Experts doubt the effectiveness of vitamin C in the treatment of coronavirus

The effectiveness of vitamin C in the treatment of covid-19 has not yet been sufficiently proven to recommend it for the treatment of CORONAVIRUS patients. Such an opinion in a conversation with RBC was voiced by an infectious disease specialist, pediatrician, professor of the Department of Pediatrics of the Moscow Regional Research Clinical Institute. M.F. Vladimirsky Elena Meskina.

A day earlier, The Telegraph newspaper, citing New Zealand scientists, reported on the positive effect of vitamin C on the body's fight against coronavirus infection. Anita Carr of the University of Otago reported that patients who took it had reduced markers of inflammation while their blood oxygen levels increased. In addition, according to scientists, the effectiveness of vitamin C compared with placebo was 70%, the optimal dose for use, according to their calculations, is from 6 to 24 g intravenously.

“I would treat the results of this study with caution. We cannot yet assess the risks of exposure to high doses of this vitamin. Infection, including covid, and inflammatory processes make the body's environment more acidic than necessary. And ascorbic acid in high doses also leads to "acidification", so to speak. Will this negatively affect the metabolic processes in the body? Meskina said.

The infectious disease specialist indicated that before making a decision on the use of vitamin C in the treatment, it is necessary to conduct more detailed studies in which the balance of harm and benefit of such a treatment method will be assessed.