Your Guide For A Child t July 2022 10 cancer. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that vita- min C is being used for cancer treatment. In large doses, Vitamin C is sometimes administered in- travenously as part of cancer treatment. Vitamin C prevents free radical damage in the lungs and may even help to protect the central nervous system from such damage. Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron. In this state, they're highly reactive and destructive to ev- erything that gets in their way. Although free radi- cals have been implicated in many diseases, they are actually a part of the body chemistry. As an antioxidant, vitamin C's primary role is to neutralize free radicals. Since ascorbic acid is water soluble, it can work both inside and outside the cells to combat free radical damage. Vitamin C is an excellent source of electrons; therefore, it “can donate electrons to free radicals such as hydroxyl and superoxide radicals and quench their reactiv- ity.” The versatile vitamin C also works along with glu- tathione peroxidase (a major free radical-fighting enzyme) to revitalize vitamin E, a fat-soluble anti- oxidant. In addition to its work as a direct scav- enger of free radicals in fluids, then, vitamin C also contributes to the antioxidant activity in the lipids. Optimal health, however, requires a balance be- tween free radical generation and antioxidant pro- tection. One of the functions of Vitamin C is to get and quench these free radicals before they create too much damage. However, there is research to show that vitamin C may act as a pro-oxidant. In other words, vitamin C, under certain conditions anyway, may act in a manner that is opposite to its intended purpose. This has raised concern among thousands of people who supplement their diets with vitamin C...but that's another story.