Our family is currently having its turn with Covid Omicron, it appears. We did have one child test positive, and our symptoms appear to match reports. I learned something in the past few days about Covid: Vitamin C makes symptoms worse.
To be honest, I'm kind of surprised I didn't suspect this before. It's like there's a halo around Vitamin C. We've all be told for so long that it's so necessary to good health that it feels almost naughty to suggest that sometimes Vitamin C can also do harm. But since everything that goes in our body can do harm or good depending on the circumstances, there's no reason to treat Vitamin C as special.
Why do we take our Vitamin C so seriously? Because it prevents scurvy! Did you know it takes literally months of dietary Vitamin C insufficiency to develop scurvy? Almost no one gets it anymore. You'd have to be living like an 18th century sailor with no access to any produce in order to develop scurvy. So have no fear that going for a week or two avoiding Vitamin C will do you lasting harm.
So...back to Covid. Readers of my blog will note that I've been arguing for years that there is an overlooked cartilage component to respiratory tract viruses causing pneumonia. Vitamin C is a cofactor for cartilage-building enzymes (see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0945053X01001937), and I think respiratory tract viruses are hijacking cells that help control cartilage production and by so doing increase production of dysfunctional cartilage molecules.
Fresh leafy vegetables are generally good for us. But not during a cold. Stick with drinking boring oat and barley porridge, and put away the elderberry syrup. Try keeping Vitamin C intake minimal for a few days. It's harder than you think. Vitamin C is nearly everywhere in what we consider a "healthy diet." It's even in liver, meaning that your chicken broth might have a dose of it unless you make it yourself and don't include the chicken organs.
