Jessica Richards heals breast cancer with an alkaline diet and intravenous vitamin c
It was in 2007 when Jessica Richards received her diagnosis of breast cancer. The 54-year-old woman from Bedfordshire, UK, noticed that a change had occurred in a long-standing lump that was in her left breast and she requested another screening. She reports that she had received a scan 5 years earlier and was told that the lump was benign, however this new scan revealed that the lump was abnormal.
After a biopsy, the cancer was graded as an invasive grade 2 ductal cancer and that doctors also found cancer cells in two of her lymph nodes. She was told by her doctors that she would need to begin an aggressive treatment protocol consisting of a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy, and also be prescribed five-years of drug therapy (tamoxifen) which would start as soon as possible.
Rather than rushing into these treatments she decided to take a step back and assess her situation. She spoke with her doctors, radiologists, alternative therapists, and then went online and found a lot of helpful information. She says, ‘I knew I didn’t tolerate medicines well and felt chemotherapy would be disastrous. My blood tests kept coming back normal and I decided I would not go it alone with conventional treatment, but would have regular ultrasound scans and tests.’
After researching many alternative options, Richards decided to eliminate all dairy products due to the growth hormones, and sugar because cancer feeds on glucose. She also eliminated most fruits and most grains as well because they are easily converted into glucose. Her new diet consisted of lots of vegetables, leafy greens, short grain rice, quinoa and freshly ground flax seeds. “I switched from a generally healthy diet to a metabolic one, focusing on alkaline over acid foods.”
Jessica also had regular high-dose infusions of intravenous vitamin C which is selectively toxic to cancer cells yet will not harm healthy cells. You can read more about this therapy below.
Jessica reports that she felt improvements in her health immediately after starting this healing protocol and after several months of adhering to her strict diet and IVC protocol she was told by her radiologist that the tumor was effectively breaking down in the same way it would have if she had received intensive chemotherapy. One year later she was told that she had completely healed and could stop having the intravenous vitamin c infusions. Today, Richards is healthier than ever and shares her story of healing in her book The Topic of Cancer.
How intravenous vitamin C can benefit cancer patients
More on the alternative therapies that Jessica used:
Acid/alkaline- The Standard American Diet (SAD) is high in meats, dairy, soda, coffee, alcohol, grains, processed foods, fast foods, poor quality fats, sugars, chemical additives, sodium, and is generally very low in essential vitamins and minerals. When we consume the SAD diet, we are setting ourselves up for disease by creating an ideal low-oxygen, acidic environment for cancer to thrive. pH refers to “potential of hydrogen.” The pH scale runs from 1 – 14, with 7 being in the middle (or neutral). Any number lower than 7 is within the acidic range, and any number above 7 is within the alkaline range. The pH of the different bodily fluids will vary for many reasons. For example, your urine and vaginal fluid will measure slightly acidic because this helps to keep unfriendly bacteria from colonizing in these areas; the saliva normally measures slightly alkaline as this helps to prevent tooth decay; and the blood is slightly alkaline at 7.365- 7.4, with your bodies buffering systems working very hard to keep it within that tight range. When this natural buffering system finally become overloaded, these excess acids are dumped into the tissues. As more acids accumulate, the once healthy tissues begin to deteriorate and the cells will become toxic and acidic. Over time, these cells continue to increase in acidity causing some of them to die. Yet, some of these acidified cells are able adapt to their new environment, in other words, instead of dying as normal cells should do, some cells are able survive by becoming abnormal cells (or malignant).
Acidic foods such as grains, meats, dairy, coffee, alcohol, soda, sugars, fast food and processed foods all add hydrogen molecules to the body, making it more acidic; and alkaline foods such as most vegetables and fruits will remove hydrogen molecules from the body, making it more alkaline. When we eat diets that are primarily composed of acid-forming foods, the body must continually take steps to neutralize the excess acid by drawing minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium from your bones, teeth, and organs to keep itself within a healthy range. So when we eat, we either provide the body with the abundance of nutrients that it needs to maintain optimal health or we are left in a state of continually drawing upon our mineral reserves until this delicate system can no longer sustain health. Read more about acid/ alkaline balance and how to test it.
Sugar and Cancer- cancer cells are obligate glucose metabolizers, and as they metabolize glucose, they excrete a lactic acid by-product which further increases the acidity in the body, creating an ideal environment for cancer to grow and spread. With this in mind, one way to seriously weaken a cancer cell is by cutting off its supply of simple sugars and the foods that the body can easily convert into glucose such as processed foods, white flour, refined grains, white potatoes, white rice, and highly glycemic fruits. One example of how modern medicine knowingly exploits this weakness to glucose is through the use of the radioactive glucose dye that is injected into the body to perform a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan that checks for cancerous growths. The dye is called fluroxydiglucose or FDG, and it has radio isotopes that are attached to sugar molecules. Cancer cells have 10 to 20 times more insulin receptors than healthy cells which only have 2. This allows the cancerous cells to gobble up the radioactive dye mixture and then light up during the scan to reveal cancerous growths or any changes in tumor size. In his book ‘Anticancer: A New Way of Life,‘ David Servan-Schreiber MD, PhD, writes in regards to sugar, “when we eat sugar, or white flour, or foods with a high ‘glycemic index’, the blood levels of glucose rise rapidly. The body immediately releases a dose of insulin to enable the glucose to enter the cells. The secretion of insulin is accompanied by the release of another molecule, called IGF (insulin-like growth factor), whose role it is to stimulate cell growth. He writes that “insulin and IGF not only stimulate the growth of cancer cells, but also their capacity to invade neighboring tissues.” Furthermore, insulin and IGF have another effect: “They promote the factors of inflammation, which also stimulates cell growth, and acts in turn as fertilizer for tumors.” Read more about sugar and cancer
Intravenous vitamin C – Whereas vitamin C taken orally acts as an antioxidant, very high doses given intravenously, usually between 25-100 grams, has a pro-oxidative effect. The mechanism involves the generation of hydrogen peroxide within the tissues that accumulate the vitamin C. One postulated mechanism of this formation involves vitamin C displacing iron from its carrier protein, with the subsequent intracellular generation of hydrogen peroxide. This is selectively toxic to cancer cells because they lack the catalase enzyme that other healthy cells have in abundance. If this reaction does not occur efficiently due to lack of the catalase enzyme (ie in cancer cells) the hydrogen peroxide can react with the displaced iron and create an excess of free radicals. These free radicals then stimulate apotosis or cell suicide in the cancer cells. IV treatments are generally painless and completely non-toxic. They are given as a slow IV drip over 45 minutes to 2-3 hours depending on the dose. Alternative and integrative clinics can be found across the US, and this type of nutritional support can be done in conjunction with chemotherapy/radiation, or as a stand alone therapy. Currently IV Vitamin C is being studied for its cancer healing properties. Read more about IV Vitamin C
Using high doses of liposomal vitamin C in place of IV- Although Intravenous Vitamin C can deliver high doses of vitamin C directly into the bloodstream, it is estimated that only about 20% of it will actually be absorbed at the cellular level. This is because the intravenous solution is water-based but the cellular membrane is made up of fatty acids, which will inhibit its absorption. In contrast Liposomal Vitamin C has been encapsulated within a lipid (fat) and this allows the nutrient to easily cross through the lipid-based cellular membrane, giving it about a 90% absorption rate and is much less expensive. Read more about liposomal itamin C
Flax seeds- The plant lignans that are found in flax are converted by intestinal bacteria into enterolignans which are bio-active and are subsequently absorbed by the body. They are structurally similar to estrogen and can bind to the estrogen receptors, and this capability allows lignans to either have weak estrogenic activity or to block the actions of estrogen in the body. For this reason, plant lignans are classified as phytoestrogens. There has been much interest in the potential contribution of lignan-rich foods to reduced the risk of hormone-related cancers. A study that was published in 2005 in the Journal Clinical Cancer Research involved patients who received 25 grams of flax seed (given in the form of a muffin) over the course of 32 days. Analysis of their cancerous tissue after surgery revealed that the markers for tumor growth were reduced by 30%-71% in the group that received the flax seed, while the control group did not experience any reduction in their tumor growth markers. The scientists concluded that “dietary flax seed has the potential to reduce tumor growth in patients with Breast Cancer.” Note: it is important to grind your own seeds immediately right before eating with a coffee and spice grinder as the delicate essential fatty acids will go rancid very quickly.
Additional Resources
Use this link to find an alternative health practitioner for IV vitamin C therapy
Hypothetical diet/supplement regimen
Read more about the health harms related to tamoxifen
Read more testimonials of healing cancer naturally
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Core Science Liposomal Vitamin C