IV vs Oral Vitamin C: What is the Difference?

Watch this video to understand the measurable difference between IV and oral intake of vitamin C, and the details from studies that show high dose intravenous vitamin C can make a difference in the battle against cancer.

Continue on to the article below if you would rather read than watch a video.

Today we are going to debunk some myths. I will explain what is High Dose Vitamin C, particularly when used as a cancer treatment. And we will also compare the difference between Vitamin C infusions vs oral intake. 

What is high dose vitamin C used to treat?

Many people are familiar with the importance of vitamin C, it is a vital nutrient that helps protect against immune system deficiencies and the effects of free radicals. However, in the medical world there are many other uses for vitamin C such as treating viral infections, sepsis, and of course cancer. The treatment of cancer and these other illnesses requires what is known as a high or mega doses of vitamin C. 

How much vitamin C is in a “high or mega” dose?

So what is considered a high dose of vitamin C? Well, for this context a high dose is an amount that is at or near the safely tolerated limit for a person. A 2004 study lead by Mark Levine of the National Institute of Health helped us begin to understand what these limits are and how they translate to the bioavailability of vitamin C (meaning, how much of the vitamin C nutrient makes it into the bloodstream where it can be an effective treatment). 

The NIH researchers found there is a HUGE difference between vitamin C oral intake vs intravenous. First, far higher doses can be tolerated through IV than orally. They also discovered the human body has a lot of biological controls that restricts the amount of vitamin C that can enter your blood when you take the nutrient orally, but IV vitamin C bypasses those controls. 

Vitamin C Oral VS Intravenous (IV)

For example, the max tolerated oral dose is roughly 3g every 4 hours, while several clinical studies have shown that intravenous doses of 100g and greater are safely tolerated by cancer patients. In this comparison, the oral max dose would produce small quantities of vitamin C concentrating in the blood,  around 220 micromoles/L, BUT clinical studies show 100g of vitamin C delivered through an IV can safely surpass a concentration of 20,000 micromoles/L!

How much vitamin C is needed to kill cancer cells?

Now, how does this relate to high dose vitamin C’s ability to fight cancer? Well, preclinical studies have shown that when vitamin C reaches a blood concentration of 1,000 micromoles, it can begin to kill human cancer cells. 

So, this means no matter how many oranges you eat or vitamin C tablets you swallow, you cannot get above 1,000 micromoles blood concentration. The NIH researchers showed us these cancer fighting levels can only be obtained and sustained for long periods through high dose vitamin C infusions. 

A study published in June of 2022 by the University of Kansas Medical Center showed that administering 75-100g of vitamin C to cancer patients can maintain cancer fighting vitamin C blood concentration levels above 1,000 micromoles for over 8 hours. 

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