A Recent Study Examines Whether There Are Changes In Symptoms And Adverse Effects From Intravenous Ascorbic Acid Infusions In Cancer Patients Receiving Or Not Receiving Chemotherapy
PHILADELPHIA Ascorbic acid infusions are currently used by cancer patients either in conjunction with chemotherapy or following chemotherapy, often for the purpose of alleviating symptoms, though there is limited data on safety or clinical effects. A recent retrospective study from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center Jefferson Health examined changes in symptoms and whether there were adverse effects from intravenous ascorbic acid infusions in cancer patients receiving or not receiving chemotherapy.
For over a decade, researchers from the at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have been actively researching Vitamin C therapies for cancer. In the present study they examined the patient-records of 86 patients treated with vitamin C infusions. They found side effects reported in five percent of all infusions, most which were nausea, vomiting, headache, and discomfort at the injection site that were limited in duration to the time of infusion. There were no serious adverse events associated with the infusions. The study team also saw improvements in patient-reported symptoms related to fatigue, bowel habits, and pain symptoms over the course of infusions.
Media Contact:
The Totally Pure Vitamin C
Our body needs intravenous vitamin C for many reasons but our body doesnt need sodium edetate which is carcinogenic, we don’t need side effects as bronco spasms, allergies, fever, toxicity, Overdose,we don’t need pyrogens nor contaminating agents.Bio C is the only injectable or oral vitamin C in the world free from pyrogens in a natural way it doesnt contain sodium edetate, it does not produce side effects, it is so pure that it doesnt need to be refrigerated. One year expiration, we are the difference since most intravenous or oral vitamin C may cause side effects, they contain pyrogens and worst of all they contain sodium edetate.You deserve the best.
Vitamin C Deficiency And Oxidative Stress
Vitamin C deficiency is reported to occur more frequently in patients with chronic disease and major depression and in hospitalized patients, postsurgical patients, and smokers,,,,. and summarize vitamin C blood levels measured in cancer patients and in healthy control subjects, reporting lower levels for cancer patients with advanced-stage compared with early disease.
Hypovitaminosis C is described as depletion at less than 0.5 mg/dL and as deficiency at less than 0.2 mg/dL. A diagnosis of hypovitaminosis C is established by clinical findings and low serum ascorbic acid level,,,. Fasting vitamin C blood levels are reported to best represent body stores. Scurvy occurs within 13 months of depletion and is diagnosed by vitamin C levels less than 0.2 mg/dL. Symptoms of vitamin C deficiency include fatigue, myalgia, weakness, poor wound healing, follicular hyperkeratosis, perifollicular hemorrhages, ecchymoses, xeroses, and lower extremity edema,,. Gingival swelling, oral hemorrhage, pain in the back and joints, hemorrhage into the soft tissue and joints, syncope, and sudden death can also occur with persistent deficiency,.
Read Also: What Vitamins Are Good For Focus
Types Of Cancers Treated With Ivc By The Riordan Clinic:
The Riordan clinic has treated hundreds of cancer patients using the Riordan protocol. At the same time, Riordan Clinic Research Institute has been researching the potential of intravenous vitamin C therapy for over thirty years. Our efforts have included in vitro studies, animal studies, pharmacokinetic analyses, and clinical trials. The Riordan IVC protocol, along with the research results that have motivated its use, is described below.
Q1 Do Oncology Patients Have Compromised Vitamin C Status
Vitamin C supports many important biological functions through its action as an electron donor , however, the vitamin C status of oncology patients is often not assessed in clinical trials or in clinical practice. Many studies have consistently shown that patients with cancer have lower mean plasma vitamin C status than healthy controls , and a large proportion of them present with hypovitaminosis C and outright deficiency . Although other case control studies have confirmed lower vitamin C status in patients with cancer , their control values were also quite low indicating possible issues with sample collection and/or analysis . Severity of the disease also appears to impact on vitamin C status with the proportion of lymphoma patients with hypovitaminosis C being significantly elevated for those with high-burden disease . Furthermore, patients with higher stage breast and cervical cancers had significantly lower vitamin C status than patients with lower stage disease . Ex vivo studies indicate that tumors from patients with colorectal cancer contained lower vitamin C concentrations than matched normal tissue , and higher grade colorectal and endometrial tumors had proportionately less vitamin C than lower grade tumors .
TABLE 1. Vitamin C levels in plasma or serum of oncology patients.
TABLE 2. Effects of chemotherapeutic agents on plasma vitamin C levels in oncology patients.
Read Also: How Much Vitamin C For A Dog With Cancer
There’s Something You Really Need To Know About Iv Vitamin ‘shots’
Want to boost your immune system, reduce your physical signs of ageing, or cleanse your blood to get rid of toxins? Intravenous vitamin therapy, or vitamin drips, promise to help.
Some claim they can even benefit serious conditions like cancer, Parkinson’s disease, the eye condition macular degeneration, the pain of fibromyalgia and depression.
Celebrities have promoted them on social media. The demand has led to alternative therapy lounges popping up around the world, including in Australia. Patients can kick back in comfy leather chairs while they’re hooked up to IVs in the infusion lounge, watch Netflix and have some tea.
But do they work? Or are you just paying for really expensive urine? Let’s look at what the science says.
Iv Vitamin Therapy Research
Of course, benefits can go beyond a placebo effect and anecdotal reports of health benefits. In some situations IV vitamins can be the right choice, but this does tend to be for very specific medical reasons.
The tables below summarize available scientific studies on IV vitamin therapy for health and wellness reasons .
Its also worth noting that most studies on IV vitamin therapy compare the treatment to a placebo. So, when patients do see a benefit, its hard to know how much of that benefit is coming from the treatment method and how much is simply a result of increasing nutrient intake .
Largely Positive Studies
| Good |
Recommended Reading: Is Vitamin C Good For Constipation
The Controversial History Of High
Utilizing high doses of vitamin C as a cancer therapy is no exception to this controversy. Nearly 60 years ago Toronto physician William McCormick observed that cancer patients often presented with severely low levels of vitamin C in their blood and featured scurvy-like symptoms, leading him to postulate that vitamin C might protect against cancer by increasing collagen synthesis. In 1972, extending this theory, Ewan Cameron, a Scottish surgeon, hypothesized that ascorbate could suppress cancer development by inhibiting hyaluronidase, which otherwise weakens the extracellular matrix and enables cancer to metastasize. He began treating terminally ill cancer patients and published a case report of 50 patients in which some of the treated patients benefited from high dose vitamin C.
Getting High Dose Vitamin C
Getting a high dose of vitamin C can help you cover the diet deficiencies and enjoy the full benefits of the vitamin. Doses of vitamin C are becoming popular, and you too could get one to enjoy the benefits.
The vitamin C doses therapy are administered through:
- Oral tablets
- Extended-release tablets & capsuls
- Injected intravenously
The intravenous role is quickly taking its role in vitamin C treatment because it goes directly to the blood stream, and hence its benefits are almost immediate. If you are considering the Vitamin C IV drip Los Angeles, read its benefits below.
Don’t Miss: What Vitamins Are Good For Acne
Acute Vitamin C Depletion
The overpowering oxidative stress during the post-cardiac arrest syndrome can quickly exhaust body stores of vitamin C due to massive cellular consumption. Already on the first day after cardiac arrest, vitamin C plasma concentrations are reduced by more than 50% compared to healthy volunteers and after 3 days more than half the patients are deficient . Plasma vitamin C levels are decreased not only after cardiac arrest, but also in many other critically ill patients . That low plasma levels reflect real deficiency is supported by the finding that they are accompanied by a significant decrease in intracellular leukocyte ascorbic acid concentrations to scorbutic levels, and that muscle vitamin C content follows plasma concentrations. Vitamin C is the primary circulatory antioxidant used and depleted during oxidative stress, thereby sparing other endogenous antioxidants. This unique function of vitamin C as a first-line ROS sink is supported by in vitro studies on plasma vitamin C, in which various kinds of ROS primarily cause a fast depletion of vitamin C. Vitamin E and glutathione are oxidized only after exhaustion of vitamin C. Decreased recycling of dehydroascorbate to vitamin C may further contribute to low plasma vitamin C levels post-cardiac arrest due to the altered redox state.
Fig. 1
Global Molecular Profiling Studies On High
To gain further insights in VitCâs anti-cancer properties on the molecular level, system-wide approaches that capture the complex interplay of various cellular signalling pathways are warranted. Specifically, transcriptomic and especially proteomic studies have the power to capture phenotypic manifestations of genetic alterations. To date, global RNA and protein expression studies on high-dose VitC action are confined to a few cell line studies in specific cancer types. Here, we summarize these studies and their most important findings, considering both studies specifically looking at the global effects of VitC treatment on its own , as well as the effects of combining VitC with other therapies .
Fig. 5
Cancer types studied using global molecular profiling techniques. Annotated are VitC dose group , type of profiling method used and treatment type
Also Check: Does Vitamin C Help Immune System
Questions And Answers About High
Vitamin C is a nutrient that is found in food, such as oranges, grapefruit, papaya, peppers, and kale, or in dietary supplements. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and helps prevent damage to cells caused by free radicals. It also works with enzymes to play a key role in making collagen. Vitamin C is also called L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate.
Vitamin C may be given by IV infusion or taken by mouth. Much higher blood levels are reached when vitamin C is given intravenously. When given by intravenous infusion, vitamin C can reach higher levels in the blood than when it is taken by mouth.
In laboratory studies, tumor cells are used to test a substance to find out if it is likely to have any anticancer effects. In animal studies, tests are done to see if a drug, procedure, or treatment is safe and effective. Laboratory and animal studies are done in animals before a substance is tested in people.
Laboratory and animal studies have tested the effects of high-dose vitamin C. Laboratory studies suggest that high levels of vitamin C may kill cancer cells. See the Laboratory/Animal/Preclinical Studies section of the health professional version of High-Dose Vitamin C for information on laboratory and animal studies done using high-dose vitamin C.
Studies of IV vitamin C combined with other drugs
Cardiac Surgery With Cardiopulmonary Bypass
During cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass , myocardial ischemia is induced during cross-clamping of the aorta. Re-exposure to oxygen produces ischemia/reperfusion injury in the myocardium, but also a whole-body inflammatory reaction to the CPB itself. The generation of ROS was associated with decreased vitamin C levels after cardiac surgery , which had not returned to preoperative concentrations in most patients at hospital discharge. This suggests massive vitamin C consumption and depletion of body stores likely including the myocardium. Vitamin C may be consumed by direct reaction with ROS, by regeneration of other antioxidants or by massive synthesis of catecholamines during CPB.
Oxidative stress after cardiac surgery contributes to myocardial stunning and arrhythmias. High-dose i. v. vitamin C administered before CPB and after aortic declamping decreased oxidative stress and myocardial injury . Preoperative ingestion of vitamin E and C supplements attenuated markers of oxidative stress and inhibited ischemic electrocardiographic alterations . The most frequent type of heart rhythm disturbance after cardiac surgery is atrial fibrillation with an incidence of 10% to 65% and an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. In a recent meta-analysis, vitamin C therapy significantly decreased the incidence of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with an OR of 0.47 .
You May Like: What Is Vitamin C Serum Good For Skin
Risks Of Vitamin C Injections
If youre thinking about getting high doses of vitamin C through injection, talk with your doctor about the potential risks.
Vitamin C increases iron absorption from the food you eat. If you take very high doses of vitamin C, your body might absorb too much iron. This could be a potential problem if you already have high levels of iron in your body.
If you have kidney disease, very high doses of vitamin C might result in kidney damage.
High-dose vitamin C injections might increase your chance of developing a kidney stone. People whove had kidney stones in the past may have a greater risk.
When any injection is given, there is also risk for infection.
Considerations For Future Studies
A number of important issues need to be taken into consideration with respect to design of future studies assessing the efficacy of IV vitamin C on the QOL of cancer patients . A major drawback of the QOL studies carried out to date is that none have included a placebo control. Thus, it is not possible to rule out a placebo effect, particularly as this effect tends to be more prevalent with measures of subjective symptoms such as pain . Therefore, it is critical that future QOL studies comprise an IV placebo control, either as a parallel arm or as part of a cross-over study design. Although additional phase III trials are currently underway, which will assess level of fatigue, pain control, and QOL with IV vitamin C treatment , these do not appear to have placebo controls. It is noteworthy that some studies indicate that the dose of vitamin C required for QOL improvement may be lower than those typically administered by physicians as adjuvant treatment . The optimum vitamin C dose for QOL improvement has not been determined.
Table 2. Considerations for future quality of life studies.
Read Also: What Should A Prenatal Vitamin Contain
Is Vitamin C Right For Me
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient required for production of collagen, neurotransmitters, and key enzymes in the immune system. Inadequate Vitamin C leads to scurvy, whose effects include weakness, fatigue, rash, bruising, bleeding gums, dental and hair loss.Vitamin C is also essential for Iron absorption from non-animal sources and will benefit those with iron deficiencies to replenish iron stores.To find out if you qualify for Vitamin C treatment is to have a chat with one of our specialist consultants.
Purpose Of Vitamin C Iv Drip
Many people seek vitamin C doses intravenously to boost their immune system and just for their general health. Also, it is vital for treating vitamin C deficiencies and scurvy, whose symptoms may include:
- Fatigue
- Loose teeth
- Colored spots on the skin
If you consume less than 10 milligrams of vitamin C per day for a month, you put yourself at risk of the disease.
Getting a vitamin C IV drip dose is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to help treat this deficiency.
Generally, vitamin C IV drip is used when the benefits are needed real quick or when the body has issues with absorption of the vitamin.
Don’t Miss: How Many Vitamin C Can I Take A Day
What Studies Have Been Done Using High
Laboratory studies and animal studies have been done to find out if high-dose vitamin C may be useful in preventing or treating cancer.
Laboratory studies
Many laboratory studies have been done to find out how high-dose vitamin C may cause the death of cancer cells. The anticancer effect of vitamin C in different types of cancer cells involves a chemical reaction that makes hydrogen peroxide, which may kill cancer cells.
Laboratory studies have shown the following:
- Treatment with high-dose vitamin C slowed the growth and spread of prostate, pancreatic, liver, colon, malignant mesothelioma, neuroblastoma, and other types of cancer cells.
- Combining high-dose vitamin C with certain types of chemotherapy may be more effective than chemotherapy alone:
- Ascorbic acid with arsenic trioxide may be more effective in ovarian cancer cells.
- Ascorbic acid with gemcitabine may be more effective in pancreatic cancer cells.
- Ascorbic acid with gemcitabine and epigallocatechin-3-gallate may be more effective in malignant mesothelioma cells.
However, not all laboratory studies combining vitamin C with anticancer therapies have shown benefit. Combining dehydroascorbic acid, a particular form of vitamin C, with chemotherapy made it less effective in killing some kinds of cancer cells.
Animal studies
Intravenous Vitamin C Therapy
Intravenous Vitamin C is used in a wide number of conditions, especially cancer and viral infections like mononucleosis and hepatitis C. Typically 10-50 grams of vitamin C is given over a 30 to 60 minute period. There are almost no side effects of this safe and effective therapy.
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for the functioning of many systems in the body. When given as intravenous therapy, it is critical for healing certain diseases in the immune system, endocrine system and detoxification system. As an antioxidant, vitamin C helps protect cells from damage caused by free radicals, it can remove toxic metals from the body including lead, mercury and aluminum.
Vitamin C by intravenous therapy was originally pioneered by Dr. Fredrick Klenner in the 1950s. He showed that vitamin C in intravenous doses could prevent the fatal effects of many serious diseases such as viral meningitis, insect stings and polio. Since the work of Dr. Klenner, many other physicians have reproduced this work with similar findings. The doctors at Meditrine Clinic generally use 25 gms of vitamin C in 500 ml of sterile water. Higher doses are given, but careful examination of the patient precedes the higher dose therapy.
Recommended Reading: What Are All The Vitamins You Need In A Day
