Recent blognote was written showing significant decreases in acute shingles pain with Vitamin C:
Helping Prevent and Treat Post Shingles Pain / Post Herpetic Neuralgia – Can It Be as Simple as Vitamin C to Help? Now two further cases are published showing rapid decreases in pain with IV Vitamin C.
Schencking M, Sandholzer H, Frese T.
Intravenous administration of vitamin C in the treatment of herpetic neuralgia— Two case reports.
Med Sci Monit. 2010;16(5): CS58–CS61.
- 15 gm Vitamin C in 250 ml saline
- excluded Lack of glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase, oxalate urolithiasis, kidney insufficiency, iron storage disease, and and known reactions
- Concluded: “The rapid therapeutic benefits in these vitamin C-treated patients were impressive.”
- Schenking et al are now conducting a large-scale clinical study based on these findings
case 1 – Severe facial case – 4 IV’s of 15 g of vitamin C
Case 2 – Severe 10/10 chest case – 6 IV’s of 15 g of vitamin C (repeated every second day).
Additionally in 2011, there is a case finding quick relief with IV Vitamin C:
Korean J Pain. 2011 Jun;24(2):108-11. Epub 2011 Jun
Administration of Vitamin C in a Patient with Herpes Zoster – A case report -.
Byun SH, Jeon Y. free article here
they were using 4 gm iv and one infusion reduced pain from 7 to 2/10
Comment – In our severely affected frail elderly cases, this treatment has to become accessible. I would like to see this done outside of the hospital to avoid the spread of shingles…I’m going to check with my hospital re: availability of IV and maybe other physicians should do so as well ( though with Hyperalimentation this should be easily available).
any comments?
Addendum:
The group did a multicentric study of 68 cases:
Schencking M, Vollbracht C, Weiss G, Lebert J, Biller A, Goyvaerts B, Kraft K.
Intravenous vitamin C in the treatment of shingles: results of a multicenter prospective cohort study.
Med Sci Monit. 2012 Apr;18(4):CR215-24
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3560828/
- Effects of Post Herpetic Neuralgia Devastating:
“Reported incidences of PHN range between 18% and 33% depending on patient age and assessment time after the infection [1–6]. A recent study reported that 24% of the patients studied had postherpetic neuralgia pain for more than 90 days after rash onset. Median duration of pain was 32.5 days and acute herpes zoster interfered in all health domains, especially sleep quality, enjoyment of life and general activities [1].” - Vitamin C levels are lower in victims with hepatitis C:
Jain SK, Pemberton PW, Smith A, McMahon RF, Burrows PC, Aboutwerat A, Warnes TW.
Oxidative stress in chronic hepatitis C: not just a feature of late stage disease.
J Hepatol. 2002 Jun;36(6):805-11.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12044532/
and in Post Herpetic Neuralgia:
Chen JY, Chu CC, Lin YS, So EC, Shieh JP, Hu ML.
Nutrient deficiencies as a risk factor in Taiwanese patients with postherpetic neuralgia. Br J Nutr. 2011 Sep;106(5):700-7.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21473799/ - 67 cases; 16 German sites
- vitamin C intravenously (Pascorbin® 7.5 g/50 ml) diluted with 100 mls saline for approximately 2 weeks (2-4 X /wk) in addition to standard treatment.
- Results:
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Assessment of the efficacy of ascorbic acid vs. previous medication.
Efficacy rating Previous Ascorbic acid n % n % Good efficacy 14 37.8 35 92.1 Moderate efficacy or no effect 23 62.2 3 7.9 Total 37 100.0 38 100.0 Fisher’s exact test previous medication vs. ascorbic acid P<0.0001 Comment – Getting the word out is going to take time…