Here's the article I was talking about: http://www.personalmd.com/news/n0329052854.shtml
Doctors advise against vitamin C with cancer therapy Taking high doses of vitamin C while undergoing traditional cancer therapy may interfere with radiation or chemotherapy treatments and possibly protect the very cancer cells the treatments are designed to destroy, doctors said on Monday. Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, has long been taken by healthy people as well as those who are ill in hopes that its antioxidant properties will halt harmful substances in the body known as free radicals. Taking supplemental tablets of vitamin C is just one of many alternative and complementary therapies that cancer patients turn to, either out of desperation or simply in a desire to feel better. A high dosage of vitamin C would be roughly 1,000 milligrams a day, researchers note. Dr. David Golde, physician-in-chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said that while it is not unreasonable for healthy people to supplement their diets with vitamin C, they should be aware that most tumors are known to possess a high concentration of the chemical already. "We don't know what the cancer cell is doing with the vitamin C," Golde said. "My experience as a biologist would suggest that it's no accident." The use of vitamin C as an alternative therapy has been coming back into vogue after a hiatus following a study by Mayo Clinic researchers that showed it had no benefit, said Barrie Cassileth, head of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering. Cassileth and Golde were speaking at an annual seminar here sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Golde and colleagues originally published data on how cells amass high concentrations of vitamin C in 1993 and again late last year. Their latest research showed cancer cells transport a version of vitamin C called dehydroascorbic acid through cellular channels normally used to admit the energy source glucose. Cancer cells are also known to have many more glucose transport channels than normal cells, which may help provide them with the energy the need to thrive. "Overall, we need to think about the nutritional needs of tumor cells, as well as those of normal cells, in formulating answers to patient questions regarding taking supplemental vitamin C," he said. Also, because radiation and chemotherapy rely on oxidation to kill cancer cells, taking an antioxidant -- such as vitamin C -- may interfere with that process. While prudent advice for cancer patients is to have very good eating habits, Cassileth said alternative therapies that have not been adequately studied may in fact be harmful. She said patients may inadvertently interfere with their treatment, with anaesthetic agents and even trigger cardiac arrest. "That's the last thing we want to happen in oncology," she said To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
