The coronavirus COVID-19 has spiked the gross sales of vitamin C merchandise.
In case you have a look at the promoting behind a few of these drugs and potions, you will see language that reads form of like this: Vitamin C is a super-nutrient, one that reinforces your immunity. Individuals have been taking C to cease colds and flus for years, so it’s confirmed. So why not take a complement to guard in opposition to illnesses—particularly through the fall and winter months?
Some dietary supplements, sadly, even go as up to now to trace that they might stave off COVID-19.
Whereas it is true that vitamin C does have some highly effective well being advantages— it’s simply that stopping colds and the flu (not to mention COVID) isn’t certainly one of them.
Vitamin C helps your physique make collagen (good for pores and skin and bones), soak up iron (good for muscle development), and create carnitine (good for turning dietary fats into power).
Vitamin C can be an antioxidant, so it helps fight free radicals attributable to persistent stress and shield your immune cells as they battle off an an infection.
What about all these claims that vitamin C may help with illness?
Nicely, analysis within the Seventies prompt a hyperlink between vitamin C and chilly prevention, however higher science has since proven no connection.
Vitamin C might shorten the period of a chilly, however ingesting C in excessive doses doesn’t enhance immunity. In truth: “Taking an excessive amount of can result in immune-system suppression,” says Ryan Andrews, R.D., of Precision Diet.
And whereas vitamin C dietary supplements might assist decrease your threat of illness after extended bodily pressure (similar to operating a marathon), analysis hasn’t proved that taking vitamin C can battle COVID-19. Don’t belief firms that recommend in any other case.