Is Vitamin C The Cure To Your Cold?

It’s that time of the year again when you have a runny nose, dry cough, sore throat and all those other symptoms that make you want to stay in bed all day. But there’s always that one person who tells you to just eat an orange and get that vitamin C! But have you ever wondered if it really works?

Think about it, vitamin C does have a lot of beneficial effects including bone, iron and skin maintenance. It also serves importance in boosting your immune system which should help cure your cold, right? As a matter of fact, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

One study was done with 30 trials of daily vitamin C intake of up to 1g for several months. It was found that there was no consistent effect in the reduction of the incidence of the common cold. There was a wide range of -0.07% to 39% reduction in the number of days of cold symptoms. This study also found that a larger dose of vitamin C had greater benefits than a lower one.

While there is no strong evidence which shows that vitamin C is the solution to the common cold, ingesting higher amounts of vitamin C may reduce the duration of cold symptoms. So, make sure you aren’t skipping out on all those citrus fruits that are filled with vitamin C!

References:

Douglas, R., Chalker, E., & Treacy, B. (2000). Vitamin c for preventing and treating the common cold. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2(2), 000980.