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Vitamin C Can Shorten Length Of Stay In Hospital Intensive Care Units

NEWS

In 12 trials with 1766 patients, the administration of vitamin C shortened the length of stays in hospital intensive care units by an average of 8 percent, according to a new meta-analysis.

COMMENT

There is growing evidence that not only can supplemental micronutrients prevent and treat diseases, they can also reduce costs for national healthcare systems.

For example, a study published in February 2013 confirmed that supplement use can cut the length of hospital stays, decrease costs, and reduce the chance of readmissions. Impressively, the researchers found that supplement use reduced the average length of hospital stays by over 2 days and the average cost by more than $4,700. Moreover, the likelihood of patients being readmitted to hospital was cut by almost 7%.

At national levels, research shows that tens of billions could be saved even by something as simple as making sure a population gets adequate intakes of vitamin D. A review published in 2010 found that ensuring people in Germany get adequate intakes of vitamin D could save that country around €37 billion ($41 billion) a year in healthcare costs. Similarly, in the United States, a report examining use of the basic supplement combinations calcium/vitamin D and lutein/zeaxanthin, as well as the individual nutrients folic acid and omega-3 fatty acids, found that even these could produce savings of $24 billion in national healthcare costs over a period of 5 years.

To learn more about daily use of supplements reducing national healthcare costs, read this article on our website.

To read an interview with Dr. Paul E. Marik, an intensive care unit physician in the United States, who is using intravenous vitamin C to treat life-threatening sepsis and septic shock, see this article on our website.

Read article at medicalxpress.com