Vitamin C and the common cold

Summary

Unexplainable (Vox) – “Vitamin C and the Common Cold”

Date: December 17, 2025
Host: Amy Padula
Expert Guest: Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist)
Primary Focus: The legend and legacy of Linus Pauling’s crusade for vitamin C, the tangled nature of scientific progress, and the unshakable myths about vitamins and immunity.

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the deeply human quest to understand immunity, focusing on Linus Pauling—a two-time Nobel laureate who became one of the world’s most famous proponents of vitamin C as a cure-all, especially for the common cold. Host Amy Padula and guest Daniel M. Davis unravel Pauling’s journey from chemically decoding the secrets of atoms to championing mega-doses of vitamin C, examining the science, the controversies, and the powerful allure of simple health solutions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Fascinating Complexity of the Immune System

• Immunity as a Frontier: Daniel M. Davis describes immunology’s vastness and why even the simplest questions about the immune system inevitably become complicated.
  • Notable Quote (01:18) – “It's a really wonderful frontier of science because it's so deeply complicated... that just gets you the kind of basics.” —Daniel M. Davis
• Depth as Reward: Davis finds meaning in the ongoing, intricate study of bodily systems.
  • Notable Quote (01:54) – “The contemplation itself becomes its own reward... digging into the detail of what is happening in your body.” —Daniel M. Davis

2. The Legend of Linus Pauling

• Early Brilliance: Pauling’s childhood fascination with chemistry, rapid academic ascension, and trailblazing contributions to chemical bonding.

  • (04:49) Linus Pauling recalls his first chemical experiments.
  • Notable Quote (05:56): “He did some very important work on understanding how atoms interact with each other...” —Daniel M. Davis

• From Genius to Activist: Pauling’s involvement in WWII, shock at Hiroshima, and transformation into an anti-nuclear advocate.

  • (07:01) Pauling heard about the Hiroshima bomb, which deeply altered his worldview.
  • Notable Quote (07:23): “With this bomb, we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction...” —Linus Pauling

• Institutions and Ostracism: Pauling faced scrutiny during McCarthyism, suspicion of communism, and state intervention, even while collecting Nobel prizes in Chemistry and Peace.

3. The Rise of Vitamin C

• A Shift Toward Nutrition: By the mid-1960s, Pauling was drawn to the concept of “orthomolecular medicine,” the idea that high doses of vitamins could treat disease.

  • (17:48) Discovery of niacin studies in schizophrenia sparked Pauling’s interest in vitamins far beyond minimal dosages.

• Irwin Stone’s Influence: Stone claimed vitamin C could heal and rejuvenate, which gripped Pauling’s curiosity.

  • Notable Quote (18:15): “He somehow thought that maybe there's something special about vitamins, that if you take them in a really high dose, they're still not harmful to the body.” —Daniel M. Davis

• A Bestseller is Born:

  • (19:57) Pauling’s book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold, published in 1970, shot to mass appeal, promising health and viral protection through megadoses—more than 30x the recommended daily intake.
  • Cultural Impact: The supplement industry boomed, dubbed “the Linus Pauling effect.”

4. Science vs. Anecdote: Debates and Downfalls

• Scientific Rejection: The medical community pushed back, calling Pauling’s claims speculative, and rejecting his research for lack of rigorous peer review.

  • (21:04) Pauling’s public role increased, but he lost credibility among scientists.

• Escalating Claims: With physician Ewan Cameron, Pauling asserted that vitamin C could treat cancer (22:10), leading to controversial co-authored studies.

• The Clinical Trials and Results:

  • First Mayo Clinic Trial (25:08): Double-blind, late-stage cancer patients, high-dose vitamin C—no benefit over placebo.
    • “Myrtle concluded vitamin C does not help patients with cancer.” —Daniel M. Davis (25:34)
  • Pauling’s Rebuttal: He claimed methodological flaws—the patients had been weakened by earlier chemo.
  • Second Mayo Clinic Trial (27:03): No prior treatment in patients, same result: no effect.
  • Notable Quote (27:54): “There was then and there is now no evidence that vitamin C cures cancer. Even though the matter was closed, Pauling still called for a retraction of the Myrtle study.” —Amy Padula

• Anecdote vs. Evidence:

  • Pauling clung to testimonials (“patients felt better”; “trial ended too early”) even when hard evidence refuted his hopes.

5. Vitamin C and the Common Cold: What’s the Evidence?

• Meta-Analysis (2013): Nearly 30 studies debunked the efficacy of vitamin C in preventing or curing the common cold.

  • “People who supplement themselves with vitamin C get over a cold about 8% quicker.” —Daniel M. Davis (29:00)
  • Amy Padula (29:08): “So that means on average if you suffer for a few days, you might get a little better a few hours earlier...”
  • No impact on actually catching colds (29:16)

• No Harm, No Cure-All:

  • Davis acknowledges vitamin C doesn’t hurt (for most people), but cautions against faith in simple fixes.
  • Notable Quote (29:55): “Linus Pauling did something brilliant and yet did something utterly not brilliant.” —Daniel M. Davis

6. Science, Celebrity, and the Desire for Simple Solutions

• The Seduction of Anecdote: Even scientific luminaries are susceptible to the human penchant for black-and-white thinking.

  • Notable Quote (23:48): “Even a person who's won two Nobel prizes won't get everything right. All of us are also sort of susceptible to... very black and white thinking, whereas everything is much more grayscale.” —Daniel M. Davis

• Cautionary Tale:

  • The episode closes with a musical satire originally performed for Pauling at Caltech, likening his fate to Galileo’s and reflecting science’s ongoing struggle with dogma and humility.
  • (30:13) “From history of science, there's a moral to be learned.” —Linus Pauling

• Old Habits Die Hard:

  • Even with evidence, beliefs and habits persist—summed up by Davis’s own confession.
  • Notable Quote (32:06): “Even though I know having a glass of orange juice is not going to cure my cold, I know that that does not mean that if I have a cold, I won't still have a glass of orange juice.” —Daniel M. Davis

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (by Timestamp)

• On the wonder of immunology:
  • “The more depth you go into studying the immune system... the contemplation itself becomes its own reward.” —Daniel M. Davis (01:54)
• On Linus Pauling’s drive:
  • “I like to take a very complicated subject where there is no order and think about it for a long enough period that I can find some way of introducing order to it.” —Linus Pauling (16:16, paraphrased)
• The moment of myth-busting:
  • “Will vitamin C cure the common cold? No.” —Amy Padula (28:45)
• On scientific fallibility:
  • “Even a person who's won two Nobel prizes won't get everything right.” —Daniel M. Davis (23:48)
• Cultural resonance beyond science:
  • “Today, revenue for vitamin C has surpassed over $2 billion, and it's growing.” —Amy Padula (29:33)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 01:18 – Daniel M. Davis introdues why immunology is so complex and fascinating
• 04:34 – Introduction to Linus Pauling’s extraordinary career
• 09:31 – Pauling’s transition to public activism and risk
• 17:48 – Pauling’s early fixation on mega-vitamins
• 19:57 – Publication of “Vitamin C and the Common Cold” and public explosion
• 21:52 – The medical community rejects Pauling’s vitamin claims
• 25:08/27:03 – The Mayo Clinic trials: scientific investigation and rebuttal
• 28:45 – Straight talk: vitamin C doesn’t cure the common cold
• 29:00 – Meta-review: small advantage, but no prevention
• 32:06 – Personal admission: “I’ll still drink orange juice with a cold”

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Takeaways

• Linus Pauling’s saga illustrates the thin line between inspiration and stubbornness, science and anecdote, fame and ostracism.
• There is no credible evidence that vitamin C either prevents or truly reduces the severity of the common cold or cancer, despite decades of belief and marketing.
• This episode gently reminds listeners that even the brightest minds can be led astray by the desire for simple answers—and that’s part of being human.

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(End of summary)

Transcript

[Sponsor/Advertiser Voice]

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

It's a really wonderful frontier of science because it's so deeply complicated. The average undergraduate textbook. So you know students that would come into a classroom at Imperial College London, where I am, to study immunology, they would have a textbook that is a thousand pages long. And that doesn't even get them to the frontier. That just gets you the kind of basics.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

After writing several books about it and teaching scores of students, Daniel M. Davis is still fascinated by the immune system.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

I think that the more depth you go into studying the immune system, the more you learn about this cell, that cell, this molecule, that molecule, this gene, that gene. It goes on and on, layer upon layer, regulating this bit with that bit, feedback loops here and there and then how that system interacts with the body, your brain, your nervous system, your gut, your intestine, the way muscles affect the immune responsiveness, all sorts of nuances and complexities. What emerges for me is that the depth that there is to go into, the contemplation itself becomes its own reward. And it feels like you're doing something profound and soulful by digging into the detail of what is happening in your body.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Davis often gives lectures to all kinds of people. Sometimes those lectures are in front of other researchers, sometimes to students, and he's fascinated by the questions that he gets after these talks. When a shy hand shoots up in the back of a room. These questions that his students ask seem pretty simple. But the immune system is so complicated that Even the simple questions are actually really difficult to get your head around.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Should I take more of this supplement? That supplement? How does exercise affect me?

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Davis often replies, so this is everything we know about that question you just asked me. And this is everything we don't know about that question you just asked me. It's how science works, how we learn to learn. There's one question that Davis gets a lot. It's the perfect example. A simple, common question that sounds easy, but is actually really hard. So hard that one of the greatest scientists of all time spent decades trying to get to the bottom of this question. He staked his entire career, his good name and his reputation trying to figure it out.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Should I drink orange juice to get over a cold?

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

I'm Amy Padula. This is unexplain.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Linus Pauling is often said to be one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Linus Pauling grew up in Oregon in the early 1900s. He had an early aptitude for chemistry. A close friend introduced him to it.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

One day when I was 13 years old, he said to me, would you like to see some chemical experiments? And I said, yes, I would. We went into his house, up to the second floor where he had his little bedroom, and he carried out about three experiments which really astounded me. They pleased me immensely.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling enrolled at Oregon State University. He studied chemical engineering and then went on to graduate school at Caltech, where he researched the structure of crystals. By the mid-1920s, he received a PhD in chemistry and mathematical physics. After that, he went to Europe to study with leading experts in quantum mechanics. He befriended Robert Oppenheimer and studied with other prominent scientists. Pauling was a real wunderkind. He was even awarded a prestigious prize for work in pure science by young chemists. And then in 1931, Pauling got some real attention. He published a paper. It was called the Nature of the Chemical Bond.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

He did some very important work on understanding how atoms interact with each other and create chemical bonds. And it's fundamentally shaped how we understand chemical reactions in chemistry.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling's discoveries in that paper were so groundbreaking, they became an essential key to our later understanding of the shape of DNA. Pauling became the chairman of Caltech's chemistry department at age 36, and he later wrote a textbook that revolutionized the teaching of the discipline for decades. By the 1940s, Pauling joined the war effort. He worked on explosives and the patent for an armor piercing shell. And he was one of a few scientists awarded a Presidential Medal of Merit by Harry Truman. But as his public profile began to rise in the science community, his politics changed. He'd been apolitical before, actively helping the armed forces in the war effort. And then something changed.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

A short time ago, an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling was shocked. He began giving speeches about it to general audiences, explaining the science of the bomb and the grave moral implications of such a weapon. He felt that scientists should make their voices known about the risk.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

With this bomb, we have now added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction. It is an atomic bomb. It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling became a member of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, a small group that worked to encourage the peaceful use of atomic energy. Even for someone as respected as Linus Pauling, this was risky.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

There was a sense that science had a sort of purity to it, and most scientists were relatively apolitical in the public arena. Even the idea that scientists should have opinions was perhaps somewhat frowned upon.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

It was a dangerous message to the government. Pauling was suspected of being a communist, and Senator McCarthy saw him as a major threat.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

One communist on the faculty of one university is one communist too many.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

The State Department even denied Pauling a passport. There seemed to be suspicion that he might join the Soviet Union. But when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, they had to give it back so he could go to Stockholm for the ceremony.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Well, I was pretty pleased.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Back at Caltech, the faculty threw a huge banquet, more than 300 guests, to celebrate this big award.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Bowling's courses can't be beat can't be beat Holings courses are a treat.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

They performed an original musical in his name.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

If psi functions give you panics, try his course in wave mechanics. Once you've tried it, resonance theory can't be beat.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

The show was called the road to Stockholm.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Dr. Pauling's never wrong, Never wrong and his double bonds are strong they are strong they're strong Strongest Longest double bonds around the strongest we have ever found.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

1958, he published a really important book, blatantly titled no More War, because he had taken up an important political stance against nuclear arms and would do wonderful speeches about how we need to be careful about nuclear weapons.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Every activity that any one of us engages in has two effects. It brings to the participant the knowledge that he is taking a great action, that he is doing something that will affect the future of the world, and then it has its effect on other people. And so I say to you, do away with your apathy.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

With his wife Eva Helen, he presented in front of the UN to end nuclear bomb testing with thousands of signatures from scientists all over the world. He was subpoenaed by the Senate. How had he gathered these signatures? Did he have a communist organization behind him?

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

My conscience does not allow me to protect myself by sacrificing these idealistic and hateful people. And I am not going to do it.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling appeared before the committee in 1960, but refused to give the names of the people who circulated the petition.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

As a matter of conscience, as a matter of principle, as a matter of morality, I have decided that I shall not conform to the request of this subcommittee.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

After he published no more War, Pauling was graced once again with a prestigious honor, this time for activism.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

In 1962, he won a second Nobel Prize, this time for peace.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

On behalf of the Nobel Committee, to hand over to you this medal and the diploma. Thank you, sir.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

He is still to this day the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

So he is someone that we certainly should be listening to. He was on the media lots. On tv, on the radio, in newspapers.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

When Pauling came home with this second award, there was no big party, no song and dance, not even a personal congratulations from the president of Caltech.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

It wasn't a very happy time. There had been the period of McCarthyism when there were repressions of freedom of expression, of opinion. It had been unpleasant for us, for when we didn't know what our friends were thinking, or when it was pretty clear that some of them were no longer very friendly.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

He soon resigned from his position, a job he had held for over 40 years. And he took a job at the center for the study of Democratic Institutions, a liberal California think tank. His priorities were shifting away from science and towards political work. After a lifetime of making unprecedented discoveries that labeled him a genius and taking up causes that branded him a traitor, he was about to take on the biggest crusade of his life. That's after the break.

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Drew Ski, lift with your legs, man.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?

[Sponsor/Advertiser Voice]

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[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

I'm not.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Of course he did.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Right, Santa, you know my elf, Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list.

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[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

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[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

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[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

They will teach you all the things you need to know and maybe some.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

That are not so Linus Pauling was nothing if not industrious. Like he was the youngest member ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In 1949, he was made President of the American Chemical Society, two time Nobel Prize winner. So what does a person do who's become an international hero twice over for the discoveries he's made and the stances he's taken, only to be knocked off his pedestal both by the government and a university afraid of his voice. What does someone like that do for redemption? Well, if your line is palling, you get really, really into vitamin C, you include this quote of his. I like to take a very complicated subject where there is no order and think about it for a long enough period that I can find some way of introducing order to it. Exactly how does that strike you?

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

He had a knack for thinking deeply about problems and working out solutions, but was very much grounded in chemistry. And I think even in that starts to lie one of the problems. Because when he turned his attention to humans and human biology and nutrition and the idea of vitamins being important for helping us fight off diseases, everything is much, much more complicated.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

In 1965, he came across something bold in his research. Large doses of the B vitamin niacin could have some beneficial effects for people suffering with schizophrenia. To be clear, though, this is an idea not supported today. But Pauling fixated on this B vitamin tidbit, because with most drugs, there are limits on how much of them can be taken safely. But were vitamins different?

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

He somehow thought that maybe there's something special about vitamins, that if you take them in a really high dose, they're still not harmful to the body.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling got in touch with a scientist, a man named Irwin Stone. And Stone made an alarming claim. High doses of vitamin C helped Stone and his wife heal rapidly after a car crash. Pauling glommed onto some of Stone's ideas. He was interested in vitamin C's benefits beyond the recommended amount needed to prevent scurvy. Like, were there any benefits of the vitamin in much higher doses?

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

And he correctly said, well, the amount you need to not get that particular disease is not the same necessarily as the amount that is optimal for your health. Hardly wasn't wrong to question these things. And it is extremely hard to know how much of any supplement, of any vitamin, of any mineral, of anything, is actually ideal for our health.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling and his wife began taking very high doses of vitamin C to the tune of 3,000 milligrams a day, per Stone's recommendation. They were taking something like 30 times the recommended amount in any country. And they came to feel that this huge intake stopped them from catching colds. Pauling then compiled research across scientific journals, including findings from controlled trials that supported.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

His own ideas, getting these reinforcements of his idea as anecdotes, and then published.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

A book in the spring of 1970. It was called Vitamin C and the Common Cold. Did the book do well?

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Oh, it was an instant bestseller, unlike any of my books, I'm sad to say.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling's big theory was the more vitamin C you took, the lower your chances of getting sick and the less sick you got. And he recommended a megadose of 2300mg or more a day for optimum health. The grabby clickbait headline vitamin C can stop you from catching a cold caught wildfire. The timing was perfect. Counterculture of the late 1960s fueled a ravenous interest in whole foods natural remedies. A whole business popped up around vitamin C. Factories were built. Manufacturers of the vitamin even dubbed the public consumption of it the Linus Pauling effect. And public consumption of the vitamin continued for decades.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Where's my vitamin C? Harry? We can do better. Where is my vitamin C?

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

George?

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

We can do better. What can do better than your vitamin C? Introducing one at eight core C500. Anything your C can do, we can do better.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

So the public may have been buying a lot of it, but the medical establishment was not buying it at all. The American Journal of Public Health accused Pauling's book as little more than theoretical speculation. And the journal Science rejected Polling's paper on an evolutionary need for vitamin C. Pauling had failed to convince the science community of his ideas, in part because he sidestepped the scientific peer review process in favor of publishing his ideas for a general audience. But he wrote more books.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

This new book just a couple of months ago, Vitamin C, the Common Cold and the Flu, has about twice as much material in it, including not only the common cold and the flu, but hepatitis and many other diseases.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

His convictions about the vitamins benefits became more controversial as he reached his 70s. After that first book came out, a physician in Scotland, this guy, Ewan Cameron, started communicating with Paling. He claimed the cancer patients he was treating were helped by vitamin C. Cameron appealed to Pauling, writing, I am unashamedly optimistic that with your help we could conquer cancer.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

And of course, Linus Pauling seized on this as a whole nother angle on the importance of vitamin C. Other scientists at the time immediately considered Cameron's data to be too anecdotal, not done with any rigorous way as a clinical trial, but rather just his own opinion about what was happening to his patients.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling encouraged Cameron to continue his studies of cancer and vitamin C. The two of them co authored a paper and submitted it to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was rejected twice. But Pauling didn't back down. He remained enthusiastic about vitamin C even in his personal life.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Eva Helen Linus, Pauling's wife, had surgery for stomach cancer, but did not take radiotherapy or chemotherapy and instead took a high dose of vitamin C. And she claimed that it helped her feel better.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

I just wanna, I just, I can't believe this. Like, just help me understand how a mind like this would be seduced by the anecdote.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

I've sort of interviewed lots of really brilliant scientists who've done amazing things. And one other thing that often comes out is it sounds so simple and so obvious and yet perhaps we forget they are still susceptible to getting things wrong. Even a person who's won two Nobel prizes won't get everything right. All of us are also sort of susceptible to. Somehow it feels like we're kind of hardwired to sort of enjoy very black and white thinking, whereas everything is much more grayscale. The bottom line answer, I think, to that question is just very simply, Linus Pauling was a human.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

With Cameron, Pauling doubled down on the cancer benefits. He asserted that vitamin C in high doses was of value in almost every disease state. He was repeatedly rejected for funding for his research from the National Cancer Institute. By the early 1970s, Pauling was nearly completely ostracized from the medical profession. He contacted the head of the National Cancer Institute about his work. The head of the institute decided to set the record straight. There would be a clinical trial to.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Decide once and for all whether vitamin C will help cancer patients.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

They chose a heavy hitter to run the experiment, a man named Charles Merdle, professor of oncology at Mayo Medical Center. The trial would test whether or not the vitamin shrank the size of a person's tumor. It would be double blind, include late stage cancer patients, and it would include high doses of the vitamin.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

The results, when they came back, said, absolutely not. Charles Myrtle concluded vitamin C does not help patients with cancer.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

The final report slammed polling's point of view. Vitamin C performed no better than a dummy medication.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

But that wasn't the end of the matter.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Pauling fought back. He argued that the Myrtle experiment had flaws. The patients have been given aggressive chemotherapy treatments ahead of the vitamin C trial, weakening their immunity.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

This is important because it is true that clinical trials are vital to how we find out new medical information. But it is also equally true that clinical trials can be still debated. It depends a lot on what is being measured and the particular situation for the patients.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

But despite Pauling's retort, the MYRTLE study was taken as proof that Pauling's ideas were, for lack of a better word, quackery. Pauling wrote another book, it was called Cancer and Vitamin C. He put more pressure on the institute to do another study.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

So Charles Mertel did another clinical trial and this time he made sure to use patients who had not had any prior treatment.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

So in 1985 the second Mertil study was published.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

Again he concluded seemingly once and for all, vitamin C had no effect on helping people with their cancer. And then again, Linus Poling found ways to think about it deeply, look at the data and could still argue the point. He said that you just looked at the outcomes, you know how long they lived for. But Charles Myrtle did not look at how were the patients feeling. And Ewan Cameron said that yes, his patients were feeling much better on high doses of vitamin C and that wasn't taken into account. Secondly, Linus Pauling said the trial ended too early. You need to give patients high dose of vitamin C for a long time to allow the drug to have an effect.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

The bottom line is, is that there was then and there is now no evidence that vitamin C cures cancer. Even though the matter was closed, Pauling still called for a retraction of the myrtle study. In December 1991, Pauling had contracted prostate and rectal cancer. He got surgery for it, but also treated it with vitamin C, raw fruits and vegetables. In a lecture at Stanford Medical School in 1992, he he espoused the vitamins benefits for people with heart disease, even suggesting it could help people with aids. He died two years later.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

Two time Nobel prize winning chemist Linus Pauling is dead at age 93. I'll probably be remembered as having discovered vitamin C. Of course I didn't discover vitamin C.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Will vitamin C cure the common cold? No. Back in 2013, a review of nearly 30 studies of people with colds taking a normal amount of vitamin C found little to no evidence that it reduced the symptoms.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

People who supplement themselves with vitamin C get over a cold about 8% quicker.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

So that means on average if you suffer for a few days, you might get a little better a few hours earlier than if you hadn't taken the supplement.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

But that is still quite hard to interpret because people taking high dose of vitamin C are probably doing lots of other things in their lives that help them be healthier. So overall, vitamin C has not really much of an impact in how quickly you get over a cold, and it definitely has no impact on whether you catch a cold in the first place.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Today, revenue for vitamin C has surpassed over $2 billion, and it's growing. Davis says it's not going to help, but it's also not gonna hurt you. But what he is wary of is the idea that any one simple supplement like vitamin C be held up as a kind of cure all.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

We are wired to listen to other people. We naturally warm to a scientist telling us something as declarative as that when they've won two Nobel Prizes and are charismatic. Linus Pauling did something brilliant and yet did something utterly not brilliant.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

From history of science, there's a moral to be learned.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

The faculty that performed the musical for Linus Pauling at Caltech right after he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry issued a sort of cautionary tale every chemist needs.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

His patron's filthy lucre can't be spurned but don't forget that galaxy Galileo very nearly burns so make those associates smile.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

Galileo once almost burned at the stake for claiming the planet revolved around the sun. It was a statement so shocking that the Catholic Church moved to persecute him. He eventually recanted his defense of heliocentrism, and he lived under house arrest for the rest of his life. It wasn't until 1992 that the Vatican finally acknowledged that Galileo was right. Linus Pauling believed so deeply in the power of vitamin C, even when presented with evidence countering his conviction for decades. And for that, he was knocked off the throne he once sat upon. We've continued to study vitamin C and its effect on everything from COVID 19 to further studies on cancer patients. Just a couple of years ago, researchers conducted a large clinical trial of intravenous vitamin C administered to people with sepsis. There was a lot of enthusiasm that it might help. It was not found to be an effective treatment. Might Linus Pauling receive an apology someday? Maybe. In the meantime, though, old habits die hard.

[Daniel M. Davis (Immunologist/Expert)]

I mean, even though I know having a glass of orange juice is not going to cure my cold, I know that that does not mean that if I have a cold, I won't still have a glass of orange juice.

[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

You can read Daniel M. Davis new book. It's called Self A Myth Busting Guide to Immune Health. This episode was produced by me, Amy Padula. It was edited by Jorge just with help from Meredith Haudenot, mixing and sound design from Christian Ayala, music from Noam Hassenp and fact checking from Melissa Hirsch. Special thanks to the Eva, Helen and Linus Pauling Papers at the Oregon State University Library's Special Collections and Archives Research Center. Joanna Solotroff is running the show, Sally Helm is thinking all the time about black holes, Julia Longoria is our editorial director and Bird Pinkerton walked toward the hole in the tree roots, feeling every platypus eye trained on her. As she got closer to the hole, she took a closer look at the guitar. The neck was snapped and the guitar was destroyed. Thanks, as always to Brian Resnik for co creating the show along with Bird and Noem. And if you out there have thoughts about the show, please send us an email. We are@ unexplainableox.com you can also leave us a review or a rating wherever you listen. That really helps us out. If you're into supporting the show and all of Vox in general, join our membership program. You can go to vox.commembers to sign up. Unexplainable is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network and we'll see you next time.

[Linus Pauling (Scientist, historical voice)]

The associates smile we turn out all the burners when we leave the lab at night. We close up all the windows and we turn out every light.

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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[Amy Padula (Host/Narrator)]

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