Saturday Nov 9, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Intravenous (IV) infusions of vitamin C can help relieve the skeletal muscle fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study reported recently in the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

IV infusion can deliver high doses of vitamin C into the bloodstream.   This method has been used by some alternative oncologists to treat cancer with vitamin C and other vitamins like B17.

The study led by Matthew J. Rossman of the George E. Whalen VA Medical Center and the University of Utah shows that COPD patients who received the IV infusions of vitamin C experienced less muscle fatigue and breathed better and slower.  And also vitamin C infusions lowered resting blood pressure and blood flow in the study patients.

The study also found that vitamin C IV infusions led to a significant increase in blood antioxidant activity in the COPD patients receiving vitamin C, compared with those receiving placebo.

In COPD patients, the lungs lose their inherent springiness making it harder for patients to breathe, which affects patients' physical activity or exercise due to the skeletal muscle fatigue patients experience.  It is assumed that oxidative stress is one of the several factors implicated in the problematic muscle fatigue.  

Thus the researchers proposed that antioxidants like vitamin C in high doses may help relieve the skeletal muscle fatigue in COPD patients.  They conducted the study to test the idea to see whether the skeletal muscle fatigue is in part caused by oxidative stress which can be eased by increasing the plasma antioxidative activity.

The study involved 10 COPD patients who were advised to perform a set of knee extension exercises and receive either an IV infusion of vitamin C or saline as control before the set.  Either the researchers nor the patients knew which infusion the participants received.  

Two to three days later, the routine was repeated, getting infusions and performing knee exercises.  This time, before and after exercises, blood samples were drawn to test for antioxidant activity and immediately after exercises, a set of tests were carried out including "the volunteers' breathing and heart rate, blood pressure, feelings of exertion of breathlessness, and blood flow."

The findings from the study indicate that skeletal muscle fatigue in COPD patients has something to do with oxidative stress and IV infusion of vitamin C can help the patients to breath better and feel less fatigued during exercise or physical activity. (David Liu, PHD)