More relevant to our case of assessing the efficacy of megadoses is the fact that Vitamin C assists in the facilitation of a healthy immune system. People who do not eat 2-3 servings of both fruits and vegetables each day may have a greater chance of Vitamin C deficiency. In 1970 twice Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling, who was my teacher and patron of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition, wrote a book on vitamin C and the common cold, arguing that us primates, like the guinea pig and fruit-eating bat, cannot make vitamin C and need much more when fighting an infection. When you’re under viral attack the level of vitamin C, which is highly concentrated in leucocytes, falls rapidly. The best way to prevent a cold is to take plenty of vitamin C. Avoiding dietary refined sugar is also helpful. Studies have found that Vitamin C deficiencies are associated with a decreased ability to fight off pathogens while adequate Vitamin C levels are associated with an enhanced immune response. All Rights Reserved. This is effective. Viruses get into body cells by puncturing their walls with tiny spikes made of a substance called haemagglutinin. But is 6 to 8 grams enough? Each semester, ten Master of Public Health students from the University of Michigan participated in a course on Communicating Science through Social Media. According to research by virologist Madeleine Mumcuoglu, working with Dr Jean Linderman, who discovered interferon, an extract of elderberry disarms these spikes by binding to them and preventing them from penetrating the cell membrane. If you feel a cold coming on, take 2,000 mg of vitamin C every waking hour and continue this dosage until the cold is gone. It is better, again, to get a powder of alkaline balanced ascorbates, including zinc ascrobate (see below) and black elderberry extract. While the results of this study should be interpreted with caution considering that the data was based upon self-reported cases of the cold, it nonetheless demonstrates the protective effect of Vitamin C upon the frequency of catching the common cold. If you are taking high doses this can get you up to the levels that work in clinical studies. But they also use up vitamin C. During a cold you need about 6 grams a day to stop this decline in leucocyte vitamin C levels according to a Scottish study. Similarly they found a 17% decrease in the duration of the common cold amongst participants that consumed 6000mg/day. Zinc is an essential mineral that most of us are relatively deficient in. Not only is it required for the synthesis of collagen and for the facilitation of protein metabolism, but it also serves as an antioxidant by reducing the damaging effects of free radicals in the body. A 1999 study published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics assessed the impact of Vitamin C megadoses upon the incidence, duration and severity of the common cold amongst 252 students at a technical training facility in Santiago, Chile. This is certainly my experience. These three simple steps are the most effective natural ways to reduce the severity and duration of colds. Aside from acting to boost our immune systems, recommended levels of Vitamin C may be involved with decreasing stress, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, protecting against skin aging and reducing the incidence of prenatal health problems. Almost all of these studies were about high dose vs. low dose, or about really shocking the system with a lot of vitamin C. I am wondering if there are any long term studies on overall health if a population just always had the recommended amount of Vitamin C? That means I’m going to take it at least 10 to 25 grams in the first 24 hours of a cold. We all grew up with our parents telling us to wash our hands, stay home from school, drink plenty of water and get a good night’s rest to fight off the common cold, but it seems that now-a-days in our fast-paced world that people have adopted to the practice of slamming orange juice and Vitamin C supplements in the hopes of preventing the nasty downward symptomatic spiral of contracting the common cold. I’m a firm believer in natural first, everything else second. Is this Vitamin C megadose method truly an effective and reliable strategy for avoiding the ever-so-dreaded soar throat, sneezing, cough and fatigue that close to 1 billion people experience as the common cold in the United States every year? Hi Beth! There is no reliable evidence that large doses of ascorbic acid prevents colds or shorten their duration.” They had erroneously reached this assumption by reading only these reviews, both of which had serious flaws and errors in their calculations. Some vitamin C tablets and powder contain black elderberry. Thank you for reading the post, and that is a great question! What do you need to do to kill a cold? It is also a neuramidase inhibitor. A well designed study gave healthy me either 1g of vitamin C or placebo over 8 weeks. At the first signs of a cold take 2 grams immediately, then 1 gram an hour until the cold is gone (usually within 24 and often within 12 hours). I don’t take supplements for allergy reasons, so I am always trying to get as many vitamins in my food as possible. Everyone is different in this respect to it’s best to just try it and find your own way. Thus a good daily multivitamin and mineral supplement should provide an additional 10mg to help ensure an optimal intake every day. Just enter your email address below and we’ll send you a reminder. By inhibiting this enzyme viruses can’t get inside, and infect, healthy cells to take them over and become a virus factory. Although it makes me cringe to leave you with the advice that no one wants to hear, according to the reviewed literature it is up to you whether or not you stock up on orange juice, make the effort to slam down Vitamin C supplements, and go that extra mile to reduce the severity of your common cold this winter because depending on your current health status, it may or may not prove effective. You may notice that these single serving quantities of Vitamin C are hardly comparable to the 2000mg-6000mg megadoses that were previously discussed to be effective in reducing the severity of cold symptoms. Each student on the course was required to post weekly articles here as they learned how to translate complex science into something a broad audience can understand and appreciate. You can also buy pure ascorbic acid powder and mix with water and a little juice for taste, then drink throughout the day. Supplementing this amount of zinc has been shown to make the body’s T cells much more effective, hence boosting immunity. And in doing so they were evaluated in the most brutal way possible - by the audience they were writing for!
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