Emergen C Vs Vitamin C

Emergen C Vs Vitamin C

It's Fall which means flu season and a germy free-for-all — but we're on it! Here's our guide to staying healthy 'til Spring:

Schools are back in session, which means the common cold is not too far behind.

To avoid a cold or cut one short, you may be tempted to stock up on supplemental drink mix-ins like Emergen-C and Airborne for supposed cold-fighting ingredients like vitamin C or zinc. But do these unregulated powders and tablets actually work?

Unless you're a marathon runner, skier or soldier in extremely cold temperatures, extra vitamin C probably isn't going to keep you from getting sick. And children are most likely to benefit from zinc, but their parents? Not so much.

The basics

Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient that helps the body's immune system, improves the body's absorption of iron, helps metabolize protein and regenerates antioxidants in the body. Too little of it will lead to scurvy, historically considered a sailor's disease because of the lack of access to fresh fruits and vegetables on long voyages. Too much of it can result in diarrhea, nausea, kidney stones and excess iron absorption.

Like most vitamins, the best way to consume this nutrient is via food: citrus, tomatoes, strawberries and spinach are just a few of the foods that are rich in vitamin C. Adult men should get at least 90 milligrams per day of vitamin C, while adult women should have at least 75 milligrams per day, according to the Institute of Medicine. The IOM also suggests an upper limit of 2,000 milligrams per day, lest people face the consequences listed above.

The IOM recommends that men and women get 11 milligrams and 8 milligrams, respectively, of zinc. It can be found in foods like oysters, red meat, poultry, beans, nuts and whole grains. Like vitamin C, consuming too much zinc exacts a toll on health; some nasal gels and sprays that contained zinc in caused anosmia (the inability to smell scents), and people who used too much denture cream containing zinc experienced copper deficiency and neurologic disease, notes the National Institutes for Health.

Most of us are not marathoners

Trials involving marathon runners, skiers and soldiers in sub-arctic environments found that these people were able to reduce their incidence of colds by 50 percent by taking anywhere from 250 milligrams to 1,000 milligrams per day of vitamin C, according to a 2007 Cochrane review of 30 placebo trials involving more than 11,000 total participants.

For everyone else, the results were a lot more modest. The review found that taking vitamin C preventively managed to reduce the length of a cold ― but not prevent it ― by eight percent for adults and 13.6 percent for children. That's statistically significant, but probably doesn't matter too much when a person is already in the throes of a cold. What's more, if participants started taking vitamin C after the cold had already started, the nutrient didn't have any effect on the symptoms or the length of the illness, concluded the National Institute of Health.

Research by the NIH also suggests that while levels of vitamin C rise in the body's tissues after a person takes doses of 250 to 500 milligrams, any amount above that causes the body's vitamin C levels to rise much more slowly ― at least in healthy young men.

Studies on zinc's ability to curtail colds or lessen their severity is more encouraging. A 2017 meta-analysis of seven randomized trials found that zinc lozenges shortened the length of the common cold by an average of 33 percent. Five of those trials gave participants a daily lozenge that had between 80 to 92 milligrams in it, which shortened colds by 33 percent. Two trials administered higher daily doses of zinc, at 192 to 207 milligrams, which lessened colds by 35 percent. Study author Harri Hemilia, of the University of Helsinki, concluded that people with common colds could try zinc lozenges to treat them, but said that more research needed to be done to figure out the best kind of lozenge, as well as the dose.

Where the supplements stand

Like all dietary supplements, Emergen-C and Airborne did not have to pass safety and efficacy research before hitting the market. That's not exactly heartening when you consider the tepid results of their active ingredients when it comes to cold prevention.

But the companies do seem to keep in mind the IOM's recommended upper limits for vitamin C. Emergen-C, which has 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C per serving, changed their recommended servings to align with medical opinion.

"The directions on our packages have been changed from two to four packets per day to one to two packets per day as we are simply being more conservative with our recommendations," a representative of Alacer Corp., Emergen-C's parent company, told HuffPost.

Airborne, an effervescent tablet meant to be dissolved in water, also has 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C per serving.

But unless researchers can conduct experiments specifically testing Emergen-C or Airborne's effectiveness, there's no way to tell for sure if they work, or why, according to Howard Sesso, an epidemiologist and associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"It would be very difficult to know, even if it did work, is it because of Vitamin C, or is it because of Zinc?" said Sesso. "Is it because of something completely unrelated, or something that we don't yet know about?"

Here's what you should do instead

Sesso, a middle-aged man who eats well and exercises regularly, takes just one multivitamin a day. He says this option is probably appropriate for most people, as opposed to focusing on just one or two specific vitamins to avoid disease. While there certainly are special populations for which specific supplements are crucial — say, folic acid for pregnant women, to avoid birth defects — getting all your vitamins and minerals from a variety of healthy foods is the best way to approach nutritional health.

"Natural, food-based approach... is always more preferable," said Sesso.

Sesso also noted that there are certainly more effective ways to avoid illness during cold season. Some tactics include washing your hands frequently, staying away from sick people and keeping surfaces in your home clean.

UPDATE: Jan. 2, 2018 ― A previous version of this story cited a study on the ability of zinc supplementation to curtail colds or lessen their severity. The publishers of that study retracted it in April 2016 due to errors and allegations of plagiarism.

Healthy Living's Guide To Cold & Flu Season

We're here to help! Read on for tips on how to stay healthy among your wheezing coworkers, sniffling children and coughing fellow commuters:

There's No Good Reason Not To Get A Flu Vaccine Today

The Antibacterial Soap You DON'T Need

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But no matter what it is that drives someone to use their antipodal paw, science has also uncovered a particular set of personality traits that left-handed people tend to have. So for all of you lefties, leftie-loving righties, and ambidextrous folks out there -- it's time to brush up on your left-handed knowledge and help put an end to leftie discrimination once and for all.

","credit":"nito100 via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d39f8c1700006e00567deb.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"the sentence I am left-handed handwritten by a left-handed person","credit":"nito100 via Getty Images","width":4288,"height":2848},"title":"Left-Handedness and Your Health","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a03a170000b700567ded.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":4288,"height":2848,"credit":"arda savaşcıoğulları via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a03ae4b07addcb4475d9","caption":"

Lefties make up about 10 percent of the general population. But researchers have found that in populations with certain mental disorders, that rate goes up. Previous studies have found that people with psychosis had a 20 percent likelihood of being left-handed, though a small study in the journal SAGE found the rate of psychotic lefties may be even higher.

Researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas assessed 107 patients at outpatient psychiatric clinics. For those with mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder, the rate of left-handedness was close to average, at 11 percent. But in people with psychosis, such as those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, the rate of left-handedness was 40 percent, well above average. Researchers theorize brain laterality plays a role.

","credit":"arda savaşcıoğulları via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a03a170000b700567ded.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"ghosts hand","credit":"arda savaşcıoğulları via Getty Images","width":4288,"height":2848},"title":"Lefties Have a Higher Risk of Psychosis","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a0961d00002f001452b5.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":3000,"height":2002,"credit":"DragonImages via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a096e4b055a6dab1d969","caption":"

Scientists have also found an increased risk for dyslexia, ADHD, and certain mood disorders in left-handed people, according to a 2010 study published in Pediatrics. Researchers are not exactly sure how to explain this phenomenon, but many believe it's related to how the brain is wired. Your noggin is divided into two halves: the left side and the right side. Most people (righties and lefties alike) rely on the brain's left hemisphere for tasks like language functioning. But about 30 percent of left-handed folks are either partial to the right hemisphere or have no dominant hemisphere at all. According to scientists, having one hemisphere dominate is much more efficient, which is why some left-handers are at increased risk for learning impairments and brain disorders.

But lefties may be in luck when it comes to other health conditions: Results of a large survey published in the journal Laterality found that left-handers had lower rates of arthritis and ulcers.

","credit":"DragonImages via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a0961d00002f001452b5.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Image of female patient talking about her problems with emotions at therapy session on the foreground","credit":"DragonImages via Getty Images","width":3000,"height":2002},"title":"Your Handedness May Determine Your Health","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a1071400002e002e347d.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":5120,"height":3413,"credit":"Sam Edwards via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a107e4b07addcb4476c8","caption":"

People who use their left hands when listening may more easily hear slowly-changing sounds than those who use their right hands, according to a study from Georgetown University Medical Center

The researchers who conducted the study, presented at Neuroscience 2012, found that the left and right hemispheres of the brain specialize in different kinds of sounds. The left hemisphere, which controls the right hand, likes rapidly-changing sounds like consonants, while the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand, likes slowly-changing sounds like syllables or intonation.

According to the researchers, if you're waving an American flag while listening to a presidential candidate, the speech will sound slightly different to you depending on whether you're holding the flag in your left or right hand. The research could ultimately result in better treatment for stroke and language disorders.

","credit":"Sam Edwards via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a1071400002e002e347d.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Woman with novelty nails waving American flag","credit":"Sam Edwards via Getty Images","width":5120,"height":3413},"title":"Lefties Hear Speeches Differently","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a149170000b700567df1.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":3872,"height":2592,"credit":"pascalou95 via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a14ae4b055a6dab1da67","caption":"

Right-handed bias isn't just a modern-day phenomenon: It turns out we've been dominantly using our right hooks for more than 500,000 years.

University of Kansas researchers recently determined the handedness of ancient humans by studying -- oddly enough -- their teeth. The study, which was published in the journal Laterality, found that when our great-great-great-great-(you get the point)-grandfathers processed animal hides, they would hold one side of the carcass in one hand and the other in their mouth. By locating the wear and tear on those prehistoric chompers, scientists were able to determine whether our prehistoric ancestors were using their left hand or right hand more dominantly

\"All you need to have is a single tooth, and you can tell if our assumptions are right -- if the individual is right- or left-handed,\" study researcher David Frayer, Ph.D., told LiveScience. The results? \"The fossils are just like humans in that we are mostly right-handed, and so were they.\"

","credit":"pascalou95 via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a149170000b700567df1.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Rock paintings in the Cueva de Las Manos in Patagonia, in Argentina","credit":"pascalou95 via Getty Images","width":3872,"height":2592},"title":"Left-Handed Neanderthals Were the Minority, Too","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a1ff1700006e00567df5.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":5442,"height":3627,"credit":"Geri Lavrov via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a1ffe4b055a6dab1dc26","caption":"

Southpaws have been bragging about their creative clout for years. But is it true -- does being left-handed mean you're also more likely to be artistic or innovative?

According to research published in the American Journal of Psychology, there is some evidence that left-handed people have the upper hand in at least one creative facet: They're better at divergent thinking, a method of idea generation that explores many possible solutions.

To determine whether lefties were more likely to pursue creative careers than righties, the folks behind the Left-Handers Club (a pro-leftie group dedicated to left-handed research and product development) surveyed more than 2,000 left-handed, right-handed, and ambidextrous participants and found that lefties tended to find advantages and be drawn to careers in the arts, music, sports, and information-technology fields.

But that may also add up to lower paychecks: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, left-handers' salaries are 10 percent lower on average than those of right-handers.

","credit":"Geri Lavrov via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a1ff1700006e00567df5.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Young girl with painted hands and face","credit":"Geri Lavrov via Getty Images","width":5442,"height":3627},"title":"Lefties Make Better Artists","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a31c1d00006e001452c4.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":2941,"height":2075,"credit":"SAUL LOEB via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a31ce4b0ab468d9ecfc2","caption":"

It doesn't matter which way they swing politically: A surprisingly high percentage of recent U.S. presidents were on the left (in terms of handedness, of course).

The lengthy list of left-handed leaders includes four of the last seven commanders in chief -- President Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Gerald Ford -- as well as past presidents James Garfield and Harry Truman. In fact, there's a rumor that Ronald Reagan was born a leftie, but stringent schoolteachers converted him to a righty when he was young.

Should right-handed presidential wannabes fake it? Our penchant for left-handed POTUSes is probably pure coincidence. But one recent Dutch study suggests that left-handed politicians actually have an advantage in televised debates. As a whole, people tend to associate right-handed gestures with "good" and left-handed gestures with "bad," according to the researchers. Since television presents a mirror image, the lefties are the ones who appear to gesture with their right hands (the "good" hand).

","credit":"SAUL LOEB via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a31c1d00006e001452c4.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"US President Barack Obama gestures during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at the United Nations Compound in Nairobi on July 25, 2015. The sixth annual summit will highlight investment, innovation and entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)","credit":"SAUL LOEB via Getty Images","width":2941,"height":2075},"title":"We Vote for Left-Handers!","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a39e170000b700567dfd.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":3713,"height":2475,"credit":"Andrew Redington via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a39ee4b07addcb447cb9","caption":"

Golf legend Phil Mickelson, tennis ace Rafael Nadal, boxing champ Oscar de la Hoya -- did you know that a number of your favorite sports superstars are lefties?

Actually, left-handers may have the advantage in sports that involve two opponents facing each other, such as in tennis, boxing, and baseball, according to an MSNBC review of the book The Puzzle of Left-Handedness, by Rik Smits. The author chalks it up to the fact that left-handed athletes get a lot more opportunity to practice against right-handed opponents than vice versa (since there are so many more righties out there).

Now that's a home run for lefties.

","credit":"Andrew Redington via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a39e170000b700567dfd.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"SHEBOYGAN, WI - AUGUST 16: Phil Mickelson of the United States watches his tee shot on the fifth hole during the final round of the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on August 16, 2015 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)","credit":"Andrew Redington via Getty Images","width":3713,"height":2475},"title":"Southpaws Will Beat You in Sports","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a4111700006e00567dfe.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":3867,"height":2578,"credit":"moodboard via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a411e4b07addcb447e06","caption":"

Boo!

If you're a left-hander, that probably made you cringe. That's because people whose left hands are dominant tend to be more affected by fear than people who use their right hands, according to research presented at an annual conference of The British Psychological Society and reported in the Telegraph.

For the study, participants watched an eight-minute clip from the frightening film Silence of the Lambs. When asked to recall events from the segment, lefties were far more likely to show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder than righties, including giving fragmented descriptions and making more mistakes.

\"It seems that after experiencing a fearful event, even on film, people who are left-handed had subtle behaviors that were like people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,\" head researcher Carolyn Choudhary, PhD, told the Telegraph. Blame the brain: "It is apparent that the two sides of the brain have different roles in PTSD, and the right hand-side of the brain seems to be involved in fear. But we need to do more experiments to understand what exactly is going on here," she said.

","credit":"moodboard via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a4111700006e00567dfe.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Audience Screaming in Movie Theater","credit":"moodboard via Getty Images","width":3867,"height":2578},"title":"Lefties Are Scaredy-Cats","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a4741d00006e001452cb.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":4260,"height":4260,"credit":"ballyscanlon via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a475e4b0ab468d9ed2f0","caption":"

If you just can't let go of that spat you had with your right-handed pal (but he seemed to move on just fine), you may be able to blame it on your left-handedness. According to a small study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, lefties are more prone to having negative emotions. In addition, they seem to have a more difficult time processing their feelings.

Again, this seems to be related to the brain-hand connection. Compared to righties, left-handed participants in the study showed an imbalance in activity between the left and right hemispheres when trying to process their moodiness.

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Aw-shucks. Lefties may get bent out of shape, but research shows they're just a bunch of bashful self-observers.

When scientists from Abertay University in Scotland gave 46 lefties and 66 righties behavioral tests to measure their impulsiveness and personal restraint, the left-handers in the group more commonly agreed with statements like \"I worry about making mistakes\" and \"Criticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit.\" In fact, their answers left researchers believing that lefties tend to feel more inhibited, shy, and embarrassed than their right-handed counterparts.

\"Left-handers are more likely to hesitate, whereas right-handers tend to jump in a bit more,\" lead researcher Lynn Wright, PhD, told BBC News.

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Next time you have a run-in with a boozed-up barfly, check out which hand he's holding his whisky with: chances are, it'll be his left.

For years, myth has held that left-handers are more likely to become alcoholics. Research into the topic was murky, however, and relied on small samples. But a survey of more than 25,000 people from 12 countries has cleared things up a bit. While lefties are not more prone to alcoholism, they do drink more often.

Researcher Kevin Denny, who examined the data for a paper published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, says the main takeaway should be debunking that whole left-handedness-alcoholism link. "There is no evidence that handedness predicts risky drinking," he stated in a press release. "Hence, the results do not support the idea that excess drinking may be a consequence either of atypical lateralisation of the brain, or due to the social stresses that arise from left-handers' being a minority group."

","credit":"igorr1 via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a58f1d00002f001452cd.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"martin with lemon before a window in bar","credit":"igorr1 via Getty Images","width":3869,"height":2579},"title":"Lefties Like to Booze","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a69f14000077002e348e.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":3866,"height":2578,"credit":"Christopher Kimmel via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a69fe4b0ab468d9ed66f","caption":"

Mark your calendar: August 13 is International Left-Handers Day.

Lefties across the globe celebrate the annual event, which was launched in 1992 by the UK-based Left-Handers Club to increase awareness about the left-handed lifestyle. According to the group's Web site, it's a day "when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed."

How should you observe the occasion? Create a "leftie zone": a designated area of personal space where everything must be done in a left-handed fashion, from your workspace setup to the way you use cutlery.

And that rule also extends to any right-handers who happen to enter the leftie zone.

","credit":"Christopher Kimmel via Getty Images","creditUrl":"","source":"","thumbnail":{"url":{"fileName":"55d3a69f14000077002e348e.jpeg","type":"hectorUrl"},"caption":"Hike to Silvertip Mountain","credit":"Christopher Kimmel via Getty Images","width":3866,"height":2578},"title":"They Have Their Own Day!","type":"image","meta":null,"summary":null,"badge":null,"textWrap":"noWrap"},"provider":null},{"embedData":{"type":"hector","url":"https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/55d3a726170000b700567e0a.jpeg","queryParams":{},"width":2109,"height":1424,"credit":"RJW via Getty Images"},"type":"image","common":{"id":"55d3a726e4b07addcb4481d6","caption":"

Left-handers are the minority. So does that mean they'll go extinct one day? In fact, some researchers believe that when it comes to survival of the fittest, lefties come out on top.

Here's why: In one-on-one combat, using the left-hand is like throwing a curveball. \"The fact that left-handers are less common means they have a surprise effect,\" University of Montpellier researcher Charlotte Faurie told ABC News. To dig deeper, Faurie and her colleague Michel Raymond studied nine different primitive societies. In more violent societies, they found, lefties thrived (think southpaw slugger Rocky Balboa's left hook).

Looks like the left hand has the upper hand after all.

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12 Little-Known Facts About Left-Handers

Emergen C Vs Vitamin C

Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/emergen-c-airborne-does-it-work_n_55f3709ee4b063ecbfa486c8