Vitamin C Cuts COVID Deaths by Two-Thirds
(OMNS Oct 13, 2020) The world’s first randomized placebo controlled trial designed to test high dose intravenous vitamin C for treatment of COVID-19 has reduced mortality in the most critically ill patients by two thirds. [1]
The study, headed by Professor Zhiyong Peng at Wuhan’s Zhongnan University Hospital, started in February and gave every other critically ill COVID-19 patient on ventilators either 12,000 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C twice daily or sterile water in their drip.
Neither the patient nor the doctors knew who was getting vitamin C or placebo so the trial was “double blind.” This is the ‘gold standard’ of research design.
Overall, 5 out 26 people (19%) died in the vitamin C group while 10 out of 28 (36%) receiving the placebo died. That means that vitamin C almost halved the number of deaths. Those on vitamin C were 60% more likely to survive.
The key measure of the severity of symptoms is called the SOFA oxygenation index. Those with a SOFA score greater than 3 are most critically ill. Of those most critically ill, 4 people (18%) in the vitamin C group died, compared to 10 (50%) in the placebo group.
That’s two-thirds less deaths. Statistically this meant that of those most critically ill who were given vitamin C, they were 80% less likely to die. This result, backed up with a clear reduction in inflammatory markers in the blood, was statistically significant – beyond doubt.
This level of benefit is much greater than the benefit seen in the randomised controlled trial on dexamethasone, the anti-inflammatory steroid drug that hit the headlines as the ”only proven treatment” for COVID-19. [2] In this drug trial 23% of patients on the steroid drug died compared to 26% on placebo. However, there were over 6,000 people in the trial so the results were statistically significant.
But now there is another proven treatment – vitamin C. The Wuhan trial needed 140 patients to be sufficiently ”powered” for the statistics but they ran out of COVID cases during March, a month after 50 tons of vitamin C, which is 50 million one gram doses, was shipped into Wuhan and given to hospitalised patients and also hospital workers.
New admissions into Intensive Care Units (ICUs) plummeted. Professor Peng ended up with a third as many as the trial was designed to include. But, even though the resulting overall statistic showing almost half as many deaths was not significant, the results from the SOFA oxygenation score and other markers were significant.
These results are especially important when case reports in American ICUs using 12,000 mg of vitamin C show almost no deaths in anyone without a pre-existing end stage disease already and also over 85, [3] and a British ICU using 2,000 mg of vitamin C have reported the lowest mortality of all ICUs in the UK, cutting deaths by a quarter. [4]
The best results are being reported in ICUs using vitamin C, steroids and anti-coagulant drugs combined, which has been standard treatment protocol in China since April. China’s mortality rate from COVID is 3 persons per million compared to the UK’s 624 per million, according to Worldometer data. [5]
On top of this, reports are coming in from ICUs that are testing the blood vitamin C levels, that the majority of their critically ill patients are vitamin C deficient, many with undetectable levels of vitamin C that would diagnose scurvy. One ICU in Barcelona found 17 out of 18 patients had ‘undetectable’ vitamin C levels, akin to scurvy. [6] Another, in the US, found almost all their patients were vitamin C deficient but those who didn’t survive had much lower levels than those who did. [3]
Scurvy killed two million sailors around the world between 1500 and 1800. In 1747 James Lind worked out the cure – vitamin C in limes, but it took fifty years before the Navy took it seriously. So dramatic was the life-saving effect that sailors became known as ”limeys.”
Will the same thing happen with COVID-19? With over a million deaths worldwide and the potential of vitamin C to more than halve the death toll, every day our governments, digital ringmasters and doctors fail to take vitamin C seriously in another day of unnecessary deaths due to ignoring the evidence. This is not fake news.
It’s not the coronavirus that kills people with COVID; it is usually the immune system over-reacting against dead virus particles, once the viral infection is over, which triggers a “cytokine storm, ” something like an inflammatory fire out of control. That’s when very high doses of both steroids and vitamin C are needed.
Normally, the adrenal glands, which contain a hundred times more vitamin C than other organs, release both the body’s most powerful steroid hormone cortisol as well as vitamin C, when in a state of emergency. The steroid helps the vitamin C get inside cells and calm down the fire.
Vitamin C is both an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant, mopping up the “oxidant” fumes of the cytokine storm. Without vitamin C the steroid hormone cortisol can’t work so well. That’s why ICU doctors administer both extra vitamin C and steroids to get a patient out of the danger zone.
But even better is to prevent a person ever getting into this critical phase of COVID-19. That’s why early intervention, taking 1,000 mg of vitamin C an hour upon first signs of infection, is likely to save even more lives. This reduces duration and severity of symptoms, with most people becoming symptom-free within 24 hours.
It takes on average, two weeks of being sick with COVID-19 to trigger the ‘cytokine storm’ phase. During that time, the patient is at risk of becoming vitamin C deficient and then developing acute “induced scurvy.” If you can beat the infection within 48 hours you’ll be out of the woods.
You can lower your risk even further by taking vitamin D (5000 IU/d, or more: 20,000 IU/d for several days if you already have symptoms), magnesium (400 mg/d in malate, citrate, or chloride form), and zinc (20 mg/d) [7-11] Prevention is better than cure.
Pauling put the C in Colds and COVID
Much like Lind’s limes, twice Nobel Prize winner Dr Linus Pauling proved the power of high dose vitamin C in the 1970’s. [12-18] It is thanks to him we know about the benefits of high dose vitamin C. The cover of his landmark book “Vitamin C and the Common Cold” has a statement that reads, in relation to a predicted swine flu epidemic at that time “it is especially important that everyone know that he can protect himself to a considerable extent against the disease, and its consequences, with this important nutrient, vitamin C.” [19]
It’s been 50 years since Pauling proved the anti-viral power of vitamin C. Isn’t it time we took this seriously?
(Patrick Holford is author of over 30 books including Flu Fighters (https://www.patrickholford.com/flu-fighters) and The Optimum Nutrition Bible. He is a member of the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame.)
References
1. Zhang J, Rao X, Li Y, Zhu Y, Liu F, Guo F, Luo G, Meng Z, De Backer D, Xiang H, Peng Z-Y. (2020) High-dose vitamin C infusion for the treatment of critically ill COVID-19. Pulmonology, preprint. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-52778/v2
2. RECOVERY Collaborative Group, Horby P, Lim WS, Emberson JR, et al. (2020) Dexamethasone in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19 – Preliminary Report. N Engl J Med., NEJMoa2021436. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32678530
3. Arvinte C, Singh M, Marik PE. (2020) Serum Levels of Vitamin C and Vitamin D in a Cohort of Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients of a North American Community Hospital Intensive Care Unit in May 2020: A Pilot Study. Medicine in Drug Discovery, 100064. In press, available online 18 September 2020, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32964205 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590098620300518
4. Vizcaychipi MP, Shovlin CL, McCarthy A, et al., (2020) Development and implementation of a COVID-19 near real-time traffic light system in an acute hospital setting. Emerg Med J. 37:630-636. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32948623
5. Worldometer (2020) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
6. Chiscano-Camón L, Ruiz-Rodriguez JC, Ruiz-Sanmartin A, Roca O, Ferrer R. (2020) Vitamin C levels in patients with SARS-CoV-2-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome. Critical Care, 24:522. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32847620
7. Rasmussen MPF (2020) Vitamin C Evidence for Treating Complications of COVID-19 and other Viral Infections. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n25.shtml
8. Downing D (2020) How we can fix this pandemic in a month (Revised edition). Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n49.shtml
9. Castillo ME, Costa LME, Barriosa JMV et al., (2020) Effect of calcifediol treatment and best available therapy versus best available therapy on intensive care unit admission and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19: A pilot randomized clinical study. J Steroid Biochem and Molec Biol. 203, 105751. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32871238
10. Holford P. (2020) Vitamin C for the Prevention and Treatment of Coronavirus. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n36.shtml
11. Gonzalez MJ (2020) Personalize Your COVID-19 Prevention: An Orthomolecular Protocol. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n31.shtml
12. Pauling L. (1974) Are recommended daily allowances for vitamin C adequate? Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 71:4442-4446. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4612519
13. Pauling L. (1973) Ascorbic acid and the common cold. Scott Med J. 18:1-2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4577802
14. Pauling L. (1972) Vitamin C. Science. 177:1152. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17847190
15. Pauling L. (1971) The significance of the evidence about ascorbic acid and the common cold. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 68:2678-2681. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4941984
16. Pauling L. (1971) Ascorbic acid and the common cold. Am J Clin Nutr. 24:1294-1299. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4940368
17. Pauling L. (1971) Vitamin C and common cold. JAMA. 216:332. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5107925
18. Pauling L. (1970) Evolution and the need for ascorbic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 67:1643-1648. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5275366
19. Pauling L. (1970) Vitamin C and the Common Cold. W.H.Freeman & Co. ISBN-13:978-0425048535
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tom0mason
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The BIG problem Patrick, is that doses of vitamin C over about a gram or so is NOT well absorbed by the human body. So that 12,000 milligrams (12 grams) of vitamin C twice daily MUST be via an intravenous drip or injections. Oral ingestion of that much raw vitamin C would almost certainly cause gastric problems with this acidic vitamin.
From https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/
IMHO For the fit and non vitamin C compromised individuals, orally taken vitamin C tablets are absorbed better when taken in smaller doses spread over time, e.g. 1gram taken as 6 doses of 170mg, or 8 doses of 125mg (and taken with plenty of liquids). This is especially useful when fighting/recovering from an infection as the smaller doses are more readily absorbed replacing the loss incurred from the infection.
All in all this article shows again that good nutrition — adequate levels of vitamins, and good mineral and micronutrients balance provide protective measures against infections.
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Tom O
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If you reread that first paragraph that mentions the 12000mg, you will notice that it says “in their drip,” so yes, it is intravenous.
Regarding oral doses, I recall reading that at the onset of a cold, 2 grams followed by 2 more grams an hour later tends to stop the cold. I generally take 1.5g grams at first followed by 1g in an hour. The idea is to flood the system with vitamin C so it is immediately available as needed. Since it is a water soluble vitamin, I would think it a waste of time to take much vitamin C “with plenty of fluids” since that will just flush it down the toilet that much faster, and probably before it can be called for.
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richard
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Feb 10, 2020
VITAMIN C AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE TREATMENT OF nCoV CORONAVIRUS
How Vitamin C Reduces Severity and Deaths from Serious Viral Respiratory Diseases
by Andrew W. Saul, Editor
(OMNS February 10, 2020) Most deaths from coronavirus are caused by pneumonia. Vitamin C has been known, for over 80 years, to greatly benefit pneumonia patients.
In 1936 Gander and Niederberger found that vitamin C lowered fever and reduced pain in pneumonia patients. [1]
Also in 1936, Hochwald independently reported similar results. He gave 500 mg of vitamin C every ninety minutes. [2]
McCormick gave 1000 mg vitamin C intravenously, followed by 500 mg orally every hour. He repeated the injection at least once. On the fourth day, his patient felt so well that he voluntarily resumed work, with no adverse effects. [3]
In 1944 Slotkin and Fletcher reported on the prophylactic and therapeutic value of vitamin C in bronchopneumonia, lung abscess, and purulent bronchitis. “Vitamin C has greatly alleviated this condition and promptly restored normal pulmonary function.” [4]
Slotkin further reported that “Vitamin C has been used routinely by the general surgeons in the Millard Fillmore Hospital, Buffalo, as a prophylactic against pneumonia, with complete disappearance of this complication.” [5]
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, there are about 80,000 dead from annual influenzas, escalating to pneumonia, in the USA. Coronavirus is a very serious contagious disease. But contagion to a virus largely depends on the susceptibility of the host. It is well established that low vitamin C levels increase susceptibility to viruses. [6]
Vitamin C lowers mortality
It is one thing to be sick from a virus and another thing entirely to die from a viral-instigated disease. It must be emphasized that a mere 200 mg of vitamin C/day resulted in an 80% decrease in deaths among severely ill, hospitalized respiratory disease patients. [7]
“Vitamin C is effective in reducing duration of severe pneumonia in children less than five years of age. Oxygen saturation was improved in less than one day.” [10]
A single, cheap, big-box discount store vitamin C tablet will provide more than twice the amount used in the study above.
And yes, with vitamin C, more is better.
Frederick R. Klenner and Robert F. Cathcart successfully treated influenza and pneumonia with very high doses of vitamin C. Klenner published on his results beginning in the 1940s; [8] Cathcart beginning in the 1960s. [9] They used both oral and intravenous administration.
A recent placebo controlled study concluded that “vitamin C should be included in treatment protocol of children with pneumonia so that mortality and morbidity can be reduced.” In this study, the majority of the children were infants under one year of age. By body weight, the modest 200 mg dose given, to tiny babies, would actually be the equivalent of 2,000-3,000 mg/day for an adult. [10]
Although many will rightly maintain that the dose should be high, even a low supplemental amount of vitamin C saves lives. This is very important for those with low incomes and few treatment options.
We’re talking about twenty cents’ worth of vitamin C a day to save lives now.
References:
1. Gander and Niederberger. Vitamin C in the handling of pneumonia.” Munch. Med. Wchnschr., 31: 2074, 1956.
Hochwald A. Beobachtunger fiber Ascorbinsaure Wirkung bei der Krupposen Pneumonia.” Wien. Arch. f. inn. Med., 353, 1936.
McCormick WJ. Have we forgotten the lesson of scurvy? J Applied Nutrition, 1962, 15:1 & 2, 4-12. https://www.seleneriverpress.com/historical/have-we-forgotten-the-lesson-of-scurvy/
Slotkin & Fletcher. Ascorbic acid in pulmonary complications following prostatic surgery.” Jour. Urol., 52: Nov. 6, 1944.
Slotkin GE. Personal communication with WJ McCormick. December 2, 1946.
Saul AW. Nutritional treatment of coronavirus. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, 16:6, Jan 30, 2020. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n06.shtml (22 references and 50 recommended papers for further reading)
Hunt C et al. The clinical effects of Vitamin C supplementation in elderly hospitalised patients with acute respiratory infections. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 1994;64:212-19. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7814237
Klenner FR. Observations on the dose and administration of ascorbic acid when employed beyond the range of a vitamin in human pathology. J Applied Nutrition 1971, 23:3&4. http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html
Klenner FR. (1948) Virus pneumonia and its treatment with vitamin C. J South Med Surg 110:36-8. https://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/194x/klenner-fr-southern_med_surg-1948-v110-n2-p36.htm .
Klenner, FR. (1951) Massive doses of vitamin C and the virus diseases. J South Med and Surg, 113:101-107.
Klenner, FR. (1971) Observations on the dose and administration of ascorbic acid when employed beyond the range of a vitamin in human pathology. J. App. Nutr., 23:61-88.
All of Dr. Klenner’s papers are listed and summarized in: Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C (ed. Lendon H. Smith, MD, Life Sciences Press, Tacoma, WA, 1988. This book is posted for free access at http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/198x/smith-lh-clinical_guide_1988.htm
Cathcart RF. (1981) Vitamin C, titrating to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy. Med Hypotheses. 7:1359-76. http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html
Cathcart RF. (1993) The third face of vitamin C. J Orthomolecular Med, 7:197-200. Free access at http://www.doctoryourself.com/cathcart_thirdface.html
Additional Dr. Cathcart papers are posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_cathcart.html
Khan IM et al. (2014) Efficacy of vitamin C in reducing duration of severe pneumonia in children. J Rawalpindi Med Col (JRMC). 18(1):55-57. https://www.journalrmc.com/volumes/1405749894.pdf
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tom0mason
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Richard, thanks for the update.
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SDR
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This is disgusting. The idea of giving a placebo to sick people who could die is immoral and unethical. It must be stopped. Find another way to experiment.
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JaKo
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You’re right, there’s a Minimum Standard of Care — you can test a novel cure against an existing one, BUT NOT AGAINST PLACEBO!
I think all those who require placebo controlled trials in high mortality cases (e.g. Dr. Faust in the case of HCQ, BUT NOT in the case of rag-masks) should undergo a Russian Roulette Trial first…
Cheers, JaKo
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Josh
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Usually they give whatever is the “standard of care” treatments to ALL patients and then the experimental drug only to half or whatever. It’s not unethical for that reason. And what Tom said.
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Tom O
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You’re wrong.It is neither immoral or unethical. You have no idea when you start a treatment whether or not you are going to help a patient with the treatment or kill them or do nothing at all. The only way you can determine that it works is to test it against nothing at all. If you continue to test it after you have determined great success and do nothing to get the treatment out to the general public, then that would be unethical and immoral. You have to test to insure that a treatment works generally, not just happens to for some specific people but ends up killing many others. What you want is immoral and unethical.
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Finn McCool
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The fact is that there is such a load of nonsense about SC2 infections and what will ‘cure’ it.
Who cares?
It kills almost exclusively, those who are over 70 with existing complications.
It is a mild infection in almost 99% of the population.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the numbers are being fiddled.
This is a political pandemic not a viral one.
Your right to freedom of thought, expression and speech – gone.
Your right to freedom of movement – gone.
Your right to privacy – gone
Your right to freedom of assembly, association and protest – gone.
Your right to own and operate your business – gone.
Your right to earn – gone.
Your right to Health care – gone.
The governments right to give £3 billion of taxpayer money to old pals – well that’s alright.
The governments right to donate billions of taxpayer money to big pharma companies for the holy grail of ‘the vaccine’. – That’s alright.
No liability if you kill or badly injure someone with your product. That’s alright if you are a big pharma company.
Lockdown is a middle class luxury which may well come back to haunt when the redundancy notices start being sent out.
We are the first species in the history of evolution ever to purposefully interfere with its ability to breathe.
Vitamin C or D or HCQ or shoving a UV lamp up your bum or spending billions on PCR tests is just a distraction. A conjuror’s trick.
The rights we had will not be freely given back.
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Tom O
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I don’t suppose you happened to notice that Melania Trump described her approach to COVID-19 recovery as “more traditional, one based on vitamins and eating healthy.” I found that one of the most profound statements made to date about what to do if you get sick. I was wondering if that went anyplace other than Breitbart News
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Dean Michael Jackson
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“I don’t suppose you happened to notice that Melania Trump described her approach to COVID-19 recovery as “more traditional, one based on vitamins and eating healthy.” ‘
You mention a Marxist rag and the Yugoslav communist First Lady’s agitation and propaganda regarding the COVID-19 ‘pantasy’! Why?
The mainstream media and ‘false opposition’ ‘conservative’ media have conspired to not direct the public’s attention to Trump marrying into a Soviet Bloc Marxist family, whose father-in-law – Viktor Knavs – is a Yugoslav communist party member Quisling, and currently living in the White House under the protection of the Secret Service, otherwise Viktor and wife would be murdered by Yugoslav expatriates, which is why they had to flee Yugoslavia.
Google: express UK trump father communist
Instead of derailing Trump’s presidential bid by inundating the airwaves and cable lines with Trump marrying into a Soviet Bloc Marxist family, the mainstream media naturally supported their man by spiking the shocking news.
The Marxist mainstream media’s darling.
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Lloyd
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Well, you have just destroyed any reputation for scientific truth with this bizarre conspiracy. Yugoslavia resisted the Soviet Bloc, had their own style of Socialism. Then they fell apart after Tito. We may not like Socialism like Tito wanted, but to claim Trump is now part of a Marxist Conspiracy for marrying a International Model who got the hell out of the region? Your ranting is off the rails.
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