There’s new research indicating that vitamin C could be an affordable way to reduce the amount of time that patients need to spend in the intensive care unit at hospitals.
The researchers pooled data from 12 trials and discovered that giving patients vitamin C helped cut their ICU stay by an average of 8%.
For ICU patients who required more than 24 hours of mechanical ventilation, the results of adding vitamin C were even more dramatic. It reduced the time people needed mechanical ventilation by 18.2%.
How vitamin C helps
Although most people know that vitamin C is vital to our health, not everyone understands that our bodies depend entirely on us getting it from food consumption because the human body can’t make it or store it.
Vitamin C helps the human body in multiple ways, including:
• maintaining or lowering blood pressure
• helping to produce proteins that make energy in cells
• activating and silencing genes
• assisting with cardiovascular functions
• shortening the duration of the common cold
• reducing blood glucose in people with diabetes
• opening constricted airways
• decreasing rates of atrial fibrillation
Unfortunately, certain conditions and illnesses decrease our supply of vitamin C, which is why hospital patients often have very low levels. This is especially true for people with burns, infections or high stress, as well as those who have had surgery.
While healthy people need about 0.1 grams of vitamin C daily, a critically ill patient needs to consume more like 4 grams daily.
More tests needed
To be clear, the researchers aren’t saying vitamin C is a cure-all, or that there’s enough evidence to make ICUs all change their practices. But they do say the results of their analysis show “proof of concept” and they encourage more research into the effects of vitamin C on ICU patients. Best of all, vitamin C is incredibly inexpensive.
