ArticleCureus2025
Public Interest in Vitamin C Supplementation During the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Potential Risk for Oxalate Nephrolithiasis.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionVitamin C (ascorbic acid) therapy was widely touted as a potential treatment or preventive therapy for COVID-19 despite a lack of supporting evidence. One potential harm of high-dose vitamin C supplementation is increased urinary oxalate, which may increase the risk of hyperoxaluria and oxalate kidney stones. This study aims to evaluate public interest in vitamin C during the COVID-19 pandemic based on online search volume and to characterize variation in vitamin C interest as a potential contributor to kidney stone formation. Methods: The volume and frequency of online search traffic related to vitamin C and COVID-19 were assessed using the Google Trends platform (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA) between 2018 and 2022. Weekly relative search volumes (RSV), the proportional volume of online searches for a search term, were assessed to compare variations in online interest in vitamin C and COVID-19. The most popular Google search results for vitamin C as a treatment for COVID-19 were assessed for medical accuracy. Statistical analysis was performed with t-tests and linear regression.
resultsOnline search volume for vitamin C increased four-fold at the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020. After the initial outbreak, average RSV for vitamin C remained significantly elevated compared to pre-COVID-19 levels (37.7 vs. 25.1, p<0.001). Weekly RSV for vitamin C increased steadily during the study period (R2=0.59, p<0.001). The peak in online interest in vitamin C corresponded to increased online search volume during three global COVID-19 surges. Among the most popular results for COVID-19-related vitamin C queries, 30% inaccurately suggested that vitamin C had potential benefits in treating COVID-19. None of these search results discussed the potential increased risk of kidney stones with vitamin C supplementation.
conclusionOnline public interest in vitamin C supplementation increased and remained elevated during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings have implications for increased risk of hyperoxaluria and oxalate stones due to vitamin C supplementation. Kidney stone patients should be counseled that excess vitamin C intake is associated with increased urinary oxalate and incident stone formation.
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