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Bill Sardi
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Posted February 15, 2021: by Bill Sardi
Aw, another vitamin study fizzles. Just when almost-everybody is taking vitamin pills in hopes of staving off a COVID-19 infection, a study concludes two mainstays of dietary supplementation, mega-dose vitamin C and high-dose zinc, failed to shorten the number of days of symptomatic infection among 214 adult outpatients freshly diagnosed with COVID-19. Investigators concluded “these supplements cannot be recommended to reduce symptom morbidity in such patients.” Or can they?
A pretty hefty dose of vitamin C (8000 milligrams in divided doses) was given to these COVID-19 patients, diagnosed by the notoriously inaccurate PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test that yields many false positives. Given that vitamin C is rapidly excreted, doses spread out over time achieve higher blood serum concentrations than a single mega-dose. According to one study, the optimal vitamin C frequency is 4 times a day.
Blood plasma levels of vitamin C may fluctuate considerably immediately following food or supplement ingestion. Vitamin C, being water soluble and rapidly excreted, may only reflect recent consumption. Hence the need for repeated doses. Consequently, the most reliable information can only be retrieved from a blood sample of a fasted individual. Without vitamin C blood serum levels there is no way investigators can accurately conclude vitamin C is useless in treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Viruses dramatically deplete vitamin C levels within red blood cells. Low levels of vitamin C (below 17 micromole/blood sample) is associated with high mortality rates. Maybe even 8000 milligrams of vitamin C did not significantly raise blood levels in these patients.
A prior study published in 1999 that utilized hourly 1000-milligram doses of vitamin C for the first 6 hours and then 3 times daily thereafter, was reported to reduce cold symptoms by 85% compared with a control group. Another meta-analysis concluded that administration of extra-dose vitamin C at the onset of a common cold can shorten the time confined indoors by about 10 hours.
Also, it makes no sense to leave most critically ill COVID-19 patients in a vitamin C-deficient state. One study reveals ~75% of critically ill patients have abnormally low blood plasma levels of vitamin C.
The combination of vitamin C + zinc is more efficacious, at least for the common cold.
High-dose zinc is counterproductive. That is because the more zinc that is consumed the more metallothionein, the binding protein for zinc, is produced. High-dose zinc will literally bind up all the zinc so it is not biologically available.
Dr. Ananda Prasad, the world’s leading authority on zinc and nutrition, says up to 30 milligrams of zinc is safe and effective for adults without adversely altering the zinc-to-copper ratio. About 10 milligrams of zinc is consumed in the daily diet. The 50 mg dose employed in the above-mentioned study would be excessive.
The vitamin/mineral COVID-19 study cited zinc lozenges but used oral zinc capsules. Zinc lozenges taken in 5-split doses totaling up to 92 mg. or more per day, are recommended. Slow- release zinc lozenges work best.
While doctors point to inconsistent results in zinc lozenge studies for the common cold, this was attributed to too low a dose of zinc (80-92 mg/day in divided doses “appears to be an effective dose”) and rapid dissolution in the mouth.
Slow-release zinc lozenges, preferably accompanied by an ionophore (quercetin) that facilitates entry of zinc into infected cells, that is formulated to blunt the bad metallic taste of zinc that is not sweetened with sucrose or fructose sugar (stevia is preferred as a sweetener as it has anti-viral properties itself) may improve effectiveness of zinc lozenges.
It is T-cells that do all the virus killing in COVID-19. T-cells are needed for long-term COVID-19 immunity. T-cells are dependent upon zinc.
One study found that patients who succumbed to COVID-19 had an average blood zinc level of 43 micrograms per deciliter blood sample versus a blood/zinc level of 63 micrograms among those who survived.
The larger the dose of zinc the more zinc is bound to its binding protein metallothionein. Therefore, mega-dose zinc as employed in the above cited study may be counterproductive.
The trace mineral selenium facilitates the release of zinc from metallothionein. Therefore, zinc supplementation alone, particularly in high doses, may simply bind more zinc to its carrier protein, impairing bioavailability of this essential trace mineral.
The reasons why vitamin C and zinc fail in simple therapeutic challenge studies are known. Insightful use of properly-dosed vitamin C and zinc with accompanying co-factors, and in the case of COVID-19, supplemental zinc presented as a slow-release lozenge with selenium and quercetin would likely be more effective than oral zinc tablets and may explain why the above-mentioned study failed to reduce days of symptomology among COVID-19 patients.
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