Life saving high dose vitamin D and C
BMJ Rapid Response by Dr Ellen Grant to: Covid-19's known unknowns (BMJ 2020:371:m3979 19.10.2020)
Rapid Response:
BMJ: Life saving high dose Vitamin D and Vitamin C Re: Covid-19’s known unknowns
Dear Editor
Life saving high dose Vitamin D and IV Vitamin C
A big problem causing unknowns is the failure to use basic biochemical tests of essential nutrients except in private practice or research to see that deficiencies of zinc, magnesium and Vitamin D and Vitamin C are very common and need to be supplemented. It is becoming clearer that high blood levels of vitamin D and Vitamin C are needed to prevent Covid-19 deaths. [1-3]
Having started measuring zinc and copper levels in my patients in the 1970s, I became a founder member of the British Society for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine in 1983. It is now the British Society for Ecological Medicine and the US and international equivalent is Orthomolecular Medicine, which has a free News Service (OMNS).
W. Gifford-Jones, MD (OMNS Oct 20, 2020) writes that Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, counselled, "First, do no harm" but this has not been followed because of closed minds about the life-saving medical benefits of high doses of intravenous vitamin C. He writes that infection triggers a severe inflammatory cellular reaction in the body which results in a decrease in vitamin C. It's like being caught in a snow storm on a lonely road and running out of gas, but in this case white blood cells need C to fight the infection and if you have not been taking C on a regular basis, your white blood cells without C are like a gun without bullets.
Interestingly, Gifford-Jones also writes that many people do not realize that nearly all animals make their own vitamin C but humans lost this ability eons ago due to a genetic mutation. For instance, dogs produce 5,000 milligrams (mgs) daily. Health Canada maintains humans need only 90 mgs. But if a dog gets an infection, it will automatically produce up to 20,000 mgs daily!
Gifford-Jones concludes that it's time for the government to demand that medical schools conduct a study of intravenous Vitamin C and there is no shortage of patients. Vitamin C is inexpensive and will virtually never cause complications and has never killed anyone. [1] Besides, this study could be done in a short time and not require thousands of patients.
Dr Damien Downing (OMNS Oct 6, 2020) cites a study showing that a vitamin D3 blood level of at least 75 nmol/L (30 ng/ml) is needed for protection against COVID-19. [2] An adult will need to take 4000 IU/day of vitamin D3 for 3 months to reliably achieve a 75 nmol/L level. [3] Persons of colour may need twice as much. These doses can prevent, i.e. they can greatly reduce the risk of severe illness, but they are not enough for treatment of an acute viral infection - that takes the 60,000 to 120,000 IU dose acute intervention.
The message that BAME population to take extra vitamin D does not seem to be getting through yet.
1 Cheng RZ. (2020) Preliminary Report of Chinese High Dose Vitamin C for Covid-19 Treatment Studies. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n42.shtml Medicine News Service. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n42.shtml
2 Castillo, M. E., Entrenas Costa, L. M., Vaquero Barrios, J. M., Alcalá Díaz, J. F., Miranda, J. L., Bouillon, R., & Quesada Gomez, J. M. "Effect of Calcifediol Treatment and best Available Therapy versus best Available Therapy on Intensive Care Unit Admission and Mortality Among Patients Hospitalized for COVID-19: A Pilot Randomized Clinical study". The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2002;105751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsbmb.2020.105751
3 Vieth R, Chan PC, MacFarlane GD. (2001) Efficacy and safety of vitamin D(3) intake exceeding the lowest observed adverse effect level. Am J Clin Nutr, 73:288-294. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11157326.
Competing interests: No competing interests
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3979/rr-7
For the original article see here