The idea originally came from Nobel prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling in the 1970s. Pauling reported that there was ‘strong evidence’ that vitamin C decreased the incidence of the common cold.
So, what’s the real evidence?
Firstly, what about daily vitamin C stopping you getting a cold ? Well, in 2013 a review of a lot of different trials and concluded that daily vitamin C had no effect on common cold incidence in the ordinary population, based on 29 trial comparisons involving 11,306 participants.
Robina 7 Day Doctors and Acupuncture recommends this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cE3PXoJJ6E
So, can daily doses make colds less bad when you do get one? The 2013 analysis reported that based on 31 study comparisons with 9745 common cold episodes, regular supplementation had a modest but consistent effect in reducing the duration of common cold symptoms. Regular supplementation trials found that 0.2 g/day or more reduced common cold duration modestly by 8% in adults and by 14% in children and 1 to 2 g/d of vitamin C in children reduced common cold duration by 18%. It’s not much!
Can a Megadose of Vitamin C Help?
Can a big dose once you start feeling a cold coming on help? Studies are inconsistent. One large trial with adults reported benefit from an 8 g therapeutic dose at the onset of symptoms, and two therapeutic trials using five-day supplementation reported benefit, but many others showed nothing – so the evidence is still unclear. And large doses of vitamin C may not be good for you: over 1g per day can cause stomach problems.
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