Charles W. Marshall, Ph.D.

Few things have stirred the imagination and hopes of the public in matters of nutrition or vexed nutrition scientists as much as Linus Pauling’s 1970 book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold. [1] The book’s main claim was that taking 1 gram (1,000 mg) of vitamin C daily would reduce the incidence of colds by 45% for most people, but that some persons might need much larger amounts. It recommended that if symptoms of a cold do start, you should take 500 or 1,000 mg every hour for several hours — or 4 to 10 grams daily if symptoms don’t disappear with smaller amounts. Without question, publication of this book, combined with Pauling’s reputation as a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, has made vitamin C a best …