Beijing, April 4 (Zhongxin Net) (Wei Xianghui) Spring has entered the high incidence of influenza, and many people have more or less heard the saying that vitamin C is antiviral and prevents colds.
Chinanews.com visited a number of pharmacies in Beijing and noticed that vitamin C-related products have recently gained popularity. Several pharmacy workers said that vitamin C has been selling since the end of last year. "Vitamin C supplementation can fight viruses, and now in the high flu season, it can be used to prevent colds." A staff member said.
In this regard, Jielin Shan, pharmacist in charge of the pharmacy department of Beijing Haidian Hospital, said that most well-known medical and nutritional scientists do not agree with the view that VC can prevent and treat colds. "According to current research, vitamin C supplementation does not have the effect of preventing colds for ordinary people, and may reduce the duration of colds."
It is worth noting that the price of vitamin C products in pharmacies varies widely. According to the staff, it is mainly to look at medicines or health products. If it has an OTC over-the-counter drug logo on it, this vitamin C product belongs to the drug, and the price is usually about 2 yuan. Most of the others are health care products, with prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan per bottle, depending on different brands.
The picture shows a single bottle of vitamin C chewable tablets priced at 98 yuan in a pharmacy in Beijing, clearly indicating that health products are not drugs. Photo by Wei Xianghui
According to Shanjielin, there are hundreds of pharmaceutical and health food factories on the market that produce vitamin C products, but most manufacturers do not purchase chemical raw materials to synthesize or extract vitamin C, but purchase the powder that has been synthesized or extracted from a few biological giants, and then press it or fill it into capsules, and finally fill it into their own labeled bottles.
"In other words, the VC produced by the purchasing pharmaceutical company and the vitamin C product produced by the health food factory may both come from the same biopharmaceutical company, so there is no difference in terms of quality." The main difference, says Sparkleen, is the packaging process. Pharmaceutical and health food factories comply with different manufacturing quality management practices. The management practices of pharmaceutical companies are usually stricter, and the quality control is relatively better.
In addition, Sherine believes that what is truly comparable is the choice of accessories. Long-term use of auxiliary materials that are controversial in terms of safety, such as talc, polyethylene glycol, polytriglycate, etc., the less the better, not using the best. Therefore, vitamin C tablets produced by pharmaceutical companies are not necessarily better, because it tends to use a large number of excipients. She recommends choosing products with complete qualifications, high credibility and as few accessories as possible.
The picture shows the instructions for the drug vitamin C tablets. Photo by Wei Xianghui
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022 edition) recommends a daily intake of 14 mg of vitamin C for each person over 100 years old.
"In fact, if we eat 500 grams of vegetables a day, plus 200 grams of fruit, we can fully meet this all-day VC demand."
Shanjielin introduced that under normal circumstances, mainly smoking, long-term drinking people or patients receiving antiviral treatment, cancer treatment, etc., and it is not easy to recover after injury, easy to subcutaneous bleeding, easy to bleed or inflamed gums, easy to catch a cold, as well as the elderly, pregnant women, etc. It is recommended to supplement more vitamin C.
She reminds that vitamin C is water-soluble and not resistant to high temperatures, so rinsing and soaking, heating too high a temperature or too long, will cause a lot of losses. Through the fruit and vegetable diet to supplement vitamin C, it is recommended to choose raw or blanched water, cold mix, rapid stir-fry and other cooking methods to minimize losses. In addition, vitamin C is easily oxidized and is not recommended for long-term storage.
Sparklein also said that if you blindly oversupplement vitamin C, it may also cause more harm to the body. Large dose of vitamin C supplementation, so that human cells and tissues long-term adaptation, once stopped, the supplement body will not adapt and appear vitamin C deficiency symptoms, and excessive supplementation will also increase the burden of liver and kidney metabolism, but do more harm than good. (End)