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Pharmacy Links

SUPER NUTRITION FOR COLD THERAPY: VITAMIN C

23rd March 2009

In 1970, Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling started a medical controversy with his book Vitamin C and the Common Cold. Few people today question that vitamin C and the Common Cold. Few people today question that vitamin C relieves symptoms and shortens the duration of the common cold. But both the public and the scientific community are concerned by the ever-increasing dosages being recommended by many contemporary practitioners.

For example, at first Pauling recommended 250 to 1,000 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) daily to prevent colds and infections. Should a cold appear, he recommended increasing intake to 1 to 10 g daily, depending on one’s personal tolerance to vitamin C and on the severity of the infection. Nowadays, Pauling recommends 10 g a day as a prophylactic dose, while if you get a cold, the dose is 2 g per hour.

Meanwhile, other doctors have suggested amounts as high as 25 to 100 g per day to be taken during a cold. Some doctors find that 80 to 90 percent of the amount you can tolerate without getting diarrhea is effective.

During controlled trials, these enormous doses have shown little discernible advantage over smaller amounts.

As a result, many nutritionists today believe that, in their zeal to prove its cold-fighting properties, the pioneers of vitamin C therapy have overlooked two important factors. They are:

1. When tested under controlled conditions, relatively small daily doses of vitamin C (in the 3 to 5 g range) have achieved the same results as megadoses. Moreover, these very large doses may cause stomach gas, heartburn or diarrhea.

2. To achieve its maximum biological activity, vitamin C must interact with adequate amounts of other vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A and E, the B-complex and zinc. By focusing exclusively on vitamin

C, and ignoring the role of these other essential nutrients, vitamin C therapists arc failing to maximize the full benefits of vitamin C. By working synergistically with other essential nutrients, smaller amounts of vitamin C can enhance immunocompetence more effectively than can large doses of vitamin C alone.