Vitamin C intervention for critical COVID-19: a pragmatic review of the current level of evidence
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Holford, Patrick
Carr, Anitra C
Zawari, Masuma
Vizcaychipi, Marcela P
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Severe respiratory infections are characterized by elevated inflammation and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) which may lead to a decrease in antioxidants such as vitamin C and a higher requirement for the vitamin. Administration of intravenous vitamin C to patients with pneumonia and sepsis appears to decrease the severity of the disease and potentially improve survival rate. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection causes pneumonia, sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in severe cases, and is referred to as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Patients with COVID-19 infection also appear to have depleted vitamin C status and require additional supplementation of vitamin C during the acute phase of the disease. To date there have been 12 vitamin C and COVID-19 trials published, including five randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and seven retrospective cohort studies. The current level of evidence from the RCTs suggests that intravenous vitamin C intervention may improve oxygenation parameters, reduce inflammatory markers, decrease days in hospital and reduce mortality, particularly in the more severely ill patients. High doses of oral vitamin C supplementation may also improve the rate of recovery in less severe cases. No adverse events have been reported in published vitamin C clinical trials in COVID-19 patients. Upcoming findings from larger RCTs will provide additional evidence on vitamin supplementation in COVID-19 patients.
Date Issued
2021-11-01
Date Acceptance
2021-09-27
Citation
Life, 2021, 11 (11)
ISSN
2075-1729
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Life
Volume
11
Issue
11
Copyright Statement
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34833042
PII: life11111166
Subjects
COVID-19
SARS-CoV2
acute respiratory distress syndrome
clinical trials
intravenous vitamin C
pneumonia
randomised controlled trials
sepsis
vitamin C
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
1166
Date Publish Online
2021-11-01