Feeling a little itch in your throat and other mild cold symptoms? While you can’t avoid getting sick at this point, there is something you can do to keep it from turning into a lengthy, nasty cold.
Dr. Shireen, a general practitioner for the National Health Service (NHS) of the United Kingdom, shared her top “extremely easy” health tip for coughs or colds this winter in a viral video on TikTok (@doctorshireen).
A note on the clip, which has amassed 1.9 million views since it was posted on October 12, says, “GP approved: tip to reduce duration and severity of any cough or cold this winter.”
“I’m gonna give you guys one small tip, an extremely easy tip, that is gonna reduce the duration and severity of any cold you have this winter,” the doctor says in the video.
“The second that you notice an itchy throat, runny nose, itching, burning eyes, anything that might suggest you’ve got a cough or a cold coming, what I want you to do is take two things—vitamin C and zinc,” she says.
Noting that vitamin C and zinc are available as tablets containing both that can be dissolved in water for drinking, she advised, “Just start it.”
The doctor warned that “you can’t prevent coughs or colds, but recent research is out there to show that taking zinc and vitamin C reduces the duration and severity [of them].”
She added, “I’ve personally been doing this for the last couple of years, and I can tell you, it really works.”
According to a December 2023 study in BMC Public Health, the common cold is the leading cause of acute morbidity—the state of having an illness or disease—and is “a major cause of absenteeism from work and school” and “absenteeism is dependent on the severity of symptoms.”
The study found that “vitamin C shortens the duration of common colds,” with greater effects reported for severe cold symptoms than mild ones.
An April 2020 study in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene found that “micronutrients supplementation, except vitamin C, may not prevent cold incidence or reduce symptom severity among healthy adults.”
“However, zinc supplementation was observed to potentially reduce cold duration by 2.25 days,” suggesting that “zinc supplementation may reduce the overall burden due to common cold among healthy adults,” the study said.
The study explained that “intake of certain micronutrients enhances the immune system through strengthening epithelial [the tissue covering exposed surfaces of the body] barriers and cellular immunity and production of antibodies,” adding that “the positive effects of micronutrient intake on the immune system suggest their potential protective role against infections.”
The viral post comes as the fall and winter respiratory disease season is likely to have a similar or lower number of combined peak hospitalizations due to the COVID-19 virus, influenza, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) compared to last season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC advises that “as of October 11, overall respiratory virus activity is low nationally” and “vaccination is expected to play a key role in preventing hospitalizations.”
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