A New Study Emerges About Vitamin C, Viral Infections & COVID-19
What Happened: A study recently published in Global Advances In Health & Medicine titled "Ascorbate as Prophylaxis and Therapy for COVID-19—Update From Shanghai and U.S. Medical Institutions outlines just how effective vitamin C has been for viral infections. They use many examples, one of them being a randomized double-blind study of 1444 healthy military recruits in basic training from Korea that were treated for 1 month from February to March of 2018. Those receiving prophylactic ascorbate (vitamin C) had 80% fewer upper respiratory infections compared with those receiving the placebo, with the greatest benefit to never-smokers.
But what about COVID-19?
The authors note:
The Shanghai panel, and a parallel medical group in Guangzhou, are advising the use of high-dose IV ascorbate for the treatment of ARDS, along with other supportive therapies, including Vitamin D and zinc. We report preliminary progress in using this treatment for 50 consecutive cases treated in Shanghai hospitals, consistent with earlier reports from a meta-analysis of the use of IV ascorbate to treat sepsis. We provide an instructive clinical anecdote regarding a single family where one elderly member with cardiac and other major comorbidities developed and survived ARDS-related sepsis following daily treatments that included 15 g of IV ascorbate. None of her adult caregivers who had ingested between 2 and 10 g of ascorbate daily developed COVID-19.
The study goes on to explain that:
In an impressive series of papers, Prof. Paul Marik previously demonstrated the stunning capacity of ascorbate with steroids, Vitamin D, and other supportive treatment to reverse sepsis among critically ill patients.11 Further support is provided by a meta-analysis of 3 studies, including 146 patients in intensive care units that randomly administered IV ascorbate finding significant benefits in those being treated.11–13 When sepsis occurs, the cytokine surge and neutrophil accumulation in the lungs destroy alveolar capillaries. These clinical studies have shown that vitamin C can effectively prevent this process and can reduce alveolar fluid by inhibiting the activation and accumulation of neutrophils and reducing alveolar epithelial water channel damage that can induce vascular injury.
The authors corroborated their work with additional reports from the medical frontlines in China and Korea for the treatment of COVID-19. They use an example from a medical director in Wuhan Tongji Hospital who reports the following:
On the afternoon of 20 February 2020, another 4 patients with severe new coronaviral pneumonia recovered from the C10 West Ward of Tongji Hospital [Wuhan]. In the past 8 patients have been discharged from hospital … [H]igh-dose vitamin C achieved good results in clinical applications … [H]gh-dose vitamin C can not only improve antiviral levels, but more importantly, can prevent and treat acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress (ARDS).
From South Korea, a treating physician, Hyoungjoo Shin, provides the following report from March 2020:
At my hospital in Daegu, South Korea, all inpatients and all staff members have been using vitamin C orally … . Some people this week had a mild fever, headaches and coughs, and those who had symptoms got 30,000 mg intravenous vitamin C. Some people got better after about 2 days, and most had symptoms go away after one injection.
Furthermore, the authors emphasize that:
In March 2020, high-dose IV administration successfully treated 50 moderate to severe COVID-19 patients in Shanghai, China.14 The doses ranged from 2 g to 10 g per day, given over a period of 8 to 10 hours, for 5 to 7 days. For this group of recent patients, the oxygenation index improved in real time and all were discharged from intensive care and released from the hospital as of 23 March 2020.1
It is important to note that high-dose ascorbate has been clinically used for several decades with no serious side effects reported, aside from those that are carriers of G6PD who cannot receive more than 15 g a day because this increases their risk of hemolytic anemia and rare instances of oxalate nephropathy after long-term treatments. In fact a recent NIH expert panel document states clearly that a regimen of 1.5 g/kg body weight is safe and without major adverse events.3
They also mention what no government health authority has, and in some cases claim can't help:
A recent consensus statement from a group of renowned infectious disease clinicians observed that vaccine programs have proven ill-suited to the fast-changing viruses underlying these illnesses, with efficacy ranging from 19% to 54% in the past few years. Accordingly, they advise that:
supplementing above the RDA for certain immune-supporting vitamins, promotes optimal immune function, helps to control the impact of infections, and could help limit the emergence of novel, more virulent strains of pathogenic viruses. We, therefore, strongly encourage public health officials to also include nutritional strategies in their arsenal to improve public health and to limit the impact of seasonal and emerging viral infections.19
One of the authors of the paper quite early on in this pandemic also had a message for fact-checkers via his YouTube Channel:
I was made aware that FB Fact Check claims “Shanghai did not officially recommend high-dose IVC for the treatment of Covid-19” (left on the above photo). Let me make it clear that not only Shanghai, but also Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, another major city in China, publicly endorsed high-dose IVC for the treatment of Covid-19. Those who does Fact Check, please be more careful.
The particular video for the quote above was removed for violating YouTube's community guidelines. This isn't a surprise, as YouTube has been transparent about the fact that they are removing any information about COVID-19 that does not come straight from the World Health Organization (WHO).
This article has been fact-checked by Health Feedback, and according to their review of this article, the primary study I cite in this article is not a scientific study, as it does not present any original research of its own. In reality, it discusses a few handpicked studies and anecdotal evidence from one family suggesting a beneficial effect of vitamin C for various medical conditions, without any systematic analysis or methodology to control for bias.
That behind said, I feel it's OK to present this research. It's not claiming vitamin C can cure Covid, it's simply a discussion and examination. All it basically is, is information, and I have a hard time seeing how this information can be rated "false." That's just my opinion. What's yours?
Corroborating Information Regarding Vitamin C:
A study published last month in Frontiers in Immunology titled “Quercetin and Vitamin C: An Experimental, Synergistic Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Related Disease (COVID-19)” concluded the following:
Quercetin displays a broad range of antiviral properties which can interfere at multiple steps of pathogen virulence -virus entry, virus replication, protein assembly- and that these therapeutic effects can be augmented by the co-administration of vitamin C. Furthermore, due to their lack of severe side effects and low-costs, we strongly suggest the combined administration of these two compounds for both the prophylaxis and the early treatment of respiratory tract infections, especially including COVID-19 patients.
You can read more about this study, here.
According to an article written in the NY Post almost 5 months ago:
Seriously sick coronavirus patients in New York state’s largest hospital system are being given massive doses of vitamin C — based on promising reports that it’s helped people in hard-hit China, The Post has learned. Dr. Andrew G. Weber, a pulmonologist and critical-care specialist affiliated with two Northwell Health facilities on Long Island, said his intensive-care patients with the coronavirus immediately receive 1,500 milligrams of intravenous vitamin C. Identical amounts of the powerful antioxidant are then readministered three or four times a day, he said. Each dose is more than 16 times the National Institutes of Health’s daily recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C, which is just 90 milligrams for adult men and 75 milligrams for adult women. The regimen is based on experimental treatments administered to people with the coronavirus in Shanghai, China, Weber said.
Weber, 34, said vitamin C levels in coronavirus patients drop dramatically when they suffer sepsis, an inflammatory response that occurs when their bodies overreact to the infection. “It makes all the sense in the world to try and maintain this level of vitamin C,” he said. A clinical trial on the effectiveness of intravenous vitamin C on coronavirus patients began Feb. 14 at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the pandemic.
The Other Side of The Coin: According to Science Feedback, a fact-checking organization working with Facebook, who is currently being sued for government sponsored censorship,
"The bulk of scientific evidence indicates that regular vitamin C supplementation does not reduce the incidence of viral respiratory tract infections such as the common cold, which can be caused by coronaviruses, in the general population."
They go on to state that:
"Vitamin C does appear to reduce the incidence of the common cold, but only in a small, specific population undergoing severe physical stress such as marathon runners. This effect is therefore not generalizable to most people" and that it is important to maintain good health.
Furthermore, they state that:
"Evidence from clinical trials shows that regular vitamin C supplementation does not prevent viral respiratory tract infections such as the common cold, which can be caused by coronaviruses, in the general population. Although some studies have shown a reduced incidence of the common cold in individuals undergoing severe physical stress, such as marathon runners."
Margreet Vissers, a research professor at the University of Otago who has studied vitamin C’s health benefits extensively, explained to Science Feedback:
“The story of vitamin C and infections, particularly viral infections, is a very hotly contested area, and unfortunately for many years lots of claims have been made both by proponents and skeptical medical doctors that are not founded in fact. Fortunately in the past few years much better scientific data is available and we should concentrate on this and review it carefully.”
As you can see, there are varying conclusions based on scientific results when it comes to vitamin C and treating various viruses.
The Takeaway: The coronavirus has really served as a catalyst for many people to question actions that our governments and global health authorities take, and have taken. The amount of censorship of information, combined with mainstream media's strategy to completely ridicule and label information that opposes the official narrative as a "conspiracy theory" has done nothing but wake people up to aspects of reality that did not once fit the frame. Why is there so much conflicting science on this topic?
On top of that. many people have suffered in many ways due to lockdown. More people may have already died from implications of lockdown as opposed to COVID-19.
How much longer will we "obey" and be turned against each other? Why can't governments simply recommend measures they believe will be effective and explain the science on both ends of the spectrum instead of enforcing mandates that may not be completely safe and effective for everyone? Do we really live in a democracy when so many citizens, scientists, and doctors have had their voices completely silenced? Are we moving towards an authoritarian type of existence under the guise of goodwill and necessity? Are we letting corrupt, immoral, and unethical entities tell us what is instead of actually looking into it ourselves? How much influence does mainstream media have over the perception of the masses, and how much have we been misled? Why are other treatments being ridiculed and why are we being made to believe that a vaccine is the only solution, and nothing else can be a possibility?
At the end of the day, many people's perception of the world is shifting. We are experiencing, as a collective, a shift in consciousness that has people looking at our world in a different way and asking why we live the way we live, and can we create something better for ourselves? Why do we keep voting and participating in a system from which no change can come from?