INTRAVENOUS VITAMIN THERAPY FOR CANCER

Most people are already familiar with the general benefits of vitamin C. Like most of the major vitamins, it's absorbed from various dietary sources, and performs key roles at a cellular level that allow the human body to function. Unlike many animals and plants, the human body cannot synthesize vitamin C on its own; instead, it must be ingested or otherwise obtained from the outside. For some cancer patients, it's given using intravenous vitamin therapy.

Fighting Cancer with Vitamin C

Although vitamin C is best known for its importance to the human immune system, it also acts as a specific type of chemical called an "antioxidant." These types of substances serve to prevent cellular processes that can lead to cancer formation. However, vitamin C may go beyond cancer prevention, playing a potential role in active cancer treatment. Research in recent years has provided results suggesting that intravenous vitamin C therapy may be a useful adjunct treatment for patients going through chemotherapy for certain types of cancers. Chemotherapy is a notoriously difficult process, and intravenous vitamin therapy may have potential to help improve patient outcomes and facilitate the death of cancer cells.

Clinical Insight into Intravenous Vitamin C Therapy

"Intravenous vitamin therapy" simply refers to administering high doses of vitamin C directly into the bloodstream. The amounts of vitamin C given by IV are usually much higher than a standard dose contained in a typical supplement capsule. Intravenous vitamin C therapy is usually used in patients suffering from certain types of cancers.

Research into intravenous vitamin therapy began as early as the 1970s. Like most medical research, it initially began with experiments on animals like mice and rats. Scientists found that high doses of vitamin C seemed to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy treatment for many cancers, including cancers of the liver, prostate, pancreas, ovaries, and other organs. In humans with cancer, intravenous vitamin C therapy produced improvements in chemotherapy effectiveness. It also was found to improve the patients' quality of life, reducing chemotherapy side effects such as nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and appetite loss. The intravenous vitamin therapy itself does not produce any adverse side effects.

Researchers hypothesize that the vitamin C may be giving extra protection to healthy cells, which can be damaged by chemotherapy along with the malignant cancer cells. The most recent clinical investigation into intravenous vitamin C therapy for cancer patients was conducted in laboratories in 2014, with ovarian cancer cell cultures exposed to vitamin C. Researchers found that the vitamin C helped keep healthy cells intact, while still allowing the cancer cells to die. In humans with stage III and stage IV ovarian cancer, it reduced the toxicity of chemotherapy agents to several organ systems.

Although intravenous vitamin C therapy is not a cancer treatment per se, the current state of research strongly indicates that it can help reduce side effects in chemotherapy patients, conferring extra protection to healthy cells. Chemotherapy is known for its incredibly adverse side effects, and chemo patients often suffer from serious pain, discomfort, and impairment while undergoing treatment. Intravenous vitamin therapy has a strong potential to help mitigate these side effects, helping patients recover from cancer while suffering fewer ill effects and enjoying a better quality of life during the process.