But maybe it is worth taking supplements?



Love and Healing



Ian

PS below is from today's ICON email circular.



Originally published in January 2004 icon


It's only naturalVitamin C, ascorbic acid, is so important to your health
that a human will die within a few months without it. Humans, chimpanzees,
fruit bats and guinea pigs are the only mammals that cannot synthesise it.
If sufficient of the vitamin is not included in the diet the feet, hands and
gums swell, then the rest of the body. In 1589 these symptoms were defined
as 'Skurvie' and by 1593 Sir Richard Hawkins, desperate because he'd lost
10,000 men, noted that oranges and lemons reversed the disease. His cure,
though, fell out of favour (costing many more lives) until revived in the
mid 1700's when a surgeon Dr Lind realised that if men ate two oranges and
one lemon a day, within a week they had fully recovered. In 1804 the British
Navy ordered lime juice for all its sailors and the nickname "limeys" was
born.

By 1911 it was recognised that scurvy was a vitamin deficiency although it
was not isolated as vitamin C deficiency until 1928 by the Nobel Prize
winner Dr Szent-Gyorgyi.


Recommended Daily Allowance


Open quotesA human will die within a few months without Vitamin CClose
quotes

The League of the United Nations recommended that everybody should take 30
mgs per day, the threshold level to prevent scurvy. By 1974 The National
Research Council amended this slightly to Infants: 35mgs, Children: 40mgs,
Adults: 45mgs.

However, this is woefully inadequate for sustained good health.


What Does Vitamin C Actually Do?


1:

Ascorbic acid is required for the synthesis of collagen and connective
tissue.

Collagen strengthens tendons, cartilage, bones, arteries and veins, for
example.

In 1933 Ewan Cameron, a surgeon at the Vale of Leven Hospital, Scotland,
presented a theory about how vitamin C might act to prevent tumour
development in a paper Hyaluronidase and Cancer.

All malignant tumours probably produce two enzymes, hyaluroldase and
collagenase which weaken the connective tissues and the "glue" between cells
around the tumour, thus allowing the rogue cells to spread. The theory ran
that vitamin C was an inhibitor of these enzymes and a possible treatment to
restrict tumours and stop their growth might be vitamin C megadoses of 10gms
and above (see later).

2:

Ascorbic acid strengthens the immune system.

Open quotesEarly studies showed that Vitamin C increased the body's
resistance to a coldClose quotes

Early studies showed that vitamin C increased the body's resistance to a
cold; in stressful situations like surgery, burns or wounds the levels of
vitamin C in the blood fall; and in 1943 Cottingham and Mills show that
phagocytosis actually uses vitamin C to ingest and eradicate bacteria.

The most crucial study was probably in 1973 by Hume and Weyers. It showed
that 250mgs was not enough to support the phagocytes activity and that 1gm
was suggested, rising to 6gms at the first sign of a cold. Vitamin C is also
known to stimulate the production of interferon which helps protect cells
against viral and cancer attack.

3:

A powerful antioxidant

A number of studies (Ginter 1970, 73, 75; Spittle 1971) have shown that
vitamin C can counteract saturated fats being converted by oxidation into
dangerous peroxides. Meydani et al 1995 and Pike and Chandra 1995 both
showed that antioxidant diets based on vitamin C produced less illness
overall.

Ascorbic acid is a weak acid, a little stronger than vinegar (acetic acid)
and a reducing agent - it donates electrons and hydrogen atoms. It seems to
protect cells from oxidative damage, and it interferes with the production
and activity of free radicals.

4:

Ascorbic acid can inactivate bacteria and viruses

The action against free radicals seems to parallel ascorbic acid's action
against bacteria and viruses. Phagocytosis seems to actually use ascorbate
to deactivate bacteria.

Open quotesAscorbate can inactivate many of the viruses that attack
bacteriaClose quotes

Akira Murata showed that ascorbate can inactivate many of the viruses that
attack bacteria. Intravenous injections of 20gms of sodium ascorbate
inactivated many types of virus within 20 minutes. Murata, Kitagawa and
Suromo, 1971, showed that ascorbate needs free oxygen present. Ascorbate
reduces the oxygen to a free radical which destroys the nucleic acid of the
virus (Pauling 1976).

5:

Reducing stomach cancer risk

This is a very specific benefit. Vitamin C helps block the formation of
nitrosamines, potential carcinogens formed the stomach from nitrates in food
and produced by microbes.

6:

Minimising allergic reactions

It interferes with the production of histamines, released by the immune
system in response to an allergen, thus reducing allergic reaction.


How Much Should You Take?


Linus Pauling, 2-time Nobel Prize winner, first developed an interest in
vitamin C in the 1960's after meeting Irwin Stone, a biochemist who had been
studying the vitamin since the 1930s.

Stone had a view that since humans were one of only four groups of mammals
unable to synthesise vitamin C for themselves, this problem had arisen
through genetic deficiency and it was up to us to correct it ourselves!

Using studies on rats and extrapolating the results Stone concluded that
humans needed 1.4 to 4.0gms per day (Hager).

Open quotesStone concluded that humans needed 1.4 to 4.0gms per dayClose
quotes

Pauling took this work forward with a number of people. He noted that
animals who do make their own, make it constantly out of dextrose in the
liver or kidney. Vitamin C is water-soluble and can wash out of general
tissues in just three hours. It is not stored and cells need a constant
supply.

Aspirin and the antibiotic tetracycline increase the rate of destruction of
vitamin C in the body. Oestrogen, especially from HRT or the pill, increases
excretion in the urine. People with diabetes, people who are stressed,
smokers and people who drink lots of alcohol all have lower vitamin C
levels.

But the real problem is the recommended level required. The RDA has been set
at the level required simply to avoid scurvy. There is a plethora of
evidence that this is way too low to avoid everyday diseases. Worse when
Pauling studied the subject back in 1976 he concluded one third of those
studied were not even getting the RDA of 45mgs!

In 1976 Pauling said that the desired daily level was between 250mgs and
10gms. There are claims that too much can cause liver damage, and even one
that it causes cancer. Neither has been substantiated.


Vitamin C and Cancer


Neil Riordan at the Aidan Clinic, Arizona has noted that 46 per cent of
breast cancer sufferers are vitamin C deficient, some even to the point of
scurvy (British Journal of Cancer Vol 84, II),

Open quotes46 per cent of breast cancer sufferers are Vitamin C
deficientClose quotes

There are a great number of studies which show that cancer sufferers have
lowered vitamin C levels in their blood. That it lowers cancer risk for
breast, cervix, colon, rectum, mouth, lung, prostate, stomach and oesophagus
is very well documented (e.g. Levin: Nat Ac Sciences Vol 93, 8 1996; Block
Nutrition Review 50, 7 7992; Frei: AMJ Vol 97, 1994; Uddin Comprehensive
Therapy Vol 2.1, 1995).

The controversy centres on whether or not large or megadoses can actually
cure cancer:

In 1974 Cameron and Campbell took 50 terminal cancer patients and gave them
10gms intravenously of sodium ascorbate. All had been given less than three
months to live. Half survived 361 days on average with five people surviving
an average of 610 days.

They requested that the National Cancer Institute conduct proper clinical
trials - a double blind study. For some reason or other this was denied. So
Pauling and Cameron repeated the experiment with 100 terminal canter
patients comparing them with control groups of 1000 people in all. Whilst
all the 1000 control group died, 18 of the group receiving vitamin C
survived, and five of these appeared to overcome the disease.

In 1978 Pauling and Cameron repeated this in a second study, this time
taking nine control groups each with similar cancers to the test group. As
in the previous tests, the patients taking vitamin C had renewed vigour and
energy and their quality of life improved. Whilst all of the control group
died, the vitamin C group lived 300 days on average and five patients
survived for 16 months.

Open quotesVitamin C megadoses do not seem to work anything like as well if
the patient has had chemotherapyClose quotes

One caveat to all this is that vitamin C megadoses do not seem to work
anything like as well if the patient has had chemotherapy. In Cameron's
experiments only four people had had chemotherapy. But in 1978 the Mayo
Clinic conducted double blind tests on vitamin C (Cregan et al) using 60
subjects of which 52 had had chemotherapy. They concluded that their results
could not endorse the Scottish findings; and observers pointed the finger at
chemotherapy which was felt to impede the vitamin C effect.

However, Cameron's hyaluronidase theory seems to be sound. For example, the
speed of breast cancer spread is believed to be about free radical damage
and is drastically reduced by vitamin C (Malins: Nat Ac Sciences vol 93,
March 1996).

One point worth stressing is that vitamin C taken orally is normally used
when the doses are small. Megadose vitamin C involves intravenous injection
of ascorbate. Paydayatly and Levine conducted research in 2001 showing there
was no benefit in high oral doses. There is some evidence (confirmed by the
Dove Clinic) that megadose vitamin C should not be used on patients with
primary or secondary brain tumours as it causes astrocytosis - i.e. the
spreading of the tumour.

Riordan took the view that vitamin C brings about cancer cell death because
large doses build up hydrogen peroxide in cancer cells. If you are taking
high levels of vitamin C you should increase magnesium levels to avoid
kidney stones.


Antioxidants and Chemotherapy or Radiotherapy?


Which brings us to the issue of should you supplement if you are having
chemo or radiotherapy. Riordan's research seems to say clearly that with
vitamin C you should.

In 1999 Gotlieb went further With Kedar Prasad, Professor of Radiology at
the University of Colorado, Denver, they showed that high dose vitamin C, as
well as other antioxidants, can protect healthy cells which regulate their
uptake levels during treatment. Whereas Prasad is quite clear, cancer cells
cannot regulate uptake and this aids their death. Whilst he is actually
against high doses of vitamin C because of possible toxicity in the liver,
he believes C, E or beta-carotene are highly protective.


Foods for Vitamin C


Strawberries



(mgs)


blackcurrants

1 cup

200


guava

half cup

150


red pepper

half cup

140


fresh orange juice

(8 oz)

120


cooked brussels

1 cup

100


papaya

1 cup

90


strawberries

1 cup

75


raw brussels

1 cup

75


pineapple

1 cup

70


grapefruit

(8 oz)

70


green snap peas

per serving

70


tomato juice

(8 oz)

50


raw broccoli

per serving

40

Cooking reduces vitamin C content by half. Vitamin C is also destroyed by
poor storage. A potato will lose 70 per cent of its vitamin C five days
after being dug up.


Anything Else?


Well now you come to mention it, vitamin C has been shown to neutralise the
action of alfatoxin B, the toxin of parasites in your body. This might
explain some of the benefit of vitamin C in terminal cancer cases. After
all, the WHO believe at least 15-20 per cent of all cancers are caused by
infection.

And finally, vitamin C is highly influential as part of an anti-ageing
programme. The National Institute of Ageing showed that people who took
vitamin C and E supplements had a 50 per cent lower risk of dying
prematurely. This was backed up by a Californian study which showed that a
supplement of 7SOmgs a day reduced the risk of dying prematurely by 60 per
cent.

Environmental pollutants can cause the breakdown of vitamin C in the body.

If you're still with us after all this, it looks like a 1gm supplement per
day might be no bad thing.




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_____

From: Ian Dixon [mailto:iandixon25lr@...]
Sent: 04 April 2006 17:34
To: 'cancercured@yahoogroups.com'; 'melanoma@yahoogroups.com';
'fighttogether@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [MM-research] High-dose vitamin C as a cancer therapy



Initial feedback from respected source:



Yes i am aware of this but have not had a convincing argument to pursue it.
High doses stop all other antioxidant activity and can cause kidney stones
so this has to be considered.



Love and Healing



Ian



_____

From: Ian Dixon [mailto:iandixon25lr@...]
Sent: 04 April 2006 09:22
To: 'cancercured@yahoogroups.com'; 'melanoma@yahoogroups.com';
'fighttogether@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: FW: [MM-research] High-dose vitamin C as a cancer therapy



I wonder if any trials are being conducted on the combinations of vitamin C
injections along with IL2? Maybe following radiotherapy or some other route
to boost antigens?



Love and Healing



Ian



<http://www.eurekalert.org/pubnews.php> Public release date: 27-Mar-2006

Contact: Marcia Vital
301-496-3583
<http://www.cma.ca/cmaj> Canadian Medical Association Journal


High-dose vitamin C as a cancer therapy


Although early clinical studies conducted by Linus Pauling showed that
high-dose vitamin C, given by intravenous and oral routes, may improve
symptoms and prolong life in patients with terminal cancer, no benefits for
cancer patients were seen when vitamin C therapy was administered orally in
double-blind placebo-controlled studies at the Mayo Clinic. Since then, high
doses of vitamin C have been used only as an "alternative" therapy to
standard cancer treatment. However, recent evidence shows that intravenous
administration of the maximum tolerated dose of vitamin C produces plasma
concentrations about 25 times higher than when the vitamin is administered
orally. At concentrations above 1000 mmol/L -- which can only be achieved by
the intravenous route -- vitamin C is toxic to some cancer cells but not to
normal cells in vitro.

Padayatty and colleagues report on 3 well-documented cases of advanced
cancers, confirmed by histopathologic review, where patients had
unexpectedly long survival times after receiving high-dose intravenous
vitamin C therapy. They assessed the clinical details of each case in
accordance with National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series guidelines,
and found that the case reports indicate that the role of high-dose
intravenous vitamin C therapy in cancer treatment should be reassessed.





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