Vitamin C Fails To Prevent Colds

Posting Date: 10/02/2001

For those of you who are still taking high doses of vitamin C in the belief that it will help you prevent or shorten a cold, I have news for you.

This is an Australian study that looked at what would happen if large doses of vitamin C were taken at the onset of a cold. Four hundred healthy volunteers took a daily dose of vitamin C (1gm or 3 gm) or a placebo. They were instructed to begin taking the medication when they experienced common symptoms of a cold for at least for hours. They were to keep a simple record of their colds and return them to researchers. This was a double-blind, randomized clinical trial.

One hundred and forty-nine participants returned their cold records for a total of 184 cold episodes. Now listen to this. Researchers found no real differences between the vitamin C and the placebo group. No difference in cold severity or duration. The placebo group had the shortest time for symptoms (nasal, systemic and overall symptoms). This group also had the lowest severity score at 14 days, seven days and 28 days. But the scores were not deemed significant by the researchers.

This study confirms four other randomly controlled clinical trials on vitamin C in colds. So, if you want to continue taking vitamin C for your cold, go ahead. But it could be a terrific waste of money.

Source: Medical Journal of Australia 2001; 175:359-362

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