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Does Vitamin “C” help once I am sick?
By Christina | October 22, 2007
You must have heard this at least once in your lifetime after you have come down with a cold… “Take plenty of vitamin “C”. Have you ever wondered why? If the cure to the common cold were vitamin C wouldn’t someone have jumped on this by now and cured the common cold, for which I have heard there is still no cure for? Well, I decided to do some research on the effects of vitamin C on colds and here is what I found…Once you are sick, you are sick. Vitamin C neither lessens the duration nor severity of the illness. It does however hydrate you if you are drinking it. You may feel free to drink as much o.j. as you like knowing it is for the purpose of hydration, not curing.
You may also take vitamin C supplements while you are healthy as this will boost your immune system and possibly keep you from contracting the cold or flu. Mega dosing on vitamin C may cause problems with toxicity although some believe because it is water soluable it is safe to have in large quantities. This is not true.
Vitamin C is healthy because it is an antioxidant right? Nope, it is a redox agent meaning it is both an antioxidant and an oxidant. It actually varies depending on how it is working in your body at the time.
The best advise I can offer is… eat a diet rich in all the nutrients you need, avoid mega-doses of anything and be well!
January 27th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Where is your research?
December 26th, 2010 at 12:46 am
I am Jamaican and I live in Canada. There are a lot of old wives tales suggesting if you wash your hair and go out in the cold you will become sick etc…
It is winter in Canada and I have just come back from a trip in Jamaica. I am now 40 years old dating a younger man and wanted to have much energy as possible, so I picked up several packages of powered vitamin C for energy. I was also told it would boost my immunity as well. I drank them daily and it did provide me they energy I needed. I have not been sick in years, but low and behold I am now suffering from a cold. It is the Christmas season and I have partied and sweated and went outside in the cold weather with my hair wet after being in a warm climate for a week. I have to start believing those old wives tales because the vitamin C did not help in the aspect of my immunity.