Vitamin C, B1 and Hydrocortisone Dramatically Reduce Mortality From Sepsis

It starts with symptoms of infection that can progress to septic shock.

Unless treated — and the earlier the better — sepsis can result in extremely low blood pressure that is unresponsive to fluid replacement, weakening of the heart, and multiple-organ failure.

Sepsis is a common hospital-acquired infection,2,3 but common illnesses such as bronchitis, pneumonia, strep throat or kidney infection can also turn septic, as can localized infections caused by bacteria, fungi or viruses.

The condition becomes particularly problematic and deadly if the infection involves methicillin-resistant or vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA or VRSA) bacteria.

Each year, an estimated 1 million Americans get sepsis4 and up to half of them die.5,6,7 Treatment can be a challenge, and is becoming even more so as drug-resistant infections become more prevalent.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, sepsis is the most expensive condition being treated in U.S. hospitals, costing more than $20 billion in 20118 and $24 billion in 2014.9

The good news is a critical care physician just may have found a way to save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year using two readily available vitamins and a steroid.

Vitamin C and Thiamine — An Inexpensive Cure for Sepsis

Vitamin C is well-known for its ability to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Previous research has shown it effectively lowers pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein.10,11,12 Influenza,13 encephalitis and measles14 have all been successfully treated with high-dose vitamin C.

Studies have even shown vitamin C is selectively cytotoxic to cancer cells by generating hydrogen peroxide when administered intravenously (IV) in high doses. It also has a number of heart and cardiovascular benefits.

The anti-infective power of vitamin C has now been demonstrated yet again by Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia.

Last January, when faced with yet another deathly ill patient, Marik decided to try a combination of intravenous (IV) vitamin C with hydrocortisone as a last-ditch effort to save the woman's life.15

He'd recently read a colleague's paper on vitamin C, and he knew vitamin C acts like the steroid hydrocortisone, so on a hunch, he administered the two together. It worked. While everyone expected her to die, the woman made a remarkable overnight recovery. As reported by NBC4i News:16

"The staff couldn't believe it, so they tried it again and again — with the same results. They added a third element, thiamine, to the IV treatment as well. Today, they have used the treatment on about 150 patients and they say the result is the same …

A researcher at Old Dominion University, John Catravas, Ph.D., … did an independent lab study that confirms the treatment's effectiveness."

Interestingly, Marik used a relatively small amount of vitamin C — only 1.5 grams IV. Most natural medicine physicians tend to use 25 grams or more when giving IV vitamin C, more than 20 times the dose used here. One can only wonder how much more effective a larger dose would be.

To read the full article from Dr. Mercola, and see the full interview with Dr. Paul Marik, Click Here.