Reviewed By
Don Noren

"VITAMIN C AND THE COM-
MON COLD," by Linus Pauling
(Freeman, 122 pages, $1.95).

On Sunday, Dec. 13, I awoke
with a scratchy throat and the
first stages on head congestion.
The next morning, while suffer-
ing  all the traditional dis-
comforts of an ordinary head
cold, I consultt?d a copy of Linus
Pauling's book, "Vitamin C and

the Common Cold."

On Monday I took eight 500
mg tablets of ascorbic acid
(vitamin C). The following day I
repeated the dosage. By
Wednesday my cold had totally
disappeared. Previously, a nor-
mal cold for me had meant at
least a week of discomfort.

This, of course, is merely one
persou's Eaction to the proce-
dures recommended by Pauling.
He would consider my .dosage
extremely moderate. But it

Linus PauJing.

does, perhaps. provide some in-   reaction? The literature is r(<-

W   I
aY

dication of the tremendous en-
thusiasm and controversy gener-
ated by the two-time Nob4
Prize winner's latest book. It
may be less of a book than a
kind of super-pamphlet. There
are sections Ohat appear some.
what extraneous in a discussion
of colds, but they nevertheless
make interesting reading.

Why has this particular vol-
ume generated so much pubfic

plete with previous studies on
vitamin C and its potential as a
cold cure. It is this literature,
coupled with the experiences oi
Paulmg and his wife in using a,$-
corbic acid as a preventative

Reviewer Noren. a University nf
California graduate in chemic>t
engineering. is president of Noren
Produck Redwood City manufac.
luring company.

-e--F

Pauling'j celebrity status ai-
tracted a good amount of reader
recognition. In addition, he WJS
astute enough to develop pre-
vious findings more cogently
than the original investigators
themselves were able to do. He
assembled existing  literature
that supported his viewpoint on
vitamin C. and has presented i.f
in a manner easily com-
prehensible to the layman.

At the same time, he points to
the case of a physician who sub-
mitted a report on ascorbic acid
treattnent to 11 professional
journals without  acceptance.
One editor told him it would be
harmful to print the ascorbic
acid data because medical jour-
nals depend heavily on the ad-
vertising of cold remedy manu-
fact,urers.

There is much additional work
to be done on the ascorbic acid
controversy, but Pauling has
correctly declined to take part
in i.t because he already has :I
viewpoint. If I had to makr LI
judgment at this time, I'd guess
that in the course of a wide st:l-
tistical sample, vitamin C would
prove beneficial as a cold fight-
er - even if it were not effective
in some individual cases.