Josh TalbotCCCC discussionVitamin C for Colds among Colorado College Students (CCCC)DICUSSIONRANKOccurrencesPreviousyearDurationPreviousyearSeverityPrevious year1stLow 2000 mg (1.4) Low 2000 mg (2) Low 2000 mg (.1)2ndLow placebo (1.5) Low 1.6 Low 500 mg (3.5) Low 4 Low placebo (.8) Low .83rdLow 500 mg (1.7) Low placebo (4) Low 500 mg (.9)4thhigh 2000 mg (2.1) High 2000 mg (9) High 2000 mg (1.6)5thHigh placebo/500 mg (3.5)Low 4.5 High 500 mg (16) High 25 High 500 mg (2.9) High 46thHigh placebo/500 mg (3.5)High placebo (20) High placebo (4)Our research question was “does 500 mg and/or 2,000 mg of vitamin C prevent the incidences of colds and/or treat the cold’s severity and duration when taken daily by college students who are at high and low susceptibility?”. Because we looked at what amount works bestand for whom, we interpreted the data in a comparative manner. TABLE 1 below shows the ranking for each group in regards to their results on the three dependent variables from our research question. The table also references the previous year’s data for both high and low susceptibility cohorts. TABLE 1Occurrences = #cold episodes/year Duration = number of days with symptoms Severity = number of doctor visits1Although the highest vitamin C dose in the low cohort is ranked first in having the least occurrences of cold episodes, it is not significantly different (p<0.05) from the low 500 mg dose or the low placebo. None of the low susceptibility groups experienced a significantly different amount of colds while taking vitamin C compared with the year before. In the other cohort, the high 2000 mg dose did experience a significant drop of 2.4 colds per year. The high placebo and high 500 mg groups were also significantly different than the year before with an average one less cold per year. Because the high placebo group has the same average number of colds per year as the high 500 mg group, we cannot confidently say that a daily vitamin C dose of 500 mg will significantly lower a high susceptibility individual’s cold count per year, as this could have just been a placebo effect. The duration of cold symptoms in the low 2000 mg group was significantly lowered by two days compared to the previous year. The two days of symptoms was the shortest duration of any groups in both cohorts. The low cohort did not experience any significant changes in terms of duration from the year before but still experienced fewer days of symptoms than any group in the high susceptibility cohort. Regardless, the decrease in duration for both doses in the high susceptibility cohort was significant. As seen in the TABLE 1, the days with symptoms dropped from an average of 25 down to 16 with the 500 mg dose and, to just 9 for the 2000 mg dose. The dramatic difference in the decrease in duration from the past year for the high susceptibility cohort as compared with the low susceptibility cohort while taking vitamin C proposes that vitamin C is more vital for the high susceptibility population than the low susceptibility population for shortening cold duration. In looking at severity, the low susceptibility cohort only experienced significantly more favorable outcomes with the 2000 mg dose. The severity of cold symptoms was measured by the number of visits to the doctor’s office. The low 2000 mg group visited an average of just 0.10 times as compared with 0.80 from the year before. The results for the placebo and low susceptibility 500 mg group once again points to the 500 mg of vitamin C dose having no real impact on the common cold. In the high susceptibility cohort, both the 2000 mg and 500 mg groups significantly lowered the severity of colds. The 2000 mg group dropped severity from 4 (year before) to just 1.8 visits to the doctors office. This was also significantly fewer than the 500mg dose which lowered visits to just 2.9.2From ranking the data, we initially see that vitamin C doses, even up to 2000 mg, is not enough to overcome being at a high susceptibility in preventing or treating the common cold as compared with being at low susceptibility. In our “best outcome” stratification, the low susceptibility cohort groups are always ranked higher than the high susceptibility cohort. This does not mean that taking vitamin C is futile for preventing and treating the common cold. Overall, taking vitamin C daily is more constructive for decreasing the number of colds, shortening the duration, and lessoning the colds severity for those in high susceptibility group than low susceptibility group. Low susceptibility individuals can also benefit from daily vitaminC doses but only if they are taking 2000 mg. Taking this dose only significantly shortened duration and lessoned severity. It did not decrease the number of colds. It also appears that those with high susceptibility are more prone to the placebo effect than those with low susceptibility. As a recommendation, those people who know they’re at high susceptibility to colds should be on a daily supplementation of vitamin C of at least 500 mg. Also, whether you are at the high or low end of the susceptibility scale, you should take at least 2000 mg of vitamin C for cold treatment to shorten the colds duration and lessen its severity. Our findings that vitamin C decreases the number of colds, shortens symptom duration, and lessons severity is supported by several studies. Gorton and Jarvis (1999) also gave their subjects “mega-doses” of vitamin C, administering 1000 mg of vitamin C hourly for the first 6 hours, then three times daily thereafter if symptoms appeared and just 1000 mg three times daily with no symptoms. Their study’s test population is most similar to ours using students between the ages of eighteen and thirty two. They reported that their test group’s infections were reduced by 85%. They concluded from this reduction and the lack of reported symptoms, that mega-dosesof vitamin C prevent and treat the common cold. Another study we looked to in comparing our results was the Ludvigsson et al’s (1977) pilot and main studies which looked at vitamin C’s effect on the common cold in children. The pilot study administered daily vitamin C doses of 30 mg (placebo) or 1000 mg (test). This study supports ours in that it gave evidence for treating the common cold. The duration was significantly shortened from 14.53+- 9.75 days (placebo) to 8.90 +- 5.96 (test) days. They did not support our study’s findings that the common