Cancer Medicine, the Series Part 4: Vitamin C

Throughout my life I have taken massive doses of vitamin C when I got sick. When I was diagnosed with cancer and my mother was caring for me, she offered the same - massive doses of vitamin C. What did I know? I took them. Now it seems that vitamin C in massive doses is bad for cancer. Actually its good for cancer - it repairs the cells damaged by chemo.

On the other hand, vitamin C in smaller doses is good for things like vitamin D and calcium absorption. Sigh. What’s a dying boy to do? I imagine that within the next few years I will learn that previous studies have been refuted. That is the nature of drug company research. Meanwhile I have vitamin C piling up courtesy of my mom whose thinking about it matches my own former attitude. I’m going to tell her to get me some vitamin D instead.

The jury is still out on vitamin C. In small doses I think it will not harm me. But for now i am going to stay away from the massive doses I used to take - up to 20 grams a day. the interesting thing is that what you don’t use of vitamin C is excreted in urine - turning it a lovely shade of yellow. If that is the case, then there were times I was using everything I was taking. So what was it doing? Making me better or the cancer worse? Suppose the cancer was inactive - there’d be nothing to repair, so wouldn’t it be OK to take it?

We’ll wait to rave about vitamin C on the supplement page. Hm, and now that I think about it, I’d better go add a disclaimer.