Vitamin C helps prevent and treat leukemia 维生素C有助于预防和治疗白血病

Leukemia seems to be harder to treat than solid cancer.  And more and more people are getting the disease in China these years. So it is important to learn to prevent the disease from developing.

One risk for leukemia is vitamin C deficient.  Studies showed low levels of serum vitamin C makes people more susceptible to leukemia.   And this deficiency is easy to overcome.

Scientists at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center reported the journal Nature that vitamin C helps to slow the development of leukemia.  This is done by re-activating an enzyme that stops leukemia cell from growing and spreading.

Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid at high levels helps stem cells to function properly.  When stem cells are depleted of vitamin C, the epigenome of stem cells is impaired and could not control genes properly.  This impairs stem cell function and raises the risk of leukemia.

Vitamin D deficiency also limits levels of TET2, an enzyme that help stem cells generate mature white blood cells.  Mutations in genes responsible for the enzyme can lead to deactivation of the enzyme. This will cause uncontrollable cell division, that is, cells never mature and do not die at the proper time.

The inactivation of this enzyme can eventually lead to the development of leukemia.

Good news is, when an optimal level of vitamin C is used, the gene is re-activated and the enzyme is produced at a maximal rate.  At the optimal rate, the TET1 tumor suppressor activity is maximized.  That slows the growth of leukemia.

High levels of vitamin C are particularly important for older individuals with clonal hematoiesis or a form of -pre-leukemia.  Patients with this condition are often found to carry a mutation in the TET gene.

TET2 mutations are responsible for 42,500 cancers in the U.S. each year.  Half of the patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, 30% pre-leukemia and 10% acute myeloid leukemia patients have TET2 mutations.

A mouse study published in Cell found reducing TET2 activity by 50% could induce malignancy or cancer.  Good news is, six months of daily high dose vitamin C supplementation can genetically restore TET2 to full capacity. This full TET2 activity stops leukemia cells from reproducing and kills them completely.

When used along with PARP inhibitors, vitamin C substantially improved the efficacy of the pharmaceutical drugs against the cancer.

The effective dose is 300,000 milligrams for humans.  This dose can only be delivered through IV injection.

Vitamin C works as a pro-oxidant in cancer cells to deplete stores of the antioxidant glutathione and cause oxidative stress and kill cancer cells.  Vitamin C also disrupts glycolysis, the biochemical process that produces energy in cancer cell mitochondria.

High levels of vitamin C also decrease inflammation in cancer patients.  When used in patients who are receiving conventional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy etc, vitamin C can improve the quality of life.  It relieves fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and pain and appetite loss which are associated with cancer treatment.

Animal studies also indicate high dose of vitamin C treatment　suppresses the growth of patients with pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer and ovarian cancers.

Good thing with vitamin C is, is does not affect healthy cells.   High doses of vitamin C lead to few side effects.

Vitamin C improves many other conditions including high blood pressure, gallbladder, disease, stroke, and atherosclerosis.  Holistic practitioners recommend supplementation with 10 to 12 grams of vitamin C a day.

Eating raw vegetables like bell peppers, kiwi, grapefruit, and strawberries can boost the dietary vitamin C intake.  But diet cannot provide too much of vitamin C.  So vitamin C supplements are needed.　（Ｄａｖｉｄ　Ｌｉｕ）