24 March

Do you have any respiratory problems? Asthma, hayfever, a cold, the flu? Another shout out for vitamin C. For years it’s sort of been known as useful for conditions like this, but it gets caught up in the debates around vitamins. There’s good reason to think that vitamin C is not a ‘vitamin’ in that way, and should be studied much more. Generally your GP will tell you it can’t do much harm, but it won’t make much difference either, but that’s because they’re trained to treat it as just another vitamin. But, if you look at medical research, there’s tantalizing evidence, and there has been for more than a century, that vitamin C can have remarkable effects on respiratory illness in particular. I posted here about how it led to a remarkable turnaround for me when I had whooping cough, in just a matter of days. I also occasionally get asthma, and now I pop a vitamin C pill if I get wheezy and it’s gone in minutes. Sometimes if you have a more serious condition, like flu or whooping cough, you may need larger doses, like 6-8 grams across a day. But I’ve found even small doses can have a profound effect. If you have any of these types of respiratory issues, such as a cold or flu this winter, maybe give it a go? You don’t have other options anyway, for viral illness in particular.