Does zinc echinacea or vitamin C help a cold?

Answer 1

Helping a Cold With Herbs, Vitamins, and MineralsRecent clinical research has shown that administration of zinc lozenges can cut the time of suffering from a cold in half. Clinical research regarding echinacea, vitamin C or zinc supplements has not proven their efficacy. The reason Zinc works as a lozenge is that it must be present in its raw form (as an ion) at the site of infection (throat/nasal passage). Zinc appears to interfere with a rhinovirus' fusion with host cells which is required for a virus to enter and take over the cell for replication. Therefore, zinc can reduce the number of infected cells, making it easier for your immune system to clear the cold infection more quickly. Note that citric acid tends to remove these free zinc ions, therefore eating citrus fruit or other foods high in citric acid can cause zinc lozenges to become ineffective. What Helps a Cold

• Vitamin C is imperative for proper immune function. Unfortunately, vit. C shares the same receptor site as glucose. (All sugars are broken down into glucose.) The more glucose you put in your system, the less chance there is for Vit. C to bind to the receptor sites needed for immune function. People think that taking a massive load of vit. C is helpful when they're sick. This only works because it helps to increase the ratio of Vit. C to glucose. If they didn't consume so much sugar, they wouldn't need to take extra in the first place. The American diet is definitely full of more than it's fair share of sugars.

• Maybe some supplements, natural and alternative cures can help in some individuals, however, nothing has been studied enough to be totally proven.

• This is what the latest scientific research shows: Echinacea does not make a significant difference. Vitamin C only helped in a trial done on marines training in arctic climates and it only reduced the length of their cold symptoms by about half a day. Zinc however does help. To get the best effect, it must be used as soon as the first common cold symptoms are felt (achy muscles, runny nose etc). The best formulation for the zinc may be the gel form for the nasal passages, ask your pharmacists if it would be right for you.

• The first question I always ask myself when reading any 'scientific research' is, "Who did the research and how was the research conducted?" I have personally used Echinacea or Echinacea with Goldenseal for cold symptoms, and, in my experience, it did help. I have not used Zinc. In the study using Marines, I believe the results could be affected by what stage the cold was in when first taking the Vitamin C, how much sugar the study group was consuming (see first post), as well as the amount of Vitamin C given.