FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Mar 5, 2020

Vitamin C Saves Wuhan Family from COVID-19

by Richard Cheng, M.D., Ph.D.

Watch it on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8tTNx4J7gA
https://youtu.be/-y7xN3JqH7Y
https://youtu.be/eMdJgxko9TE

(OMNS Mar 5, 2020) Ms. N lives in Wuhan, China. She takes special care about the well-being of her entire family including her chronically-ill mother, aged 71. Ms. N has always been interested in nutrition and she recently learned about vitamin C's antiviral effects.

I am an American physician currently residing in Shanghai. I interviewed Ms. N by telephone after I received a forwarded story that she posted on Chinese social media, WeChat. I made an effort to connect with Ms. N to verify the story and below is what she told me.

Ms. N lives with her child in the epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic. She is close to her parents and her brother and his wife. The six of them visit each other on a regular basis. Her mother has diabetes and heart disease with stents placed, in addition to several other chronic illnesses including reflux esophagitis.

Right before the Chinese New Year, around January 21st, her mother developed flu-like symptoms, with a low grade fever of 38C. Based on her knowledge. Ms. N advised all members of the family to take oral vitamin C. She herself has been taking about 20,000 mg daily in divided-up doses. Her mother reluctantly took a smaller dose, probably half or less of what her daughter's been taking.

Her mother's condition was stable for 9-10 days. But on January 30th, without deteriorating, her mother decided to go to Wuhan Union Hospital, Tongji College of Medicine, The Science and Technology University of Central China, a hospital prominent not only in Wuhan, but in all of China. She wanted to check out if she was infected with the Wuhan pneumonia virus. She got her presumption confirmed. At the hospital, she was diagnosed of what became known now as Covid-19 pneumonia. The second day upon admission, her fever started going up, as high as 39.6C. In about 10 days on February 10th she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and went on the heart-lung machine as a final attempt to save her life.

At this time Ms. N learned of the clinical trials with vitamin C, administered by infusion (IVC; intravenous vitamin C). Immediately she requested the person in charge on the ICU to use large dose IVC on her mother. The attending physician agreed but would go only to around 10,000 mg. So it happened. After 20 days in ICU, her mother improved and was discharged to a regular ward a few days ago, continuing the IVC treatment, as insisted by Ms. N.

While in hospital, Miss N, her brother and sister-in-law took turns to visit and take care of her mother. They were wearing very simple protection: gloves and masks. Also noted is that while her mother got sick at home, none of the five other family members was wearing any mask for several days. But all of them went on oral vitamin C tablets. None of them developed COVID-19 infection.

So far this is the story of Ms. N. We wish her mother a full and rapid recovery.

In the context of the vast amount of research, clinical studies, case reports and my own decades of experience on vitamin C's use on viral infections, I summarize the story below with a few take-home messages:

1. Vitamin C tablets at high doses daily may be the reason why the family didn't catch the infection.

2. Given her age, history of chronic disease, and the high mortality of COVID-19 on seniors, IVC may have played a large role in her mother's improvement.

3. The news of official IVC clinical trials has definitely had a positive impact in this case, as the attending physician was emboldened to use IVC.

4. A well-functioning immune system is of the utmost importance to keep away the viral infection. And, vitamin C may support the defense against the COVID-19 virus, most importantly in chronically ill patients with a weakened immune system.

(Note from Andrew W. Saul, OMNS Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Richard Cheng is still in China now. He continues to work overtime with expert Chinese doctors and hospitals to facilitate providing intravenous vitamin C for the most seriously ill COVID-19 victims. For background information on the plausibility of treating coronavirus with high-dose vitamin C: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n09.shtml. Dr. Cheng's personal presentation of the case above is posted at YouTube: https://youtu.be/6-elCYFhqJs An additional video from China by Dr. Cheng is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC0SO9KDG7U )

To learn more about COVID-19 and vitamin C: