#3-1. Megadose Intravenous Vitamin C & Myer’s Cocktail Therapy

As a doctor, it is difficult to find the right way to strengthen one’s foundation in therapeutic principles of intravenous nutrition therapy (IVNT). A good start might be creating your own basic system with therapies that you find the easiest to perform. One such approach could be using megadose intravenous vitamin C (IVC) as the basis on which you can add needed nutrients. Another way can be basing the therapy in vitamin B and adding other nutrients, which would be a Myers' cocktail. Myer’s cocktails contain vitamin C but it is a therapy with a stronger emphasis on the B vitamins. I personally prefer vitamin C and frequently use it as the basis of my IVNTs.

Megadose Intravenous Vitamin C

Vitamin C was first discovered in 1929 by F.G. Hopkins, a British chemist. In 1932, his fellow countryman, W.N. Haworth, clarified its complete chemical structure and went on to win a Nobel Prize in 1937. The chemical name of vitamin C is ascorbic acid. The term “ascorbic” was coined from joining a prefix ‘a-’ with ‘scurvy,’ meaning “anti-scurvy” or “scurvy preventing.”

Vitamin C is produced from glucose through five enzymatic stages that remove glucose properties and convert it into an antioxidant. However, humans lack the fourth stage enzyme, L-gulonolactone oxidase, and cannot biologically synthesize vitamin C. Other species that are unable to synthesize vitamin C include guinea pigs, some highly evolved primates, monkeys, and birds, etc. In most other mammals that can naturally synthesize vitamin C, it is often categorized as a hormone.

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Vitamin C has a chemical structure similar to that of glucose. One should be careful about reading glucose monitoring devices immediately after IVC as they can give false positives of hyperglycemia. Vitamin C can destroy cancer cells by infiltrating cancer cell membranes through a glucose channel called GLUT(Glucose transporter). This leads to oxidative damage of cancer cells by the action of H₂O_2.This method is being used as an adjunct to increase the treatment response in cancer patients [Figure 1, Qi Chen et al. Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: Action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues. PNAS September 20, 2005, 102(38) 13604-13609].

Figure 1. Chemical structures of glucose and vitamin C.

Vitamin C has dual antioxidant actions. Vitamin C takes three forms; L-ascorbic acid, ascorbic radical and the oxidized form of dehydroascorbic acid. Oxidant and antioxidant actions are mutually reversible. Vitamin C is easily oxidized from moisture, heat, and light, etc. In the excretion process, oxidized vitamin C converts into oxalic acid, which very easily binds with calcium, forming calcium oxalate deposits and increasing the risk of kidney stones. On the other hand, this can help recover the endothelial function of arteries through chelation of arterial wall calcium (Ammar W. et al., Effect of vitamin C on endothelial function in health and disease, Atherosclerosis 235; 9-20. 2014). IV vitamin C is assumed to increase renal excretion of water which helps prevent kidney stones. In my practice, I have not seen a single case of kidney stones in cancer patients receiving megadose IVC for over 3 years (Figure 2).