Do you have a cold? Take 8 gm vitamin C per day to shorten duration, suggests study

New research found that consuming a certain dosage of vitamin C every day during a cold shortens the duration of the infection.

Suffering from common cold? You may want to pop more vitamin C pills as a recent study suggests doing so may lead to a greater reduction in the duration of the viral infection.

The relationship between vitamin C dosage and its effects on the duration of the common cold symptoms may extend to 6-8 grams per day.

Dozens of animal studies using different animal species have found that vitamin C significantly prevents and alleviates infections caused by diverse bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Given the universal nature of the effect of vitamin C against various infections in different animal species, it also seems evident that vitamin C influences the susceptibility to, and the severity of infections in humans. However, the practical importance of vitamin C in human infections is not known.

The researcher, Dr Harri Hemila, said further therapeutic trials should be carried out to investigate the dose-response relation if the dosage is to be over 8 gm. (Shutterstock)

Dr. Harri Hemila from the University of Helsinki, Finland, analysed the findings of two randomised trials each of which investigated the effects of two vitamin C doses on the duration of the common cold.

The first trial administered 3 gram vitamin C per day to two study groups, 6 gram per day to a third group, and the fourth group was administered a placebo. Compared with the placebo group, the 6 gram per day dose shortened colds by 17%, twice as much as the 3 gram per day doses did.

The second trial administered 4 gram and 8 gram vitamin C per day, and placebo to different groups, but only on the first day of the cold. Compared with the placebo group, the 8 gram per day dose shortened colds by 19%, twice as much as the 4 gram per day dose did.

Both studies revealed a significant dose-response relationship between the vitamin C dosage and the duration of the common cold. The dose-response relationship in these two trials was also quite linear up to the levels of 6-8 grams per day. Thus, it is possible that even higher doses may lead to still greater reductions in the duration of common cold.

Hemila noted that there have been proposals that vitamin C doses should be over 15 gram per day for the best treatment of colds, but the highest doses that have so far been investigated in randomised trials have been much lower. Hemila concluded that “given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration of colds, and its safety and low cost, it would be worthwhile for individual common cold patients to test whether therapeutic 8 gram per day vitamin C is beneficial for them. Self-dosing of vitamin C must be started as soon as possible after the onset of common cold symptoms to be most effective.” The doctor stated that further therapeutic trials should be carried out to investigate the dose-response relation in the region of over 8 gram of vitamin C per day .

The study appears in the journal Nutrients.

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