DoctorYourself.com

Cancer

Cancer
Home

CANCER: Why Nutrition Can Help

It is common sense to take a method and try it.
If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
But above all, try something.

(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

When Anthony J. Sattilaro, MD, picked up two hippie hitchhikers one day, they told him that "Cancer isn't all that hard to cure." Ridiculous though the statement would seem to a hospital president such as Dr. Sattilaro, the issue was awfully close to home. Dr. Sattilaro, still in his forties, had terminal cancer. The doctor had already received the worst possible news: cancer had spread throughout his body. It was inoperable and untreatable. He was going to die.

If hunger is the best condiment, then desperation must surely be the most teachable moment. The seemingly inane remarks by his counterculture passengers prompted Sattilaro to try a rigid meatless macrobiotic diet, high in whole grains, beans and vegetables. Astonishingly, it worked. In a matter of months, his physicians could not find any trace of cancer in his body.

You don't believe this. I didn't believe it either. I am as skeptical as the day is long. In any business telephone call, I document the date, time and name of the person I speak with. Always. Lots of people do that, yes? OK, try this one: every time I take my car into the service garage to get the oil changed, I check the oil before I leave. I am far, far more careful about what I accept as medical fact.

Throughout this book I've been asking the rhetorical question, "Who are the quacks?" I've strongly implied, to say the least, that they are the conventional, tunnel-visioned, sycophantic yes-persons of the medical, dietetic and pharmaceutical professions. Not alone in this criticism, I quote endocrinologist Deepak Chopra, MD, author of many best-selling books: "More people live off cancer than die from it." There is no profit in prevention, but plenty of money in disease. Like the "firemen" in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, medical science encourages fires and then glamorizes their bungled attempts to put them out. By ignoring the evidence (and saying it is anecdotal or non-scientific), doctors and dietitians have closed the mausoleum door on millions.

A bizarre scenario indeed is our "war on cancer."

Laetrile is a good case in point. Laetrile is a very controversial anti-cancer agent, from almonds and apricot pits. It has erroneously been called "Vitamin B-17" but it is not a vitamin. Rather, laetrile is amygdalin, a cyanide-containing substance. The cyanide is the active ingredient, so to speak, that somewhat selectively kills the cancer cells. It is much like cytotoxic pharmaceutical chemotherapy (which explains both the need for caution and also the stringent rejection it has received from the medical powers that be.) The imperious medical monarchy, which includes the AMA, FDA, and their ensuing laws, make laetrile therapy strikingly difficult to obtain legally inside United States borders.

Chapters 8 and 9 of Ralph Moss' The Cancer Syndrome (1980) disclose nitty-gritty details of some tantalizingly successful laetrile research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. It seems that experienced cancer researcher Dr. Kanematsu Sugiura repeatedly obtained lengthened survival time in mice with spontaneous mammary tumors. He also prevented tumors spreading to the lungs, and obtained temporary stoppage of small tumor growth. Problem is, he did all of this using laetrile.

Dr. Sugiura's work constitutes limited, but nonetheless significant, findings. Sloan-Kettering’s brass wanted him to shut up about the whole thing, and declared in press conferences that laetrile had no value in cancer treatment. Once, Dr. Sugiura was personally addressed by a reporter, and he most expressly contradicted his bosses. How did author Ralph Moss know about all this? He was the number-two Sloan-Kettering PR man, that's how.

My personal view is that laetrile is probably a palliative treatment. Still, the fact that so many orthodox cancer foundations want it kept quiet is in itself sufficient reason to look into it more. Harold Manner, PhD's article in The Mother Earth News (November/December 1978, pages 17-24) is an excellent resource for more information.

So there most certainly is a wider range of cancer treatment alternatives than conventional medical sources will allow. Worthy adjuncts and alternatives to chemotherapy, radiation, and surgical treatments are unpopular with organized medicine, yet are employed by far-thinking physicians and self-reliant persons around the world. Why is this? Because all possibilities need to be considered in undertaking the treatment of such a serious disease for which there are far too few survivors.

Vitamin C

It is once again Nobel-prize winning Linus Pauling, PhD with Ewan Cameron, MD, a Scottish cancer surgeon, who have demonstrated the effectiveness of ten grams (10,000 mg) of vitamin C a day in reversing terminal cancer in thirteen out of 100 patients. These patients were given up as lost by medical authorities. Thirteen out of 100 may not seem like a high percentage of success, but keep in mind that those thirteen are free of the disease as far as can be determined. None were expected to live. Thirteen is infinitely greater than zero. All the vitamin C treated patients have lived, on average, five times as long as controls who did not receive the 10 grams of C. Do not be misled by false media hype against Vitamin C. A pair of politically-motivated Mayo Clinic studies condemning the vitamin are seriously faulted. You will want to refer to Drs. Cameron and Pauling's book, Cancer and Vitamin C, revised edition (1993) for the full story. There is no substitute for the truth.

Of course 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day is greatly more than what the federal government maintains that an average person needs. A reading of The Healing Factor by biochemist Irwin Stone (1979) will explain to you why we need so very much vitamin C, why it should indeed be normal to consume many grams of the vitamin a day, and why the lack of C is responsible for our human race's present state of illness. Irwin Stone, by the way, is the person who first got Dr. Pauling interested in vitamin C in the first place. For improved quality and length of life, the key is sufficient quantity of C. More orange juice just won't do it.

Opponents of vitamin C therapy would do well to acknowledge that Pauling and Cameron's work has been confirmed, first at Japan's Saga University by Murata and others (Murata, A., Morishige, F. and Yamaguchi, H. (1982) Prolongation of survival times of terminal cancer patients by administration of large doses of ascorbate. International Journal of Vitamin and Nutrition Research Suppl., 23, 1982, p. 103-113. Also in Hanck, A., ed. (1982) Vitamin C: New Clinical Applications. Bern: Huber, 103-113). Dr. Murata employed over 30,000 mg per day and had even better results with terminally ill cancer patients. In the words of Dr. Louis Lasagna (1981) of the University of Rochester Medical School, "It seems indefensible not to at least try substantial doses of vitamin C in these patients."

Intravenous vitamin C works better still: Padayatty et al. Intravenously administered vitamin C as cancer therapy: three cases. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2006. 174(7), March 28, p 937-942. http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/174/7/937

Additional vitamin C vs. cancer references are available through your local library. Request assistance in locating William McCormick's papers, especially the blandly-titled but excellent "Have We Forgotten the Lesson of Scurvy" and "Ascorbic Acid as a Chemotherapeutic Agent." Dr. McCormick shows that cancer symptoms and vitamin C deficiency symptoms overlap. Scurvy, which is obvious vitamin C deficiency, is traced to medical writings as far back as1609. The similarity between scurvy and cancer is so great that it is incredible that billions of dollars of cancer research in the United States has consistently missed it.

Residential treatment for cancer by nutritional means is readily available in Mexico, just south of the US border in Tijuana. Odd, isn't it, that Americans have to flee the land of the free and home of the brave to get freedom of choice in cancer therapy? That's free trade for you. American medical doctor and nutrition PhD, Frank Watts, MD, is one of a number of nonconformist physicians who have employed a therapeutic program which includes 20,000 mg of vitamin C daily plus laetrile, vitamin A, vitamin B-complex, and strict vegetarian diet, among other things. His experience has revealed that about 70% of 600 terminal cancer patients have responded in some definite way to the treatment.

There are precious few hospital based megavitamin programs available anywhere in the United States. Government and AMA pressure on doctors who advocate Laetrile and vitamin therapy is high, research evidence notwithstanding. This will change, however, if citizens voice their views to the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, their lawmakers in Congress and State capitols, and their own family doctors, and insist on unrestricted freedom of access to all options, including the unorthodox therapies, for cancer patients in this country.

While I'm at it, a caution. Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing: hospitals and other providers that offer so-called "holistic," "nutrition-based," "integrated," or "comprehensive" therapeutic programs. The majority of them are only paying lip-service to consumers' requests for alternative cancer treatments, just to get them in the door. Their main approaches tend to be chemo, radiation and surgery. As a benchmark, first ask them if they give intravenous vitamin C, 30,000 to 60,000 mg daily. That'll settle out the mud in a hurry.

Other Vitamins Against Cancer

B-complex vitamins individually and collectively appear to be useful against cancer, in prevention as well as treatment. B-complex vitamins (and vitamin C) are water-soluble, easily-lost-under-stress vitamins. There is ever growing evidence that stress itself is a major factor in cancer, and it makes sense, as stress depletes the body of B-vitamins and C. Only in theory does the "balanced diet" that all of us are supposed to be getting every day supply "ample" quantities of these and all other vitamins. But no realistic allowance is made for the very real psychological and physiological demands that each person is daily subjected to. This is all the more true for a cancer patient.

In America, vitamin deficiency is the rule, not the exception. This has been the case throughout our youth, since our birth, and even during gestation. According to Nutrition Action Healthletter, November 1993, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that the mothers of children with cancer were less likely to have eaten fruits and vegetables, and were less likely to have taken multivitamins during the first six weeks of their pregnancy than mothers of healthy children. This resulting insufficient intake of folate, one of the B-vitamins, appears to be a major cause of what are called primitive neuroectodermal tumors.

Vitamin B6 has been found to be as effective, at least, as the drug usually used to treat recurrent bladder cancer, says American Family Physician (17:3, p. 293). It was found that many bladder patients were deficient in B6. No big surprise there, as the 1975 MRCA survey showed that, of adults 19 and over, 99% got less than the US RDA of B6.

William McCormick, mentioned earlier, cites researchers who found that all cancer patients they tested were deficient in vitamin C by approximately 4,500 mg. When the US Recommended Dietary Allowance for "C" is 60 mg, how can one miss the need for megavitamin dosages? The US Food and Nutrition Board manages to just fine. Item: they raised the vitamin C RDA for smokers to a whopping, astronomical, all-time soaring high... of 100 milligrams.

It would be a tragic mistake to center any discussion of cancer on a single vitamin. Research will continue to confirm that all nutrients, and most certainly all the vitamins are required to prevent and to stop cancer. After all, which wheel on your car can you afford to do without? Which wing on your airplane can we leave off next time you fly?

It is our population-wide but medically disavowed vitamin deficiency that is almost certainly the single most overlooked predisposing cause of cancer. We can either decrease stress or increase our vitamin supplementation, or preferably do both.

Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been demonstrated to be clinically effective in both stress reduction and disease prevention. Research by Dr. David Orme-Johnson has shown that hospital admissions for benign and malignant tumors are less than half as common for long-time meditators. (Psychosomatic Medicine, 49:5). If there were a drug that reduced tumors by 50%, you would have heard it proclaimed from the rooftops. Simple and natural tools are greatly underrated.

Non-Vitamin Factors against Cancer:

Chlorophyll, the substance in plants that makes them green, helps "inhibit cell mutations and therefore could help control cancer," said a Food Watch article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Sprouts and the live food factors within them such as enzymes (and chlorophyll) have been extensively used in nutritional programs to shrink or reduce tumors directed by Dr. Ann Wigmore. She was probably the world's most foremost authority on sprouts, wheat grass juice, fasting and raw foods against malignancy. Her lessons on the subject began with her Latvian grandmother, and culminated with Dr. Wigmore's self-cure of colon cancer using living foods. Her books include Why Suffer, Be Your Own Doctor, and Recipes for Longer Life, among others.

Certain minerals an showing up as essential in prevention and treatment of certain forms of cancer. Zinc is one of them. A study at the Massachusetts Institute of technology showed that animals fed a low zinc diet are more likely to get cancer than those with normal diets. Characteristically, the majority of Americans do not get adequate zinc in their diets, either.

Even Family Circle reported on research done by Dr. Raymond Shamberger of the Cleveland Clinic back in its August 5, 1980 issue. It indicated that there is a relation between selenium intake and cancer. Parts of the country with selenium-rich soils have less cancer than selenium-poor soil populations.

If it seems to you that we need change a national malnutrition to prevent and holistically treat cancer, you are right. It's the over-cooked, sugar-laden, meat-heavy diet we eat that got us into trouble in the first place. These "foods," and other processed, worthless stomach fillers are not good sources of what we need to live in health. Our national cancer epidemic is not an accident. It is not necessary for you to just wait in line for a terminal disease with your name on it. There is much more to cancer prevention and therapy than the "food groups" and chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. As much as these may help, there is at least as much good scientific evidence that nutritional alternative approaches to cancer work just as well or better. The essential cause of cancer most likely is many years of deficient diets lacking what is now suddenly appearing in the literature as "new factors against cancer." These factors are not new. They've been there, or in the case of most patients, not been there, all along.

The time to turn it all around is now, whether a person has cancer or not. There is no need to wait for AMA, FDA, New York Times, American Cancer Society or anyone else's approval. The safety margin with nutrients is enormous. It is deficiency that is dangerous. A determined patient, some good references and reading, an open-minded doctor and the megavitamin-nutritional facts can do wonders. You may experience some difficulty in coming up with the open-minded doctor, but the rest is completely within your power.

For more alternatives, spoken for by people who've had occasion to try them, it is well worth contacting The International Association of Cancer Victims and Friends (IACVF) through your nearest chapter, or the Cancer Control Society. Your library and an internet search will provide you with up-to-date addresses and phone numbers.

Nutritional Support for Cancer Patients: A Typical Alternative Protocol

(Again I state two things: 1. this is just anecdotal information and 2. if you take any of this seriously, consult your health care provider before proceeding with this or any program.)

A. Digestive enzyme tablets
Two or more multiple digestive enzyme tablets per meal. The theory is that in cancer patients, the liver produces insufficient enzymes. Cancer patients eat and eat and eat but don't get the good of their food. They are starving to death. Therefore, they need more nutrients than usual. Enzymes break down food so you can get the nourishment in the food. A "multiple digestive enzyme" preparation is most efficient.

B. Kelp
5-8 kelp tablets per day. Kelp tablets are an iodine supplement. They have been reported to help resist healthy cell damage from radiation treatments.

C. Carrot Juice
Drink at least one pint (two glasses) of carrot juice per day. Goal: up to two quarts (eight glasses). Drink lots of fresh, raw juices. Raw food has lots of enzymes, and carrots are loaded with anti-cancer alpha- and beta-carotenes. About two pounds of carrots makes one pint of juice. Buy 25 pound bags because they keep fairly well. By good tasting produce to get good tasting juice. Yellow sprouts on carrots means they are old. Brush or scrape the carrots to clean them; no need to peel.

D. Green Drink
Drink one glass (8 oz.) green drink per day. Green drink is any green vegetable, e.g., celery, cucumber (peel to remove wax), green peppers, lettuce (leaf, like Romaine). Green drink is raw liquid chlorophyll. Both chlorophyll and hemoglobin have remarkably similar structures. For green drink do not use limas, spinach, rhubarb or asparagus. The last three contain oxalic acid.

E.   B-12
     Take one of the following, in order of preference:
     1.   The ideal: intra-nasal B-12 gel or spray
     2.   Injections of 1000 mcg. per week. Ask for a prescription.
     3.   Sublingual B-12. 1,000 mcg per day.
     4.   B-12 supplement: 1,000 mcg or more per day.

F. Potassium
Potassium is in most fruits and vegetables. Read the potassium chart ("K" stands for potassium) in A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. Eat no salt and no canned foods; they contain lots of salt. Cancerous cells love sodium, says Max Gerson, M.D.

G. Protein
Meat: Avoid it. Try to become a vegetarian. Fish is an excellent complete protein. Broil, bake, or poach in half an inch of apple juice, simmering 6 minutes each side.

Tofu: Soy products in general contain anti-cancer substances. Cut up tofu into small pieces and throw it into whatever you are making. It will take on the flavor of the recipe.

Cheese: Natural, with no coloring added. Eat cheese if it will keep you off meat.

Yogurt: Low fat, plain. Sweeten it yourself with a little fruit or honey.

Nut butters: Delicious and easy to digest. Buy them fresh and keep in the fridge.
Almond butter - may inhibit the growth of tumors.
Cashew butter - high in the amino acid tryptophan which helps you sleep.
Peanut butter - select the fresh, natural variety without added fat or sugar.

Milk: There is nothing like high-quality raw milk. Speaking as a former dairyman, I raised a family on it from infancy. Certified raw milk is inspected daily. Try to find it in a health food store or from a farmer. If not available, sweet acidophilus milk or watered-down yogurt digests better than pasteurized milk.

Sprouts: Eat two jars full per day. Sprouts are a complete protein, a complete food. A person could survive on a variety of sprouts and nothing else. Buy untreated seed. Alfalfa is a good one to start with, but include wheat, lentil, mung bean, clover, cabbage and radish. Each day start two more jars. Harvest alfalfa at the end of 4-7 days; the others may be ready sooner. Eat them in a sandwich or as the base of a salad. Dressings and garnishes are okay. Collect 12-15 wide-mouth quart jars and start farming. Ann Wigmore’s books will tell you how to sprout, and why.

H. Fruits
Eat as many as you wish, any kind, any time.

I. Grains
Whole grain breads, namely100% whole wheat; brown rice; whole wheat pasta.

J. Special Vegetables:
Eat all the cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale and broccoli that you can. Research confirms that these "cruciform vegetables" are naturally rich in several phytochemicals that are like "plant chemotherapy." They fight tumors.

The other exceptionally fine food class is the legumes: peas, beans and lentils. They are loaded with fiber, protein, minerals, and complex carbohydrates. And, they are really cheap. Eat lots.

K. Good Snacks
Popcorn, fresh, unsalted popcorn. On it put 2 tsp. nutritional yeast flakes which give the popcorn a cheesy taste and additional B-vitamins, chromium and selenium.

Raw Veggies. Keep a tray of all your favorites in the center of your fridge, where you can reach it 24 hours per day. Celery, carrots, peppers, broccoli, black olives, tomatoes, snap peas, etc.

L. Beverages
Vegetable juices, fresh and raw. (Whenever you cook, or bottle, or can anything, you destroy its natural food enzymes.)
Fruit juices, fresh
Spring water or mineral water
Herbal teas
Green tea or decaf black tea

M. Vitamins
Vitamins are food supplements or food concentrates. They are not drugs, so the margin for safety is excellent.

Vitamin E
Begin with 200 IU of natural mixed tocopherols and gradually work up to about 1,000 IU daily. If you are on an anticoagulant drug (such as Coumadin), or if you are on medication for high blood pressure, it is likely that your vitamin and drug doses will need to be tailored over a period of weeks. You can quite easily monitor your blood pressure at home, and your doctor can and should check your prothrombin time for you. Occasionally blood pressure goes up slightly in folks not used to vitamin E. Know that it is usually temporary. Reduce the vitamin E for a while, then resume a leisurely increase. If your protime gets too long, have your doctor reduce the drug dose, not the vitamin. Vitamin E greatly reduces the side effects of radiation therapy. Vitamin E is the body's number one antioxidant, very valuable in slowing tumor growth and slowing the spread of malignancies. You will very much want to read Vitamin E for Ailing and Healthy Hearts, by Wilfrid Shute, M.D., or any other book by him or his physician brother, Evan. They will walk you through the whole process.

Iron
If your physician says you need iron, take ferrous gluconate or ferrous fumarate iron tablets, which would replace your current prescription of harder-to-handle ferrous sulfate. Chelated iron tablets are better absorbed, therefore, better utilized by the body. Iron is best absorbed if taken with vitamin C but not at the same time as Vitamin E.

Vitamin C
Begin with 1,000 mg a meal for a total of 3,000 mg per day. Your goal is bowel tolerance, which may be anywhere between 20,000 to 100,000 mg per day or even higher. It would be ideal to take some vitamin C every half hour you are awake, which is a real nuisance. Do the best you can to divide the dose for maximum absorption. For maximum stomach comfort, I strongly recommend a “buffered” vitamin C supplement for persons taking a lot. Instead of tablets, try vitamin C powder for economy and a "fewer pills to take" feeling. Mix the powder in a sweet beverage such as fruit juice. Take the amount of vitamin C needed to feel better, to show improved lab tests, and to get well. Patients in remission should continue taking it for life. There are two meanings to that statement. Do not be put off this valuable adjunctive therapy by unscientific scare tactics. Please be certain to read Cancer and Vitamin C by Ewan Cameron and Linus Pauling.

The Carotenes and Lycopene
Until you can get a juicer, eat lots of yams, sweet potatoes and winter squash. These are all very high in all the natural carotenes, not just the best known beta- form. Tomatoes, preferably uncooked, are loaded with lycopene, which is even more valuable than carotene. Studies in Italy (of course) showed that men that ate five or ten fresh tomatoes daily had almost no prostate cancer. Red or purple grapes (and fruits and vegetables in general) are high in many other cancer-fighting antioxidants related to the carotenes. Enjoy!

Selenium
Only a minuscule amount is needed, generally around 300 micrograms. A microgram is a millionth of a gram. Selenium works closely with vitamin E. Avoid excesses; more is not better in this case.

Zinc
The zinc in your multivitamin (perhaps 15 mg?) is low. Take 50 mg of zinc gluconate or preferably zinc monomethionine. Work up to a goal of perhaps 100 mg per day. Zinc reduces postsurgical healing time and profoundly strengthens the immune system.

Calcium and Magnesium
Tablets can be used to conveniently buffer between-meal vitamin C doses. 1,500 mg of calcium and 500 mg of magnesium is a good target amount. Divide the doses as much as humanly possible, including snacktime and bedtime. Your body will absorb it much more efficiently that way.

Vitamin B Complex
Take one balanced B-50 tablet with each meal, at least. If you are on intense drug therapy or are very fatigued, you can take additional Bs between meals. Patients on chemotherapy report greatly reduced nausea and much less hair loss when they take their B-vitamins (and C). You have to try this to believe it.

Suggestions
If you get diarrhea, ease up on the vitamin C or the vegetable juices. If not sure which, decrease one, then the other, to confirm which you actually need to reduce. Bear in mind that diarrhea may be due to radiation or chemotherapy treatments. Cheese tends to help stop simple diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea requires medical attention.

If you need to sweeten something, try a little honey, sweet molasses or pure maple syrup.

Give this protocol a full four months trial, with your 100% effort, before giving it your final evaluation.

Don't eat anything without reading the label. Don't eat anything unless you know what it is. If you cannot pronounce it, don't eat it.

If your medical doctor is not familiar with orthomolecular (megavitamin) nutrition, hand him or her books, with the bookmarks stuck throughout, and ask, "Have you read what we've read?" Let Dr. Pauling and Dr. Hoffer and Dr. Williams and Dr. Gerson and Dr. Cameron do the talking. When you go to battle, don’t go without your best soldiers. If you are still unfamiliar with these physicians and their work, you are not ready to fight.

No-No’s:
Avoid sugar
Do not smoke. Stop, or at least cut down, immediately.
Avoid alcoholic beverages (However, organically-produced red wine in moderation is a reasonable compromise. It is best to dilute it with two parts water before drinking. Grape juice is good, too!)
Eat no artificial colorings.
Avoid any food with preservatives.
Do not consume aspartame (“NutraSweet”).
Never eat any product containing saccharine, which has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

Who gets the credit (or blame?) for this therapy? Certainly not me, although I'd love to take the bow. But no, this is the collected, derivative work of many researchers. I'm not smart enough to come up with all this. I am just barely smart enough to find out who is getting good results... and suggest you copy them.

A Case In Point

The results never cease to impress me. Take Joe, for instance. Joe had terminal lung cancer, and no mistake. He was so constantly coughing up blood that he had a mostly red handkerchief in his hand all the while I talked with him in the living room of his small suburban home. Joe was too sick to come in to my office. In fact, he was too sick to get out of his recliner. It was in this chair that his life was played out, day and night. He could not walk. He was in too much pain to even lie down. He spent the night in his chair. He did not want to eat. Oddly enough, he did still want to live, and he was willing to try even vitamins if they would help him feel any better.

It was October and the leaves, orange and bright yellow, were falling outside the picture window as we talked. The TV was on, and some of the family was visiting. It is never easy to work with the dying. As a student, 20 years ago, I'd seen enough of them at the Brigham Hospital in Boston. Then, I had listened and watched. Now, I listened and watched and suggested vitamin C.

"How much?" Joe croaked.

"As much as humanly possible under the circumstances," I replied. I explained bowel tolerance to him, and answered the usual questions from the family. Most centered on how well would it work. Some were understandably skeptical; some were in overly-optimistic denial.

"If I had the sure cure for cancer, I'd be on the cover of Time magazine," I cautioned them gently. "Vitamin C is very much worth using, with due consideration of how sick Joe really is."

All agreed that Joe had nothing to lose.

Here is what happened.

Within days, Joe stopped coughing up the blood. If the C had done nothing else, this alone would have been more than enough benefit. But there was more good news within the week.

"Joe's appetite is back," said his wife. "And he is able to lie down in the bed now. He says he is sleeping much better and in much less pain."

Wonderful news, especially if you were Joe. Over and over I have seen profound pain relief and dramatic improvement in sleeping in terminal patients that take huge doses of C. Again, if the C did nothing else, these benefits would be indisputable arguments for using it.

A week or so later, I heard still more news.

"Joe is able to walk around the house with a cane. He's even walking around the yard!"

His wife was quite emotional as she spoke. She knew, at some level, as we all did, that Joe was not likely to survive such severe cancer. And in the end, he didn't. But he added to his length of life, and the quality of that life was extraordinarily enhanced by the vitamin C. He never did all the stuff I enumerated earlier in this chapter; he couldn't. But he was determined to manage taking the C, and he did.

Oh, yes: how much did he take? About 4,000 milligrams every half hour he was awake, day or night. That is approaching 100,000 mg a day. He had a big jug of water, a big spoon, a big glass, and a big bottle of vitamin C crystals on the table right next to his recliner.

Joe never got diarrhea.

For further reading:

Gonzalez M, Miranda-Massari J, Saul AW. I Have Cancer: What Should I Do? Your Orthomolecular Guide for Cancer Management. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, November, 2009. Reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancereviews.html

Hoffer A, Pauling L: Healing Cancer: Complementary Vitamin & Drug Treatments. CCNM Press (2004) Previously published as Vitamin C and Cancer: Discovery, Recovery, Controversy. 1999: Quarry Press, Kingston, ON.

A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases, by Max Gerson, MD. Read pages 187-250 first.

Survival Into the Twenty-first Century by Viktoras Kulvinskas.

How to Live Longer and Feel Better by Linus Pauling.

The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease by Irwin Stone.

Cancer and Vitamin C, revised edition, by Ewan Cameron and Linus Pauling.

The Cancer Syndrome, by Ralph Moss

Mother Earth News, "Dr. Harold W. Manner: The Man who Cures Cancer," Nov/Dec 1978, pages 17-24. This article is about documented laetrile cures.

A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine edited by Roger Williams.

Dr. Ann Wigmore's Recipes for Longer Life. All her recipes contain no cooking at all!

(There are many other good resources out there in addition to those I provide here. This is neither an endorsement of those listed, nor a criticism on those omitted.)

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

For ordering information, Click Here .

Andrew W. Saul

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

Neither the author nor the webmaster has authorized the use of their names or the use of any material contained within in connection with the sale, promotion or advertising of any product or apparatus. Single-copy reproduction for individual, non-commercial use is permitted providing no alterations of content are made, and credit is given.