Vitamin C, or we call it ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient commonly regarded as an antioxidant, protecting cells from the damaging effects of free radicals.
There's a new study showed that vitamin C can slowed tumour growth by half. Maybe, you want to start relate to the antioxidant effect again, the protecting from free radicals, and so on.
Well, I must tell you: This time, the legendary vitamin C, acts as pro-oxidant!
It's a research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, showing that vitamin C at pharmacologic concentrations was a pro-oxidant, generating hydrogen-peroxide-dependent cytotoxicity toward a variety of cancer cells
in vitro without adversely affecting normal cells.
While
in vivo, the researchers injected immune-deficient mice with cells from three aggressive human cancers –
ovarian and
pancreatic tumours, plus a form of
brain cancer called glioblastoma – and found that vitamin C
injections slowed tumour growth by up to 53%.
The untreated and ascorbate treated mice showing effects of injected vitamin C
The injections were important, when we take vitamin C supplements or eat foods containing vitamin C, natural physical controls regulate the amount of vitamin C our bodies are able to absorb. Means, we can never achieve pharmacologic plasma concentration of vitamin C through orally.
When you eat foods containing more than 200 milligrams of vitamin C per day day (for examples, lots of oranges), your body will prevent the plasma concentration of vitamin C from exceeding a narrow range.
The dose they use in the study, was up to 4g/kg of bodyweight, which can be achieve only by bypassing the normal controls, through injecting vitamin C into the veins or abdominal cavities of the body.
The researchers discovered that vitamin C's anti-cancer effect is due to the formation of hydrogen peroxide (a common disinfectant) in the fluid surrounding cells in the tumours. However, normal cells were unaffected.
A reminder: The study was done on MICE. So, to apply it on human, it needs more time.
For desperate patients, DO NOT start taking large doses of the vitamin C after reading this article. That may be dangerous, because vitamin C when taken orally, is acting as anti-oxidant, and it could undermine the effectiveness of standard cancer drugs and radiation therapy.
The anti-cancer effect of vitamin C in this study is using
pharmacological dose of vitamin C,
intravenously!
Reference:
- Qi Chen et al. Pharmacologic doses of ascorbate act as a prooxidant and decrease growth of aggressive tumor xenografts in mice. PNAS 2008; doi: 10.1073/pnas.0804226105
There's a new study showed that vitamin C can slowed tumour growth by half. Maybe, you want to start relate to the antioxidant effect again, the protecting from free radicals, and so on.
Well, I must tell you: This time, the legendary vitamin C, acts as pro-oxidant!
It's a research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, showing that vitamin C at pharmacologic concentrations was a pro-oxidant, generating hydrogen-peroxide-dependent cytotoxicity toward a variety of cancer cells in vitro without adversely affecting normal cells.
While in vivo, the researchers injected immune-deficient mice with cells from three aggressive human cancers – ovarian and pancreatic tumours, plus a form of brain cancer called glioblastoma – and found that vitamin C injections slowed tumour growth by up to 53%.
When you eat foods containing more than 200 milligrams of vitamin C per day day (for examples, lots of oranges), your body will prevent the plasma concentration of vitamin C from exceeding a narrow range.
The dose they use in the study, was up to 4g/kg of bodyweight, which can be achieve only by bypassing the normal controls, through injecting vitamin C into the veins or abdominal cavities of the body.
The researchers discovered that vitamin C's anti-cancer effect is due to the formation of hydrogen peroxide (a common disinfectant) in the fluid surrounding cells in the tumours. However, normal cells were unaffected.
For desperate patients, DO NOT start taking large doses of the vitamin C after reading this article. That may be dangerous, because vitamin C when taken orally, is acting as anti-oxidant, and it could undermine the effectiveness of standard cancer drugs and radiation therapy.
The anti-cancer effect of vitamin C in this study is using pharmacological dose of vitamin C, intravenously!
Reference: