Coronavirus

[Serial_Apologist]

Sound expensive, but as you say, you have to check compatibility and pharmacies aren't the cheapest places to buy. The important thing to remember is to suck, not swallow whole as per #37. I seem to remember that observation came many years ago from child cancer patients who were taking zinc supplements( for mouth ulcers I think) and some wouldn't/couldn't swallow them and sucked instead - the effects were very much greater than in those who swallowed whole.

Come to think of it I may have made a mistake getting the plain pills - lozenges were mentioned in the above advice, and they may be easier to allow to dissolve in the manner prescribed than plain pills.

[Nick Armstrong]

....we are ceasing all kissing and hugging....being a potter i am washing my hands every b five minutes anyway....

[Serial_Apologist]

[QUOTE=eighthobstruction;781398]....apparently it has reached Ilkley....well if you must go there without hat, what do you expect....[ Italy connection it seems]

Isn't that a Delius myth? (Delia Smith... oh never mind!)

[Frances_iom]

High-dose vitamin C should drastically reduce likelihood of being overwhelmed by this virus - they are succesfully using this in China and S. Korea.

This was debunked on the BBC by a professor - as she said the Chinese are using injected vitamin C which does have some potential benefit as well as unwanted side effects - taking Vitamin C tablets was as she said an expensive way to pee as it is excreted.

There are many such quack or misunderstood 'remedies' on Farcebook etc pushed by the unknowing or in some cases the unscruplous - I thought R3 listeners were generally better educated

[Bryn]

This was debunked on the BBC by a professor - as she said the Chinese are using injected vitamin C which does have some potential benefit as well as unwanted side effects - taking Vitamin C tablets was as she said an expensive way to pee as it is excreted.

There are many such quack or misunderstood 'remedies' on Farcebook etc pushed by the unknowing or in some cases the unscruplous - I thought R3 listeners were generally better educated

Re zinc supplements, you can get little pots of 60 one-a-day tablets in Poundland for . . .

[MrGongGong]

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/exclusive-londons-guildhall-is-shut-by-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR26wTWqrWPhV7TcPilujavHufaAjgMASAAZxuGzr4wFerkOF2Y5sZu4YkM

[Bryn]

So we'd better not take vitamin C because it is excreted? Well I'm sorry Frances, but the human body doesn't manufacture its own, so we have to take it regularly to stay healthy - excreted or not. And here is a fact for your "BBC professor" and you too: Vitamin C has been used sucessfully for decades as a non-specific anti viral. And here'sanother fact: the body will only excrete what is surplus to requirements. In an immuno-crisis there will naturally be much higher uptake to attack an invading virus.



There are apparently also some quack (armchair) experts who watch the BBC and swallow without question anything they see/hear just because it was on the BBC (or some other mainstream media outlet). They probably need to be better educated themselves, if they don't ask a few questions and can't be a bit more proactive. One day it might save their life.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninashapiro/2020/03/01/covid-19-fears-create-more-opportunity-for-predatory-scams/#4d3bd84da37d

Quackery is no substitute for medical science. 'Physician' heal thyself.

[Bryn]

Cherrypicking a supportive link does not establish quackery. 'Physician' heal thyself indeed.

No need for cherry-picking. A basic grasp of human metabolic processes is quite enough to dismiss the high oral dose of Ascorbic Acid as quackery. As F-i pointed out, in China they have reported some positive results from injecting high doses. The potentially serious side effects such a kidney stones also need to be considered. I am not medically qualified but did study iatrogenic diseases as part of my higher education.

[Petrushka]

There have been some doubts expressed on the SlippedDisc site about the author of the article I quote in my #37, though without doubting the general advice given.

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/some-expert-advice-on-coronavirus/

There seems to be a lot of disinformation about and we could do with a dedicated official website to counter some of the claims and guesswork (I suppose one doesn't exist?). In the absence of anything in the UK this might be of help: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

[oddoneout]

The VitC debate has been rumbling on for decades. I remember my father and his father getting quite heated about it getting on for 50 years ago; they were both research chemists(although in different fields) and had opposite views, based on the information available at that time. Even though there has been more work done since then I think it's fair to say that it's still possible to find scientific evidence pro and con.
I can't take VitC supplements so whichever is the 'right' version of the debate is of no use one way or the other.

[Bryn]

There have been some doubts expressed on the SlippedDisc site about the author of the article I quote in my #37, though without doubting the general advice given.

https://slippedisc.com/2020/03/some-expert-advice-on-coronavirus/

There seems to be a lot of disinformation about and we could do with a dedicated official website to counter some of the claims and guesswork (I suppose one doesn't exist?). In the absence of anything in the UK this might be of help: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

Thanks for that. There is also https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

[Dave2002]

This was debunked on the BBC by a professor - as she said the Chinese are using injected vitamin C which does have some potential benefit as well as unwanted side effects - taking Vitamin C tablets was as she said an expensive way to pee as it is excreted.

There are many such quack or misunderstood 'remedies' on Farcebook etc pushed by the unknowing or in some cases the unscruplous - I thought R3 listeners were generally better educated

Some parts of that video are correct. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, and is helpful in lowish doses to avoid problems such as scurvy. This is well known.

Some very eminent scientists have believed that vitamin C in large doses can be helpful - for example Linus Pauling, who won the Nobel prize twice. However there seems to be very little evidence that he was correct, though he did live quite a long while (93 years). Fairly large doses of vitamin C don't appear to be very harmful - i.e. toxic, though huge doses may not be a good thing. Of course it occurs naturally in citrus fruit, which may be good things to eat in any case. Some "naturally" occurring food, such as bananas, can cause problems if eaten in large quantities. In the case of bananas, eating too many upsets the sodium/potassium balance which affects the functioning of the nervous system, and presumably if too many are eaten there will be effects on organs such as liver and kidneys.

Regarding the costs of 1000mg tablets, outlets such as Poundland have tubes of 20 for .... guess .... £1. Hardly going to break the bank. I agree that most likely excess vitamin C will probably be excreted - a property which it shares with much other food and drink. Wine, beer and whisky and sweetcorn are some examples. Actually looking at your unusual sentence about vitamin C being "an expensive way to pee" - the cost of one (possibly totally ineffective) vitamin C tablet is usually a lot less than the charge to go to a public toilet, though I didn't realise that the said activity was a sport worthy of costing out in detail.

There is no point in getting carried away with taking huge doses of vitamin C, but it might have a slight beneficial effect, particularly for people who get skin sores. Vitamins A and D are also worth having - but there is I believe no significant evidence that taking huge doses of any of these will confer extra benefits, and in some cases very large amounts may cause damage as you mention.

It is possible that some very small quantities of some minerals may have effects, but these are often very hard to "prove" or disprove.

There will no doubt be many remedies proposed and suggested, and even recommended, and some will probably fall in the same category as virgins stroking interconnect cable to align the molecules and to improve the perceived sonic effects, or using green felt pens on the edges of CDs for a similar reason. Some perhaps unlikely suggestions may eventually be shown to have effects, though the likelihood of some of the crazier notions actually doing any good seems very low. Some people may also "swear by" remedies which work for them - and which work repeatedly, but unfortunately trials with just one person are not good enough. There are no controls, and even if the person reporting beneficial effects is honest, he or she could simply be experiencing a placebo effect. There is not, however, always any harm in letting such people carry on with their self prescribed treatments, as long as it doesn't have any adverse effect on others. [example - not using medication or other means and discounting that AIDS or HIV exist, and engaging in sexual activity regardless] Others may be faced with moral dilemmas in dealing with such people though - should one let people carry on with their own treatments and beliefs if they are not helping, or making things worse, and at the same time there are other treatments which can be shown to be more effective?

[Boilk]

...A basic grasp of human metabolic processes is quite enough to dismiss the high oral dose of Ascorbic Acid as quackery. As F-i pointed out, in China they have reported some positive results from injecting high doses. The potentially serious side effects such a kidney stones also need to be considered...

The high dosage vitamin C protocol which F-i claimed had been “debunked” on TV was injected Vitamin C. Such high oral equivalence would result for most in acute diarrhoea, so not too recommendable although, as has been pointed out elsewhere, 1,000mg/day (a common fizzy tablet dosage) is not particularly high for an adult.

As for potential likelihood of IVC-related kidney stones, overall the literature to date does not suggest IVC as a causal link to kidney stones, though I’d guess it’s remotely possible if the subject is habitually not consuming enough fluids during a long-term administering of IVC.

[Braunschlag]

Where are the homeopaths when you don’t need them:)

[LMcD]

Our local cinema is now screening its customers. Anybody with a reading above 37.4 C will be politely turned away.
(A lot of goods from China are imported just down the road .....)