This tried-and-true vitamin increases sepsis survival rates

You may not have personal experience with today’s topic—at least, I sincerely hope you don’t.

Because sepsis is about as lethal and serious as medical emergencies get. So if you manage to go your whole life without ever encountering it, consider yourself lucky.

Now, let me back up just a bit. Sepsis—also known as septic shock—happens when a serious infection spreads to your blood. (And hence, your entire body.) This can happen quickly. And it’s often very deadly, since there aren’t really any good therapies available.

Needless to say, it’s a topic of urgent importance. Which is why I’m thrilled to share the news that good old vitamin C can combat sepsis in ways that conventional medicine still can’t…

An unconventional cure

Researchers have reported incredible success against sepsis with vitamin C—a solution that’s not only low in cost but also has virtually no side effects.

In fact, one 2017 study of nearly 50 patients with sepsis showed a death rate of only 8.5 percent after use of a vitamin C protocol. The mortality rate before the vitamin C protocol? 40 percent.

And that, folks, is amazing and absolutely noteworthy. Yet, because it wasn’t a randomized trial, it was poo-pooed… which is why you’re only hearing about it now. (Well, that and the fact that vitamin C isn’t some pharmaceutical that puts money directly into Big Pharma’s pocket…)

But no one will be able to ignore this latest research, which recently appeared in JAMA. The CITRIS-ALI trial featured close to 170 critically ill patients with sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Researchers administered either high-dose vitamin C in an IV every six hours for four days, or a placebo. The study was both randomized and double-blind. And the primary outcomes the researchers looked at were inflammatory biomarker changes and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score—not mortality.

At 96 hours, there were no differences in those particular parameters between the two groups—which means that, technically, the study demonstrated vitamin C treatment to be an ineffective failure.

But here’s the thing: There were significantly fewer deaths among septic patients who received the vitamin C treatment—this group had a mortality rate of 30 percent, versus 46 percent among the placebo group.

Vitamin C saves lives

Here’s the bottom line: Sepsis survival is just plain higher with vitamin C therapy. And that’s all that really matters, as far as I’m concerned.

Lives were saved regardless of what this latest study was designed to show. “Primary” and “secondary” outcomes are just semantic distinctions in any clinical trial that features an objectively overwhelming success—which is exactly what happened here.

But do you want to know what the most interesting part of all of this is to me? All those academic docs just don’t know what to do with this information.

Should they call for more research? Well, of course they should! With this type of outcome, these vitamin C researchers have earned themselves the right to (and hopefully the funding for) a truly large-scale study.

But, in the meantime, we’re not talking about a potentially dangerous drug with major side effects or risks at all. It’s vitamin C. And there’s no reason not to start using this intervention immediately.

I’ve always been a huge proponent of intravenous high-dose vitamin C—it’s something I do regularly myself, and for my patients.

But I thought it was important to let my readers know that it’s not just something that I believe in—its value is a matter of medical fact. Which is why it’s truly sad that most insurance companies still won’t cover it.

Nevertheless, don’t let any doctor dismiss your questions about it. Because as simple as it is, and as this research shows, vitamin C saves lives.

P.S. I tell you more about my intravenous vitamin cocktails—including intravenous vitamin C—and how they combat against sepsis, in the September 2018 issue of my monthly newsletter, Logical Health Alternatives (“Breakthrough vitamin therapy saving lives against one of the world’s top killers”). Subscribers have access to this and all of my past content in the archives. So if you haven’t already, consider signing up today!

Source:

“Does Vitamin C in Sepsis Live Up to the Hype?” Medscape Medical News, 10/02/19. (medscape.com/viewarticle/917450)