Vitamin C supplementation accelerates wound healing

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

18.11.2024

Supplementation with fairly large, but by no means irresponsible, doses of vitamin C accelerates the healing of wounds. Malaysian researchers came to this conclusion in a meta-analysis, for which they collected all available trials.

Vitamin C supplementation accelerates wound healing

Study

Thevi Thanigasalam, a researcher employed by the Malaysian government, traced 24 trials in which researchers had studied the effect of vitamin C supplements on wound healing. 16 trials involved combinations of vitamin C with other substances. Thanigasalam removed these trials.

In addition, there were a number of studies that were not quite up to scratch from a methodological point of view.

When Thanigasalam deleted those studies, he had 3 trials left. These related to subjects who had molars extracted and subjects with pressure sores or a broken wrist joint.

Results
When Thanigasalam combined the data from the trials, he saw that supplementation with vitamin C increased the chance of a rapid recovery by a factor of four.

Click on the table below for a larger version.

Dosage
In the trials used, the subjects received a daily supplement that provided 500 or 1,500 milligrams.

There were no trials in which the test subjects received injections of vitamin C. The effect of these preparations should actually be investigated, says Thanigasalam.

Source:
Indian J Surg. 2024 February;86:23-9.

More:
Surgery deprives the body of vitamin C 19.10.2024
Accelerated recovery and fewer complications after heart surgery with extra vitamin C 22.12.2023
Significantly less pain after surgery due to vitamin C supplementation 26.11.2023
Vitamin C supplement accelerates foot ulcer healing 07.12.2022

Archives:
Vitamin C
Vitamins



Diabetic foot ulcers may heal faster with magnesium supplementation Not only vitamin C supplementation may accelerate the healing of diabetic foot ulcers.	Wounds heal faster with proline You can probably speed up the process of healing a wound by taking a supplement containing the amino acid L-proline.	Wound heals faster by supplementing with arginine, vitamin C and zinc This is shown by a small human Australian study, in which patients with pressure ulcers were used as test subjects.