Report: Vitamin C Nearly Useless Vs. Colds
Does vitamin C really help keep the common cold away? Lots of people think so.
But the latest research suggests it doesn't do the job for most of us, reported The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay Wednesday.
She explained that a review of numerous studies concluded that vitamin C isn't what it's cracked up to be, failing to help prevent the common cold in any meaningful way, except in some people exposed to extremely high stress.
For the rest of us, the chances of vitamin C warding off colds is so slight, the lead researcher concludes it "doesn't make sense to take vitamin C 365 days a year to lessen the chance of catching a cold."
Senay explained that a research team examined 30 studies conducted over several decades, involving more than 11,000 people. All compared people taking at least 200 milligrams of Vitamin C each day with people taking placebos. The researchers added up how often people in those studies got colds, and how long those colds tended to last. And the results, just published by The Cochrane Library, are likely to disappoint people who swear by vitamin C.
According to their analysis, daily vitamin C basically had no effect on the incidence of the common cold in the general population, except for very specific groups of people, all of them small groups. It did reduce the severity and duration of colds slightly, but the researchers say the difference was so slight it ended up being pretty meaningless, and not worth the effort or expense of taking all that vitamin C.
People apparently protected from colds by vitamin C, Senay said, are those who subject their immune systems to extraordinary amounts of physical stress, such as people who run marathons, or do serious trekking in the winter. The researchers found that these people were 50 percent less likely to catch cold if they took vitamin C daily. But they were the exceptions.
The message from the researchers, Senay observed, is that, if your activity profile doesn't match that of people like these, vitamin C won't keep colds away.
But, she emphasized, this doesn't mean vitamin C is useless, not by a long shot.
According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin C has several important benefits. Preventing colds just isn't one of them. Vitamin C is an important building block for the growth and repair of tissues throughout your body, including skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. If you suffer an injury, vitamin C is a vital part of the healing process. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, which means it's believed to help prevent or minimize conditions that include cancer, heart disease, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. So, even if it doesn't fight colds, you do need a certain amount of it daily for other aspects of your health.
For adult males, the recommended amount is 90 milligrams per day. For women, it's 75 milligrams. Citrus fruits and juices, strawberries and broccoli are among the many foods that are rich in vitamin C.
So, where does this research leave us in the fight against the common cold?
It makes us look toward other methods, aside from vitamin C, Senay concluded. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the best bit of cold prevention involves not taking a pill, but doing simple, if boring, things such as washing your hands, thoroughly and often.
Until a magic pill is found, keeping your hands clean, and not sharing items such as drinking cups and utensils with someone who has a cold, are still considered the most practical ways to avoid getting sick.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. But the latest research suggests it doesn't do the job for most of us, reported The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay Wednesday.
She explained that a review of numerous studies concluded that vitamin C isn't what it's cracked up to be, failing to help prevent the common cold in any meaningful way, except in some people exposed to extremely high stress.
For the rest of us, the chances of vitamin C warding off colds is so slight, the lead researcher concludes it "doesn't make sense to take vitamin C 365 days a year to lessen the chance of catching a cold."
Senay explained that a research team examined 30 studies conducted over several decades, involving more than 11,000 people. All compared people taking at least 200 milligrams of Vitamin C each day with people taking placebos. The researchers added up how often people in those studies got colds, and how long those colds tended to last. And the results, just published by The Cochrane Library, are likely to disappoint people who swear by vitamin C.
According to their analysis, daily vitamin C basically had no effect on the incidence of the common cold in the general population, except for very specific groups of people, all of them small groups. It did reduce the severity and duration of colds slightly, but the researchers say the difference was so slight it ended up being pretty meaningless, and not worth the effort or expense of taking all that vitamin C.
People apparently protected from colds by vitamin C, Senay said, are those who subject their immune systems to extraordinary amounts of physical stress, such as people who run marathons, or do serious trekking in the winter. The researchers found that these people were 50 percent less likely to catch cold if they took vitamin C daily. But they were the exceptions.
The message from the researchers, Senay observed, is that, if your activity profile doesn't match that of people like these, vitamin C won't keep colds away.
But, she emphasized, this doesn't mean vitamin C is useless, not by a long shot.
According to the National Institutes of Health, vitamin C has several important benefits. Preventing colds just isn't one of them. Vitamin C is an important building block for the growth and repair of tissues throughout your body, including skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. If you suffer an injury, vitamin C is a vital part of the healing process. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, which means it's believed to help prevent or minimize conditions that include cancer, heart disease, and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. So, even if it doesn't fight colds, you do need a certain amount of it daily for other aspects of your health.
For adult males, the recommended amount is 90 milligrams per day. For women, it's 75 milligrams. Citrus fruits and juices, strawberries and broccoli are among the many foods that are rich in vitamin C.
So, where does this research leave us in the fight against the common cold?
It makes us look toward other methods, aside from vitamin C, Senay concluded. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the best bit of cold prevention involves not taking a pill, but doing simple, if boring, things such as washing your hands, thoroughly and often.
Until a magic pill is found, keeping your hands clean, and not sharing items such as drinking cups and utensils with someone who has a cold, are still considered the most practical ways to avoid getting sick.
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Try clicking on the link within the article that says Cochran Library.
The report, the names of the researches, and the labs that did the studies are all listed within it.
Sheesh. Wake up people.
Change is coming and sooner than we think.
I feel that if you can find a genuine person and are not almost dead that I would rather take the risk of natural products which have had centuries of testing.
From What I am reading it appears that most of the drug experiments are only done on unsuspecting people anyway, and it is not until many have died that they know if it is any good.
But what does apparently work is echanacea?(not sure of spelling),also zinc. These of course are things you shouldn't take everyday but maybe the first moment you suspect you are getting a cold or say maybe if you were around someone who had a cold, you could start taking it for a week to see if you could avoid it.
"The Pharmaceutical Drug racket"
Bit scary if true..
The medical profession says that if someone gets better from natural herbs etc that it is all in the mind, but couldn't it be the same with drugs..Drugs have only been around for a relatively short time but the natural has been there for ever being tested by trillions of people as to what works and what doesn't, and who cares as long as they get better. However as we were given vegetables fruit etc to eat for our health, I feel that the natural medicines are pretty spot on, and drugs are only as a last resort.
I am 62 and have just had that horrible flu, I had nursed all my grandchildren, their parents and then my husband for a few days before I eventually got it. I was over it within a couple of days and still had to continue to nurse my family who only got over it a few days after me. Couldn't be the huge doses of vitamin C that I took and a few other natural products eh.. No of course not..
However, we must keep in mind that millions of lives have also been saved because of drugs.
I don't know how trueful it is but look up " The pharmaceutical Racket".
Great strides have been made in medicine but like you drinuk I do not trust immunization
I cant remember so many children with cancers, and such sickness when I was nursing. In our school we only had one child with asthma, and now when my husband takes the children on camp, over half the class lines up for their tablets and asthma sprays. One in five children in the USA has a chronic illness. The figure has trebled in the last 20 years, About 300,000 U.S. children have been diagnosed with autism, this is frightening, and no one does anything about it, is it because it is tooo much money that would be lost by you know who....hmmm, and yes there are many reasons not just one...
When we get someone who is willing to stand up and be counted we might find why suddenly so many children so called ADD, Autism, etc.. You cant tell me that anti freeze, formaldehyde, mercury, Aluminum, etc, These vaccines are grown and strained through animal or human tissues like monkey kidney tissue, chicken embryo, embryonicguinea pig cells, calf serum, human diploid cells
(the dissected organs of aborted fetuses as in the case of rubella, hepatitis A, and chickenpox vaccines) etc, and they say that our children are safe.
But the Lancet did say..
Vitamin C is essential for the proper metabolism of cholesterol. (Lancet, Jun 17, 1972, p.1335)
I fully agree with you regarding Multi Level scammers and the likes of Noni juice. I also understand that you are subject to protocol and that you are doing your best from what you understand, However I would ask that you take seriously the fact that there is a great deal of sinister activity surrounding the incestuous relationship between Big Pharma, the FDA and Congress. Please, I beg you have an open mind and take a look. There is a very good example on a 90 minute video on Google Video called "The Ugly Truth About Vaccines" On the same page you will find one from a bunch of Australian Doctors too.
I do not wish to offend or to undermine your credentials, I simply ask for a open mind.
Of course small amounts of vitamin C will not do a thing especially every day 200 milligrams of Vitamin C each day is a pathetic amount when you are sick, you might as well lick a peice of paper for all the good it will do you.
Two-time Nobel prize winner, Dr. Linus Pauling was the first to realize vitamin C's crucial importance in the maintenance of a healthy immune system. In 1970 he proposed that regular intake of vitamin-C in amounts far higher than the officially sanctioned RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) could help prevent and shorten the duration of the common cold.
Many experts are now realizing that the RDA of 60 mg/day is far too low to provide for optimum health and protection against disease. They found that a minimum intake of 1000 mg/day was required to completely saturate the blood plasma with vitamin C. They also found that vitamin C should be taken in divided doses throughout the day as urinary excretion increases rapidly when individual doses exceed 500 mg. While 200 mg/day of vitamin C may be sufficient to maintain a reasonable health status in healthy, young men, it is clear that such a relatively low intake is far from adequate for older and sick people.