IV Vitamin C Helps Ovarian Cancer

March 31, 2014

High Dose Vitamin C Helps Ovarian Cancer 


Patients ReferenceScience Daily Feb 2014  High Dose Parenteral Ascorbate…  


Ovarian Cancer is one of the nastiest because it presents clinically too late to cure with surgery.  Many women are already in Stage 3 or 4, which means the disease has spread beyond the ovary and is “out of the barn”.    To find something that works and extends the life of ovarian cancer patients is a pretty big idea. 


 In this study, the doctors at Kansas in the OB-Gyn department and the Integrative Medicine department decided to collaborate to see if they could find an effect with ovarian cancer.  (One can make the argument; they didn’t have much to lose because what we are doing now has such limited positive outcomes.)   To their delight and surprise, they found a pretty remarkable effect with IV Vitamin C.  The life span of the 27 women in Stage 3 and 4 cancers was doubled.  Side effects from the chemotherapy were significantly reduced.  The authors noted that in lab models with mice the same thing was observed with longer life and fewer toxic side effects. 


In their laboratory models, they found that the high dose vitamin C caused DNA damage and depleted cellular adenosine triphosphate, activated the AMPK pathway and mTOR inhibition. That’s code language for “It gave the cancer cells a really hard time.” IV Vitamin C is not a new idea but it’s outside the pale of most traditional medical practice.  Normal human Vitamin C levels are only in the 1.5 mg/dl, which is pretty low compared to many other mammals.  Linus Pauling was very interested in this discrepancy. Goats make 17 grams a day, but humans only need 45 mg to avoid scurvy.  Seems to be a discrepancy.  


In the 1970s a pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, Dr Meyer, started giving folks IV vitamin C along with a cocktail of other commonly deficient nutrients.  It caught on because folks felt an increase in energy after the IV treatment.  There are now several thousand doctors around America who administer IV Vitamin C.  I am one of them. When you take a gram of Vitamin C orally, your blood level might get up to about 5.  Two grams gets you to 9, maybe, but also gives you diarrhea.  


When you get the IV Vitamin C at a dose of 25 (5-50) grams, you get a blood level of about 300 for about two to four hours, then you excrete it all in your urine.  In those couple of hours, you make a remarkable amount of hydrogen peroxide, which is thought to be the killing agent against the cancer cells.  But then it’s gone.  In those four hours you have the remarkable production of peroxide and seem to have a rebound reduction of inflammation.   Most folks who get the IV Vitamin C just feel better.   Inflammatory conditions are generally improved.


WWW.  What will work for me?  I’ve been giving IV vitamin C in my office to cancer patients for a year now.  To my small experience, I’ve felt I’ve helped folks quite a lot.  I’m going to be much more enthusiastic now.   This study is not proof.  It’s a pilot study and larger ones should follow.  There is some skill and nuance to giving the IV Vitamin C in a safe fashion.    But I’m pretty excited by this new weapon against cancer. 


 Pop Quiz: 


 1.  Ovarian Cancer is easy to diagnose.  T or F                     Answer:  False.  Miserably hard 

2.   Our current chemotherapy regimens prolong the life of ovarian cancer patients remarkably well.  T or F                     Answer:   Really false. It works, but not near as well as we would like 

 3.   IV Vitamin C can be administered safely?  T or F                       Answer:   True 

 4.   It reduces the side effects of chemo and prolongs life in ovarian cancer patients.  T or F          Answer:   That's it in a nutshell 

 5.  Taking oral Vitamin C accomplishes the same thing.   T or F                 Answer:  Sadly not, It appears to be a dose-dependent thing and IV gets levels 20-30 times higher


Column written by Dr John Whitcomb at Brookfield Longevity, Brookfield WI

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