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Vitamin C for the common cold and pneumonia

Hemilä et al., Polish Archives of Internal Medicine, doi:10.20452/pamw.16926
Jan 2025  
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Vitamin C for COVID-19
6th treatment shown to reduce risk in September 2020, now with p = 0.00000002 from 73 studies, recognized in 12 countries.
Lower risk for mortality, ICU, hospitalization, and recovery.
No treatment is 100% effective. Protocols combine treatments.
5,200+ studies for 112 treatments. c19early.org
Review of vitamin C for the common cold and pneumonia. Authors conclude that while regular vitamin C supplementation does not prevent common colds infections in the general population, it significantly reduces the severity and duration of colds by 15% when taken regularly at doses of 1 g/day or more. For individuals undertaking heavy physical activity, vitamin C halved the incidence of colds. Authors note that therapeutic trials have inconsistent results, but high doses of 6-8 g/day can decrease cold duration when initiated soon after symptom onset. For pneumonia, vitamin C was preventive in three historical trials under specific conditions but is unlikely to reduce risk in the general population. However, there is some evidence suggesting a treatment benefit for pneumonia, encouraging further research. Authors discuss the interaction of vitamin C with vitamin E, the safety profile of high-dose vitamin C, and bias against vitamin C in mainstream medicine. Authors include critical analysis of the methodologies, biases, and outcomes of the discussed trials. They suggest individual testing of high-dose vitamin C for colds given its safety and low cost.
Reviews covering vitamin C for COVID-19 include1-15.
Hemilä et al., 13 Jan 2025, United Kingdom, peer-reviewed, 2 authors. Contact: harri.hemila@helsinki.fi.
This PaperVitamin CAll
Vitamin C for the common cold and pneumonia
MD Harri Hemilä, Elizabeth Chalker
Polish Archives of Internal Medicine, doi:10.20452/pamw.16926
This article provides an overview of vitamin C for preventing and treating respiratory infections. Studies in a wide variety of animals have shown vitamin C to be protective against infections. In controlled trials in the general human population, >1 g/day vitamin C did not prevent common colds. However, in 5 trials with participants undertaking heavy physical activity, vitamin C halved the incidence of colds. In 15 trials (N = 6244), regular supplementation of ≥1 g/day of vitamin C decreased the severity of colds by 15%. Results of therapeutic trials, in which vitamin C was initiated after common cold symptoms began, have been inconsistent. However, two therapeutic trials found that 6-8 g/day of vitamin C was twice as effective at reducing the duration of colds than 3-4 g/day. In three controlled trials, vitamin C prevented pneumonia, but the contexts were atypical: participants were schoolboys in a boarding school in the UK before WW-II, soldiers hospitalized for influenza A, and US marine recruits. It is unlikely that vitamin C would reduce the risk of pneumonia in the general population, however, four trials reported a treatment benefit for pneumonia patients, although the findings encourage further research rather than providing firm evidence of efficacy. Vitamin C has been tested for COVID-19 and sepsis with conflicting results. Given the evidence that vitamin C reduces the severity and duration of the common cold, and the safety and low cost, it is not unreasonable for individuals to test whether 6-8 g/day is beneficial at the individual level.
Conflict of interest None declared. Open access This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), allowing anyone to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, including commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited. How to cite
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