert F.

Cathcart, M.D., are posted on this website under " Vitamin C I.V. "

Still more injectable vitamin C dosage information is found in

" Significance of High Daily Intake of Ascorbic Acid in Preventive

Medicine, " by Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., in A Physician's Handbook

on Orthomolecular Medicine, Roger J. Williams and Dwight K. Kalita,

ed., Keats Publishing Co., l977.

 

Vitamin C may also be taken by mouth, but this is not ideal. To

approximate the constancy of an intravenous drip it is necessary to

have very frequent oral doses. A dose of the vitamin every half hour

that the patient is awake is not excessive. The amount of each dose

is the maximum amount that a person can tolerate without diarrhea.

Diarrhea indicates bodily saturation with the vitamin. Results may

require truly large daily totals. Remember that oral doses are not as

efficient as intravenous vitamin C, so it takes much more to do the

job. " C " given orally has to be absorbed

through the digestive tract, and a good bit of it isn't.

 

Generally speaking, the sicker the patient, the more " C " s/he can

hold. Let's say a person has diarrhea at just five hundred milligrams

(0.5 g) per dose and a daily total of less than 20,000 mg (20 g).

This indicates a NEED for relatively little of the vitamin. A person

with pneumonia (or cancer) may have an immune system that would soak

up as much as 200,000 mg per day.

 

That is a lot of vitamin C, but then we are also asking a lot of it.

 

It is important to be consistent with large quantities of Vitamin C.

It needs to be taken EVERY DAY and OFTEN. Taking the vitamin

sporadically is of little value, and may result in a rebound effect of

temporary deficiency. Taking too much at one time may result in a

false saturation diarrhea. Almost anyone taking 6,000 mg or more of

vitamin C AT ONE TIME will experience diarrhea, yet the cancer patient

might really be able to hold more than twenty times that amount IF

TAKEN IN SMALLER, DIVIDED DOSES throughout the entire day.

 

Evidence indicates that vitamin C does not interfere with conventional

cancer treatments and may in fact assist them.

 

NUTRITIONAL APPROACHES OTHER THAN VITAMIN C

 

Several vitamins and minerals continue to show value in the prevention

and treatment of cancer. Principal among these are vitamin A, vitamin

E, and selenium.

 

VITAMIN A

 

High doses of vitamin A have proved effective against a number of

forms of cancer. Vitamin A acceptance as therapy is probably slow due

to the potential toxicity of the oil form of the vitamin when taken in

enormous quantities for a long time. However, the vitamin A

precursor, called carotene or provitamin A, is strictly non-toxic

regardless of quantity or duration. It is also more effective against

cancer than the oil form. The body internally converts stored

beta-carotene into vitamin A on demand. It is the totally safe

carotene form that needs to be given, and in very high doses.

 

The effective amount of carotene may exceed 500,000 International

Units (I.U.) daily. Physicians need to remember that a harmless

carotenosis, or orange-colored skin, is the only side effect of

massive provitamin A dosage. That amount of carotene can be obtained

from six to eight glasses of fresh carrot juice per day. Such a

natural source guarantees a mixture of all the different forms of

carotene, which is more therapeutically effective than just the beta form.

 

VITAMIN E

 

Vitamin E is an antioxidant and free radical scavenger that seems to

help prevent cell damage related to cancer. It is a fat-soluble

vitamin with no known toxicity. Doses of 800 to 1200 I.U. are

commonly employed.

 

SELENIUM

 

Regions of the United States with this trace mineral in their soil

have less cancer than those regions that don't. Research has

indicated that selenium works with vitamin E both to protect body

cells and to slow tumor growth. Only a very small amount of selenium

is needed for this beneficial effect, probably between 50 and 200

micrograms (mcg) daily. Selenium should not be taken in large amounts.

 

 

THE GERSON CANCER THERAPY

 

" I see in Dr. Max Gerson one of the most eminent geniuses in medical

history. "

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

 

In the late 1920's, Max Gerson, M.D. began curing cancer with

nutrition. His treatment is detailed in A CANCER THERAPY: Results of

Fifty Cases (Third Edition, by Max Gerson, Gerson Institute, CA,

1977). There is no book like this one. It is full of detailed case

histories including X-ray photographs, charts and dosage schedules,

and lists of all necessary materials.

 

The Gerson therapy works towards the detoxification and nutritional

restoration of the body, focusing on the liver. This is accomplished

primarily through intensive feeding with raw vegetable juices, natural

foods, and supplements. It is a labor intensive program, and takes a

minimum of 18 months to complete. Hospitalization is not a

requirement. Dr. Gerson achieved remarkable results even from

diagnosed terminal patients. It would be difficult to justify denying

any patient the potential benefits of this proven nutritional program.

It can't hurt to try it.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Traditional medical treatments have focused on how to go in and kill

cancer with chemicals or radiation. It is likely that this approach

will change in favor of trying to get the patient's BODY to kill the

cancer. A well nourished body will have the best chance of doing

this. During the crisis of cancer, the immune system needs to be

boosted with appropriately high doses of vitamins C, E, and A as beta

carotene and a trace of selenium.

 

Oncologists can get nearly as discouraged as their patients when

conventional cancer treatments fail. That is the point where hope

does NOT have to be lost. If the answer is not here, than maybe it is

indeed THERE. Every stone must be turned over in our effort to get

well. It is the doctor's duty to do whatever s/he can to help the

patient recover. This must include using therapeutic quantities of

vitamins.

 

 

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

 

Physicians and patients that are confused by conflicting reports on

vitamin C and cancer need to refer to pages 163-180 (Chapter 19) in

How To Live Longer and Feel Better, by Linus Pauling, Ph.D. (W. H.

Freeman and Co., 1986) and the book Vitamin C and Cancer: Discovery,

Recovery, Controversy by Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD (Quarry Press,

Kingston, Ontario, 1999) ISBN 1-55082-078-8

 

 

A list of doctors that use or support the use of nutritional therapies

for cancer is available from the CANCER CONTROL SOCIETY, 2043 North

Berendo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90027 (Telephone 213-663-7801).

 

Information on the successful nutritional cancer therapy of Max

Gerson, M.D. is available from the GERSON INSTITUTE, P. O. Box 430,

Bonita, CA 91908 (Telephone 619-267-1150).

 

Copyright C 2004 and prior years Andrew W. Saul. From the books

DOCTOR YOURSELF and FIRE YOUR DOCTOR, available from Andrew Saul,

Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, New York 14470.