IV High-Dose Vitamin C

What is Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that plays a role in overall wellness and immune health.  This powerful antioxidant is not produced by the body but can be easily found in many foods, especially citrus fruits.  Vitamin C helps prevent free radicals from causing damage to your DNA and cells.  Vitamin C also plays an important role in collagen production which can help with wound healing and younger looking skin.  Vitamin C is great for all the above but new research shows its benefits as a complementary type of cancer therapy alongside traditional treatments such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy.  

How does High Dose Vitamin C for Cancer Work?

Research has shown that Vitamin C works on cancer cells by naturally breaking down into hydrogen peroxide that can damage the tissue and DNA of the cancer cell. Whereas normal cells have the ability to reduce the effect of hydrogen peroxide cancer cells do not. The high concentration of the resulting hydrogen peroxide damages the DNA of the cancer cells and cuts off their energy supply and kills them. Vitamin C, even in very high doses, is toxic only to the cancer cells without harming the healthy cells in your body.

Vitamin C can also boost immunity and can stimulate collagen formation to help the body wall of the tumor. It inhibits hyaluronidase, an enzyme that tumors use to metastasize and invade other organs throughout the body. It induces apoptosis to help program cancer cells to die early. High-dose vitamin C is not a substitute for therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation. High Dose vitamin C is not a replacement for surgery in which cancer cells are removed from the body. Adding high-dose vitamin C to a cancer treatment plan may help improve symptoms and contribute to an overall better quality of life.

Contraindications

High-dose IV Vitamin C is contraindicated in patients with iron overload disease (hemochromatosis).  It is also contraindication in patients with renal insufficiency or renal failure, or those undergoing dialysis.  High-dose Vitamin C (>50G) is also contraindicated in patients with G6PD insufficiency.  

Research

High dose Vitamin C can improve the quality of life for someone undergoing cancer treatment.  In these studies, patients reported improved physical as well as cognitive and emotional symptoms.  

The Effect of Intravenous Vitamin C on Cancer- and Chemotherapy-Related Fatigue and Quality of Life. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4199254/pdf/fonc-04-00283.pdf 

Changes of Terminal Cancer Patients’ Health-related Quality of Life after High Dose Vitamin C Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693571/pdf/jkms-22-7.pdf 

You can learn more about High-Dose Vitamin C and Cancer at the National Institutes of Health. You can also learn more about antioxidants and free radicals and their role in cancer at Cancer.gov. 

Have questions? Want to know more about how high-dose vitamin C for cancer works? Give us a call! Our staff is more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. We look forward to delivering the benefits of IV treatment to you on your road to recovery.