Posted on 09/10/2007 6:26:45 PM PDT by Pharmboy
Vitamin C can impede the growth of some types of tumors although not in the way some scientists had suspected, researchers reported on Monday.
The new research, published in the journal Cancer Cell, supported the general notion that vitamin C and other so-called antioxidants can slow tumor growth, but pointed to a mechanism different from the one many experts had suspected.
The researchers generated encouraging results when giving vitamin C to mice that had been implanted with human cancer cells -- either the blood cancer lymphoma or prostate cancer. Another antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine, also limited tumor growth in the mice, the researchers said.
Antioxidants are nutrients that prevent some of the damage from unstable molecules known as free radicals, created when the body turns food into energy. Vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene are among well-known antioxidants.
Previous research had suggested that vitamin C may stifle tumor growth by preventing DNA damage from free radicals.
But researchers led by Dr. Chi Dang, a professor of medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, found that antioxidants appear to be working in a different way -- undermining a tumor's ability to grow under certain conditions.
Figuring out how antioxidants impede tumors should help scientists figure out how they might be harnessed to fight cancer, Dang said. In addition to the cancer types involved in this study, others that might be vulnerable to vitamin C include colon cancer and cervical cancer, he said.
Dang said more research is needed and cautioned against taking high doses of vitamin C based on these findings.
"Certainly we would very much discourage people with untreated cancer to go out and take buckets full of vitamin C," Dang said in a telephone interview.
Linus Pauling argued in the 1970s that vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, could ward off cancer, but the notion has proved contentious.
Pauling, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry as well as the Nobel Peace Prize, died in 1994.
"Pauling actually had some good evidence that under certain situations vitamin C can prevent tumor formation. It's just the mechanism was really not that clear then," Dang said.
"Now that, I think, we provide relatively compelling evidence of how this works, maybe Pauling is partly right. We shouldn't dismiss him so quickly." Dang added.
Thanks. I’ll retrieve my C jar from the back of the closet ... where I placed it a few years ago because of a report that it caused ... (Something not good. No longer remembering.)
N-acetylcysteine?
It’s readily available from many vendors. Just do a web search for: N-Acetyl-Cysteine or N-acetylcysteine.
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Which foods have it?
They include Vitamin Pb for no extra charge.
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LOL!
It caused memory loss. Just kidding...LOL!
I want to go on your regimen!
no foie gras for you then!
no foie gras for you then!
no foie gras for you then!
the claim by everyone is that exercising and losing weight works to cure diseases brought on by obesity and yet very few actually do this.
Most people would rather buy into a claim that you can just take a pill and not even have to eat an orange for vitamin C.
Henry Scowcroft, senior information officer at Cancer Research UK, said despite the findings, the “overwhelming” evidence still pointed to vitamin C not being an effective treatment.
“This work is at a very early stage. There are many substances that have been shown to kill cancer cells in the lab, but failed to fulfill that promise when tested in people.
“But we do know that eating a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, is an effective way to reduce the risk of getting cancer in the first place.”
The Orange tree in my backyard is from Florida.
:-) You’re right... I’ll pass.
It’s readily available from many vendors. Just do a web search for: N-Acetyl-Cysteine or N-acetylcysteine.
&&& Which foods have it?
That's a good question and I don't know the answer. L-Cysteine is a nonessential amino acid and so should be present in some protein sources, but that's not, strictly speaking, NAC. I do know that NAC is an antioxidant and a precursor to glutathione. If you learn about some nutritional sources, please let me know.
If you learn about some nutritional sources, please let me know.
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Will do. Thanks.
Thank you for the link. The inforamtion appears to be interesting.
You’re welcome. Looks like eating eggs and meat is a good thing. I’ve just got to scale back my portions, as I am a woman whose portions are sometimes man-sized.) I am trying to get away from taking supplements and instead finding the foods that contain the healthful nutrients.
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