Vitamin C helps athlete colds

Thursday February 14th, 2013

According to popular myth vitamin C is good for colds - and this may be true for people undertaking stressful physical activity, researchers say.

Finnish researchers have uncovered a whole series of studies highlighting the benefits of the vitamin for athletes and soldiers.

Marathon runners, child skiers and soldiers on a winter exercise all benefited in studies which showed taking the vitamin could halve the length of a cold, researchers said.

The findings have been reported by the Cochrane Library.

Researchers Harri Hemilä1 and Elizabeth Chalker found another study involving teenage competition swimmers.

This found the vitamin worked for boys but not for girls - and again it halved the average length of a cold.

The researchers say the findings do not back the custom of taking vitamin C daily.

They write: "Although these findings unambiguously show that vitamin C has a biological effect on colds, taking vitamin C every day to shorten infrequent colds does not seem reasonable."

They add: "Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the safety and low cost of vitamin C, it may be worthwhile for individual common cold patients to test whether therapeutic vitamin C is beneficial for them."

Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Library 31 January 2013; doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4. [abstract]

Tags: Child Health | Europe | Fitness | Flu & Viruses

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