A new piece of research is telling us what we have seen for years clinically: IV vitamin C works for seasonal allergies.
This wasn’t a random, clinically controlled trial, but as the authors suggest, it will hopefully encourage just that.
As with most studies, this one isn’t exactly a page-turner. In a nutshell, after getting vitamin C intravenously 2-3 times a week, symptoms improved in over 90% of participants.
Better yet, the treatment was very well tolerated. Only 1 of the 71 patients had an adverse reaction (twice), and the reactions weren’t terribly serious–“repeated unpleasant sensation of cold a few hours after infusion” and “tiredness the next morning.”
This is similar to what we see clinically, and more research on this would be great–in particular, a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
There are, of course, many over-the-counter meds out there that can work for seasonal allergies. But when those don’t work, or if you experience side-effects, IV vitamin C may be a treatment worth trying.
Allergy-related posts from the StoneTree archives: