What is it about?
There is very strong evidence that, in certain contexts, vitamin C can shorten the duration of colds and decrease their incidence. This effect has been ignored in medical textbooks for decades. We show that the rejection of the benefits of vitamin C can be traced to 3 highly influential publications from 1975. We also highlight that two recent randomized trials published in JAMA misled readers to believe there was no effect from vitamin C when in fact one of them found that vitamin C reduced mortality of sepsis patients and the other found an increase in the recovery rate from COVID-19. We also discuss potential explanations for the long-lasting bias against the possibility that vitamin C may be beneficial.
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Why is it important?
Vitamin C is a safe and very cheap essential nutrient and does not need a prescription. Therefore even small effects on disease duration and severity may be worth exploring. The common cold is ubiquitous and therefore potential treatments for it are important.
Perspectives
Historically, severe vitamin C deficiency was associated with an increased risk of pneumonia, indicating that vitamin C may have an effect on respiratory infections. In the first half of the 20th century, many physicians were enthusiastic about the beneficial effects of the vitamin, but in the latter part of the 20th century, interest waned. While severe vitamin C deficiency is now less prevalent, some degree of deficiency is not uncommon. Furthermore, there is evidence that severe physiological stress caused by infections and sepsis leads to a dramatic decline in vitamin C levels and therefore vitamin C may be beneficial in such contexts even if baseline dietary vitamin C intakes are appropriate. The real importance of vitamin C against infections and other medical conditions requires significant further research. Unfortunately the strong bias has hampered such research even though many high quality randomized trials have shown significant benefits.
Dr Harri Hemila
Helsingin Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bias against Vitamin C in Mainstream Medicine: Examples from Trials of Vitamin C for Infections, Life, January 2022, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/life12010062.
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