Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Antinutrients are components of food that may block the absorption of minerals, but does that mean you should avoid them? Not necessarily. Learn about the pros and cons associated with antinutrients from Jerry Hickey, Ph.
You’ve probably heard of gallstones, but do you know what they are? Learn about what causes gallstones and nutrients that can help fend them off.
vitamin c
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
Subscribe Today!
Welcome to part two of our episode “Important Update – Vitamin C and COVID-19.” In part one, we spoke a great deal about Vitamin C and lung infections. You can listen to part one of “Important Update – Vitamin C and COVID-19” by clicking here. In today’s episode, we are going to discuss the important of this vitamin for fighting off infections and boosting immunity, as seen in numerous recent reports.
The role of Vitamin C in the immune system
Vitamin C clears out used neutrophils during an infection so they don’t damage nearby healthy tissues. It also enhances the formation of B and T cells. B cells are cells that create antibodies. They’re also called immunoglobulins. In other words, that’s what gives you resistance to many infections. The antibodies are specific for a particular infection and once you make them, the immunity can be long-lasting and you probably won’t get the infection again.†
T cells do a number of things for the immune system. Just like B cells, they’re highly educated. They’re called acquired immunity. They help stimulate the production of antibodies and other types of cells that kill viruses. They control the immune system to kill the virus or bacterial infection properly. At the end of the infection, they call off all the immune system cells so that they don’t hurt the body and cause consistent inflammation.†
Additional details about how this vitamin interacts with the immune system can be found in part one of this podcast.
Research on Vitamin C
Here’s a study that just came out in the journal Critical Care. The researchers found that plasma Vitamin C levels drop like crazy in people admitted to the intensive care unit with COVID-19. If they develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, levels are undetectable in 90% of these patients. The patients who are admitted into the intensive care unit with lung troubles and difficult breathing, their Vitamin C levels are so low that 90% of them, doctors can’t even detect any of this vitamin.†
They said, “Moreover, Vitamin C might have implications for the treatment of COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome. Moreover, other clinical studies that included surgical patients and patients with pneumonia showed encouraging results in terms of decreased incidence and severity of lung injury and mortality.” In other words, if you have sufficient Vitamin C, it helps protect your lungs and it helps prevent severe lung injury, according to this report.†
For more studies relating to why this important nutrient is being utilized for COVID-19, tune into the full podcast episode.
Chief Scientific Officer and Pharmacist, Jerry Hickey, Ph.’s Recommendations
You can’t really overdose on Vitamin C because the body regulates it. If you take too much, you lose it in your urine quickly. It’s very safe to use. It’s safe, it’s non-toxic, it’s not expensive, and it’s important for boosting and supporting the immune system. I think it’s something well worth using.†
My recommendation for daily use depends on your health. If you’re a smoker or a diabetic, you need more. Each cigarette burns up about 25mg of Vitamin C in your bloodstream. Diabetics utilize Vitamin C very poorly and very inefficiently. I would give a diabetic 1000mg three times a day with their food to saturate their blood with this vitamin. For you and me, 500mg twice a day if you’re not sick should be plenty. If you start to get sick, go up to 1000mg twice a day.†
**During this podcast, episode Jerry mistakenly said that the University of Otago is located in Australia. It is actually located in New Zealand.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
The largest hospital system in New York State, Northwell Hospital, is utilizing Vitamin C for COVID patients. Here’s why.
When we think about antioxidants in the body, many people will think immediately of Vitamin C and for good reason.
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
Subscribe Today!
Today, I want to discuss Vitamin C. There’s data that certain nutrients and certain lifestyle habits, like exercise, getting enough sleep and a great diet, lower the risk of cancers. It’s not bulletproof, but still, it’s lowering the risk and that’s very important.
There’s also data coming out now that certain nutrients help with cancer in humans. For instance, fish oils, melatonin, probiotic bacteria and Vitamin D have been shown in several different studies to help cancer patients. Bear in mind, there are many different treatments for cancer these days and many different cancers, so it’s not like one suit fits all. Vitamin D might not help with every cancer, although I believe there may be something to that. But today, we’re talking about Vitamin C.†
There have been individual case reports of people with very severe, basically impossible-to-treat cancers. These studies show that these patients last longer when infused with high doses of Vitamin C. This provides us with a lead to see if this is actually beneficial. Recently, there was a report from the University of Iowa and published in the journal Cancer Cell that looked at giving infusions of Vitamin C to patients with different cancers, like brain cancers and lung cancers. “Clinical trials found that it is safe to regularly infuse brain and lung cancer patients with high doses of Vitamin C as a potential strategy to improve outcomes of standard cancer treatments,” the study reports.†
That was treatment, now let’s look at prevention. The Nurses’ Health Study looked at premenopausal women with family histories of breast cancer. If they consumed 200mg of Vitamin C a day or more, it lowered their risk of breast cancer by 63%. The Swedish Mammography Cohort looked specifically at overweight women. Overweight women who had at least 100mg of Vitamin C every day had a 39% lower risk of breast cancer compared to overweight women who had less than 100mg of Vitamin C every day. For more research about how Vitamin C can help cancer patients, tune into the full podcast episode.†