\n<\/p>\n
\u2018V<\/span>itamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,\u201d says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production of collagen. \u201cBut the idea that taking high doses of vitamin C \u2013 or\u00a0drinking lots of orange juice \u2013 will stop you catching a cold, or help you recover faster, is a myth.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis, the author of Self Defence: A Myth-Busting Guide to Immune Health, explains that the popular belief in vitamin C\u2019s cold-fighting powers has persisted for more than 50 years, \u201cpretty much solely because of the evangelical view of one man: Linus Pauling\u201d.<\/p>\n While supplementation may slightly reduce symptom duration, the effect is modest<\/p>\n A double Nobel prize winner\u00a0and one of the most influential chemists of the 20th century, Pauling made a\u00a0major contribution to our understanding of vitamins. However, he exaggerated vitamin C\u2019s benefits. Pauling\u2019s 1970 book Vitamin C and the Common Cold became a bestseller, explains Davis, sparking such high demand that factories were built to keep up with supplement production.<\/p>\n In truth, research shows that people who take vitamin C supplements are just as likely to catch a cold as those who don\u2019t. And while supplementation may slightly reduce symptom duration (by about 8% in adults) the effect is modest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also difficult to interpret that data,\u201d says Davis, \u201cbecause people who regularly take high doses of vitamin C are often more health-conscious in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead, he recommends focusing on vitamin D if you want to fight off sickness. \u201cIt is much more clearly established as important for immune health,\u201d he says. Vitamin D is available from exposure to sunlight between March and October, but the NHS suggests that during winter people may want to take it as a supplement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Vitamin C is important for your health in lots of ways,\u201d says Daniel M Davis, the head of life sciences at Imperial College London. It is a strong antioxidant, helping protect cells from harmful unstable compounds that arise from toxins and pollution. It helps the body absorb iron, and is also used in the production<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5347,9645,8015,1933,6051,5931],"class_list":{"0":"post-36376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-alternative","9":"tag-cold","10":"tag-medicine","11":"tag-true","12":"tag-vitamin","13":"tag-youve"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}