Thursday, July 14, 2016 (foodconsumer.org) -- A study report presented at Chest World Congress 2016 held in Shanghai, China suggests that high doses of vitamin C can effectively treat influenza A infections. Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid or ascorbate.Early findings have already indicated that oral supplementation with vitamin C can shorten the duration of flu or influenza infections. Tamiflu, a FDA approved medication indicated to treat flu, can too provide a similar effect against flu. The difference is, Tamiflu should be used in the beginning of the infection to have an effect while vitamin C can be taken during the infection to have an effect.The current study led by Linling Cheng, MD at Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Disease in Guangzhou, China shows that pharmacologic doses of vitamin C can be more effective than orally administered vitamin C.For the study, Dr. Cheng tested pharmacologic vitamin C in vitro first and found treatment with pharmacologic vitamin C reduced or even eliminated infectivity of influenza A viruses, H3N2, H1N12009 and H1N12009, which are known to be resistant to Tamiflu or oseltamivir.In mice infected with those viruses, vitamin C at such doses reduced lung viral titers by 10 to 100 fold and prevented weight loss and death. The effect was not observed in mice treated with oral vitamin C. Additionally, infected mice treated with pharmacologic vitamin C showed minimal damage in the lung tissues if any while controls suffered clear signs of inflammation. In vitro studies showed the antiviral effect was dose-dependent. At 20mM, vitamin C completely blocked viral replication. In infected mice treated with pharmacologic vitamin C, viral concentrations in the lung were reduced by at least 10 times. Early treatment with vitamin C rendered the best efficacy against influenza infections.The study suggests that pharmacologic vitamin C is an effective treatment for influenza A. Previous studies indicate that vitamin C therapy is very safe and does not cause any harm to normal cells. Vitamin C therapy is important because when an influenza pandemic strikes, high doses of vitamin C may be used to treat deadly influenza infections. So far, the Food and Drug Administration has not approved vitamin C as a treatment for any medical conditions including flu. (David Liu)More study reports
Intravenous Vitamin C and Cancer: A Systematic Review.
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