how does vitamin c prevent flu?

Question

does vitamin c have any effect on the immune system which makes it easy to resist flu after taking vitamin c pills

Answer 1

It won't completly prevent the flu but it will strengthen your immune system.

Answer 2

There is absolutely no proof that Vitamin C protects one against the influenza virus.

However, Vitamin C is a water-soluble substance and does not collect in fat cells (as Vitamin A does, for example). Therefore, taking lots of Vitamin C can't really harm you.

Dr. Linus Pauling, who won two Nobel prizes, took 3 grams a day (3,000 miligrams). I take 1,000, but up it to 2 or 3 grams if I think I'm getting a cold. Although colds and flu are both caused by viruses, they're different viruses. Pauling's book, "Vitamin C and the Common Cold," does not address influenza, but he made a good case for taking Vitamin C, whether for a cold or just good health. He died of prostate cancer. Before he died, he said, "Maybe I would have gotten cancer ten years ago if I hadn't taken so much Vitamin C." So, if he was wrong, he wouldn't admit it, even to his dying day.

Answer 3

Vitamin C neutralizes free radicals, helps kill viruses, and strengthens the body's immune system. The reason very high doses of a vitamin can cure an illnesses is because a disease-induced deficiency of that vitamin can be a cause of the illness.

Answer 4

Vitamin C has been shown to shorten a cold's duration by anywhere from a few days to a week. Whether it prevents colds has been harder to establish. Although most research shows it doesn't, one randomized study did find that ultramarathoners -- whose immune systems tend to be weaker after a race -- who downed 600 milligrams of vitamin C daily didn't catch as many colds as runners who didn't take any at all.

Answer 5

No. Garlic prevents the flu and most illinesses. SInce it is an anitbiotic and i have taken a clove of garlic everday for 3 years and not oncehave i ever become ill! Vitimin C prevents bleeding gums, dry and chapped skin..etc.

Answer 6

It helps your immune system which fights off disease. Always take vitamin C. You know when you've taken too much if you have diarhhea.

Answer 7

It does nothing to prevent the flu. It does help fight off a cold or to make the duration of the cold shorter.

Answer 8

I don't think so. Some people say that vitamin C helps keep away colds.

Answer 9

Improves your immune system that is all.

Answer 10

The role of oral vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the prevention and treatment of the common cold has been a subject of controversy for at least sixty years. Public interest in the topic continues to be high and vitamin C continues to be widely sold and used as a preventive and therapeutic agent for this common ailment. OBJECTIVES: To discover whether oral vitamin C in doses of 200 mg or more daily, reduces the incidence, duration or severity of the common cold when used either as continuous prophylaxis or after the onset of cold symptoms. SEARCH STRATEGY: This updated review added to earlier searches, a full search of the following electronic databases: the Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2004); MEDLINE (January 1966 to June 2004); and EMBASE (1990 to June 2004). SELECTION CRITERIA: Papers were excluded if a dose less than 200 mg daily of vitamin C was used; if there was no placebo comparison; if methods of outcome assessment were inadequately described; and if the report did not record any of the three study outcomes (incidence, duration or severity) in sufficient detail to enter into the meta-analysis. Three criteria of study quality were assessed: Jadad scores, placebo distinguish-ability, and allocation concealment. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed trial quality. 'Incidence' of colds during prophylaxis was assessed as the proportion of participants experiencing one or more colds during the study period. 'Duration' was the mean days of illness of cold episodes and 'severity' of these episodes was assessed by days confined indoors, off work or school. or by symptom severity scores. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty-nine trial comparisons involving 11,077 study participants contributed to the meta-analysis on the relative risk (RR) of developing a cold while taking prophylaxis. The pooled RR was 0.96 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.00). A subgroup of six trials that involved a total of 642 marathon runners, skiers, and soldiers on sub-arctic exercises reported a pooled RR of 0.50 (95%CI 0.38 to 0.66).Thirty comparisons that involved 9,676 respiratory episodes contributed to the meta-analysis on common cold duration during prophylaxis . A consistent benefit was observed, representing a reduction in cold duration of 8% (95% CI 3% to 13%) for adult participants and 13.5% (95% CI 5% to 21%) for child participants. Fifteen trial comparisons that involved 7,045 respiratory episodes contributed to the meta-analysis of severity of episodes experienced while on prophylaxis. The pooled results revealed a difference favouring those on vitamin C when days confined to home and off work or school were taken as a measure of severity (p = 0.02), and when restricting to studies which used symptom severity scores (p = 0.16), and for the both measures of severity combined (p = 0.004).Seven trial comparisons that involved 3,294 respiratory episodes contributed to the meta-analysis of cold duration during therapy with vitamin C that was initiated after the onset of cold symptoms, and no significant difference from placebo was seen.Four trial comparisons that involved 2,753 respiratory episodes, contributed to the meta-analysis of cold severity during therapy and no significant difference from placebo was seen.In laboratory studies, differing methods of artificial transmission of virus to vitamin C or placebo treated volunteers in residential experiments gave different results. Volunteers infected by nasal installation showed small or no benefit from vitamin C, whereas a group who were infected more naturally, reported less severe symptom severity scores (p = 0.04). REVIEWERS' CONCLUSIONS: The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the normal population indicates that routine mega-dose prophylaxis is not rationally justified for community use. But evidence shows that it could be justified in persons exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise and/or cold environments. Also, the consistent and statistically significant small benefits on duration and severity for those using regular vitamin C prophylaxis indicates that vitamin C plays some role in respiratory defence mechanisms. The trials in which vitamin C was introduced at the onset of colds as therapy did not show any benefit in doses up to 4 grams daily, but one large trial reported equivocal benefit from an 8 gram therapeutic dose at onset of symptoms.