Cold comfort for vitamin

June 28th 2005

Vitamin C will not cure the common cold - but it may help give some relief, according to a new study.

Most people who take vitamin C to prevent colds will gain very little benefit, according to a new analysis.

But marathon runners and other highly fit athletes or soldiers can successfully prevent colds by taking the vitamin, researchers found.

Researchers in Australia and Finland looked at nearly 30 pieces of research studying the impact of vitamin C on the cold.

They found that taking the vitamin during a cold achieved nothing - except in one case when volunteers took very high doses on the first day of an infection.

They concluded that taking regular doses in the hope of preventing colds does not work.

But, they found, people who took regular vitamins did succeed in reducing the length of the cold.

The findings, reported in PLoS Medicine, have been compiled by Robert Douglas, of the Australian National University, Canberra, and Harri Hemila, of the University of Helsinki, Finland.

They say the significance of the link between vitamin C and the reduction in the length of a cold is "questionable" but add: "The consistency of these findings points to a genuine biological effect."

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