With COVID-19 surging after the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season, and the two vaccines, to date, relatively slow in the initial inoculation phase, any potential, safe, preventive therapy, as an adjunct to current modes of treatment, is a blessing.

Researchers from the United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand report in the December 2020 issue of the online, peer reviewed journal Nutrients, that, “vitamin C’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulating effects make it a potential therapeutic candidate, both for the prevention and amelioration of COVID-19 infection, and as an adjunctive therapy in the critical care of COVID-19.”

The research, Vitamin C – An Adjunct Therapy for Respiratory Infection, Sepsis, and COVID-19, states that, “the evidence to date indicates that oral vitamin C (2–8 g/day) may reduce the incidence and duration of respiratory infections, and intravenous vitamin C (6–24 g/day) has been shown to reduce mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital stays, and time on mechanical ventilation for severe respiratory infections.”

Vitamin C, a water-soluble nutrient, is derived by humans only from the diet or supplementary intake – owing to a gene mutation prior to the human evolutionary period, unlike certain other species.

The researchers point out that in the European Union, the average vitamin C requirement is 90 mg/day for men and 80 mg/day for women, while the Swiss Society of Nutrition recommends that, “everyone supplement with 200 mg to fill the gap for the general population, and especially, for adults age 65 and older.”

The Linus Pauling Institute, here in the US, recommends 400 mg of vitamin C per day for adults 50 years and older.

“Pharmacokinetic studies in healthy volunteers,” comment the researchers, “support a 200 mg daily dose to produce a plasma level of circa 70 to 90 μmol/L. Complete plasma saturation occurs between 1 g daily and 3 g every four hours, being the highest tolerated oral dose, giving a predicted peak plasma concentration of circa 220 μmol/L.”

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