Coronavirus: Is High-Dose Vitamin C the Answer?

10 Mar Coronavirus: Is High-Dose Vitamin C the Answer?

In U.S. news, one of the first laboratory-confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the states was an Illinois woman who had recently traveled to Wuhan, China. Later, her husband would also be diagnosed with what is now officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization.1
Presently, there is a lack of effective targeted antiviral drugs for the virus, and symptomatic supportive treatment is still the current main treatment.
A lack of vitamin C has been long known to increase susceptibility to viruses, and a few studies have shown that vitamin C deficiency is related to the increased risk and severity of influenza infections.
Vitamin C is significant to the human body and plays a role in reducing inflammatory response and also helps to boost the immune system when you are ill with a cold or the flu. Supporting various cellular functions of both the innate and adaptive immune system, vitamin C is well known for its contribution to the body’s immune defense.

So what might this mean for treatment?

China is conducting a clinical trial of 24,000 mg/day of intravenous vitamin C to treat patients with coronavirus and severe respiratory complications.

In this clinical trial, participants will receive IV vitamin C for seven days straight at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.2
Administering high doses of vitamin C by way of IV therapy delivers this powerful antioxidant directly into the bloodstream and is generally well tolerated by most people. Because intravenous administration of vitamin C has a higher absorption rate than when taken orally through supplementation, resulting in higher concentrations in the blood, IV therapy is considered a more effective method of delivering high doses of vitamin C to the body.
Insufficient vitamin C intake is a global problem that can be addressed with proper nutrition and supplementation. With even modest amounts of supplemental vitamin C, deaths will decrease. In a study, modest amounts of supplemental vitamin C (200 mg of vitamin C per day) resulted in an 80% decrease in deaths among severely ill, hospitalized respiratory disease patients. [Hunt C. The clinical effects of vitamin C supplementation in elderly hospitalized patients with an acute respiratory infection. Int J Vit Nut Res 1994;64:212-19]