From orange juice and chicken soup to garlic capsules and vitamin C, there are many home remedies for the common cold. But how effective are they in reality?
Few experiences are as universal as the common cold. And although there are around 200 viruses that cause it, there seem to be almost as many home remedies to fight it. But do any of them work and to what extent?
Let’s look more specifically at two much-hyped home remedies: garlic and vitamin C.
Can supplements like garlic fight a virus?
Because the immune system weakens in otherwise healthy people only when we are deficient in vitamins or minerals, supplementing our diet with foods said to fight the common cold will make little difference if we already have a relatively good diet, says Charles Bangham, chief medical officer of health infectious diseases at Imperial College London.
“Only if you are deficient in a vital nutrient, such as a vitamin, zinc or iron, will supplementing that particular element be very helpful,” he says. “But if you’re eating a balanced diet, adding more of these things doesn’t make the immune system more efficient,” he explains.
No reliable research has been conducted to determine whether a popular remedy like chicken soup actually makes a difference. However, studies on treatments for the common cold have found that what may be effective are supplements rather than foods.
A study conducted in 2016 and 2017 found that taking a multivitamin containing vitamins A, D, C, E, B6, B12, folic acid, zinc, selenium, copper and iron reduced the frequency and duration of symptoms of colds, including runny nose and runny nose. cough.
One particularly popular home remedy that can help is garlic. In a small studio146 healthy adults received a placebo or daily garlic supplement for 12 weeks during the winter. The placebo group contracted 65 colds, for a total of 366 sick days, while those taking garlic supplements contracted only 24 colds, with sick days limited to 111.
Does vitamin C help with colds?
Another supplement that many people turn to when they think they have a cold is vitamin C. A 2023 evidence review found that vitamin C supplements can significantly reduce the severity of milder symptoms of the common cold, including runny nose. runny, cough and headache. throat, by about 15%. They also concluded that evidence suggests that vitamin C supplements have a greater effect on more severe symptoms of the common cold.
Researchers in another study of vitamin C supplements concluded that because the supplements are low risk, it might be worth trying them to see if they can help.
Orange juice may be less helpful: There is no concrete evidence that orange juice helps prevent colds, relieve symptoms, or shorten the duration of a cold. That’s because it doesn’t contain high enough doses of vitamin C to have the same impact as daily supplements, says Harri Hemilä, a public health researcher at the University of Helsinki and author of the review of vitamin C supplements.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a regular bottle of fresh orange juice contains about 72 mg of vitamin C — more than the minimum recommended daily limit of 40 mg, but still less than many supplements.