Prostate cancer is a diagnosis that can lend itself to a variety of treatment options. As like various other cancers, the stage at diagnosis often leads the way in terms of what treatments might be best considered in any given case. With prostate cancer specifically, age at diagnosis is also a big consideration in terms of treatment decisions. At times, some later stage prostate cancers are not treated as aggressively as that same stage diagnosed at an earlier age. So there is a lot of individuality to consider in each prostate cancer patient. What shouldn’t alter the treatment consideration, however, is whether or not an integrative medical approach is taken; as in all cases and stages, it should. Within prostate cancer and integrative cancer care, the consideration of IV Vitamin C therapy is a strong contender.
Prior to introducing IV Vitamin C treatment, it’s important to address questions such as: is IV Vitamin C indicated? Does it work? And when or how should I decide its value in my prostate cancer case? All relevant questions that certainly merit answers.
IV Vitamin C has long been touted as an adjunctive treatment support at various levels within a prostate cancer diagnosis. Along with its anti cancer (not cancer curing) properties, research also shows promise in using IV Vitamin C as a safe and effective support alongside chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and radiation. In addition, IV Vitamin C is often utilized as a way to support and promote continued overall health in a patient currently diagnosed and/or undergoing a variety of prostate cancer care treatments.
As a standalone, we often don’t recommend IV Vitamin C as a sole treatment, let alone as an isolated cancer treatment. Rather, integrative cancer care doctors prefer to use it as a combination therapy with other standard and complimentary care practices. As for prostate cancer, IV Vitamin C (as in other cancers) works as an oxidative therapy (so oxidizes, or “poisons” cancerous cells, yet does not affect healthy cells). Research on IV Vitamin C has shown that high dose Vitamin C intravenous therapy (unattainable by taking orally) can often slow the progression of prostate cancer growth. Using a regimented high dose IV Vitamin C schedule, integrative medicine doctors also see predictable outcomes with their patients in terms of stabilization of cancer cell growth (which is often a major win, and endpoint, in progressive prostate cancer cases).
IV Vitamin C, as mentioned, is rarely relied on as a single unit treatment regimen. It’s the combination of standard and complimentary care treatments that ultimately show the best outcomes. With IV Vitamin C, especially in prostate cancer, we often combine it with IV Artesunate. Artesunate is a type of medicine historically designed to treat malaria. It comes from the herb Artemisinin (wormwood), and continues to show promise in both anti cancer properties as well as clinical synergy with Vitamin C. Both Vitamin C and Artesunate can be individually combined (in separate IV’s) to help address prostate cancer as an integrative care treatment.
How do we at Cornerstone Naturopathic Inc. decide whether IV Vitamin C is indicated in a specific prostate cancer case? When it comes to the diagnosis of an individual prostate cancer, we look at current response to conventional treatment, what treatment(s) are currently being given, the overall health of the patient, and whether specific details of the cancer diagnosis itself may be likely to respond to IV Vitamin C. IV Vitamin C can be a powerful prostate cancer treatment option to consider, and one that is certainly worthy of discussion with us here at Cornerstone.