H.L. NEWBOLD, M.D.

, 1960s

Vitamin A is a powerful adjunct in eliminating cancer.

Working Summary: Research into vitamin A and beta-carotene opened up an important avenue
of cancer treatment. The information contained here is available to everyone.The scientific
community gradually aroused to the fact that vitamin A was a powerful cancer foe.

In some respects the full awakening still has not yet fully arrivedeven though a
remarkable amount of research on selected cancer topics, has shown vitamin A to be remarkably
capable of overcoming the killer. Bernard Peyrilhe (1735-1804), professor of chemistry at the
Ecole Sante and professor-royal at the College of Surgery in Paris, did in-depthresearch into
cancer about 200 years ago.

Winner of a 1773 prize from the Academy of Lyon on the subject, What Is Cancer? he
advocated the use of carrot juice in the treatment of cancer (!). Can you imagine, carrot juice
recommended for cancer over 200 years agoyet, today,few seem to be aware of its remarkable
value.

Carrot juice is one of the best sources of vitamin A, or carotene, which in the liver is
converted,as needed, into full vitamin A.

In the 1920s, Japanese scientists found that stomach cancer could be produced in rats, simply by
depriving them of vitamin A (Joseph Hixson, Vitamin A and the Forces that Be, Harpers, June
1976).

In the 1930s, scientists at Cambridge, England,showed that vitamin A was essential for proper
differentiation (maturation) of epithelial cells. It was noted that a majority of lung cancers
occurred when these same cells in the bronchi failed to mature (ibid.).

Then, in the United States, research at MemorialHospital in New York City showed there
is often a deficiency of this vitamin in the blood of cancer patients. (The same observation
has been made for vitamin C.)

It should be noted here that damage to the liver will cause a decided deficiency of vitamin A!
Thus, liver damage (or having it become overloaded with toxins) can be a precursor to
malignancy somewhere in the body.

In the 1960s, Umberto Saffioti, M.D., a government cancer researcher, found that vitamin
A inhibited the development of lung cancer in experimental hamsters. Those animals not
receiving the supplement developed cancer very similar to those found in people who smoke
(ibid.).

In recent decades, some physicians have quietly begun treating their cancer patients with vitamin
A. One prominent physician doing this,H.L. Newbold, M.D., a New York physician. (We earlier
noted that, a few years earlier, he had begungiving high doses of vitamin C to his
cancer patients.) He also gave them supplemental vitamin A.

Newbold says that the vitamin A not only reduces cancer tissue in his patients, but also increases
resistance in the body to the dreaded disease. In both ways, it parallels and works closely with
vitamin C.

But he varies the amount according to the condition of the patient. Keep in mind that the more
the liver has been damaged, the less vitamin A can be given at a time. Some patients receive as
much as 200,000 IU of the vitamin daily. But, since vitamin A can be toxic, if Newbold sees
signs of toxicity, he reduces the dosage. Orthodox medicine teaches that 50,000 UP is the normal
threshold for toxicity.

Leave it to the Germans to figure out a more efficient way to do the job. Some German
cancer specialists have developed a method of emulsifying vitamin A (which they call A-
mulsin), so they can give up to 3,000,000 IU doses a day for cancer!

Using this formula, the Janker Clinic in Germany was able to obtain full or partial remission in
70% of the 76,000 patients it has treated since 1936.

For some reason, the FDA banned A-mulsin.The NCI was uninterested in it, and the ACS said it
was determined to keep the Janker technique out of the United States.

In the early spring of 1976, just before an Esquire article was to be published on the
Janker method, the National Cancer Institute suddenly announced clinical trials were about to
begin on a vitamin A-like compound. It turned out to be,not vitamin A nor carrot juice, but a
synthetic variant manufactured by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant,Hoffmann-La Roche. Testing
began in 1978, but not much came of it.

In the 1960s, Drs. Santa Maria and Bianchi,two Italian researchers, concluded a number
of research studies which demonstrated that vitamin A had the ability to prevent cancer in
cell and organ cultures, as well as in chemically induced cancers in animals.

Since then, many subsequent studies have confirmed their ground-breaking work. But,
gradually, it has been discovered that beta-carotene is even more powerful as an anti-cancer
agent.

Here is the story.

Nearly 90% of all cancers affect the epithelial cells. These cells line the skin, gastro-
intestinal tract, all body openings, and thin tissues throughout the body. Beta-carotene aids the
body in preventing and eliminating these cancers.

Vitamin A and beta-carotene are chemically related. All the vitamin A comes from
animal sources (meat, eggs, milk, cheese), and all the beta-carotene comes from fruits and
vegetables.
Beta-carotene is also called pro-vitamin A, because it can be made into it. Actually, beta-
carotene is just two molecules of vitamin A linked together! When the body needs more
vitamin A, enzymes in the intestines split a molecule of beta-carotene in half.

There is also another difference: Vitamin A is oil-soluble and can be toxic in large amounts or if
too much is stored up by the liver. But beta-carotene is water-soluble and no known overdose
toxicity exists.

Vitamin A is also known as retinol, and its many analogs are called retinoids. Beta-carotene is
but one of several carotenoidsbut it is the most abundant and demonstrates the
highest biological activity of any of them.

The first mention of vitamin A as a protection against cancer was made in 1922 (S. Mori,
Johns Hopkins Medical Bulletin, 33:357-59, 1922).Studies made in 1926 in Japan confirmed
this.A remarkable study, made in 1990, compared the cancer-fighting abilities of six
antioxidant nutrients on chemically induced liver tumors. (1) Vitamin E caused a 60%
reduction in the appearance of the tumors. (2) Glutathione caused an 80% reduction. (3) Vitamin
C, selenium,and uric acid each caused an 87% reduction.

(4) But beta-carotene produced a 100% reduction in the appearance of those liver tumors (H.S.
Nyandieka, et. al, Indian Journal of Medical Research, 92:332-36, 1990).

The Basel study should be noted. Conducted from 1971 to 1973, it was the first large-
scale analysis of beta-carotene and human cancer, and received a twelve-year follow-up. Beta-
carotene came through with flying colors (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 73:1463-68,
1984;American Journal of Epidemiology, 133(8):766-75, 1991).

Other studies attest to the cancer-fighting abilities of beta-carotene (New England Journal
of Medicine, 315-1250-54, 1986; Journal of Nutrition,119:116-22, 1989).

Over 20 studies have been made, showing that a diet high in vitamin A and beta-carotene
strongly reduces the risk of developing cancer. Vitamin A increases the number of T-cells, and
beta-carotene increases the number of killer (NK) cells.

Beta-carotene is also a powerful anti-oxidant,capable of neutralizing cancer-causing

Back in the 1960s, it was thought that vitamin A was all-important, and that carotene was not so
important. It was not until the search in 1981,that the attention of the scientific community
was turned to the fact that beta-carotene is a more powerful cancer fighter than vitamin A.
Manymother studies were then carried out which confirmed this.

By the mid-1980s, it was discovered that,unlike any other anti-oxidant, beta-carotene could
neutralize two of the worst cancer-causing free radicals: the oxygen free radical and the
polyunsaturated fatty-acid radical.
There is no other substance, enzyme, etc.,in the body or available to itwhich can
neutralize oxygen free radicals. Yet tumor metabolism generates large quantities of oxygen
free radicals (also called singlet-oxygen free radicals), which are the most damaging type
free radicals.

As a result of the research, beta-carotene has become the preferred method of treating cancer
rather than vitamin Aalthough both are well-documented cancer fighters.The fact that beta-
carotene has no known toxicity should not be overlooked. In contrast, daily high doses of
vitamin A can damage the liver.

The only side effect of beta-carotene (called carotenosis) is a yellowish-orange appearance to the
skin. But this is totally harmless.

Here is the dosage of beta-carotene:The dosage of an anti-cancer substance, which is given to a

A typical dosage of between 75,000 IU to 150,000 IU of beta-carotene is prescribed for cancer

This is equivalent to 1 or 2 capsules (25,000 IU each) at each of three meals.But those who are
not ill can take the same amount, if they wish: 75,000 IU a day, or 150,000 IU a day. Many do,
including leading health experts who know the research findings on the subject.