How Vitamin C Saved My Life

Courtesy of James Templeton

Vitamin C was key to healing my cancer naturally and keeping me around for the long haul. When you charge like a bull into your own healing, willing to fight and do whatever it takes, I believe everything you need to get the job done will come to you. Vitamin C came to me like this.

My Vitamin C Story

A relative sent the Linus Pauling book on Vitamin C to me in the early stages of my healing from Stage IV Melanoma cancer. I was searching for something to add to my healing regimen and this book came in perfect timing. It talked about how people with terminal cancer would take up to 10,000 mg of Vitamin C and have a miraculous turnaround.

Vitamin C bottles on display in Miami, Florida on June 15, 2001. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As soon as I was out of the hospital, I went out and got it, because I figured if Vitamin C worked for those terminal cancer patients, it would help me, too. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I bought a variety of types and took up to 20,000 mg a day. I was just getting a good start on the macrobiotic diet, which was the cornerstone of my cancer healing, but adding Vitamin C gave me a lot more energy and for the first time in many years I didn’t get sick with colds or flus. Even my seasonal allergies went away. I knew there was something to it, so I stuck with it.

When I went full force into the macrobiotic lifestyle, I stopped taking the Vitamin C for about a year, but I missed the way I felt on it and added it back in. I felt like just doing a diet wasn’t enough to heal cancer and I needed to do more. I noticed people around that weren’t getting well when I was, and I realized the difference was the Vitamin C.

How Vitamin C Stops Cancer In Its Tracks

Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath, MD did a landmark 15-year study on a number of different types of cancer and Vitamin C. They gave people a mix of Vitamin C, l-lysine, l-proline, and EGCG (green tea extract), and they put a certain amount of people on placebo. After 15 years, they discovered that cancer was a collagen disease, it kills people because it spreads to the different tissues through the collagen.

There’s an enzyme in cancer cells that can eat through your body’s collagen. L-Lysine destroys the collagen-eating enzymes contained in cancer cells, according to Dr. Rath’s research. Vitamin C strengthens the collagen so the cancer can’t penetrate and spread. When the cancer can’t spread, it can’t survive.

Their conclusion was that the Vitamin C stopped 100% of the cancers from spreading. The most powerful nutrient combination was the one listed above. Metastasis causes 90% of cancer deaths and this micronutrient combination prevented metastasis.

I wondered why the Vitamin C helped me, then the study came out and I knew what it had done for me. The melanoma has never come back. I’m convinced Vitamin C and macrobiotics saved my life.

Vitamin C isn’t produced by the human body and it’s hard to get enough through fruits and vegetables. The body doesn’t produce lysine either. To get enough of either to help in the fight against cancer, it has to be supplemented. The Vitamin C they used in this study is a combination of different types of highly absorbable forms.

We All Need Vitamin C

Vitamin C is known to help with immunity, chelate heavy metals, assist in detoxification, clean and repair arteries, and so much more. It even helps fight the common cold.

Many years ago I had a severe mold exposure where I became out of breath, lost my exercise tolerance, and felt fatigued. I suspected my heart was the problem. I went to a well-known Cardiologist in New York and had a calcium score test done. He said my arteries were as clear as a baby’s, and I was 52 years old. With a family history of sudden cardiac death at a young age, I was relieved.

When I thought about it later, I wondered what I had done to keep my arteries so clean. It wasn’t long before studies were released showing Vitamin C prevents heart attacks and stroke by keeping arteries clean and elastic while promoting wound healing. My artery testing is still clean today.

The Best Forms of Vitamin C

I’m a big believer in Vitamin C, I’ve taken it for more than 25 years. Not everyone should take as much as I do, but I believe, along with a healthy lifestyle and great nutrition, it’s been a key to my healing. For optimal health, I recommend 5000mg daily or to your bowel tolerance. I personally take both a Vitamin C buffered with lysine and Dr. Rath’s. I don’t use his whole protocol, just his Vitamin C blend.

If you are looking for more information about Vitamin C and cancer, I encourage you to go to Dr. Rath’s nonprofit foundation page at http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org.

James Templeton founded Uni Key Health Systems in 1992 and now the Templeton Wellness Foundation as a way of giving back and helping others achieve the health and wellness they are seeking. This story was originally published on the Templeton Wellness Foundation Blog.