HOW VITAMIN C, VITAMIN D, AND ZINC CAN STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Research has shown that daily doses of vitamin C, vitamin D-3 and Zinc offer significant boosts to the immune system. Zinc is also an essential mineral to the thymus gland, which orchestrates the immune function in the human body.

This is why Hospitals Are Now Using Mega-Doses Of Vitamin C To Help COVID-19 Patients

We’ve reached a point where the COVID-19 epidemic has become very serious in the United States. The U.S. currently has the most confirmed cases out of any country in the world. And New York has been particularly hard hit.

New York City hospitals are being flooded with very sick people, and they’re having a hard time keeping up. Unfortunately, that means more people are dying.

Of course, New York medical staff is doing everything they can to keep people alive. And that includes one tactic that may surprise a lot of people — they’re giving mega-doses of vitamin C to people who are seriously ill with COVID-19.

You’ve probably heard in the past that vitamin C can support a healthy immune system. It’s why so many people take vitamin C supplements when they feel like they’re coming down with a cold or flu.

But there’s still a lot of conjecture about whether vitamin C works for things like colds and flu, let alone something as serious as COVID-19. So, what’s prompting NYC doctors to use it during this major crisis? Promising reports from China, that’s what.

Here’s what they found.

Vitamin C Helps With Corona-virus-Related Sepsis

Scientists at Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China, have started a clinical trial to see if vitamin C can improve outcomes for people with COVID-19. They believe that when the testing is done, they may be able to prove that vitamin C reduces the lung inflammation caused by the disease.

There are at least two other clinical trials on vitamin C and COVID-19 underway in China too. And the Shanghai Medical Association released official guidelines in early March in which experts endorsed high dose intravenous vitamin C to treat COVID-19.

Promising reports from these efforts have inspired doctors at Northwell Health hospitals in New York to incorporate vitamin C into the treatment regimen for some patients right away.

Dr. Andrew G. Weber, a pulmonologist and critical-care specialist affiliated with two Northwell Health facilities on Long Island, is giving COVID-19 ICU patients under his care 1,500 milligrams of intravenous vitamin C immediately upon being admitted. These patients then continue to receive this same dosage three to four times per day. And he’s not the only doctor in the Northwell Health hospital system using vitamin C for COVID-19 patients.

Northwell Health has 23 hospitals, and a spokesperson for the hospital system said that vitamin C was being “widely used” (although, it’s not used for every COVID-19 patient). Besides vitamin C, doctors are using the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin, Zinc, and a variety of biological drugs to fight COVID-19. But at this point, all the treatments doctors are using are somewhat experimental since we don’t have substantial evidence for what helps with this virus yet.

In addition to the fact that promising reports are coming from China, Dr. Weber says he’s using vitamin C because it may be able to help patients get through sepsis, an inflammatory response that happens when your body overreacts to an infection. Sepsis is what’s killing many COVID-19 patients.

According to Weber, when COVID-19 patients develop sepsis, their vitamin C levels plummet. And he believes maintaining high vitamin C levels may be able to help them.

Previous studies on sepsis and vitamin C show that Weber may be right. One 2019 study found that intravenous vitamin C reduced the risk of death in sepsis patients by 16 percent within 28 days. It also helped people get out of the Intensive Care Unit three days earlier and go home from the hospital a week earlier.

However, vitamin C is just one piece of a larger puzzle that supports a healthy immune system. When talking about strengthening your immune system, we also have to consider including both Vitamin D and Zinc.

Your body needs Zinc to create infection-fighting white blood cells known as T-cells (t-lymphocytes). That may be why research shows that children and older adults who are deficient in Zinc are more at risk for pneumonia and other infections.

But what about viruses? And most importantly, what about the novel corona-viruses?

There is scientific evidence that Zinc can stop the spread of viruses. A 2010 study found that increasing the amount of Zinc available in cells can prevent viruses, including corona-virus, from replicating and multiplying in your throat and nasopharynx.

There’s also evidence that Zinc can help with the common cold. In some cases, the common cold is caused by a corona-virus, in other cases, a rhinovirus. Zinc can shorten the length of colds caused by rhinovirus and can improve cold symptoms like congestion, nasal drainage, sore throats, and coughs.

Here are some essential thoughts on the zinc dosage.

In the case of colds, research shows taking 75 mg of Zinc within the first 24 hours of cold symptoms does reduce symptoms. But be warned, taking too much Zinc could make your immunity worse rather than better. Taking more than 150 mg of Zinc per day can cause zinc toxicity. And do you know one of the side effects of zinc toxicity? Reduced immune function. So, it’s a fine antiviral line you’re walking with Zinc.

And last but not least, Vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is a hormone. Long suppressed by the medical establishment, it is now reluctantly embraced. More and more studies by mainstream medical publications are showing vitamin D3’s benefits in suppressing a host of infections. A study published by the National Institutes of Health in PubMed in 2012 stated, “vitamin D is a key factor linking innate and adaptive immunity, and both of these functions may be compromised under conditions of vitamin D insufficiency.”

One of the best ways to boost your vitamin D levels naturally is with sunshine. Foods like beef liver, cheese, egg yolks, and fatty fish also add vitamin D to your diet. Cod liver oil is a time-honored source as well.

To get Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, and Zinc you need to strengthen your immune system, call Doctor’s Nutrition today at 228-897-0070.

1. New York hospitals treating coronavirus patients with vitamin C — New York Post
2. Hospitals turn to high-dose vitamin C to fight coronavirus — Nutraingredients
3. New York Hospitals are Using Vitamin C to Treat Some Coronavirus Patients — Newsweek
4. New study links vitamin C therapy to better survival rates after sepsis — MedicaXpress
5. Can Zinc Lozenges Ward Off Coronavirus? What Doctors Say — MedicineNet