Why does Vitamin C not help against colds, if they boost the immune system?!

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You have to look more closely at the dosage. "Up to 2g" isn't that much. And most of the studies used about 250mg. which is just about nothing.
Humans and guinea pigs are the two only species who do not manufacture their own vitamin C.
Taking your optimum dose of vitamin C will reduce your susceptibility to cold and flu viruses and diminish the duration of illness if you happen to succumb. Vitamin D3 is even more effective.
The conventional medical approach to just about everything is managed disease care. It doesn't focus on prevention, which is where holistic medicine excels. Look in the journals of orthomolecular medicine where the independent research is, and avoid studies sponsored by drug companies.
You car needs about 4 litres of oil to run properly. If you put in just 1 litre your engine will sieze. It's pretty much the same deal with how efficiently your body performs when its deficient.

Vitamin C does not 'boost the immune system'.

Boosting the immune system is meaningless statement, invented as a sales gimmick. The immune system is just that; a system. It’s not a single entity but an extremely complex series of interactions on many levels. It's made up of special cells, proteins, tissues, and organs, and is not something you can just ‘boost’.

In any case, boosting would be bad – for example if you have a cold the symptoms are due to your immune response to the virus. Would you really want to boost that response and get increased fever, mucus, congestion and sneezing? Or produce an inflammatory response which can lead to things like heart attacks?

If you are run down or have not looking after yourself, your immune function can be improved, by healthy diet and lifestyle; but you cannot improve it past its optimal baseline.

Read: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=1…

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EDIT: @chicago mike, you ask what does a person do? A person looks at the overall literature:

"In the past 30 years, numerous placebo-controlled trials have examined the effect of vitamin C supplementation on the prevention and treatment of colds. More than 30 clinical trials with over 10,000 participants have examined the effects of taking daily vitamin C in doses up to 2 g/day. Overall, no significant reduction in the risk of developing colds has been observed. When observing those individuals who developed the common cold while taking vitamin C, no significant difference in severity of symptoms was noticed within the study overall."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C_a…

because vitamin C doesn't "boost" the immune system, it's used chemically by the immune system but ingesting more of it doesn't make your immune system use more than it needs. also the immune system takes time to respond to virus's like the cold, and it's only fast acting if the virus is the same one it's encountered before, the cold changes it's surface proteins so frequently that we can't develop a long lasting immunity to it.

The science is not settled on this issue. "The study indicates that vitamin C supplementation does indeed reduce the frequency of colds. The probability of suffering from 3 colds over the course of the study period was reduced by 66% in the group supplementing at 500 mg/day." [1]

Or this quote: "At least 30 controlled clinical trials (many double-blind and placebo-controlled) involving a total of over 11,000 participants have been conducted. Vitamin C in doses ranging from 200 mg to 2,000 mg per day (the dosage range used in a large majority of the studies) reduces the duration of colds by 7% for adults and 15% for children." [1]

So some studies say yes and some say no. So what is a person to do? Well we now that vitamin C is water-soluble and that any excess will be excreted by the body. We also know that vitamin C is very affordable and in abundant supply. The key of course is the amount taken and for how long. A person who takes 500 mg every once in a while will experience much different results than the person who takes 1000 mg every hour at the first signs of sickness. Given the safety record of vitamin supplements I would rather take a little too much than not take enough and be at higher risk.

1 http://www.orthomolecular.org/resources/…

It's a common myth, as is the vast majority of anything to do with alternative medicine.

Vitamin C is useful in maintaining general health, but of course there's actually no cure for the common cold and no known dietary method of preventing the common cold either.

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but rumour has it that such a myth is spread by Big Herba, the multi-billion dollar supplement industry. Certainly there's plenty of gullible fools that swallow this nonsense almost as readily as their orange-flavour vitamin C!

Extra vitamin C and D are supposed to boost your immune system so you are supposed to get fewer colds and when you do they are supposed to be less severe.

There is still no cure for the common cold so once you have actually caught a cold there is no way to speed up the curing process. You can take natural medication or conventional medication to feel a bit better but it won't speed up the curing process. You can see further details in the link below.

http://au.search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22n…

vitamin c does help boost the immune system. the adrenal glands consume large amounts of it to do their job. it is a natural antibacterial and anti-viral. anyone who says it doesn't boost your immune system is a lying drug company shill, an ignoramus, or both.

it does..i do not care what the naysayers say.

With Vitamin C helping boost the immune system, it does contribute to warding off and combating the common cold.

But it can't do it alone and other conditions might be present that may also contribute to the colds.

I think what it does not do is erase the colds overnight if you already have it.

http://www.healthfoodbenefits.com/vitami…

Because a cold isn't a virus trying to feed on ur flesh.... it is either a build up of ur muscus or microscopic ice shards tearing through tissue causing fluids to run through parts of ur body. Your body can't fight or prevent a cold without warmth.