Why Do Some People Think That Taking Lots Of Vitamin C Helps Cure A Cold?
The common cold is caused by a range of different viruses and, so far, there is no known cure. Some people believe that taking in large amounts of vitamin C can help, because they think that it boosts the immune system to fight off the virus. One of the main proponents of this idea was the American scientist, Linus Pauling, recipient of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel prize for peace in 1962. He is the only individual to have ever won two unshared Nobel prizes. His thoughts on vitamin C were regarded as a sort of eccentricity, but he was convinced that vitamin C, taken in large amounts, could limit the duration of the common cold. More controversially, he also believed that it could help prevent many different types of cancer and could prolong life expectancy. Various trials over the last 30 years have failed to establish any positive effect of taking vitamin C on the duration of colds but, unlike other measures, taking extra fruit juices cannot do any harm so peopl
