Intravenous Nutrients


  Amber, RN, administers the IV's in office.
 
Intravenous nutrient therapies is the delivery of vitamins and/or minerals directly into the bloodstream via a vein.  There are several reasons to administer nutrients directly into one's system, including (but not limited to) 

    severe states of nutrient depletion
    maldigestion and/or malabsorption
    electrolyte/ fluid replacement
    specific high dose nutrients that are condition specific

Intravenous (IV) nutrition offered in our clinic is always prescribed by one of our physicians and administered in our office by either Amber, our registered nurse (RN) , or one of our physicians.  It is customized to the specific needs of the patient and can take anywhere from 15 minutes to two hours to receive. 

Conditions that may be helped with IV nutrients include:

Dehydration
Muscle spasms
Fibromyalgia
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Immunosuppressive Disorders
Malabsorption
Various Cancers
Weight Loss (Cachexia)
Anxiety
Depression


If you currently have a naturopath or medical doctor and you would like to just use our clinic as a IV source, we are happy to help.  We have worked with other practitioners to deliver their prescribed treatment for their patients. 



IV Vitamin C in Cancer Care:

For those who would like to truly understand how vitamin C may be useful in cancer care, please watch this video on YouTube:
How Vitamin C Fights Cancer

The video is lengthy, but it is worth the hour of your time to understand the theory behind the use of vitamin C in cancer care.

Here is a basic beginning to understanding its use:

The intravenous administration of vitamin C allows us to bypass digestion and achieve very high blood levels of vitamin C in the bloodstream.  Vitamin C, when swallowed, can only be given in limited doses.  The upper limit of the amount any one person can ingest is known as "bowel tolerance."  Bowel tolerance is literally when your body can no longer absorb any more vitamin C from the gut.  At this point, the excess vitamin C remains in the digestive tract where it pulls in water and the result is loose stools or diarrhea.  Each person's bowel tolerance dose is different, but I have seen as low as 2 grams induce loose stool in one patient and as high as 18 grams in another.  Whenever vitamin C is given orally, it is considered an antioxidant.  

What is an antioxidant?  Without getting too technical, an antioxidant is any compound that squelches free radicals.  Free radicals are compounds that damage other components of cells.  Free radicals are also part of life.  In other words, all of our cells make free radicals as a by product of energy production that uses oxygen.  Think of it like a combustion product, much like the emissions from the tailpipe of your car from gas combustion.  When our level of antioxidants does not keep up with our production of free radicals, the result will likely be ongoing damage to our cells.  This is why a diet high in plant-based foods (high in antioxidants) has been shown to be protective against many chronic degenerative diseases, including cancer. 

That little tangent about antioxidants and free radicals is important in understanding the role of intravenous vitamin C in cancer care.  Again, whenever vitamin c is given orally it acts as an antioxidant.  However, when we give it in high doses (over 25 grams intravenously), it is no longer an antioxidant but a pro-oxidative compound.

Why would anyone want a pro-oxidative compound intravenously?  There is one molecular biology tidbit that must be kept in mind to understand how pro-oxidative therapies can be useful in cancer care.  Slight oxidation can lead to non-lethal changes in DNA, better known as mutations or epigenetic changes.  These DNA changes(perhaps from carcinogens, XRay's/CT scans, and/or from a dearth of antioxidants in the diet) beget more DNA changes until the cells lose normal regulatory growth checks and grow out of control (=cancer).  BUT high levels of oxidation, such as that from therapeutic radiation, can be so damaging to the DNA that the cells "decide" to kill themselves.  Of course, the cells are not thinking per se, but there is a Y in the road where cells that are damaged must either 1) repair the damage 2) keep the damaged DNA as is and move on (mutation) or 3) kill itself because the damage is too severe (apoptosis).  The goal of many conventional chemotherapies and radiation is to hobble the cell using oxidation to the point where the cell is no longer viable.  This is the reason many oncologist say "do not use antioxidants" during treatment.

Back to intravenous vitamin C (IVC).  Long story short, in the very high doses given intravenously, vitamin C is no longer an antioxidant, but a pro-oxidative compound. IVC leads to the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cells, which then gives rise to superoxide anions. These molecules build up specifically around cancer cells.  This is because normal tissue has an enzyme called catalase that takes hydrogen peroxide and breaks it back down into water and oxygen.  Cancer cells generally do not have an efficient catalase system, so the hydrogen peroxide builds up, leading to high oxidation within the cells and cell death.

To be fair, there are other theories about IVC and its use in cancer care.  One of interest is that IVC opens up the blood brain barrier, allowing other agents (such as Avastin) better access to cancer cells within the brain.  There is little evidence for this theory.  However, the premise is plausible.  IVC is non-toxic, and Avastin is sometimes used in treating brain tumors such as glioblastoma.  In such cases, one must ask not "why" should we combine IVC and Avastin, but "why not?" as every conceivable advantage for the patient should be pursued.

Clinic of Natural Medicine
1471 Pearl Street Suite 2 Eugene, OR 97401 US
Phone: 5413389494 Website: www.clinicofnaturalmedicine.com
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