Nutrition

The idea that an increased intake of vitamin C may be helpful in fighting the common cold has been around since at least the 1930s, but it was not until 1970 that the publication of Linus Pauling's best seller, Vita min C and the Common Cold, turned the issue into a public controversy.1 As a result of the interest generated by this controversy, a number of sci-entifically sound experimental stud-ies have been carried out, and al-though there are still unanswered questions, it is now clear that vita-min C is, unfortunately, no panacea for colds or other respiratory infec-tions. However, even if the promise of virtual eradication of the common cold (suggested as a possibility at one point in Pauling's book) has proved unrealistic, there remains enough intriguing evidence of some interaction between this vitamin and the infectious process to sug-gest that it is worth investigating further and that it may have a role, however limited, in reducing the burden of this relatively trivial but annoying affliction. Prevention or Treatment? In trying to unravel some of the confusion and conflicting evidence over the use of vitamin C in upper respiratory infections, it is helpful to recognize that its use has been suggested either to prevent the dis-ease from occurring or to treat it once it has occurred. These are two quite different approaches and carry with them different practical impli-cations. If vitamin C is to be used prophy-lactically, one is faced not only with the problem of compliance (many people do not bother to take regula