Can Vitamin C Cure Colds?

When I have colds the only remedy I do is to take 1gm of vitamine C and with supplement of squeezed orange juice. It does work to me and my cold last for only 3 days and feel okay. It seems to me it helps a lot in alleviating the pain of cold.

I also take 1,000mgs of Vitamin C daily. Everyone around me can catch a cold and I never do. If I do, it is gone in 2 or 3 days and it is a very mild cold.

In regards to the posting before mine, the movie Match Stick Men is just a movie. Movies are fictional and have no evidence that can be relied upon. Whether this acticle is true or not, it does scientifically prove that vitamin C will not improve your health if you are sick. The beauty of the scientific method is that nothing is absolute, and their findings can always be disproved with evidence supporting vitamin C if there is any.

I seldom remember to take vitamins on a daily basis, but any time I have cold symptoms I take huge amounts of vitamin C. By the next day, the symptoms are gone and stay that way for months. I nor my children have needed to see a doctor for a couple of years since we all started taking vitamins. With three kids in school avoiding the common cold is next to impossible. I feel that doctors/our goverment/ and phamacists want to try and deter people from doing anything that will keep them from needing a doctor as that would only dip into the money they rake in from the general public each year. I will not stop taking vitamins nor my children. Kudos to those smart enough to look beyond media hype.

I started taking pharmaceutical grade Vitamin C powder a little over a year ago. I take 1/2 tsp in water every morning and I haven't had a cold since starting this regimen. I also started my mom on it. She is 77 and seemed to be coming down with colds and respiratory issues one after another. Her health has improved and she hasn't had a cold in several months.

Of course 200mg won't cure anything, you have to take thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid, to bowel tolerance (til you get runny stools) to kick your immune system into gear. I love these blasted studies - of course this one would show it doesn't work, because 200mg won't do anything!

Ascorbic acid is the form recommended by Pauling and the doses for cancer patients are not 200mg as this report used, but rather to bowel tolerance with 25,000mg or more. Vitamin C is less toxic than table sugar. What are we feeding our kids??
Dont be fooled by the medical profession that believes that only drugs cure disease.

Vitamin C is a T cell builder and antioxidant, used with Vitamin E has great benefits. It is good for bones and teeth, Helps keep arteries clean, arterial walls strong, skin healthier. The above combination is also beneficial to the Heart. Dont sleep on this vitamin, its water soluable your body dont store it. Good Health. Johnnie.G

Vitamin C or Orange juice is a good liquid to use in taking the medicine for colds and I guess the notion of the vitamin C in curing colds came form the practice.

there are six adults in my household and 2 children...germs come from everywhere daily (when you stop to think about it) everyone, except me (one of the adults) has been sick at least twice...when I started to bump up the vites and mins - especaily vite c... I've warded off the cold and flu, I also make sure to drink plenty of proper fluids and stay hydrated...the other adults were thumbing thier noses at me for the notion, telling me its an old "wives tale"...but for the second time around thier thumbing tissues! :)

Rest, sleep and exercise has always been great combatants of colds. It is not whether or not you get a cold; it is whether or not your body is strong enough to fight it off fast enough. If you have a cold drink plenty of water and go to sleep.

Vitamin C may not be as effective as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews wants it to be, but it is the only cure for colds. All cold and cough medicines on the market today state that they provide cough/cold/congestion relief. They do not cure anything, but cover up symptoms. Vitamin C, for me personally, has made my colds shorter and milder....but it saved me a buck or two, which is the reason why companies come out with studies claiming that cheap vitamins are ineffective. In addition, this study had its subjects taking 200 mg of Vitamin C a day, while Vitamin C tends to come in 500 mg pills. If you take less than half of what is the common dose, why would you expect valid results?

I have a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Dietetics and Nutrition and I have also learned that Vitamin C does not cure your cold... HOWEVER, what Vitamin C does do is make you feel better... how so?? Well, it is an antioxidant that neutralizes "free radical cells" (i.e. the pathogen making you sick) but it also may accidently neutralize your immune system cells trying to fight off that very pathogen ---thus slowing down your healing phase... but there is a benefit to the Vitamin C. By slowing down your immune system, you actually feel much better because you have less mucus produced..... (mucus is a byproduct of your immune system fighting off icky stuff). The Vitamin C slows down the amount of mucus produced you see :). You may have your cold hang on for an extra day but it may seem less severe... and plus, you need all the liquids you can get when you are sick so DRINK UP PEOPLE! :)

If I'm getting a cold I drink a full container of orange juice within a 12 hour period, and it never goes farther than that...Non-concentrated, of course...I live by this theory...for me it's proven...And a comment for the last comment, if Vitamin C supposrts our immune system, and kicks it in gear, isn't it then a form of a cure...

I seldom remember to take vitamins on a daily basis, but am a firm believer that vitamins do work. Whenever I feel cold symptoms I take huge amounts of vitamin C. By the next day the symptoms are gone. And I can go months without a single problem. I believe our not so great goverment wants to try and put a stop to anything that will dip into the money they rake in off of prescription drugs each year. Doctors and Pharmacists are in the same boat as the goverment, why try to promote something that would keep people healthier and keep them from needing them. Lets get real people. Kudo's to those of you smart enough to take vitamins.

Comment:
I have always been under the assumption that you need to take at least a 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily otherwise it does no good. And I do take 1,000mg of vitamin C a day and I have rarely caught a cold. And the only reason for that was because I stopped taking vitamin C. But, as soon as I started taking it again it did shorten the cold and I was back on track of being healthy and not catching a cold again.

Orange juice is a good back-up for taking medicines... and my guess is, the notion, vitamin C cures colds, came from that.