Excessive doses of intravenous vitamin C aren’t any simpler than a placebo in the case of treating sufferers hospitalized with extreme COVID-19 infections, a brand new research exhibits.
Printed in JAMA, the research in contrast therapy regimens and their resultant outcomes in round 1,600 critically ailing sufferers being handled in intensive care items as a consequence of COVID. Researchers discovered that not solely did the addition of vitamin C infusions not enhance affected person outcomes, in some circumstances, they really made them worse.
Sufferers from greater than 130 therapy websites had been included within the evaluation. They had been divided randomly into teams that acquired both vitamin C infusions, a placebo or no therapy change in any respect. The vitamin C group underwent infusions intravenously each six hours for 96 hours, for a most of 16 doses.
In comparison with the critically ailing sufferers who got a placebo or no vitamin C infusions in any respect, those that did obtain the infusions had been discovered to be round 3% much less more likely to survive to hospital discharge.
Critically ailing sufferers handled with vitamin C had been additionally noticed to have fewer organ support-free days — days that didn’t require issues like air flow, supplemental oxygen and transfusions — than sufferers who didn’t obtain the infusions.
There have been no vital variations between sufferers who weren’t critically ailing within the therapy teams, prompting the research’s authors to recommend that the therapy had a “low chance of bettering outcomes.”
Because the begin of the COVID pandemic, specialists have explored the utility of a whole lot of potential remedies for the virus. Throughout that point, conspiracy theorists with out infectious illness backgrounds had been fast to supply their enter on the matter, touting the whole lot from consuming extreme quantities of alcohol to taking capsules meant to eradicate parasites in animals as COVID cure-alls.
Using vitamin C, often known as ascorbic acid, inevitably bought caught within the crossfire between medical professionals and pseudoscience lovers. It’s, in spite of everything, recognized for its capability to boost immunity and specialists encourage the inclusion of vitamin C in virtually all balanced diets.
Nevertheless, in the case of COVID, the info on whether or not vitamin C can profit sufferers has been conflicting. A earlier meta-analysis discovered that vitamin C infusions did scale back hospital mortality, however a handful of different research haven’t discovered it to enhance outcomes. This newest analysis lends its help to the latter.