Archive for the ‘Anti-Cancer Vitamins’ Category
Anti-Cancer Vitamins You Should Know About
Vitamins are highly essential in the maintenance of the body’s health and their uses can’t be discounted. They prevent many diseases and can actually improve your health, affecting not only your body but also your mind. More importantly, they also help prevent one of the most feared diseases in the world, cancer. Here are some of the vitamins that are known for their cancer fighting properties:
Vitamin C:
Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid and was first discovered to help fight scurvy. Recently, it has been thrust into the limelight once again because of its purported anti-cancer properties.
In a study by Dr. Mark Levine of the National Academy of Sciences, Vitamin C showed some promise in fighting cancer. In the study, the team used the vitamin to see how it would affect cancer cells. The lab tests showed that Vitamin C seemed to increase the production of hydrogen peroxide. This destroyed the cancer cells but didn’t affect the healthy cells.
In order to achieve this effect, the vitamin had to be administered in very high doses, which meant it had to be injected through an IV. If that sounds like good news, don’t celebrate yet.
According to Levine and his team, this doesn’t show the direct link between Vitamin C and cancer. It only shows that Vitamin C is essential in increasing the production of hydrogen peroxide, a substance that can’t be injected directly into the body. Furthermore, the test was conducted on human cancer cells and not actual patients.
It is still too early to make any conclusions about Vitamin C as an anti-cancer vitamin and it still can’t be used on patients. However, it’s good to note that the vitamin is currently being used in tests on people for a new project. For this, we will just have to wait and see.
Vitamin D:
Vitamin D is an antioxidant and if new studies are confirmed, an anti-cancer vitamin as well. Vitamin D seems to help reduce the risk of breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer. In high doses, it could be instrumental in reducing risks of colon cancer as well.
In a study presented to the American association for Cancer Research, Vitamin D seems capable of lowering a woman’s chances of developing the abovementioned cancers. They believe this is due to the flavonoids contained in foods rich in Vitamin D.
It still isn’t known how flavonoids (and the fact that the vitamin is an antioxidant) work, but researchers say it must be because these chemicals are anti-estrogenic. Estrogen has been linked to breast cancer in the past.
