MEDICAL TRIBUNE Doctors Need To Know About Ascorbic Acid and Common Cold

• Main Author: Rydin
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1976
• Subjects: Meier; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.414.139; http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/hemila/pauling/Pauling_1976_MT_2.pdf

and Rydin 16 of 2,525 Swedish soldiers in a camp in northern Sweden during 90 days in 1941, and say that no differences were found in either the incidence or the duration of colds. The ascorbic-acid subjects (1266) received an average of 90 mg per day, and the control subjects (1259) received a placebo: Examination of the tables shows that the incidence of colds in the ascorbic-acid subjects was 7.4 % less than in the control subjects, and the incidence of diseases of all sorts was 10.0 % less. The diseases were 5 % less severe in the ascorbic-acid group than in the placebo group. The differences are not statistically significant, and the investigators themselves concluded that the ascorbic acid had shown no protective effect. Their tables show, however, that the small added intake of ascorbic acid (average 90 mg per day) is associated with an apparent decrease in integrated morbidity of about 12%, and their work should not be quoted as having shown no effect. CHARLESTON AND CLEGG Four recent studies were not mentioned by Dykes and Meier. One is the 15-week study carried out with 90 subjects in Glasgow. 17 The 47 ascorbicacid subjects (1 g per day) had an average of 0.94 colds, with average duration 3.5 days, integrated morbidity 3.29 days of illness per person, and the 43 placebo subjects had an average of 1.86 colds, with average duration 4.2