Vitamin C won’t prevent most colds, but it may do one small thing
Scientific evidence indicates that vitamin C is largely ineffective at preventing the common cold, despite long-standing marketing and claims popularized by Linus Pauling. While some minor benefits exist for specific groups like athletes, the general public sees little impact on cold duration or severity.
Why it matters
This analysis corrects widespread health misconceptions and highlights the importance of evidence-based medicine over celebrity-endorsed health trends.
From the first hint of cold winter mornings, supermarkets and pharmacies begin heavy marketing to coax us to stock up on vitamin C to get through the cold and flu season.
As we'll see, it's a story including a Nobel Prize winner, a book and some claims that don't quite stack up.
Linus Pauling was a chemist from the United States who won two Nobel Prizes. One was in 1954 for chemistry , for his research into chemical bonds. The other was in 1962 for peace , for his activism against nuclear weapons testing.
He was not a dietitian or an infectious disease physician. But that didn't stop him publishing a book on vitamin C and colds in 1970. This book is widely credited with the skyrocketing sales of vitamin C at the time, a trend that continues today.
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