Posted Mar 12, 2009
Personal nutrition coach and U.S. nutrition author Jack Challem is challenging a recent study on high doses of vitamin C interfering with chemotherapy drugs.
Challem, a Tucson, Ariz., personal nutrition coach and a regular contributor to the journal Alternative and Complementary Therapies, challenges the findings of a study published in Cancer Research which concludes that vitamin C given to mice or cultured cells treated with common anticancer drugs reduces the tumor-fighting effects of the chemotherapeutic agents.
Challem points out two main problems with the study — the oxidized form of vitamin C, or dehydroascorbic acid, and not actual vitamin C, ascorbic acid, was used; and in the mouse experiments, the animals were given toxic doses of dehydroascorbic acid, a compound that is not used as a dietary supplement in humans.
“This study and the subsequent headlines were a grievous disservice to physicians and patients with cancer,” Challem writes in the Medical Journal Watch column in Alternative and Complementary Therapies.
“Considerable positive research … has shown striking benefits from high-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in cancer cells and animals — and in actual human beings.”
High-dose intravenous vitamin C is a common form of alternative and complementary therapy for patients receiving chemotherapeutic drugs and is believed to help bring about tumor cell death, Challem says. In addition, it may promote post-surgical healing by enhancing collagen formation, and increase tissue resistance to tumor spread.
URL: www.upi.com
Date: Mar 8, 2009
