Sunshine Vitamin Regenerates and Detoxifies Your Hormones

By  Sayer Ji

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Sometimes called the ‘sunshine vitamin’ because it is found in high levels in citrus fruits, vitamin C has a uniquely regenerative role in hormone health and cancer prevention that has been overlooked for over twenty years!

Truly groundbreaking research on the regenerative potential of vitamin C therapy for hormone health as well as cancer prevention was performed over twenty years ago, and yet still today it has received little to no attention.

Published in 1993 in the journal Radiation Physics and Chemistry and titled, “Photo-induced regeneration of hormones by electron transfer processes: Potential biological and medical consequences,” Austrian researchers explored the role that vitamin C plays in preventing the degradation of steroid hormones into toxic and cancer-promoting metabolites known as “hormone transients.”   Their stated goal was “to investigate if hormone transients resulting by e.g. electron emission can be regenerated.”

The molecular structure of progesterone, estrone (a form of estrogen) and testosterone is such that when exposed to differing biological and/or environmental conditions, e.g. UV light, pH, temperature, they lose electrons, becoming toxic and often carcinogenic metabolites that represent a burden on the body’s eliminative capabilities. Vitamin C is a well-known electron donor, which is to say a substance that donates electrons to another compound (i.e. a ‘reducing agent’). Vitamin C’s ability to donate electrons can have an antioxidant effect as far as neutralizing free radicals, or as is the case with transient hormone metabolites, a structurally regenerative one.

The study’s design and results were summarized as follows:

“Investigations were performed using progesterone (PRG), testosterone (TES) and estrone (E1) as representatives of hormones. By irradiation with monochromatic UV light (λ=254  nm) in a media of 40% water and 60% ethanol, the degradation as well as the regeneration of the hormones was studied with each hormone individually and in the mixture with VitC as a function of the absorbed UV dose, using HPLC. Calculated from the obtained initial yields, the determined regeneration of PRG amounted to 52.7%, for TES to 58.6% and for E1 to 90.9%.”

Remarkably, vitamin C was capable of almost complete regeneration of  estrone  and quite significant regeneration of both progesterone (52.7%) and testosterone (58.6%).

These experimental results have profound implications if they prove to carry over to human physiology. For instance, vitamin C may offer an alternative (or at least adjuvant and/or ‘drug sparing’ effect) to hormone replacement therapy, which suffers from the problem of ‘feeding the deficiency,’ i.e. negative feedback loops operative within our endocrine system can result in the down-regulation of endogenous steroid hormone production when exogenous forms are supplied.

The researchers noted that this was (at the time) the first scientific evidence proving:

“[H]ormone transients originating by the electron emission process can be successfully regenerated by the transfer of electrons from a potent electron donor, such as vitamin C (VitC).”

While a preliminary study, the researchers identified two possible implications of their research to human medicine:

• Cancer Prevention/Treatment: “The regeneration of hormones by electron transfer process using a potent electron donor, such as VitC, might offer a new pathway for an efficient reduction in the formation of metabolites, also such initiating cancer among others.”
• Hormone Replacement Therapy: “The reported results concerning the ability of VitC to act as electron donor in the regeneration of hormone transients might also be of benefit in the clinical application of hormones (e.g. contraceptive, HRT).”

Vitamin C, of course, is exceptionally safe at high doses and has hundreds of proven health benefits, whereas conventional chemopreventive agents for cancer, e.g. Tamoxifen, and hormone replacement therapy using animal derived and/or synthetic hormone analogs, cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including at times increased mortality.

For additional related research you can read two previous on vitamin C’s role in cancer treatment in intravenous form and vitamin C rich foods like pomegranate as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy.

Further articles by Sayer Ji:

• Research: Plants Cure Cancer, Not Chemicals
• A Higher Level of Freedom – The Benefit of Cannabis to Health
• Eating Wheat & Cow’s Milk Disrupt DNA Expression & Antioxidant Status
• How WHOLE Turmeric Heals the Damaged Brain
• Fluoridated Water Can Calcify Arteries, Study Finds
• How Monsanto’s ‘RoundUp’ is Cursing the Global Food Supply
• Research Proving Vitamin C’s Therapeutic Value in 200+ Diseases
• Biophotons: The Human Body Emits, Communicates with, and is Made from Light
• 13 Evidence-Based Medicinal Properties of Coconut Oil
• The Spice That Prevents Fluoride From Destroying Your Brain

About the author:

Sayer Ji  is an author, educator, Steering  Committee Member  of the  Global GMO-Free Coalition (GGFC),  advisory board member of the National Health Federation, and the founder of  GreenMedInfo.com  –  an open access, evidence-based resource supporting natural and integrative modalities.  His writings have been published and referenced widely in print and online, including Truthout, Mercola.com, The Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, New York Times and The Well Being Journal.

In 1995 Sayer received a BA degree in Philosophy from Rutgers University, where he studied under the American philosopher Dr. Bruce W. Wilshire, with a focus on the philosophy of science.  In 1996, following residency at the Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York, he embarked on a 5 year journey of service as a counsellor-teacher and wilderness therapy specialist for various organizations that serve underprivileged and/or adjudicated populations. Since 2003, Sayer has served as a patient advocate and an educator and consultant for the natural health and wellness field.

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