PrepTest 138, Section 3, Question 6
Medical columnist: Some doctors recommend taking vitamin C(73 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(22 more words not shown)
- ASome kinds of(22 more words not shown)
- BVitamin C has(21 more words not shown)
- CCancer cells that(20 more words not shown)
- DThe better the(18 more words not shown)
- ECertain side effects(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Could vitamin C interfere with the cancer treatment?
That would make the different advice understandable. The general recommendation makes sense on the facts we're given: vitamin C protects against certain oxygen particles that can trigger disease. But something can have benefits in general and a serious downside in a particular situation. Perhaps it interacts badly with a treatment, or perhaps these patients have a condition that makes it harmful to them.
What we’re looking for
The puzzle is especially striking because the treatment itself can damage patients' overall health. These sound like people who could use protection from other health problems. To explain why doctors discourage vitamin C anyway, I'd look for a downside specific to these patients that could outweigh the usual benefit.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The vitamin can protect the wrong cells. Some cancer cells absorb it, and it interferes with the oxidation process that many therapies use to kill those cells. That supplies a direct reason to discourage it: preserving the treatment's ability to fight the cancer can matter more than vitamin C's general protective benefits. We don't need to show that every cancer treatment has this problem; the recommendation concerns some patients.
- B
These patients already have cancer, and the general recommendation is about protecting against other health problems. Failing to prevent cancer doesn't explain why people undergoing cancer treatment should avoid something that could offer those other benefits.
- C
If the relevant cancer cells aren't affected by vitamin C, this doesn't give us the harmful interaction we're looking for. It leaves open the possibility that vitamin C could provide its usual benefits without interfering with the treatment of those cells.
- D
Better overall health helping recovery makes us more interested in protecting patients' health. It doesn't explain why doctors discourage vitamin C as a way of doing that. We still need a drawback to taking it in these circumstances.
- E
Vitamin C doesn't have to fix every side effect to be worth taking. Saying it leaves certain treatment-related problems unchanged doesn't eliminate its possible protection against other health problems. A, by contrast, gives a positive reason to avoid it: it can interfere with killing the cancer cells.
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