High Dose Vitamin C 1000 mg Prevent and Treat Common Cold?

Season's erratic lately made a lot of people affected by common cold. My friends are also many who suffer from the flu. The disease which often caused by rhinovirus is indeed very disturbing activities. A lot of friends put up a facebook status associated with the disease symptoms such as fever, runny nose, etc. Some health products also take advantage of this opportunity. These products offer health supplements that contain vitamin C 1000 mg. No half-hearted, they dare to say that consumption of high doses of vitamin C can prevent and treat colds. In fact, some drinks containing 1000 mg of ascorbic acid suggesting that we take vitamin supplements three times daily. Do we really need vitamin C 1000 mg daily? Does high-dose vitamin C good for our health?

Treatment for common cold mainly to relieve symptoms. Nasal decongestan and paracetamol is very useful in relieving nasal congestion and fever. Sometimes, anti-flu drugs also contains anti histamine for allergic reactions which are also frequently accompanies with the common cold. Antibiotics should be avoided in the treatment of cold. Some studies mention that the use of antibiotics are not useful in handling the cold. Irrational use of antibiotics in the treatment of flu in fact increase bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Vitamin C is believed to be useful in the treatment of common cold. Vitamin C had been shown to boost immunity. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recommends that we consume the vitamin C of about 75-90 mg / day. Smokers need additional vitamin C 35 mg / day higher. However, some commercial products so excited in the community suggest that taking vitamin C with doses much higher than recommended doses. In fact, they suggested that we should increase the intake of vitamin C to 3 x 1000 mg/day when we get the flu. Whether the increased intake of vitamin C at the time we feel flu-like symptoms would be useful?

Some researchers from the University of Wyoming interested in study this phenomenon. They were to study literature from several studies on vitamin C to determine the role of vitamin C in treating the common cold. Consumption of vitamin C 200 mg / day on a regular basis can reduce the duration of cold symptoms. However, regular consumption of vitamin C supplements did not prevent a cold. Regular consumption of vitamin C also does not reduce severity. What about the increased consumption of vitamin C at the time we get the cold? Apparently, this is also not useful. Increased intake of vitamin C at the time we begin to feel flu-like symptoms did not reduce the duration and severity of disease. Vitamin C is water-soluble vitamins. Thus, vitamin C with very high doses will not be absorbed because it will happen saturation levels of vitamin C in blood. Excessive vitamin C will only be removed through the urine and are thought to cause kidney stones. Some studies also mention that consumption of vitamin C more than 2000 mg/day can cause adverse effects on the gastrointestinal system and tooth erosion because this vitamin is a acid substance.

Then, how many doses of vitamin C, which should we eat regularly? Some studies mention that we should consume approximately vitamin C 200 mg/day. Consumption of vitamin C more than 500 mg / day is not recommended. To understand why we need vitamin C with this dose, we need to know the pharmacokinetics of vitamin C. Check out this blog continues ..

References:

Giunta, J. L., 1993. Dental erosion resulting from chewable vitamin C tablets. Journal of the American Dental Association, 107, 253–256.

Goldenring, J., 2007. Vitamin C and colds. VeriMed Healthcare Network. Retrieved September 7, 2007, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/
002145.htm

Heimer, K.A., Hart, A.M., Martin, L.G., 2009. Examining the evidence for the use of vitamin C in the prophylaxis and treatment of the common cold. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners 21, 295-300