Does Vitamin C Help With Colds – Really?

Does Vitamin C Help With Colds – Really?

Everyone has had one, the common cold earned its title by being the most frequent infectious disease in humans. Most people will get a cold a few times every year. Experiencing a runny nose, congestion, sore throat, a mild fever, coughing and all those nasty symptoms that we have all grown to loathe. Supplementing with Vitamin C, does Vitamin C help with colds?

What is almost as common as the cold itself, is the notion that ample levels of Vitamin C combat the cold like nothing else! But is this true?

Does Vitamin C Help With Colds?

Kind of.
A large meta-analysis examined 29 trials with a total of 11,306 individuals who supplemented with 200 mg or greater of Vitamin C. It was found that Vitamin C did not affect the frequency of colds suffered by these individuals, but it did slightly affect how severe the cold was and how long it lasted.

This is fairly disappointing news, but you have to look a bit deeper before disregarding Vitamin C altogether.

Vitamin C’s Role in Immune Function

Collagen is a protein found in mammals, the most abundant protein in fact. Responsible for keeping our skin and tissues strong and flexible. Vitamin C is a necessary piece in the production of collagen in the skin.

Vitamin C is also a major player in our immune function, highly concentrated in our immune cells and it depletes rapidly when our bodies are under attack during an infection. Making it very important to supplement levels of Vitamin C during a cold or any sort of immune crippling infection.

Another important thing to understand when thinking of Vitamin C and our immune function is our Glutathione levels. Glutathione is our body’s most powerful antioxidant, earning it the title “Master Antioxidant”. Without this vital molecule Vitamin C cannot perform whatsoever. The best way to supplement Glutathione is through the Acetylated form Acetyl Glutathione due to conventional Glutathione supplements inability to be absorbed by the body. Also precursors such as N Acetylcysteine can help promote endogenous production of this Master Antioxidant.

How To Avoid A Cold

Make sure that you are fortifying Vitamin C levels when you start to see the signs and symptoms of a cold beginning, because that means your body is under attack and is using up its Vitamin C stores rapidly.

Before the cold happens at all make sure to enhance your Glutathione levels to provide maximum cellular protection as well as allow your Vitamin C to perform the roles it is meant to.

All things considered you can shorten the lifespan of your cold and reduce the severity of it as well. Combine this with ample Glutathione levels and you may be able to quell the infection before it has a chance to manifest into those dreaded symptoms of the common cold.

Not to mention the countless benefits of Vitamin C such as its ability to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and even cancer.