I’m a healthy adult. Good immune system. Rarely get sick. Don’t eat much fruit tho.
I have an incredibly hard time swallowing pills, especially large ones like the 1000 mg vitamin C ones. And anyway, I’m not convinced that a healthy American adult with a good diet even needs vitamin supplements. So I don’t take multivitamins.
However, I seem to be somewhat convinced that vitamin C is good for helping ward off colds and flu and I LOVE those Emergen-C powders (actually I buy the generic ones from the local grocery store), not the brand-name). 1000 mgs of vitamin C plus 7 B vitamins in a fun-to-drink, fizzy tangerine beverage first thing in the morning. Nice way get get started with getting and staying hydrated for the day. Costs twenty-five cents a day.
I’ve seen so many news reports over the years, some saying that lots of vitamin C is helpful to ward off colds/flu, etc, and just as many saying it’s all bunk. Who to believe? Am I wasting my money on a scam product? Dammit, I love my tangerine fizz in the morning! And it feels like I’m doing something healthy…
The placebo effect is a real thing, so if you think it’s helping your immune system, wellll… OK, it’s still probably not having a major effect, but who knows, it might be helping a little.
It’s a product you enjoy, apart from its purported health benefits. If you’re not breaking the bank on it, I don’t see the problem.
Thanks, that about sums up the way I feel, but I still wonder if it’s a foolish purchase.
Why is it so hard to get the FACTS about vitamin supplements, anyway? Is it really THAT difficult to do a definitive clinical study of the efficacy of mega-doses of vitamin C on the immune system of healthy adults? Or *has *it been done? And if so, what is the straight dope?
You certainly aren’t a moron, but I think you are spending money that you don’t need to.
RDA only recommends amounts up to about 100 mg a day, and any extra you take that your body doesn’t use you will just pee out. So you can just take a 100 mg pill which will be much smaller than the 1000 mg. I think they even have chewable vit c pills.
I read somewhere that the RDA amounts were determined decades ago and may not be accurate. This may be total bs, but googling this gives a bewildering amount of conflicting info. How recent is their data that determines the RDA of various vitamins?
They’re expensive, sort of, but not like a soft drink. I’ve heard that too much ascorbic acid can have some negative effects on your renal system. That said, I like them, and, when I’m cat-sitting for a few days, I sniff them out just like Tanqueray.
Forget I said this, but they make an excellent “mixer” for various liquor drinks. Not sweet, just a bit sour. Kind of defeats the purpose of the graphic of a man reaching for a Martini in the desert, but when in Rome, I don’t know, something in Rome.
Oh and for the record, I am well aware that “Airborne” is a scam. They recently paid a 23 million fine for making false health claims and I am mildly outraged that they are still allowed to market it.
It’s on the shelf right next to the Emergen-C. :rolleyes:
I don’t take vitamins regularly because I eat well. When I feel a sore throat or sniffles coming on I have an EmergenC a day for a few days. I believe it helps if done during the early stages of flu etc.
Just took a good look at the box…the recommended dosage isn’t 1 1000 mg pack per day, it’s 3. So that’s 3000 mg of vit C per day. If Little Bird is correct, I’m only using 100 of that, and wasting the other 2900 mg down the toilet. Is this really correct?
At a cost of 75 cents per day, that dosage is about 275 USD per year. Holy &*%# ! Do people really spend that much on this stuff?
I’m taking/spending 1/3 rd this amount, but it’s still $91 per year.
:dubious:
Starting to thing that yes, I am a dumbass. But I love my tangerine fizzy vit C drink! It makes me feel like I’m doing something healthy…:smack:
The latest example: Someone living in the same house as me had several days of sore throat and congestion 3 weeks ago. I was definitely exposed to the germs. I took EmergenC for 3 days. My only symptom was once when I woke up in the middle of the night with feverish chills. I got back to sleep back to sleep and woke up feeling fine.
I think it may be the zinc in EmergenC that does the job. Last I heard, zinc actually helps if taken during the early stages of a viral infection.
I live in a house with four other people, and quite frequently one or more of us comes down with a serious viral illness that one or more of the rest of us fails to contract. Nobody in this house takes any sort of vitamin supplement. (Edit: I occasionally take B-complex and I think MrWhatsit takes calcium-magnesium but nobody takes zinc or vitamin C.) I don’t think anecdotes like this prove anything.
Yeah, my husband routinely gets sick for weeks on end, and generally I get a day or two of sniffles. And he’s the one more likely to take EmergenC, Airborne, etc.
I just want to point out that the RDA values do not mean that is the maximum the body can use, but the minimum that is considered healthy. I can’t find any information right off about what that maximum actually is, but I did read that the maximum recommended on a daily basis is 2,000 mg. But if you current dosage isn’t causing diarrhea or other side effects, I wouldn’t worry about it.
Plus, I just wanted to say that I get it. Something about the way those things feel in your throat just makes you feel better. I’ve wondered if the bubbles lightly scratch your throat, taking away some of that awful itchy feeling. And they taste better than soda when you’re sick.
