Taking zinc or Vitamin C supplements does not significantly decrease the severity or duration of symptoms in COVID-19 patients, when compared to standard care, according to a study.
Researchers at Cleveland Clinic in the US noted that zinc is known to be important for immune function, with a role in antibody and white blood cell production and fighting infections, said a report in The Week quoting PTI.
Vitamin C, an antioxidant, can help reduce damage to cells, and has shown to be immune-boosting, they said. The COVID AtoZ clinical trial enrolled 214 adult patients with a confirmed COVID-19 infection.
The participants either received 10 days of zinc gluconate (50 mg), vitamin C (8000 mg), both agents, or standard of care from April 2020 to October 2020. The study, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, found no significant difference among the four groups.
At 50 per cent reduction in symptoms, the study showed no significant difference between the usual care, vitamin C, zinc gluconate or the group receiving both Vitamin C and zinc gluconate.
“When we began this trial, there was no research to support supplemental therapy for the prevention or treatment of patients with COVID-19,” Milind Desai, from Cleveland Clinic’s Heart Vascular & Thoracic Institute and co-principal investigator of the study was quoted as saying.
“As we watched the pandemic spread across the globe, infecting and killing millions, the medical community and consumers alike scrambled to try supplements that they believed could possibly prevent infection, or ease COVID-19 symptoms, but the research is just now catching up,” Desai said.
“While vitamin C and zinc proved ineffective as a treatment when clinically compared to standard care, the study of other therapeutics continues,” he said.
The patients enrolled in this study were not hospitalised, but rather managed on an outpatient basis.