Zinc, vitamin C does not help against COVID-19

Despite its reputation for boosting the powers of your immune system, a new study reports that vitamin C and zinc supplements do not help COVID-19 patients to recover from their disease.

Giving one or the other, or a combination of both, to patients did not significantly reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms of COVID-19. Zinc is important for immune function and vitamin C is an antioxidant that stimulates the immune system.

In this study, the researchers assessed how 214 adults with confirmed COVID-19 infection responded to: 10 days of zinc gluconate (50 milligrams / mg), vitamin C (8,000 mg), both or to usual care.

The study, which resulted in a 50% reduction in symptoms, was conducted from April to October 2020. It was stopped early because there were no significant differences between the four groups of patients.

The findings were published on February 12 in the newspaper JAMA Open Network.

“When we started this study, there was no research to support supplementary therapy for the prevention or treatment of patients with COVID-19,” said the study’s author, Dr. Milind Desai, director of clinical operations at the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

“As we watched the pandemic spread across the world, infecting and killing millions, the medical community and consumers struggled to try supplements that they believed could prevent infection or alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19, but the research is now recovering. , “Desai said in a Cleveland Clinic press release. “Although vitamin C and zinc have been shown to be ineffective as a treatment when compared clinically to standard treatment, the study of other therapies continues.”

The patients in this study were not hospitalized, but received outpatient treatment.

“We know that not all patients with COVID-19 need hospitalization and, compared to those being treated in a hospital setting, are more likely to look for supplements that can help them, so it was an important population to study “said the study’s co-author, Dr. Suma Thomas, vice president of strategic operations at the institute.

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