Vitamin C helps reduce bad cold symptoms a lot (by about a quarter), but doesn't really help with mild cold symptoms. This is based on studies of over 2700 colds.

39

Pro

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Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

39

Vitamin C reduces the severity of common colds: a meta-analysis

Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis

Human

2023 Dec 11

The study shows vitamin C helps more with bad cold symptoms than mild ones, just like the claim says.

Contradicting (0)

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No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Vitamin C reduces the severity of common colds: a meta-analysis

Score: 39

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-17229-8

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