Here are the five top tips to help you fight the cold this season
Vitamin C
This most famous cold fighter both prevents and treats colds. When you take 500mg a day of vitamin C, you are 66% less likely to catch a cold than when you take a placebo dose of 50mg. A review of 21 studies that used 1-8g of vitamin C found that, in each of them, vitamin C reduced the length and severity of colds by 23%. A recent double-blind study gave 1g of vitamin C or placebo to 28 people for eight weeks. In the vitamin C group, seven people got colds; in the placebo group eleven people did: that’s a 45% reduction in risk. Compared to placebo, vitamin C shortened the length of the cold by 59%. But, it’s best to take at least 2g a day. The most current word on vitamin C comes from a meta-analysis of nine controlled studies that found that taking extra vitamin C on top of regular supplementation at the onset of a cold shortens the cold by a significant 56% and significantly relieves symptoms, including chest pain, fever and chills….