Vitamin C for preventing and treating pneumonia

Hemilä, Harri; Louhiala, Pekka

doi:10.1002/14651858.cd005532.pub2

Cited by 61 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…According to mothers, those treatments were only appropriate when their child had cough and cold. Previous studies accounted that vitamin C has an effective role in pneumonia treatment in those who have less serum vitamin C, as it influences immune system [25] and the metabolism of vitamin C is changed in infectious diseases including pneumonia, as indicated by decreased levels in plasma, leucocytes, and urine [25–27]. In the present study mothers used lemon juice and tulsi leaf (green leaf) as both contain vitamin C. So, those herbal remedies might have some effective role in pneumonia, although we did not measure the effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mothers’ Perception and Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Pneumonia Children in Rural Bangladesh

Ferdous

Farzana

Ahmed

et al. 2014

ISRN Family Medicine

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We describe mothers' perception about signs and symptoms, causes of the illness, and healthcare seeking behaviors related to pneumonia and express the major modifiable barriers to seeking timely treatment when their under-5 children had pneumonia in rural Bangladesh. Using focus group discussion, we understood mothers' perception and healthcare seeking behavior of childhood pneumonia. Although mothers described pneumonia as a serious life threatening disease in young children but most of the mothers (n = 24) could not diagnose whether their child had pneumonia or not. Environmental factors such as dust particles, spread from coughing mother, and drinking cold water or playing with water were perceived as the causes for pneumonia. Three common barriers noted were as follows: illness was not perceived as serious enough or distance from healthcare facility or lack of money at household for seeking treatment outside. Most of the rural mothers did not have knowledge about severity of childhood pneumonia.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mothers’ Perception and Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Pneumonia Children in Rural Bangladesh

Ferdous

Farzana

Ahmed

et al. 2014

ISRN Family Medicine

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“…Hume and Weyers (1973) reported that vitamin C levels in leukocytes halved when subjects contracted a cold and returned to the original level one week after recovery [24]. Vitamin C levels are also decreased by pneumonia [25,26,27,28]. …”

Section: Biology Relevant To the Effects Of Vitamin C On Infectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A Cochrane review on vitamin C and pneumonia identified three controlled trials that reported the number of pneumonia cases in participants who were administered vitamin C and two therapeutic trials in which pneumonia patients were given vitamin C [27,28]. …”

Section: Pneumoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vitamin C and Infections

2017

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In the early literature, vitamin C deficiency was associated with pneumonia. After its identification, a number of studies investigated the effects of vitamin C on diverse infections. A total of 148 animal studies indicated that vitamin C may alleviate or prevent infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. The most extensively studied human infection is the common cold. Vitamin C administration does not decrease the average incidence of colds in the general population, yet it halved the number of colds in physically active people. Regularly administered vitamin C has shortened the duration of colds, indicating a biological effect. However, the role of vitamin C in common cold treatment is unclear. Two controlled trials found a statistically significant dose–response, for the duration of common cold symptoms, with up to 6–8 g/day of vitamin C. Thus, the negative findings of some therapeutic common cold studies might be explained by the low doses of 3–4 g/day of vitamin C. Three controlled trials found that vitamin C prevented pneumonia. Two controlled trials found a treatment benefit of vitamin C for pneumonia patients. One controlled trial reported treatment benefits for tetanus patients. The effects of vitamin C against infections should be investigated further.

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“…Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs usually caused by bacteria and viruses [27]. Oxidative stress is an important part of host innate immune response to foreign pathogens [28].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The prophylactic use of vitamin C to prevent pneumonia should be further investigated in populations who have a high incidence of pneumonia [27]. Although it has been shown that vitamin C significantly improved the “total respiratory score” in the most severely ill patients, antioxidants may affect pulmonary morbidity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vitamin C Mitigates Oxidative Stress and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia and LPS-Induced Macrophages

Chen

Luo

Yuan

et al. 2014

Mediators of Inflammation

118

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Oxidative stress is an important part of host innate immune response to foreign pathogens. However, the impact of vitamin C on oxidative stress and inflammation remains unclear in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We aimed to determine the effect of vitamin C on oxidative stress and inflammation. CAP patients were enrolled. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA damage, superoxide dismutases (SOD) activity, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and IL-6 were analyzed in CAP patients and LPS-stimulated macrophages cells. MH-S cells were transfected with RFP-LC3 plasmids. Autophagy was measured in LPS-stimulated macrophages cells. Severe CAP patients showed significantly increased ROS, DNA damage, TNF-α, and IL-6. SOD was significantly decreased in severe CAP. Vitamin C significantly decreased ROS, DNA damage, TNF-α, and IL-6. Vitamin C inhibited LPS-induced ROS, DNA damage, TNF-α, IL-6, and p38 in macrophages cells. Vitamin C inhibited autophagy in LPS-induced macrophages cells. These findings indicated that severe CAP exhibited significantly increased oxidative stress, DNA damage, and proinflammatory mediator. Vitamin C mitigated oxidative stress and proinflammatory mediator suggesting a possible mechanism for vitamin C in severe CAP.

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Vitamin C for preventing and treating pneumonia

Cited by 61 publications

References 54 publications

Mothers’ Perception and Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Pneumonia Children in Rural Bangladesh

Mothers’ Perception and Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Pneumonia Children in Rural Bangladesh

Vitamin C and Infections

Vitamin C Mitigates Oxidative Stress and Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha in Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia and LPS-Induced Macrophages

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