Ascorbic acid, better known as vitamin C, is a water soluble vitamin that promotes a healthy immune system. It's a vital vitamin that aids in the healing of wounds, getting rid of infections, and stopping the spread of bacteria and ultimately eliminating it. This vitamin is best known for being found in citrus fruits but is also present in high concentrations in bell peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. There are all sorts of applications for vitamin C, but perhaps one of its best uses is for a treatment for the cold and flu. In fact, vitamin C is such a staple at treating these ailments that holistic blogs and forums have taken to calling it the literal "cure" for the common cold. To the average person, this might seem like it's over-selling vitamin C, but if you're concerned with your health and wellness this winter, you might want to keep an open mind.

When you get sick and go out to the store with your nose running and your throat too sore to swallow, you're looking for some type of medicine. Cough medicine, those fizzy cold tablets, those "emergency" tablets that are supposed to bring about instant relief, etc. Do you know what they all have in common? They all use vitamin C as their main ingredient, or at least one of the main active ingredients. It's true; you can find it right on the label. It's going to be listed as either ascorbic acid or as something called rose hips. Either way, it's literally vitamin C that they're using to treat your cold symptoms. The rest of the ingredients are all chemical suppressants to either dope you up and make you sleepy or alter your mood to make you feel better. None of these ingredients are getting rid of your runny nose or your nagging cough. It's actually the vitamin C in your medicine that's doing that part.

You can pick up a bottle of that blue syrupy stuff, and you might end up paying like $12 for it, or even more with all of this inflation in the current economy. You get a few doses out of it but it's usually gone before your cold is. The chemical suppressants in it make you feel better, and so you want to take it again and again as your symptoms arise, but it's actually the vitamin C that is making your symptoms abate in the first place. The trick, of course, is that they give you just enough vitamin C to clear out the bacteria of the infection, but not enough to eliminate and kill the bacteria. For your wellness, you're better off paying half as much for pure vitamin C supplements and taking more of it. You cannot overdose on vitamin C, and it's safe to take up to 8 grams (8,000 milligrams) at once. The only side effect reported around 8 grams or higher is diarrhea.

Around 5 to 8 grams is known as a "mega-dose" in the holistic community, and this is the point at which the vitamin C actually kills the bacteria to the point it doesn't grow back again, rather than just eliminating the existing growth but not killing it at its root. When your mouth's dry no matter how much you drink, or your throat's scratchy no matter what you do, that's bacteria growing. This is a tell-tale sign of the cold and flu. It is said that a dose of vitamin C between 5 and 8 grams at once will kill this bacteria entirely and actually prevent you from getting sick; or it will help knock those symptoms out if you are.
 

The Type of Vitamin C You Buy Matters

If you want to try going the vitamin C route for your wellness, you need to keep in mind that not all types of vitamin C are the same. For instance, those gummy chew vitamin C supplements are marketed as tasty treats, but they're loaded down with sugar and all sorts of additives that aren't good for your overall wellness. It's also a waste of money to get vitamin C that's part of a multi-vitamin. There just won't be enough vitamin C in the supplements to help you with winter illness symptoms.

The best way you can go is to get a powdered supplement that's listed as pure ascorbic acid. Beyond that, go with a vitamin C tablet or capsule that's made with only pure ascorbic acid.