Health

How to Prevent the Common Cold: Wash Your Hands

by Terri Potratz | October 9, 2008 at 10:35 am

856 views | 4 Recommendations | 3 comments

Contrary to popular belief, taking vitamin C every day does not prevent the common cold, nor does taking vitamin C promote recovery if the symptoms of a cold have already manifested. The beneficial properties of vitamin C and other antioxidants toward cold and disease prevention are grossly overestimated, and in some cases overuse of certain products could cause more harm than good.

"Not only is there no proof that some antioxidants prolong life, but there is some evidence that certain products may even lead to earlier death", says Professor Peter Sawicki, the Institute's [German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG)] Director.

I think the point about antioxidants could be disputed, as a diet rich in antioxidant foods is associated with disease prevention and healthy living. It could boil down to the difference between manufactured antioxidant supplements vs. natural antioxidants found within healthy foods.

To find out whether taking large doses of vitamin C has more pros than cons, researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration analysed the results of trials including more than 11,000 children and adults. The doses were 2g of vitamin C daily in most of the trials.

The review showed that, even at such high doses, vitamin C could not protect most of the people from getting colds. Even when adults and children had been taking vitamin C every day before getting ill, it made hardly any difference to how long their colds lasted. The effect was very small: Overall, it reduced the length of participants' colds by less than one day per year. If adults took vitamin C once they already had a cold it did not make any difference at all.

The best methods for cold and respiratory infection prevention include frequent hand washing and avoiding touching your face with your hands.

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Amitjha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 23:31 on October 9th, 2008

Terri Potratz, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Paul Conneally

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 22:48 on October 10th, 2008

Terri Potratz, I like this story. It's good stuff. I saw a programme about a young woman who only eats french fries - that's all - and she's pretty healthy - (strange) - but she also washed her hands a lot... her compulsive disorders somehow protecting her perhaps.... :-)