Vitamin C & Cancer Prevention

Vitamin C has long been touted as the common preventative for the common cold, but perhaps we have been underestimating this candy-like chewable vitamin. A broccoli quiche and fresh fruit salad, topped off with a glass of chilled orange juice sounds tasty, but according to Prevention Magazine this Vitamin C-packed lunch is more than that. Vitamin C is a "potentially potent protection against cancer."

How Vitamin C Works

• Vitamin C is an antioxident that is able to neutralize free radicals, molecules that can harm a cell's membrane and genetic material. Free radical damage can happen as a result of aging or from exposure to cancer-promoting toxins. Vitamin C may also help regenerate Vitamin E, which not only protects cells from damage that leads to cancer, but enhances the immune system as well.

  In addition to neutralizing free radicals, Vitamin C helps neutralize cancer-causing nitrosamines, which are produced during the digestion of nitrites and nitrates, preservatives found in meats and vegetables.

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Cancer Institute base their recommendations of consuming five servings of fruits and vegetables daily on the evidence that vitamin C may reduce all types of cancer.

Stomach

• Evidence is striking that vitamin C has significant protective effects for cancers of the stomach, esophagus, oral cavity and pancreas. Intakes ranging from 80 to 110 mg seem to be beneficial.

Lungs

• A long-term study of 870 men taken over a period of 25 years indicated that those who consumed more than 83 mg of vitamin C a day had a 64 percent less risk of lung cancer than those whose intake did not exceed 63 mg daily.

  A New Orleans study found that people taking more than 140 mg daily, the equivalent of two oranges, had half the risk of lung cancer than those whose intake was less than 90 mg.

Cervical Cancer

• According to a study conducted in Latin America, where cervical cancer is extremely high, women who consumed more than 314 mg of vitamin C daily had 31 percent less risk of getting cervical cancer than those who consumed half that amount.

  The Cancer Treatment Centers of America recommend taking 250 to 1,000 mg of the vitamin a day, preferably via food, not supplements, since there is evidence that the anti-cancer power of vitamin C-rich food is stronger than the vitamin itself.

Breast Cancer

• A group of premenopausal women with family histories of breast cancer were researched by a recent Nurses' Health Study. Patients who ate 205 mg daily of vitamin C through food products were found to have a 63 percent lower breast cancer risk than those who ingested just a third of the daily dose.

  In another study performed by the Swedish Mammography Cohort, overweight women who took 110 mg of vitamin C daily had a 39 percent reduced risk of breast cancer compared to those who consumed just 31 mg.

  Although larger studies are inconclusive, a small study by the University of California, Berkeley, found that women with the least risk of breast cancer consumed approximately 300 mg of vitamin C, the equivalent of about three glasses of orange juice.