Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Public distancing. Is that the best we can do?  No. You can give yourself an edge with diet and supplements. This has been shown with many viruses over and over for years. China is apparently saving lives from COVID-19 with vitamin C, but you’re not likely to hear about it on the evening news.

The main stream media also fails to mention that a nutrient dense diet, rich in super foods, plus optimal sleep, anxiety-control, sunlight and exercise — the very things you have been hearing about since birth — can and will boost your immunity to any virus. Vietnam has reportedly cured all its cases of  COVID-19 with diet.

If you get sick, there are specific nutrients, botanicals, and medicinal foods that can help you fight infection.

Health authorities, including medical schools, assume that because you live in the U.S., your diet is great and supplements are a waste. “Expensive urine” they like to say. The Standard American Diets is called SAD for a reason however. Many Americans actually suffer borderline or outright deficiencies of key immune-bolstering nutrients. Low levels of vitamins C, D and A, and zinc, are common and can increase risk of infections of all kinds, including the flu.

According to the U.S. NHANES, a national nutrition survey, 31% of Americans, or 66 million, fail to get “enough” vitamin C. The bar is low for the “nourished” category. Elderly folks, smokers, and those with health complications are more likely to be deficient and thus at higher risk of getting really sick with any kind of virus.

Many studies have shown low vitamin C levels are associated with decreased immunity and increased risk of and severity of viral infections. Our vitamin C levels become further depleted when our body fights a cold or flu. When a virus takes hold in your body, vitamin C stores are quickly depleted as white blood cells use up C reserves to make extra glutathione, an antioxidant, as well as interferon, both in-house antivirals.

Low doses of vitamin C can correct a deficiency, and will help you stay well. But at sufficiently high concentrations, vitamin C becomes much like a drug and can cure viral diseases. It is also an antioxidant, which provides protection from the inflammatory damage caused by a virus. The high levels of oxidative stress, sometimes called a cytokine storm, can be life threatening with COVID-19. Vitamin C helps counter this level of damaging inflammation.

Armed with this knowledge, doctors in China are using IV (intravenous) vitamin C to treat patients with COVID-19 and in particular to treat the dreaded and often fatal aspect of this disease: Acute Distress Respiratory Syndrome, or ARDS.  It appears to be working. They have begun formal studies using this vitamin, and have brought in tons of vitamin C (literally).

Dr. Richard Cheng, a U.S. board-certified specialist in anti-aging medicine and currently on the front lines with COVID-19 patients in China, says, “Early and sufficiently large doses of intravenous vitamin C are critical. Vitamin C is not only a prototypical antioxidant but, but also involved in virus killing and prevention of viral replication. The significance of large dose intravenous vitamin C is not just at an antiviral level.” Read more here.

A report published by Chinese doctors treating COVID-19 patients and published with the NIH, indicates vitamin C helps prevent lung damage that occurs when sepsis initiates the accumulation of neutrophils in the lungs. The accumulating neutrophils destroy alveolar capillaries, damaging the lungs.

The government of Shanghai, China has announced an official recommendation that COVID-19 be treated with high levels of IV vitamin C. This method of administration is important according to Atsuo Yanagisawa, MD, PhD, and IV vitamin C expert. According to Yanagisawa vitamin C’s effect is at least 10 times greater by IV than oral supplements. Yanagisawa calls IV C a “safe, effective, and broad-spectrum antiviral.”

High doses of vitamin C work like a medicine — but thanks to big pharma no one is allowed to say that. If vitamin C were considered a drug, you wouldn’t be able to buy it at such low prices or ubiquitous locations. Vitamin C is also not patentable; drug companies can’t make money off it so it is unlikely to get research funding or attention in the private sector.

Hence, suggestions that vitamin C might help fight COVID-19 are being attacked as “fake news” in the U.S. and reportedly pulled from news outlets, social media and Google. These are all prime locations for drug ads. An MD on Harvard’s web site says, “There is no evidence that supplements, such as vitamin C, or probiotics will help speed recovery.”

Maybe there is no proof, but there is plenty of evidence. Studies all over the world, including recent clinical results in China provide overwhelming evidence that vitamin C supplementation can fight this virus and is saving patients from respiratory damage and the dangerous complications caused by COVID-19.

Studies using vitamin C to treat viruses go way back. In a 1991 study of 463 students exposed to the influenza virus, flu symptoms decreased by 85% in the group given hourly 1-gram doses of vitamin C when compared with those given just decongestants and pain relievers.

Professor Michael J Gonzalez of University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences says IV vitamin C benefits all patients with any kind of virus.

In his book Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases and Toxins, Curing the Incurable, Thomas E. Levy, MD, HD says there is no virus immune to the virus-killing effects of vitamin C. The late Robert Cathcart III, an MD who pioneered use of high dose vitamin C, said, “I have not seen any flu yet that was not cured or markedly ameliorated by massive doses of vitamin C.”

Unfortunately conventional American doctors are reticent to use high dose C, especially IV’s and other alternatives, as this can put them in the quack category and ostracized from peers. I have met doctors who have gone through this. Some would rather lose a patient than be called a quack.

Even if you can’t get IV C, oral vitamin C has great benefits. At high doses, oral vitamin C takes on a medicinal effect. Studies and observations have shown doses in the range of 1 gram of C every hour or 2 – 4 grams every 3 hours can be therapeutic against the flu. If you develop loose stools, back off.  It is easiest to use a powdered form such as ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate or other buffered forms of C stirred into water. Alternatively you can use liposomal vitamin C, found in capsule form. I use a splash of low sugar kombucha or probiotic drink with my water and C powder, as beneficial bacteria in the gut also deactivate viruses (also “unproven” so then I suppose “fake”).

The International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine, a worldwide organization of medical professionals founded in 1994, recommends taking at least 3000 mg vitamin C daily, in divided doses, to prevent infections. They list other nutrients and doses for flu prevention on their web site. Although vitamin C-rich foods such as broccoli, peppers, and citrus fruits are vital, drinking orange juice comes with too much sugar to make it useful. Sugar impairs immunity.

In a January 26 press release, the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service stated: “The coronavirus pandemic can be dramatically slowed, or stopped, with the immediate widespread use of vitamin C.”

Even if vitamin C doesn’t cure you, it is still likely to reduce the inflammation involved with the flu, and it does not come with life-threatening or debilitating side effects that accompany many drugs, plus it is inexpensive. Too much C can lead to loose stools, but that stops when you cut back. If sick, taking too much vitamin C is almost impossible.

Keep in mind nutrients have synergistic relationships. Grassroots Health Nutrient Research Institute has collected vitamin D levels and other health data on 13,000 participants. Those with vitamin D levels above 40 ng/ml had a 41% reduced risk of catching the seasonal flu. Those with optimal D levels who also took a vitamin C supplement, and had high omega-3 fat levels saw 72% fewer flu infections.

Combined Nutrient Effects: Do vitamin D, omega-3, and vitamin C have a combined effect on colds and the flu among GrassrootsHealth participants?

You can strengthen your immunity and reduce risk of catching ANY flu or cold by following a nutrient dense, sugar-free, protein and good fat-rich diet. Vitamins C, A, and D, omega 3 fats, zinc and iodine are particularly important. Getting enough sleep and keeping anxiety levels down helps immunity too. I will be diving into details in the next week. There is plenty of evidence on all of this, although you won’t see it in the top search results on the most popular search engine. I found a lot of info on https://duckduckgo.com. Expand your search.