People who take part in heavy sports exercise have been
shown to have a higher incidence of respiratory infections. In a report of
about three placebo-controlled studies of the results of vitamin C in persons
undergoing heavy physical stress, the incidence of colds was much lower in the
group that was being given supplement C.
The groups incorporated within this analyze were
"school children at a snowboarding camp in the Swiss Alps, military troops
training in Northern Canada , as well as
participants in a 90km running race." During the examine for the 90km race
participants, exactly the same researchers also ran a parallel study together
with subjects (using the same protocol) that were not participating in the
race.
The results showed that vitamin and mineral C did not
decrease the incidence of colds in the group that did not run the race. The
obvious implication the following is that nutritional C really does not
decrease the incidence of colds in normal subjects; people under physical
stress, however, seem to have got a lowered incidence of colds if they use
supplement C. This really is consistent with the previous research which also
showed that supplement C was only able to lessen the symptoms of colds fairly
compared to the incidence of colds.
Supplement C will not appear to reduce the incidence of
colds in "normal" people; it only decreases the incidence of colds in
individuals who are under heavy physical stress. Thus, surplus nutritional C
should not be ingested simply to avoid colds unless the person happens to be a
training athlete or is under some other physical stress. Generally there are,
however, some other benefits of supplement C that are not discussed with this
paper along with which might warrant everyday ingestion of vitamin C at doses
higher than the 62 mg/day that is at present recommended with the RDA.
Since vitamin C appears to
minimize the symptoms of colds, it is advisable that people use nutritional C
during episodes of the common cool. Finally, generally there are biochemical
models that explain how nutritional C may well have the opportunity to have got
these effects.
