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Max Minute: What's The Deal With High-Dose Vitamin C Helping Ward Off Coronavirus?

By Dr. Max Gomez

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Let's start out by acknowledging that vitamins are essential for life.

Lack of or not enough of certain vitamins can lead to many serious diseases, from scurvy to brain malformations but the fact that we need vitamins has led many to think that vitamins can be the cure for many diseases unrelated to their original bodily function.

That's now led to the reported use of mega doses of IV vitamin C to treat COVID-19 infections.

I've checked with infectious disease experts who all say there is no good scientific evidence to support the use of vitamin C to treat coronavirus infections.

First of all, vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, which means that if you take in more than the body can use that day, you're just going to get rid of it in urine.

Some doctors have reported that some COVID-19 patients treated with high-dose vitamin C have done better than those who weren't. That could easily be a coincidence and all of those patients were also being treated with the experimental drug combo of hydroxycholoroquine and azithromycin.

And note, too much vitamin C can cause kidney stones in some people.

There have also been people advocating very large doses of vitamin D, an important vitamin for a healthy immune system. Getting enough vitamin D can strengthen your immune system over the long run, but there's no evidence that it's useful in an ongoing acute COVID-19 infection.

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