Vitamin C infusion: Hello there, My... - Advanced Prostate...

Advanced Prostate Cancer

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Vitamin C infusion

JS12 profile image
JS12
13 Replies

Hello there,

My husband recently had a consult with a naturopathic physician. He still sees all of his allopathic physicians and we are following an allopathic route for cancer treatment. We just felt like maybe the naturopathic medicine would be adjunctive. This physician prescribed 3 supplements and also recommended a Vitamin C infusion. Looking for feedback about naturopathic experience in general and also about effectiveness of the supplements. (I realize the feedback will be anecdotal)

My husband has 9/11 exposure related metastatic prostate cancer, a newly diagnosed renal mass (unable to remove d/t anticoagulant therapy for pulmonary embolism) and also thyroid carcinoma since 2014

Thanks,

Julia S

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JS12
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jdm3 profile image
jdm3

Interested in this too. My understanding is that it is not a one-time thing, but they work up to a high maintenance dose over several infusions and the expectation is an in infusion a week for a while. How long I don't know.

There is some anecdotal evidence that it may lower PSA and increase immune function and energy, but there is always somebody who tried it and it made no difference of was detrimental.

JS12 profile image
JS12 in reply tojdm3

The regimen we were given is 2 infusions per week for at least 3 months. The major hindering factor is financial. The infusions are roughly $200 each. Comparatively speaking that’s nothing as opposed to the cost of conventional cancer treatment meds.

FCoffey profile image
FCoffey

Sorry to hear about your husband's condition. Good for you both for looking into both allopathic and alternative (I call them competitive) medical approaches. They are not mutually exclusive, although many allopathic doctors hate the competition.

Your husband will need to get a G6PD test before beginning vitamin C infusions. It's a one time, inexpensive test. There are a few people who can't process the high dose, and the G6PD test identifies them.

Once that hurdle is past, typically one starts at a low dose, 10-25 grams, and works up to higher doses. The goal is to achieve vitamin C levels in the blood of 350-400 mg/dL (20~23 mM). Most people will do that with about 75 grams, but some get there with 50 grams. Others need 100 or even 125. No smoking! It is antagonistic to vitamin C.

The paper describing the way to measure blood levels of Vitamin C during the infusion is here:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

I'd be happy to translate or offer some tips based on my experience; PM me if interested.

High dose vitamin C most certainly kills cancer cells - in the laboratory. If it cured cancer I wouldn't be posting here; I've been taking IV infusions for nearly 7 years now. Has it helped me? I can't prove that it has, the N=1 problem. But I'm still here, the cancer hasn't yet spread to distant sites.

I'm quite certain it hasn't hurt me. It costs time (about 3 hours for a 100-gram infusion) and money. The last time I checked there were well over 1 million documented cases of high dose vitamin C infusions with zero reports of serious problems or injuries. That's about as safe as it gets in medicine.

Good luck, I hope the infusions are helpful.

JS12 profile image
JS12 in reply toFCoffey

Thank you so much for the info. My husband doesn’t smoke and yes the only hinderance is the money. However we are able to make it work. I will also pm you for more info.

Ty,

Julia S

ITCandy profile image
ITCandy

prnewswire.com/news-release...

I think it could have value as a complementary treatment.

Stelle profile image
Stelle

I don't know of any research advocating treatment with supplements. If it were me I would go to a medical oncologist ASAP. Stelle

FCoffey profile image
FCoffey in reply toStelle

There's a lot you don't know.

adlerman profile image
adlerman

DMSO has had a rough time being accepted. I know it was recommended for pain relief at one time but at least one store I went to looking for it had it in the garden supplies. I'm talking about the mid to late 60's. Same time there was a Navy Exchange in Barber's Point, Hawaii that kept condums in with Sporting goods.

Did you have a brother or other relative who was a lawyer in Miami, Fl.?

PhilipSZacarias profile image
PhilipSZacarias

Hello Julia, there are several good papers in PubMed which discuss intravenous vitamin C (look also under intravenous ascorbate). The vitamin C generates high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which kills cancer cells. There is a fair amount of work supporting this type of therapy (it should be noted that I am not a believer in naturopathic medicine). I would use it only if the PSA is consistently increasing (i.e., your husband has become castration resistant) and there are no other options. I will use this therapy when my PSA starts to rise again.

jdm3 profile image
jdm3 in reply toPhilipSZacarias

Why not use it even if PSA is not increasing if hormone sensitive and on ADT, but you know you have mets? Wouldn't it be beneficial in the battle? Another weapon?

PhilipSZacarias profile image
PhilipSZacarias

Julia, in my opinion all options based on clinically proven regimens should be exhausted before pursuing unconventional or non-standard treatments. Sometimes people shun chemotherapy or radiation, for example, for therapies based on anecdotal or limited clinical and non-clinical derived information to their detriment (a good example is Steve Jobs).

In order to know whether intravenous vitamin C has a therapeutic effect (not everyone will respond equally because prostate cancer cells can be quite heterogenous), then the PSA should be in the range of 0.5 to 4 ng/ml (in my opinion). If the PSA drops after several rounds of injections then you can use this information to decide whether to continue and how often to have the injections. If the PSA is too low (e.g. ~0.15-0.2 ng/ml) then it may be difficult to determine whether the intravenous ascorbate was efficacious due to the inherent variability of the test method and other possible variables). I hope this helps.

j-o-h-n profile image
j-o-h-n in reply toPhilipSZacarias

Zacarias = sugar

Good Luck and Good Health.

j-o-h-n Wednesday 04/04/2018 6:40 PM EDT

Kat95 profile image
Kat95

This is an old post I know what what are EDTA infusions to clean out the arteries? Did that work for you?

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