Health Check: should I take vitamin C or other supplements for my cold?

For the average person, taking vitamin C does not reduce the number of colds you get, or the severity of your cold. In terms of how long your cold lasts, some studies have looked at people taking vitamin C every day, while others have focused on participants taking it once they develop a cold. In 30 studies comparing the length of colds in people regularly taking at least 200 milligrams of vitamin C daily, there was a consistent reduction in the duration of common cold symptoms. However, the effect was small and equates to about half a day less in adults, and half to one day less in children. These types of studies also found a very minor reduction in the amount of time needed off work or school. Among studies where vitamin C was only started once a cold had developed, there was no difference in duration or severity of a cold.

  How Linus Pauling duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds

"There’s a lot of misinformation out there on vitamin C because it’s safe," says Heather Mangieri, a nutritionist working with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. And part of it traces back to one famous scientist, Linus Pauling, who came to believe that vitamin C could be a cure-all for numerous ailments — and, while he's no longer alive, he's still duping millions of people.

  How to Avoid Getting Pummeled by a Cold

Antihistamines will help with mild congestion, but if you’re really stuffed, try a saline nasal spray, he says. Not only will it help thin the fluids created by the mucous membranes in your upper airway (a.k.a. nose gunk), making it easier to blow that stuff out, but since it’s a high-concentration salt solution, it will suck water out of your nasal passages, reducing swelling and helping to bring sweet, sweet oxygen through your nostrils once more.

 Are You Secretly Making Your Cold Worse?

According to Barry Grossman, an internist at the NYU Langone Tisch Center at Essex Crossing, many people “make some mistakes” when it comes to dealing with the common cold — and that these mistakes can even prolong your symptoms.

 Decoded: The Never Ending Hunt For a Cure For Common Cold

Yes cold leaves you miserable, there is NO cure, steaming, inhaling, sipping tea and drinking that god-awful haldi milk really does nothing but gives you temporary relief. What you want is not chicken soup for your soul but for your cold. So, why, for an ailment that has plagued the world from the beginning of time, is there no cure yet?

 How to tell a cold from the flu, in 2 great charts

The common cold, on the other hand, can be caused by many different viruses, most commonly rhinoviruses (and never flu viruses). Symptoms tend to be milder than flu; they come on gradually, rarely cause fever and chills, and are more likely to be marked by sneezes and a stuffy nose.

 Why Haven't We Cured the Common Cold Yet?

Researchers think they’re close to a cure for the common cold, but they first need to solve a complex problem that’s perplexed scientists for decades.

 Why winter is cold and flu season—and what you can do about it

Being cold doesn't make you catch a cold, but it doesn't help.

Can You Get Two Colds at Once?

Yes, you can. The phenomenon is known medically as coinfection and occurs when two germs, in this case viruses, cause infections at the same time. More than 100 viruses can cause the common cold, so it’s not unusual to be exposed to two at once. And, since one virus doesn’t typically confer immunity against the other, it’s not unusual to be infected by two viruses at once.

Here are the cold and flu remedies that actually work

An evidence-based guide to surviving your holiday bug.

How to Stay Healthy in Cold and Flu Season

Your best defense starts with diligent hand-washing and a flu shot. But studies suggest that there are additional steps you can take to stay free of respiratory illnesses, or at least make a speedier recovery. Here are some of those steps.

Nasal Irrigation Makes Comeback as Cold Remedy

An age-old technique that may have developed from yoga traditions is turning out to be a simple and effective way to combat the cold. Flushing the nasal passageway with warm salt-water can help prevent colds and bring relief to allergy-sufferers.

Sick Again? Why Some Colds Won't Go Away

Some people get back-to-back colds, infected by a new virus.

Summer Is the Real Season for Bad Colds, Not Winter

Colds in summertime can last for weeks, at times seemingly going away and then suddenly storming back with a vengeance, infectious-disease experts say. A winter cold, by contrast, is typically gone in a few days. The reason for the difference: Summer colds are caused by different viruses from the ones that bring on sniffling and sneezing in the colder months.

You can’t beat the common cold, and that’s a fact

At least 50% of colds are caused by rhinoviruses, of which there are approximately 100 serotypes. Other viruses that can cause colds include adenoviruses, enteroviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), coronavirus, influenza and parainfluenza viruses, and human metapneumovirus (hMPV). Rhinoviruses survive best at the cooler temperatures found in the nose as opposed to the warm depths of the body, which is why the primary signs and symptoms of infection occur there.

You’re Doing It Wrong: Cold Remedies

The biggest mistake people make when they’re suffering from a cold is to take decongestants, like Sudafed. I speak from experience: I began my week of congestion by taking 120 milligrams of pseudoephedrine twice a day. But pseudoephedrine is a false friend: It can temporarily make it easier to breathe, but it doesn’t shorten the duration of your cold and causes “an increase in the thickness of lung secretions” in the long run. Instead of trying to temporarily suppress congestion, I discovered it was better to help the mucus move along by drinking lots of water and taking an expectorant like Mucinex, which, to use an optimistic euphemism, “helps make your cough more productive.”

Cold: And the Winner Is...

Since so many of us fall victim to this almost, if not definitely, yearly, most Americans want to improve their immune system so as to be less likely to contract one. And if you walk through a pharmacy you'll notice plenty of supplements touting the "immune-boosting" powers of Vitamin C, echinacea, and all sorts of other herbs and vitamins. The scientific and medical community, however, are still debating the efficacy of such supplements. Despite that, one vitamin has come to the spotlight with some very convincing evidence: vitamin D.

Curing the Common Cold

Who has not dreamed of a cure for the common cold? It might be a pill that banishes the sniffles, to be taken as soon as you notice the symptoms. Or better yet, a vaccine administered before kindergarten, along with those for measles and mumps.

Don’t Give Kids Under 12 Cold and Cough Medicine

Kids aren’t just tiny adults—these medicines haven’t been proven safe for them. So try these remedies instead.

Evaluation of echinacea for the prevention and treatment of the common cold: a meta-analysis.

Echinacea is one of the most commonly used herbal products, but controversy exists about its benefit in the prevention and treatment of the common cold. Thus, we did a meta-analysis evaluating the effect of echinacea on the incidence and duration of the common cold. Published evidence supports echinacea's benefit in decreasing the incidence and duration of the common cold.

Fact or Fiction?: Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever

The answer is simmering in a bowl of chicken soup.

For the love of God, people, stop taking antibiotics for colds

What's most disturbing is that health professionals who know better are a huge part of this problem — prescribing antibiotics when they know full well that they shouldn't. (When I asked doctors why they do it, they mentioned a mixture of patient demand and uncertainty about a diagnosis.)

Health Check: what is the common cold and how do we get it?

It’s commonly stated rhinovirus and common cold symptoms are different to influenza (the flu). However all the viruses mentioned can cause an influenza-like illness. Most people infected with influenza virus have only mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. Many infected with influenza have exactly the same symptoms as those infected with rhinovirus. This is why it’s usually not possible for you, or a doctor, to tell whether you are suffering from a cold or flu. The term “ILI” or “influenza-like illness” is also used for colds, especially where there is also fever. While influenza might sometimes be associated with more severe respiratory infections, rhinovirus gives it a good run for its money. During most winters, rhinoviruses cause more cases of people needing admission to hospital with pneumonia than do influenza viruses.

How to Prepare for Cold and Flu Season

The best most can hope for is getting a brief cold instead of a more serious infection like the flu, an underappreciated danger that kills thousands each year. Now is the time to prepare. Take steps to reduce your and your family’s risk of sickness and assemble a flu and cold “survival kit” for when viruses come knocking.

If You Have a Cold That Never Goes Away, Blame the Person You Love

A cold that won't go away probably doesn't exist. Doctors say that those bugs (that seem to have haunted everyone this winter) is actually just you getting sick with another infection, probably given to you by someone you share your home with.

Is Vitamin C effective against the common cold?

The authors concluded that the failure of Vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine Vitamin C supplementation is not justified; however, Vitamin C may be useful for people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise (i.e., marathon runners and skiers).

Monday’s medical myth: vitamin C prevents colds

Even taking the most favourable interpretation of the evidence, vitamin C supplements have only a minor effect on symptoms – and that’s only if they’re taken every day.

Mysterious Childhood Paralysis Linked to a Cold Virus

Enterovirus D68 has been around for decades—it was first identified in California in 1962, and it’s one of many viral strains to blame for the common cold. It also belongs to the same genus as poliovirus, an infectious, nerve-damaging pathogen that can cause paralysis. But up until 2012, EV-D68 had never been associated with anything beyond respiratory illness.

Sick Again? Why Some Colds Won't Go Away

The average cold lasts two to 14 days. Coughs can linger up to six weeks.

The complete guide to getting over a cold as quickly as possible

When you’re suffering from a minor bug, you might feel rather inundated with conflicting advice. Do you feed it or starve it? Sleep all day or run until you break a fever-killing sweat? We’ve cut through the nonsense and found some evidence-based tips for getting rid of the sniffles.

The First Thing To Do When You Feel A Cold Coming On Is...

Drinking more water is more effective than popping zinc, eating chicken soup, cranking up the humidifier and loading up on saline nasal spray.

The low-down on ‘cold and flu’ tablets

Cold and flu medicines are not suitable for children under six years of age and should only be given to children aged six to 11 years after discussion with a doctor or pharmacist.

Vitamin C, the Common Cold and Controversy

Pauling’s reading of the literature convinced him that the more vitamin C you took, approaching megadose levels, the lower your chances of getting sick, and the less sick you got. It was at this point that Pauling made what I consider to be a fundamental mistake. He decided to publish his ideas without peer review, in the form of a popular book.

Vitamin D vs. Common Cold: And the Winner Is...

Since so many of us fall victim to this almost, if not definitely, yearly, most Americans want to improve their immune system so as to be less likely to contract one. And if you walk through a pharmacy you'll notice plenty of supplements touting the "immune-boosting" powers of Vitamin C, echinacea, and all sorts of other herbs and vitamins. The scientific and medical community, however, are still debating the efficacy of such supplements. Despite that, one vitamin has come to the spotlight with some very convincing evidence: vitamin D.

What's Inside: NyQuil, Fortified With Powerful Narcotics!

One of the many wonder-pharmaceuticals that can be derived from coal tar, acetaminophen was used for nearly a century as a painkiller and fever reducer before anyone figured out how it worked. We now know that as the drug breaks down in the body, it turns into a cannabinoid: yes, stoners, the same type of compound that makes marijuana so irresistible.

What's the difference between cold and flu?

The two winter respiratory illnesses may look alike, but pay attention to tell them apart.

Why Do People Get Colds In Cold Weather?

It’s common knowledge we are all more likely to get sick during winter. But what does science have to say about why?

Will Drinking Lots of Water Really Help My Cold?

It’s common wisdom we’ve all heard when sick with a cold or the flu: Drink plenty of fluids. Depending on who you ask, keeping up a steady intake of water, tea, or the occasional Pedialyte will supposedly help you recover faster and ease your symptoms. But at some point—perhaps after your fourth trip to the bathroom—you've probably wondered: Is chugging all this H20 actually helping?

Zinc a Promising Treatment for Common Cold

There's still no cure for the common cold, but a new study indicates help may be on the way. The newly-released research, published in the Cochrane Library, finds that over-the-counter supplements containing zinc can reduce the severity and duration of a cold.

Zinc and the Common Cold

There is a debate regarding zinc and the common cold. Many people believe that taking zinc lozenges will reduce their cold symptoms -- or even prevent colds altogether. However, the data from research studies examining a link between zinc and the common cold have been inconclusive.