Vitamin C Benefits

April 27, 2020
|In News, COVID 19
|By Beljanski Foundation
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that humans are unable to synthesize. Vitamin C benefits for the body are vast. Since Vitamin C is essential to numerous enzymatic reactions, as well as a potent antioxidant, it is important to obtain it from the diet.
Studies in the 1970s and 1980s conducted by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, and colleagues suggested that large doses of Vitamin C could be helpful to terminal cancer patients (1). Not surprisingly, and as anything else that is not expensive and seem to help cancer patients, controversy surrounding the efficacy of vitamin C in cancer treatment ensued. Beside the use for cancer patients, Vitamin C has also been widely used for decades to boost immunity during cold and flu season or to treat viral infections. Indeed Vitamin C affects several components of the human immune system. In vitro, Vitamin C has been shown to stimulate both the production (2-6) and function (7,8) of leukocytes, those white blood cells which are at the core of our immune system and help us fight back when a threat is lurking.
A 2019 review article published in the European Journal of Microbiology and Immunology reports that the “potent antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and anti-infectious effects of Vitamin C have been known since the 1930s” and that Vitamin C has antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiviral, anti-parasitic and anti-fungal properties. The Shanghai government in early March announced its official recommendation that COVID-19 should be treated with high doses of Vitamin C, from 4000 to 16,000 mg per day administered by IV. According to Dr. Richard Cheng, a US board-certified specialist in anti-aging medicine reporting from China, “Early and sufficiently large doses of intravenous Vitamin C are critical. Vitamin C is not only a prototypical antioxidant, but also involved in virus killing and prevention of viral replication.”
No, just like for the use of Vitamin C against cancer, it is pushing back against the use of Vitamin C against a virus. On social media, there have been reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has convened meetings with Facebook, Amazon, Google and more to stop coronavirus (COVID-19) “misinformation”. Information about the anti-infectious benefits of Vitamin C is listed as misinformation. As reported in the January 2016 issue of Pharmaceutical Technology (9) only one-quarter of WHO’s funding comes from member states, while 75% of the WHO’s budget is from pharmaceutical companies and related interests, with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation being the biggest founder. Its donations even exceed those of any individual member state. In 2017, India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) severed its ties with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to India Times (10) “There were questions about the Gates Foundation’s ties with pharmaceutical companies and the possible influence this may have on the country’s vaccination strategy.” The Indian Health Ministry confirmed that the NTAGI would from there on be fully funded by the central government instead. Today, we have Gates, a key founder of WHO, calling for a 10-week or longer shutdown of the U.S. and the rapid building of brand new vaccine manufacturing facilities to handle the manufacturing of billions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Who benefits and who loses by the implementation of those two recommendations? Could that have anything to do with poo-pooing Vitamin C? Think about it. Let us know your thoughts by contacting us here.

References

  1. Cameron E, Pauling L. Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: Prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976;73(10):3685-3689. (PubMed)
  2. Jariwalla RJ, Harakeh S. Antiviral and immunomodulatory activities of ascorbic acid. In: Harris JR, ed. Subcellular Biochemistry. Vol. 25. Ascorbic Acid: Biochemistry and Biomedical Cell Biology. New York: Plenum Press; 1996:215-231.
  3. Kennes B, Dumont I, Brohee D, Hubert C, Neve P. Effect of vitamin C supplements on cell-mediated immunity in old people. Gerontology. 1983;29(5):305-310. (PubMed)
  4. Panush RS, Delafuente JC, Katz P, Johnson J. Modulation of certain immunologic responses by vitamin C. III. Potentiation of in vitro and in vivo lymphocyte responses. Int J Vitam Nutr Res Suppl. 1982;23:35-47. (PubMed)
  5. Prinz W, Bortz R, Bregin B, Hersch M. The effect of ascorbic acid supplementation on some parameters of the human immunological defence system. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 1977;47(3):248-257. (PubMed)
  6. Vallance S. Relationships between ascorbic acid and serum proteins of the immune system. Br Med J. 1977;2(6084):437-438. (PubMed)
  7. Anderson R, Oosthuizen R, Maritz R, Theron A, Van Rensburg AJ. The effects of increasing weekly doses of ascorbate on certain cellular and humoral immune functions in normal volunteers. Am J Clin Nutr. 1980;33(1):71-76. (PubMed)
  8. Levy R, Shriker O, Porath A, Riesenberg K, Schlaeffer F. Vitamin C for the treatment of recurrent furunculosis in patients with impaired neutrophil functions J. Infect Dis. 1996;173(6):1502-1505. (PubMed)
  9. Pharmaceutical Technology January 1, 2016; 40(1): 16-17
  10. India Times February 9, 2017