As we’ve written about before, vitamin C is a highly underestimated medicine.
While it’s common knowledge that this essential nutrient will boost the immune system and prevent scurvy, a growing body of research is showing it’s still not given nearly enough credit.
Scientists have discovered that most mammals—with the exception of monkeys, guinea pigs, and humans—naturally produce vitamin C (ascorbic acid) within their bodies.[1] This endogenous vitamin C functions as a sort of supercharged extension of the immune system, warding off nearly any illness that comes the animal’s way. This might very well be the reason why so few animals in the wild fall ill.
Most mammals naturally produce vitamin C. But unlike mammals humans lack the ability to make Vitamin C
Humans used to have this same ability, but due to what researchers call an “inborn error of carbohydrate metabolism,” our livers now contain an enzyme protein called L-gulonolactone (GLO) that blocks ascorbic acid synthesis.[2]
Some experts believe that this mechanism simply became unnecessary because of a diet rich in vitamin C. If this is the case, though, why don’t our diets and vitamin C capsules endow us with super-healing abilities?
It seems that it’s a matter of dosage.
The current RDA for vitamin C is 90 milligrams—a paltry amount compared to the 13,000 milligrams that goats and other mammals endogenously produce daily (and they produce much greater amounts when placed under stress).[3] 90 milligrams will prevent scurvy, but that’s it.
The real magic of Vitamin C begins at higher daily doses.
In the 1940’s, a doctor named Fredrick Klenner demonstrated that high doses of vitamin C (up to 300,000 milligrams a day) successfully combat a vast array of serious and even supposedly incurable conditions.
His list is a shocking one: pneumonia, encephalitis, Herpes zoster (shingles), Herpes simplex, mononucleosis, pancreatitis, hepatitis, bladder infections, alcoholism, arthritis, cancer, leukemia, atherosclerosis, ruptured intervertebral discs, high cholesterol, corneal ulcers, diabetes, glaucoma, schizoprenia, burns, infections, heat stroke, radiation burns, heavy metal poisoning, venomous bites, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, and more.
Needless to say, Dr. Klenner’s work was dismissed as quackery, and the medical mainstream is only beginning to reconsider the miraculous healing potential of vitamin C. One area in which it shows great promise is cancer treatment.
Wide-spectrum cancer support
High-dose vitamin C therapy is a not a new method. Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning doctor and scientist, used vitamin C to treat cancer successfully as early as the 1930’s—but he too was written off the medical community.
New research is beginning to clear his legacy, however. Within the past five years, vetted studies have conclusively demonstrated that, in sufficient doses, vitamin C can be immensely helpful in the treatment of cancers of the ovaries,[4] pancreas,[5] prostate, bladder, skin, breast, lung, and thyroid, as well as B-cell lymphoma.[6]
While the mechanisms by which vitamin C aids cancer treatment are myriad, these studies primarily focused on two: the suppression of inflammation and the destruction of cancer cells with a specific genetic mutation.
As you’ve most likely heard before, most experts agree that inflammation is at heart of nearly every major illness—and cancer is no exception. In fact, chronic inflammation is one of the primary markers for cancer; higher levels of inflammation always signal both a higher risk of developing cancer and a lower chance of recovering from the condition.
Oncologists can literally predict survival chances and times based on inflammation biomarkers—
Oncologists can literally predict survival chances and times based on inflammation biomarkers—patients with the lowest inflammation levels are twice as likely to live for at least two years after cancer diagnosis.[7]
This is because inflammation hampers the body on every level; it stifles the immune system (and thus the body’s ability to fight cancer), increases the prevalence of oxidative stress (a key risk factor for the development and spread of cancer), and even aids the initiation and metastasis of tumors.
High-dose vitamin C therapy ameliorates this issue by significantly lowering levels of both pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein tumor markers, while boosting the immune system and lessening the negative side effects of chemotherapy in the process.[8]
And vitamin C can also directly kill cancer cells, particularly those with a specific mutation in KRAS and BRAF genes. Cells with this mutation have an increased tendency to transport the oxidized form of vitamin C, dehydroascorbic acid (DHA), across cell membranes.
One studied demonstrated that this abundance of DHA deactivates the enzyme needed to process glucose, effectively killing the cancer cell by cutting off its food supply.[9]
Not all forms of vitamin C are created equal
In order to achieve these kinds of benefits from vitamin C, though, we must supplement with the right form. Those run-of-the-mill, citrus-flavored pills that fill store shelves won’t cut it.
The studies cited above all implemented either intravenous or liposomal vitamin C. Liposomal supplements used to be few and far between, but now that there’s a number of companies making excellent liposomal vitamin C, getting expensive and unpleasant injections is no longer necessary (unless your doctor recommends it as part of a treatment protocol).
Highest Available Absorption of Vitamin C
PuraTHRIVE’s Liposomalized Vitamin C is absorbed much more efficiently than traditional delivery methods, a huge advance in both efficiency & effectiveness of supplemental nutrients!
Vitamin C just might be one of the most valuable and underestimated natural treatments for serious illness, and you can easily start your own regimen at home. Always consult your doctor before altering any current treatment program, though.
References
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1106297
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/491997
[3] Ibid.
[4] http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/6/222/222ra18
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23381814
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480897/
[7] http://mcr.aacrjournals.org/content/4/4/221
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480897/
