What would it be like if a very safe and easily digestible common vitamin would have far ranging benefit to our health? Suppose, this inexpensive ordinary vitamin wasn’t so ordinary any longer. Suppose, as well, that it was beneficial for staying healthy, well known for colds and flu, immune system health, slowed down the effects of aging and had science showing that it had an effect on cancer and metastasis (spread)? How would you change your view of a common and ordinary vitamin?

The vitamin is ascorbyl palmitate. It is a variation of vitamin C though ascorbyl palmitate is very different as it stays in your system longer. It gets into cells more easily and will actually cross the blood brain barrier providing the strong and beneficial antioxidant benefits. Unlike regular vitamin C that is water soluble, ascorbyl palmitate is fat soluble like vitamin E. Most everyone knows that regular vitamin C passes through your system very fast because it is water soluble. Ascorbyl palmitate doesn’t as it stays around for the usual digestive cycle, usually 12-24 hours. I found no evidence of toxicity at 2000mg/day; the dose could be as little as 500mg. Though, this is esterfied, it is

I came across this version of vitamin C while reviewing a paper on supplemental treatment of cancer. The author claims to be a colleague of a scientist/physician that I knew back in my Harbor/UCLA Medical Center days namely Dr. Jerome Block, MD. Dr. Block was the Chairman of the Department of Oncology. I was technical/administrative Supervisor (Chief) of the Division of Nuclear Medicine during the time. We saw a great deal of cancer and often worked in concert.

When I did a PubMed search through the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, I found 18 published abstracts of research referencing ascorbyl palmitate, the first of which documented usefulness in reducing metastasis published by a Japanese university. Not at all bad, for a vitamin that costs less than $10 for 45 days.