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VITAMIN C
The Nobel prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling deserves much of the credit, or perhaps the blame, for making vitamin C a household word. In 1976 he unfurled a laundry list of disorders that he believed the vitamin could thwart: strokes, heart disease, cancer, and more. With "optimal intake," he said later, we might live an extra 12 to 18 years -- his idea of optimal falling somewhere between 3,200 and 12,000 mg a day.
Vitamin C researchers haven't yet given their stamp of approval to Pauling-size megadoses, nor are they likely to. But this celebrity of supplements does deserve some of its acclaim. For instance, a 1997 study showed that vitamin C can curtail cataracts, which eventually dim the vision of more than half of all Americans. And while there's no direct evidence that taking C can prevent a cold, several well-controlled studies have demonstrated that supplements can markedly lessen the malady's symptoms and duration.
But before a case of the sniffles makes you start tossing back those pills, a word of caution. Researchers now believe that 200 mg of C will fully supply your blood and organs. Moreover, a study in 1998 raised a red flag when it showed that at 500 mg daily, vitamin C may cause the kind of genetic damage that can lead to cancer.
The bottom line:
Until more facts are in, you may want to exercise a little caution with vitamin C. Just two glasses of orange juice or a couple of pieces of broccoli provide 200 mg. If you want to supplement, a pill containing 500 mg is more likely to be protective than harmful.
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