Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Get Yer Vitamins!
I know a number of people who, at the beginning of cold season or even just all the time, take mega doses of vitamin C in the hopes that it will make them less prone to catching a cold. I know many more (myself included) who start pounding the vitamin C as soon as we get sick.
It turns out that we may all be wasting our money and unduly increasing our risk of kidney stones (an effect of vitamin C overdose): a new meta-study suggests that vitamin c supplementation does not reduce the likelihood of catching cold, and only reduces the duration of a caught one by a half a day. The study did indicate that taking vitamin C was beneficial to those regularly exposed to high physical stress, such as skiers or runners. They don't seem to have addressed other types of stress.
It turns out that we may all be wasting our money and unduly increasing our risk of kidney stones (an effect of vitamin C overdose): a new meta-study suggests that vitamin c supplementation does not reduce the likelihood of catching cold, and only reduces the duration of a caught one by a half a day. The study did indicate that taking vitamin C was beneficial to those regularly exposed to high physical stress, such as skiers or runners. They don't seem to have addressed other types of stress.
