Coronavirus Treatment: NY Doctor Treats COVID-19 With Massive Doses of Vitamin C

[highplainsdem]

https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-treatment-new-york-treats-covid-19-massive-doses-vitamin-c-2946440

Dr. Andrew Weber, a pulmonologist and critical-care specialist, observed that the Vitamin C levels in coronavirus patients show a dramatic decrease when they are confronted with sepsis.

Sepsis is the result of an inflammatory response caused when the body’s immune system shifts into overdrive and overreacts to an infection, in this case, the SARS-CoV2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease. Sepsis comes with a litany of symptoms also associated with COVID-19 and it can quickly kill a patient if not treated.

While researchers are scrambling to find a vaccine, Dr. Weber has been administering 1,500 milligrams of Vitamin C intravenously to patients who are in intensive care battling the disease. That same dosage is then repeated three or four times over 24 hours.

The treatment is based on reports from China where massive doses of the powerful antioxidant supposedly helped patients. China is on the “downside” of the pandemic slope, with fewer number of new cases reported each day.

-snip-

The article goes on to quote the doctor saying the vitamin "helps a tremendous amount" but isn't getting more attention because "it’s not a sexy drug."

There's also a paragraph saying the two Northwell Health facilities where this doctor is affiliated said vitamin C was being "widely used" throughout the system, but protocols vary from patient to patient, and they wouldn't say how many patients are being given vitamin C.

[hlthe2b]

1. Count me skeptical, but the late Linus Pauling certainly approves.

I just hope they are doing so in a truly controlled protocol so its benefits, if any, can be validly established.

[highplainsdem]

2. Based on my own experience with vitamin C, I'm anything but skeptical about this.

[hlthe2b]

3. I don't deny vitamin c has benefits, but a long stretch to equate routine use to COVID-19

I'd be happy to see it, if so. But, not with haphazard use with no comparisons nor outcomes and appropriate endpoints documented.

[womanofthehills]

6. My allergy doc recommends taking buffered ViT C to bowel tolerance every half hr when sick.

I’m making fresh carrot juice today. I think I will go take a Vit c. Actually, she said buffered is best to take when your sick because when you are sick your body can turn acidic.

[superpatriotman]

13. Danger if there's no TP

Max dosing your body on vitamin C can cause horrible diarrhea

[dweller]

4. wonder if there will be

any left on the shelves by morning
🤔


✌🏼

[Jirel]

5. Already getting Vitamin C scams by email.

They're in full bloom, saying it's a cure.

[RhodeIslandOne]

15. Vitamin C has already been popular immune system drug

Emergen-C is what I’ve been taking every day for three weeks now.

[IcyPeas]

7. ...250,000,000 americans run to their drug store for Vitamin C...

I bet they will be sold out of vitamin C now. toilet paper, water, vitamin C.......

[lagomorph777]

10. When will the hoarders run out of money so normal people can buy necessities?

[montanacowboy]

8. I have been an avid follower of Linus Pauling for years

I have taken massive Vitamin C dosage everyday and believe it is the answer to a lot that ails us

Not only do I take a pill form but everyday have fresh squeezed OJ.

[Disaffected]

14. Please don't do or spread this:

There is no credible evidence that massive Vit C doses have any beneficial effect on healthy individuals. It is snake oil.

[orwell]

9. I already take...

...two to three grams of powdered vitamin C a day. I put it in my water bottle which I sip from during the day. I have been upping it since the pandemic hit. You can buy Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) in bulk for about $10 a lb. 1/4 teaspoon = 1 gram of c.

The type of C treatment doctors use is direct injection into the blood stream through IV at 10 to 30x the rate I am using.

It certainly can't hurt... The main side effect of too much C is diarrhea or loose bowel movements.

[IcyPeas]

11. "It certainly can't hurt...

The main side effect of too much C is diarrhea or loose bowel movements."

which might be okay if you can get toilet paper. (I couldn't resist)

[orwell]

18. I suspect someone named IcyPeas...

...would be an expert on TP.

[IcyPeas]

19. oh no

my name has taken on an entirely new meaning

[RockRaven]

12. Treating a marker or symptom is a far cry from treating the condition causing said marker or symptom

Does it actually alter the viral disease course or is it supportive thus allowing the patient to better survive the viral disease course? Both are important, but they are very different in terms of what is means for less sick patients. These anecdotes are intriguing, tantalizing, etc but as a popular medical podcaster often says: "the plural of anecdotes is not 'data.'"

As for the article itself, note the specific caveat:
"the Vitamin C levels in coronavirus patients show a dramatic decrease when they are confronted with sepsis." Not much of a surprise. Sepsis creates a lot of oxidative stress; sepsis fucks up all kinds of metabolic and physiologic markers. Does this virus affect Vit C levels in asymptomatic or less sick patients? Who knows?

It does not follow, from this doctor's experience treating critical care patients, that Vit C is useful for the general population of coronavirus patients. This is, at the moment, an "inside baseball" sort of thing best left out of public conversations or you get people overdosing like those people who ingested aquarium cleaner*. If you are sick enough to be in an ICU, other people will be deciding what medicines you take anyway. When there's evidence that Vit C has any usefulness for people who are making their own medicine decisions, then publish an article like this.


*While generally fat soluble vitamins are the ones to worry about people overdosing on at home**, it is possible to have side effects from high doses of water soluble vitamins. If one takes too much Vit C by mouth, especially a naive person, one can experience an osmotic diarrhea. Fun stuff.

**Don't take medical advice from semi-random people on the internet.

[peggysue2]

16. I've taken 500-1000 mg of Vitamin C since I was in my early 30s

My doctors have routinely poo-poohed the idea but I've been convinced that my good health is in part related to the daily dose. I started the C therapy after a case of double pneumonia. Miserable. Decided I never wanted to feel that sick again. I'd read a medical paper on the positive effects of Vit. C and decided to give it a try. Overtime, you build up a tolerance to the bowel effects of the mega doses. But that early discomfort is a small price to pay for what I consider the long-term benefits.

In this case with Covid-19? If Vitamin C can help then there's every reason to give it a try.

As for myself, I'm a firm believer.

[tanyev]

17. If only Dipshit 45 had fixated on this instead of hydroxychloroquinine.

Last edited Fri Mar 27, 2020, 04:14 PM - Edit history (1)

At least if Vitamin C doesn’t work, the only negative effect is a run for the bathroom.

[Blaukraut]

20. There have been legitimate studies on the effects of Vitamin D (not C) on respiratory diseases

I have RADS (reactive airway dysfunction syndrome) and every time I have a flare-up I need to take a 2-3k IU of Vitamin D3 for two weeks or so. Had my condition been diagnosed sooner, the VD3 regimen might have cured it.

I wonder if this is something that is being considered as an option for COVID 19. Not to cure it, but to lessen the severity of the respiratory symptoms.