Is Vitamin C good news?

[Jimrican]

I found an article about the effect of vitamin C on virus and cancer cells. It mentioned that therapeutic (high) doses of Vitamin C do not hurt normal cells, but it is toxic to cancer and virus cells. Can anybody comment on this issue: true or false? Just googled for HIV and Vitamin C and some links on the issue appeared. Now, what to trust, what to skip?
 

[redhotmuslbear]

Sure, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is toxic to many organisms and cells in the test tube, but excess vitamin C is also quickly discarded in your urine.  If the vitamin was any sort of "cure" for cancer or HIV, we'd be shoving citrus fruit up our asses [ok, perhaps some you do already  ] and mainlining grapefruit juice.

What C and E will do is help alleviate "oxidative stress" on your body, binding to "free radicals" that muck up chemical processes in your body and help contribute to many problematic conditions.

[Smoothstone]

1.We went to the Linus Pauling Institute, vitamin C research and advocacy institute near Palo Alto California, back in mid 80s when we were desparate for treatments.  We discussed with Pauling staffers possibility of  vitamin C arresting HIV infection and progression to AIDS. The researchers expressed interest and were contemplating initial explorations....Nothing surfaced over the last 2 decades that I'm aware of.     2. Subsequently, I remember a doc presenting on intravenous vitamin c at a standing room only meeting at MCC in San Francisco.  The results were not impressive, except that there was a significant problem with infections subsequent to the iv insertion.  I'm thinking that this many years later that if there was any efficacy for impacting HIV we would have heard it.  And still open to the possibility if anyone has reports, conference abstracts, etc.
3. The doc taught us about the vitamin C "bowel tolerance" strategy:  When you feel that you are under assualt from flu or cold...up your vitamin C level gradually until you reach "bowel tolerance"....which means you get painless diarrhea...you think you will pass gas...fart...but instead its fluid...Seems the level of vitamin c that the body needs fluctuates and when stressed with fighting infections, the threshold of what the body can absorb, needs, goes up.  I tried this strategy once when flu was going throught the hotel where I worked...As soon as I started getting symptoms, I upped my Vitamin C level by a several thousand each hour until I reached bowel tolerance...diarrhea...I left at lunch and returned to work the next morning.  Everyone else was out for 2-3 days.   Of course my mind and intention were also at work.   Just an illustration of success...not advocating trying this.... But I continue to utilize it when I start coming down with a cold or flulike something.